Sharing Your Executive Brand by Celebrating the Achievements of Others

Hi, this is Bobbie LaPorte, back with another week of “Calling the Game,” where I share my own experience and insights while giving you valuable tools you can use to call your own game…and plan the best moves for you and your team.

If you’ve been following me, you know that I recently completed a 3-part series here on Executive Branding and Self-Promotion, a sensitive subject for many leaders. The response to the series was very positive, so I’ve decided to follow up with an example of how to operationalize your brand using a 3-step framework for defining your brand:  Who – What- Where.

1. “Who” in your immediate and extended network you target
2. “What” elements of your brand you share with them
3. “Where” you do this – for example, in your daily work activities, in outreach to your network, and on social media

This approach will help bring your brand to life to support your career advancement.

I know that for many leaders, this can feel very uncomfortable at first—whether it is 1:1 with their boss, in staff meetings, or externally with clients and other stakeholders.

My Self-Promotion Example

So let’s use an example that makes it a little easier to dip your toe into the self-promotion water….while still staying authentic to your brand.

Let’s look again at my personal brand statement:

I help executives ‘stay in demand’ through expert insight, practical advice, and personal advocacy.

Now, one very effective way to practice self-promotion is to celebrate the successes of others and your role in enabling them….citing an element of your brand.

Here is a real example of how I used this approach in a LinkedIn post:

Congratulations to my client and friend, Judy Chen, who just received the A-round of funding for her company. It took the perfect synchrony of Judy reaching out and me leveraging my contacts in the women-funded venture community to find the right partner to help Judy scale her venture. A win-win for everyone, which is the best outcome.

Okay, now, who is this post about? You might say -my client Judy Chen. And you’d be right. But…who else is it about?  Yes, it is about me and how I used the “personal advocacy” attribute of my brand to support Judy’s success.

Simple, straightforward, authentic.

Operationalizing your brand must be an intentional, ongoing commitment. Over time, it will become easier and feel more natural, and you will see the difference in how people see you.

And that’s what self-promotion is all about. Sharing your successes with people who matter.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s “Calling the Game.” I hope this helps you gear up for a great week and navigate any curveballs that may come your way!

In case you missed my series Navigating Executive Branding:

Part 1: Embrace Authentic Self-Promotion

Part 2: Define Your Personal Brand

Part 3: Bring Your Brand to Life

Executive Branding Examples: The Framework in Practice

Enhancing Your Leadership Through Strategic Brand Development and Real-World Implementation

Hi, this is Bobbie LaPorte, back with another week of “Calling the Game,” where I share my own experience and insights while giving you valuable tools you can use to call your own game…and plan the best moves for you and your team.

I recently completed a 3-part series here on Executive Branding and Self-Promotion, a sensitive subject for many leaders. The response to the series was very positive, so I’ve decided to follow up with an example of how to use the 3-step framework I shared for developing your brand: What – For Whom – How

What you do/deliver/the impact you have as a professional

Who you do it for – your audience, clients, stakeholders

How you do this that is different from your peers – this is the emotional connection that people make to you

Executive branding example: putting the 3-step framework into practice

Here is my example:

One of my clients is an Engineering leader who’s had significant success in diverse companies by having her teams focus on client needs first, vs. producing “cool” technical stuff…sounds pretty straightforward but it often doesn’t happen that way.

With this client-centric focus, she has progressed from an Engineering leader to a Product Leader, to a General Manager and then Chief Product Officer. Pretty impressive achievement.

Along her career journey, she has always been known as a leader who puts people first. She takes the time to learn about their unique skills and talents, career aspirations, and needs. She invests in and develops them. She lets them know she cares about them as people.

And she’s not afraid to admit she doesn’t have all the answers. She seeks input, is approachable, and is open to new ways of doing things.

As a result, her teams have consistently far exceeded the value contribution of their peers; highly talented people have sought her out to work with her, and her own career satisfaction has soared.

Now, did she discover all this overnight?

Of course not, but she possessed the curiosity and self-awareness to reflect on how her own success was achieved, to uncover the strengths and assets she brought to her job, and how she did her work that differentiates her from other executives in similar roles.

Her personal brand statement went something like this:

“At heart, I am a builder. I build world-class software products, the processes that sustain them and – most importantly – the people who make it all possible.”

I have seen her operationalize her brand by intentionally bringing it forward when she takes on a new challenge, recruits new team members, and directs her team on critical projects.

And that has served her and the people she has inspired well.

So don’t be afraid to do a formal inventory of your skills and talents; to reflect on the personal attributes you fall back on time and again when you are challenged, to define the “HOW” you do your work. I think you will be pleased at how far it will take you in developing your personal brand.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s “Calling the Game.” I hope this helps you gear up for a great week and navigate any curveballs that may come your way!

In case you missed my series Navigating Executive Branding:

Part 1: Embrace Authentic Self-Promotion

Part 2: Define Your Personal Brand

Part 3: Bring Your Brand to Life

Implementing Your Executive Brand Platform for Professional Growth and Career Success

Hi, this is Bobbie LaPorte, back with another week of “Calling the Game,” where I share my own experience and insights while giving you valuable tools you can use to call your own game…and plan the best moves for you and your team.

In Part 1 of this executive branding series, I shared how the concept of self-promotion – something that often has a very negative connotation to most leaders – is critical for career success in today’s complex and uncertain environment.

In Part 2,  I provided a framework to uncover and articulate your personal brand, a foundational step to practicing authentic, effective self-promotion.  A personal brand helps you tell your story to people who can be advocates and supporters of your career.

So just how do you do that?

In this week’s post, Part 3, of my weekly leadership series, I will share an approach to operationalizing your brand and being more intentional about bringing your brand to life to support your career advancement.

Bring Your Brand to Life: Operationalizing Your Executive Brand

It’s called your “Brand Platform” – and includes:

“Who” in your immediate and extended network you target

“What” elements of your brand you share with them, and

“Where” you do this – for example, in your daily work activities, in outreach to your network, and on social media platforms

Here’s a simplified implementation example:

Let’s say you’ve determined that one of the elements of your brand is your curiosity. It can be challenging to hold a curious posture in today’s fast and demanding work environment, but it can be a very desirable attribute that sees past the status quo, opens up opportunities, and fosters innovation.

If you are in a staff meeting, you could say something like: “I am always curious about ways we could do ‘X’”…or  “ Let’s see if there is a more innovative way we can approach this issue.”

If you want to share a success that your team had, you could say, “My team recently completed “x”; I always encourage them to be curious about ways we can…..and that was the key to making this a success.”

Note: One very effective way to practice self-promotion is to celebrate the successes of others and your role in enabling them….citing an element of your brand.

You could also include the attribute of curiosity and how you use it to contribute to your company in both your internal and external meetings and on social media.

It takes some practice, but the more you practice intentional, authentic (for you) self-promotion that leverages your brand…the more natural – and impactful it will be. And, very importantly, you will be well on your way to sharing your value and standing out from your peers.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s “Calling the Game.” I hope this helps you gear up for a great week and navigate any curveballs that may come your way!

A Three-Step Framework to Uncover and Articulate Your Executive Brand

Hi, this is Bobbie LaPorte, back with another week of “Calling the Game,” where I share my own experience and insights while giving you valuable tools you can use to call your own game…and plan the best moves for you and your team.

In last week’s post, I shared how the concept of self-promotion – something that often has a very negative connotation to most leaders – is critical for career success in today’s complex and uncertain environment.

In Part 2 of my three-part series this week, I will share a framework for uncovering your personal brand – the foundational concept for effective self-promotion.

As we laid out last week, a personal brand helps you tell your story to people who can be advocates and supporters of your career.  If you don’t give the market your story, they will define it for you. And you don’t want that.

So, let’s start with defining what a personal brand is. Note: it is important to remember that this is not just a concept for celebrities, politicians, and bigger-than-life figures (think “Elon Musk” + others).

Your personal brand is NOT your job title or description. A personal brand is your value proposition – what you are known for and what people can expect from you as a professional.

Think of professionals you know and respect. How would you describe them? What are they known for? What do they consistently do better than anyone else you know?

That’s what you are looking to develop.

The Three-Step Framework for Defining Your Executive Brand

Here is the 3-step framework to help you define your personal/executive brand:

1. What you do/deliver/the impact you have as a professional
2. Who you do it for – your audience, clients, stakeholders
3. How you do this that is different from your peers – this is the emotional connection that people make with you

As an example, here is my personal brand statement:

I help executives ‘stay in demand’ through expert insight, practical advice, and personal advocacy.

Now, do I walk around saying that? Of course not. But I do incorporate the elements of my brand into conversations, social media, and other ways I want people to experience me. I want them to know that I know my stuff, I am direct and bottom-line oriented, and I  am always there for my clients – even when they are no longer clients.

This is not as hard as it sounds, but it does take thought and intention to uncover and articulate the basics of your brand. Give it a shot over the next week. You may be surprised at how it unfolds and how it feels when you can start to use it with others.

More on that in next week’s VLOG when we discuss how to operationalize your brand through self-promotion, which I define as “sharing your successes with people that matter.”

OK, that’s it for this week’s “Calling the Game.” I hope this helps you gear up for a great week and navigate any curveballs that may come your way!

From Self-Promotion to Executive Impact–Strategies for Enhancing Your Leadership Brand in Today’s Competitive Environment

Hi, this is Bobbie LaPorte, back with another week of “Calling the Game,” where I share my own experience and insights while giving you valuable tools you can use to call your own game…and plan the best moves for you and your team.

For the last few years, I’ve taught a class on Executive Branding at one of the Bay Area business schools. One of the concepts we cover is how to build a platform to share your brand, and that requires self-promotion – an idea that almost always creates distaste in the minds of most leaders. It shows on the faces of the students when I bring it up.

Why? Well, in an age where the media are rife with people promoting themselves and the agenda they selling and self-congratulatory posts all over social media, it’s no wonder the idea of self-promotion is a turn-off to so many of us.

And there are other reasons why this often seems brash and unnecessary, something that only egoists and braggards do. Many of us grew up in a business world where things were simpler – more prescribed and straightforward. If you worked hard, did well, and produced, that was enough to secure career advancement. Your boss took care of you; as long as he knew what you were contributing, you were in good stead. No self-serving promotion is needed here.

Ah, those were the days.

But no more.

Why Executive Branding Requires Self-Promotion

Let’s say you get passed over for a promotion, and you don’t understand why; you met all your goals and were a good team player and solid contributor. Well, maybe your colleague who did secure the promotion was more adept at sharing their successes with others and at building support and advocacy for their advancement outside of their immediate manager.

That’s the formula for success in today’s environment, which is much more complex, uncertain, and demanding. Requirements change from day to day; there are many more stakeholders demanding more of you as a leader, and your technical/functional skills and your domain knowledge are simply table stakes now.

Your success now depends on your ability to navigate this changing landscape by being very clear about how your unique value contribution should be shared and deployed to support the broader organization you are part of.

In other words, if you don’t give the market your story, they’ll define it for you.

There is no question: building and leveraging your brand through authentic self-promotion is one of the most powerful things you can do to stand out and build your career.

In the next two weekly vlogs, I will be sharing a simple framework for uncovering and defining your brand and an approach to how you can build an effective and successful practice of self-promotion.

You are in charge of your own story, so let’s get to work making it happen.

OK, that’s it for this week’s “Calling the Game.” I hope this helps you gear up for a great week and navigate any curveballs that may come your way!