The third of the 5 Cs of leadership capital is communication, and the core of this is telling the world about your superpower, your unique cultural contribution, and where you want to go on your leadership journey.
These add up to your personal brand, the outward display of the story you tell yourself about your leadership journey. Communicating your personal brand can empower you to position yourself for what you want to achieve, whether that is joining someone else’s or some organization’s journey or recruiting others to join yours.
What do you need to communicate?
You can find some useful rules for personal branding here, but here’s a general overview of what the leadership capital framework can tell you about communicating your personal brand.
Your Capability and Culture Differentiate You
As any good marketer will tell you, the goal is differentiation. If you’re selling a product, you have to show how your product stands out, and the only way to do this is by drawing attention to the unique assets and value-adding features of your product.
The same goes for your personal brand. In this case, your unique assets are your superpower and your culture. To build leadership capital, you need to give people a reason to invest their capital in you. You have to specialize.
This can be scary. Narrowing your specialized focus to be aligned with your superpower and cultural assets will close off certain opportunities to you—but it will open up the opportunities that will actually move you forward on your leadership journey.
Communicating Your Personal Brand with Confidence
Here’s an exercise to help you develop the confidence to openly communicate your personal brand. Write a biographical blurb of the kind you might put on LinkedIn, send to employers, or develop as an elevator speech—but write it only for yourself, with no intention of sharing it with anyone else. This is your brag bio.
Leave the name brands—the companies or organizations you’re associated with—for your resume. Instead, brag as much as possible about your accomplishments and assets, including your superpower and cultural assets. Don’t allow any modesty or self-consciousness to get in the way. Don’t downplay anything.
It’s not fiction—just the facts, stated in the best possible light. You don’t need to make stuff up. You may feel a little silly while you’re doing it and laugh at yourself a little bit. That’s fine. Ultimately, it will help you realize you’re more awesome than you give yourself credit for.
Then, the next time you’re called upon to write a personal statement, for instance, or draft a blurb for your LinkedIn profile, you’ll be much more likely to construct it in a way that authentically communicates your personal brand and isn’t bashful about your accomplishments or your aspirations.