Executive presence can be nurtured, fostered and constructed. Part of this is personal branding. You have a personal brand whether you like it or not.
For career development, promotions and recruitment, this is paramount, of course. But it is also useful for leadership transition, especially as a catalyst in motivating and mobilising staff, teams and stakeholders. Why you need to proactively brand:
- You could find your previous professional image has people acting undesirably
- Changes in your industry might mean you need to adapt to remain competitive
- Labour markets are dynamic and noisy (e.g. LinkedIn) so you need to stay on people’s radar screens
Some loath the idea of personal branding. But it needn’t be this way. Often this arises from imposter syndrome that undermines our need for this.
You already have unique combos of knowledge and commercial insight. We can distil and scope these and align them with your USP. We can unpack your individual style to clarify your executive presence as it stands. We can deconstruct gravitas, visualise or role-play, reflect on it, and then reconstruct it. Done iteratively, you will see yourself rising head and shoulders above the confused or mediocre.
We will spotlight your gifts, your energy, your way of thinking. Taking ownership of this subtle configuration will help your cred and personal brand emerge. You can sculpt it and emblazon it on clients’ and stakeholders’ memories through a number of approaches.
From a thorough audit of your professional and life narratives, we will extract:
- Symbolism and formative landmarks within your stories
- Brands to piggyback or leverage off
- Your unique combos of experience
- Memorable tit-bits from your personal life or your developmental trajectory
- What truly drives you, your personal vision and convictions, the fire that sets you alight
- Which of your attributes do you use too much?
- Sometimes the very skills that secured your career move are the very ones now holding you back.
- What ball-and-chain habits do you feel cannot be changed: granularity? micro-managing?
- Which of your subconscious compounded beliefs are problematic:
- Your secret autobiographical lens as a martyr? Or as an unconsulted expert?
- Your over-committing as the fixer and ending up as the fire-fighter?
- Being stuck to the tried-and-tested, unable to creatively spread your wings?
- As an intellect, do you persuade merely by logic alone?
- Are you at risk of burnout from overwhelm and fatigue?
- Do you have importer syndrome, self-doubt or defensive beliefs that self-perpetuate?
The findings will be distilled and made consistent, authentic and meaningful. They’ll then infiltrate and project in your speech (on Aristotle’s three levels: ‘ethos’, ‘pathos’ and ‘logos’) as you more powerfully command attention – without any need to be pompous or loud.
Socials like LinkedIn and any webpages with bios or profiles are first and foremost where your personal brand is projected and available. For this, content creation is needed, and your online ecosystem needs to be developed. But also, to initiate change and communicate persuasively, you might even devise and use visual (or verbal) symbolism in the workplace, or to come up with new company rituals, like how you meet or away days with a focus on purpose.
All of these possibilities will help you forge a more distinct personal brand and win greater visibility.
The importance of networking
Love it or hate it, it has to be done. And it’s no longer all about sipping warm sickly cheap wine in overheated tacky foyers with fluorescent lights, trying to understand drunk accents. And it’s not about selling or overtly impressing people.
Its value and methods live almost entirely in information exchange. Human reciprocity feels good. I will lead you to:
- Be more decisive, energised and assertive
- Prep for chats and rehearsing the basics of ‘working the room’ with network etiquette
- Reframe the art of small talk, offers, and gentle calls to action, as fun
- Overcome cultural and neurodiversity hurdles
- Explore who is essential for a productive network, and assess your own circles
- Reframe the art of small talk, offers, and gentle calls to action, as fun
"I initially worked with Tony in my final year at University when I reached out to him when taking my first steps towards a new career. Tony's help and advise during this most daunting process has been invaluable. He was instrumental in helping me to recognise my skills and potential. I would highly recommend his service as I have been more than pleased."
"Inspiring - Tony has patiently guided me along a path to career enlightenment. Enabling me to achieve clarity and define a vision for my future. He has set mechallenges which ultimately helped me understand my core drivers and the value I can add."
"Tony's guidance as a speech and presentation coach were transformative for me. He helped me understand my motivations and inhibitions. At the start he told me his goal was to make himself redundant as fast as possible. He helped overcome the blockages with impressive speed and insight. I have already recommended Tony to several colleagues."
"Tony showed me how to demonstrate my strengths in a format employers recognise. He helped in every aspect of the process, from the way to behave, to having solid answers to questions I was likely to be asked (and they really did come up!)"
