In Part 1 of this series, I shared the questions my banking and finance leadership audience had during a recent webinar for FINSIA on Developing your Finance Leadership Brand.

In this follow-up post, I share the Leadership Brand Strategy Framework I offered these Finance and Banking Leaders during the session.

Common brand challenges I see for emerging and established Leaders in Banking and Finance:

• Moving to a new portfolio or regional focus in Banking requires establishing a new brand or your brand with a new audience
• For Finance leaders within commercial organisations – being able to talk at the level of the board and be ready for their sharp questioning style is part of being seen as an integral business partner and peer to decision-makers
• Gaining respect quickly when new to sophisticated clients e.g. high wealth individuals or business leaders
• Roadblocks to consistent brand building include high pressure sales targets, deadlines, processes, risk – all while striving to create your own brand, relationships and sales style (for example, some want a style that seeks the win-win over a transactional approach, or prioritising core relationships with referral sources versus being ‘out there’ networking and being face of business… it all depends on you!)

Shifting how you are seen

I’ve talked about some of these ideas in other industries, such as law, and they equally apply in finance and banking.

Which one of each pair do you think you might be seen as?

Order-Taker v Change Leader:

• The what and how of your communication determines which one you are seen as
• Do your actions tell a different story to your words? E.g. ‘I’m focusing on this strategy now and these other items are shelved until next quarter’ v responding to whoever screams the loudest!

Detail-Dumper v Clarity-Bringer:

• Do you send reams of information in an email, or deliver a report which is clear and succinct, empowering a decision?
• Great CEOs, for example, pre-think before every exchange: What is the message this group of people needs to hear from me at this point in time? (They are not really talking as they think, though it may seem this way because it’s so natural-sounding!)

Technical or Client Focus v Nurturing Team:

• It can be a real mindset-shift as a new partner to move from thinking about the work and the client, to thinking about nurturing and leading a team.
• If a professional works more in the background, they can be too technically-focused to serve leadership roles, and they may need to work on leadership development and communication.

Outsider v Integral Business Partner:

• A consultant or external advisor, a siloed department, or only one of you in your department… these people can feel like outsiders instead of essential business partners in the organisation. They have to work harder to be seen as an integral to the business, someone who needs to be in the rooms where decisions are being made!

How do you shift your brand?

In the webinar I discussed the following strategic steps:

Step 1. Get clear on your personal brand goal right now – this can be as specific as communicating impactfully in a certain setting… to broader career goals such as your next move into leadership.

Step 2. Get clear on your personal professional value proposition – just like a product or service value proposition, you can clearly communicate and demonstrate the value that your knowledge and work brings.

Step 3. Get clear on the most relevant platforms to make your brand visible to the right people. This usually starts with a value-positioned introduction (building on Step 2) – within your elevator pitch for networking, and within a snapshot bio for use in media engagements, speaking and emailed introductions – what are the key points you want to hit if you only have 3 lines to do it? Then think about longer form communication, such as your executive summary and CV, and your ‘About’ and ‘Experience’ sections of your LinkedIn profile. Finally, how will you demonstrate and reinforce your brand through your everyday communications – your focus and style when speaking with staff and clients, for example?

Step 4: After all this preparation, you must also make sure you step into your leadership brand with confidence – in the webinar we talked about factors influence – and this is just as much about how you see yourself as it is about how others see you – they are interrelated!

You can access the FINSIA webinar recording here

In my August webinar for FINSIA on Developing your Leadership Brand in Finance, we discussed the questions:

What’s important to you in your Leadership Brand?

What are challenges for you, or challenges you’ve observed in others?

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.

You can access the FINSIA webinar recording here

Your young talent are looking to the future – here’s how to recognise and support their goals

This week I had several conversations that had me reflecting on ways that organisations can meaningfully recognise and reward their young professional talent – which comes down to knowing what they’re reaching for and helping them get there.

I chatted with an SME boss who was noticing differences in what her staff need since the pandemic, and with two corporate managers who each identified the need to recognise diversity in thinking from a mixed-age staff. I also had personal brand discovery chats with a young entrepreneur and a young corporate professional, both in their mid-twenties, both self-aware, deep thinkers with a strong desire to shape their futures, having already achieved remarkable things in their careers.

From challenges in differing expectations of what work looks like now, to diverse viewpoints on how to deliver on tasks or create solutions… employers have their work cut out for them keeping up with what young professionals require in this new world of work.

Everyone wants to be seen and supported, don’t they?

One thing I’ve noticed, from running hundreds of Young Professionals and Student workshops and having many a chat with a manager or leader during consulting projects focused on developing people, is that most young professionals care about moving towards their future, and are actively working towards that future, now. I’ve met many a young person who is undertaking self-development, seeking out leadership courses and experienced mentors, jumping on committees and even applying for board positions… all while proactively building their personal brand.

“I see examples of professionals wanting to confidently communicate the value they bring… not only to direct their future, but also to help them be better at their job today.”

In every organisation I go into, or audience I chat with, I see examples of professionals wanting to clearly and confidently communicate the value they bring through their work – not only to direct their future, but also to help them be better at their job today.  I have always held the firm belief that when you give people the opportunity to think about the value they bring, and to articulate this well, they step up, they care more, and they do more.

 “…when you give people the opportunity to think about the value they bring, and to articulate this well, they step up, they care more, and they do more.”

So, how are you providing this affirming experience to your young employees? A very simple and practical way to do that is through a well-structured personal brand development program. Even a single, comprehensive workshop can do wonders for confidence levels, motivation and team pride and belonging… but this becomes all the more powerful when embedded with coaching, leadership development programs and other internal initiatives.

Of course – not all your employees will have their sights set on big goals, and some may be struggling with where they are at right now – we are human, and human beings are all different. But imagine a culture where the focus is on recognising and supporting those who want to develop themselves and to fine-tune and further their goals… what an example to set, and what an invitation to come along for a great journey!

Recently I’ve been talking a lot about the particular requirements of a leader’s brand, and on developing a targeted leadership brand that overcomes common brand challenges for legal counsel and other specialist advisors within organisations.

After working with the Association of Corporate Council’s Australian team, board and committees and meeting some of the global leadership team last year, it was good to return in May for ACC’s In-House Legal Conference in Western Australia, to be among a network I know is particularly vibrant, and a committee doing great things!

With the conference theme being ‘Transform Together’, and the opening speakers talking about ‘seeing around corners’ and the ‘opportunity for impact’, the day was strongly focused on building leadership within corporate counsel, to make a difference in creating future-fit organisations.

Everyone seems to be using speaking as a tool to build a personal brand and grow their business or career… so you’ve decided to do it too. There are opportunities to speak all around you, and you’ve seen colleagues and contacts jump on this train… so you need to get on and do it too, right?

WAIT! It’s great that you want to go for this challenge, but check where you’re at against these 3 essential questions, before you grab the mic.

FIRST: Is your ability and experience level as a speaker going to help or hinder your brand?

Sure, you might be an expert on your subject, but that doesn’t guarantee your audience will be impressed! Unfortunately, a great many professional people have not learned good presenting skills or had sufficient experience to rid themselves of nerves, before they jump on a stage. This can have detrimental effects in building trust in your ability to deliver in other areas – even if that is unfair.

Work up to levels of difficulty in presenting, by getting really good at delivering short sessions for small groups – perhaps ‘roundtable conversation-style’ – before moving to larger audiences. Take time to learn the differences in what is required to run a boardroom presentation, versus facilitate a workshop, versus deliver a keynote on a stage… and get lots of practice and feedback before you move from one challenge to the next.

SECOND: Are you absolutely clear on why you are doing this?

Are you doing this solely as a visibility exercise, or do you expect to get paid for your speaking services? You might happily start off speaking for free to gain runs on the board, but once you hear that others like you are getting paid, you might feel you too are entitled to compensation.

Professional speakers and workshop facilitators get paid well to deliver presentations. But it’s their profession. They are delivering much more than their appearance on a stage. That’s why they should get paid.

If you are not a professional speaker, expecting to be paid a speaker’s fee may reduce your opportunities to speak, or worse, may end up damaging your brand when your fee doesn’t match the expected delivery.

There are instances where you may be paid to share your expertise, despite not being a professional speaker, and that’s great. But be clear on why you are speaking in the first place. If it’s not to make a living out of speaking, then consider there may be other important value points for you (and if not, you don’t have to take the offered opportunity).

A more sensible reason to speak as a professional in another area (such as law, accounting or finance) is to increase your brand presence or stay top of mind with your networks. If this is the case, be strategic about the audiences you get in front of (are they your decision-makers?) and the topics you offer to speak on (do they build trust quickly with your decision-makers, by providing huge value?).

THIRD – How will you leverage the considerable time you will take preparing for even one presentation?

You are kidding yourself if you think you will achieve anything by crafting one presentation and then rinse-and-repeating it with every audience you encounter. If you want to have any impact at all (including gaining new clients from your speaking), you will need to consider each audience and tailor each presentation to their specific needs. You will also need to review your material regularly to ensure it stays fresh, up-to-date, socially appropriate, and that it remains inspiring for you to deliver (if you’re bored, so will others be). You will also make sure you reflect on past presentations and constantly strive to make the next one better than the last, if you are worth listening to.

Considering how much work you will need to put into your speaking, how do you plan to leverage this effort in order to make it worthwhile? If you are trying to reach a wide audience, speaking at a stand-alone, in-person event won’t cut it. Have you considered webinars or online conferences that reach far more people and are often recorded for even wider audiences to access? Have you asked whether the speaking gig also comes with the opportunity to reinforce your content through an online article, a podcast, or LinkedIn posts via the association or group you are speaking for? It’s not just the time you spend on stage or on-screen… what are you doing before and after the presentation to build visibility and interest in your work?

As you can see, speaking is not just speaking. 

So before you jump on that stage, please consider this heart-felt message from a long-time, passionate speaker: Speaking to an audience, holding their time and attention, is a privilege. Those who take it for granted by not realising the responsibility of this role, tend not to last long in the game. If you wish to use speaking as a way to build your professional brand, do yourself and your audience justice by getting it right!

If you’ve now decided that speaking is not for you, remember that it’s just one tool in the toolkit to build your brand. Sharing a casual conversation over an audio-only podcast may appeal to you, or creating short, scripted videos you can share on Youtube and other social sites might fit your brand. Perhaps writing for professional journals, or being available for media commentary, make more sense for you. Or engaging with your networks on LinkedIn, or purely by attending networking events to mix and mingle… the possibilities are endless, and it’s important to hone in on the few you can really shine in, that fit with your brand goals.

What’s stopping you? Common limitations executives choose or reject… and the difference that choice makes

“Don’t limit your challenges, challenge your limits.” – Jerry Dunn

When I work with individual executives on their leadership brand, they are at a point in their lives when they want to try something new, go for something bigger, or be recognised for something more.

As soon as we put a big goal out there – we say the words out loud, we tell someone, or we write it down – we are immediately met with scary thoughts.

Who am I to do this?

What would I add to the competition/noise?

Am I ready?

Am I good enough?

In my work, I get to observe fascinating phenomena of the human psyche! Listening to people’s stories leads me to ask questions like ‘Why is this behaviour presenting?’ / ‘Why are they using those words?’ / ‘What do they really mean?’ / ‘What’s underneath this?’

At some point, we’ve all told ourselves a story about what limits us… we are all human, and no matter how successful or accomplished we become, we still have fears and uncertainties tucked away somewhere, that can stop us from achieving personal and professional growth. They usually come up as soon as we step outside of our comfort zone!

Do any of these (very human) thoughts resonate with you? 

• I haven’t focused on building my profile because I don’t like to self-promote.
• I don’t like to talk about myself; I prefer to focus on my team.
• I haven’t got further in my career because I’ve been focused on lifting others up in their careers.
• I have too many ideas, so it’s hard to get things off the ground.
• I’m juggling too many responsibilities and don’t have time to work on myself.
• Even though someone has offered me this opportunity, I don’t feel ready to take it on.
• Even though this is what I want, I’m not sure I have what it takes.
• Even though others say I’m great at what I do, I’m not sure I can really stand out.
• Even though I know I’m great at what I do, I’m overlooked at promotion time.

The funny thing is that, while I’ve heard these sentiments a thousand times (from very accomplished, brilliant professionals), each time a client admits one to me, they think they are the only person to have this thought.

Over the years I’ve heard a range of reasons why people don’t go for what they want, or at least, why they stall on taking action. I’ve also come up with a few of my own reasons to stall on things, at times. But what I’ve learned is that usually, there is a ‘real reason’ underneath.

People are not really lazy, unfocused, disorganised, lacking in resources or lacking in time… they are not really ‘not good enough’. People don’t prioritise a goal or an action that matters to them because they are scared, worried or unsure of themselves in some way. If we’re honest, we’ve all been there, and we probably will be again at some point.

“If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.” – Fred DeVito

Reflecting on this, I’ve decided to add a few extra questions to an exploratory exercise I give clients when they start work on their personal brand. These new questions will help my brave clients to honestly look at what is blocking their progress, in order to move through these blocks and achieve what they really want to!

Here are two of the questions I have added, from a set of 8:

• What stories do you tell yourself about who you are and what you can or can’t do, be or have?
• Is there an environment you want to be part of but where you feel like you don’t belong?

“You can have excuses or you can have success; you can’t have both.” – Jen Sincero

While there can be real issues in our personal circumstances that keep us from doing things, there are countless examples of people overcoming the most challenging roadblocks. At the end of the day, there is usually an answer to the question: ‘So what are you going to do about it?’

The danger of an excuse is that it can really become a limitation that you carry around with you throughout your life. But as I’ve seen with so many clients, honestly facing the limitations you have named for yourself, no matter how uncomfortable, is the only way to change the story… and this is often where the Leadership Brand journey begins.