Developing your Leadership Brand in Finance: Audience Questions and Answers

Here are some of the audience questions that came up, and the answers we brainstormed together.

Challenge 1: New to an organisation – steps to be taken to create my brand from scratch?

This is easier than creating a shift after a long time in a particular social and political dynamic.
It starts right from when you choose that role – being clear for yourself and others what you want to achieve in that role.
Thinking in advance how you want to come across and how you might communicate that will help you shape how you are seen from the get-go.

Challenge 2: Keeping it authentic while building my brand

All humans are complex and have riches unique to them – how they think, how they approach things, how that can benefit others – these are the golden nuggets! People don’t realise how much value they bring until they get clear on what these things are – getting clear on what that unique combination is for you and how that brings value to others is not only empowering, but helps others to see the value too.
This is not about a shiny wrapping or ‘rockstar’ brand – that’s not what professional personal branding about! You are not making something up; it should be authentic to who you are but also communicated in a way that achieves your goals in a work context with others.

Challenge 3: Managing my personal brand while undertaking unpopular tasks required in my banking role

Every function and role is vital, even when unpopular – so is there an avenue there to distinguish your personal brand?
Focus your communication towards ‘what value does my work bring to others?’ – answer the ‘WIIFM’ (‘What’s In It For Me?) of your audience – what do they need to understand about your work and how it impacts them, to see why it needs to be done a certain way? For example, if you work in Risk – what happens if we don’t look at these things? The quality of your communication with others makes a big difference to how your work is received.

Challenge 4: Leading much older staff who have been around longer than me?

Remove roadblocks for them – being a clarity bringer or introducing change that will help them do their job. It goes back to communicating the value!
Back up your decisions and insights to gain credibility with older staff – quote examples, research, business cases and past experience that qualify you to make this assertion/decision – helping them feel in ‘safe hands’.
Taking time to get to know them and understand and include their insights from their experience, demonstrating that you value their voices, while still maintaining your ‘leader’ role.

In Part 2, I will elaborate on the Leadership Brand Strategy framework I offered for Banking and Finance Leaders.