Branding class TA @nellpf - Tumblr Blog

I got to know Ryan Lochte my senior year in high school when we were on the USA Swimming National Junior Team together. Through four years of college and several years of professional swimming, we raced each other countless times. However when I think of Ryan now, I think of him as a goofball instead of a rival or competitor. This is largely due to his laid back demeanor, but also because he has successfully branded himself this way through interviews and his TV show.

I remember his famous “JEAH” saying cracking up our relay as we got ready to swim in the finals if the world championships. There were also the times he slipped on his diamond covered grill before accepting a medal on the awards podium. At the time, I took this for him joking around and having fun. I now realize these actions set Lochte apart from other swimmers and established his globally-recognized brand. He has risen above the curse of most swimmers - only getting attention every four years during the Olympics - and built a brand that includes a TV show on E!, exercise videos, and even a fashion brand. Some people joke about his sophomoric quotes, but Lochte is laughing all the way to the bank.

world0flala

One celebrity that has done an excellent job of effective leadership branding is Angelina Jolie. Over the last decade, she has repositioned herself to not only become one of the highest paid and well-respected actresses in Hollywood, but she has take on a new role as humanitarian. Since 2001, she has worked with the UN’s refugee agency and has conducted over 50 field missions to places such as Pakistan and Syria. On top of that, she has even became an unofficial spokesperson for breast cancer after she publicly underwent a preemptive double mastectomy and then wrote an Op-Ed article for the NY Times in an effort to educate and empower woman on the subject. Angleina has redefined what an A list movie star can do with their influential power and has demonstrated her ability to be an effective leader outside of Hollywood.

Photo credit: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=41795

ykenliang

At certain stage of our lives, we’ve probably all tried to become someone else - someone who inspired us or whose success we tried to emulate.

To me, that has been a failed attempted and a source of endless frustration. In the end, I can’t really be more than who I truly am. There’ll always been someone out there who are smarter, more charismatic, more articulate, and the list goes on and on. However, I’ve also discovered things by which people remembered me, a combination of things people found so unique of me. The fact that I’m passionate, trustworthy, down-to-earth,curious, emphatic, etc, etc. So I finally understand that I am who I am, and striving to be the best of myself will be my ultimate success that nobody else can replicate.

I like how the article talks about personal branding as related to leadership, an Authentic Leadership “that’s consistent with your vision of who you are, what you’re good at and what matters most to you — both professionally and personally.” Living one’s personal brand is really about to “being true to yourself.”

I cannot agree more.

roalzen

You probably already have a personal leadership brand. But do you have the right one? The question is not trivial. A leadership brand conveys your identity and distinctiveness as a leader. It commu…

Personal leadership branding is something unique for each leader. It is the way through which leaders convey their identity and communicate their values. In order to have an effective leadership branding, it is important to have a clear understanding of the main points-of-difference and the attributes that make a leader unique. Furthermore, leadership branding establishes how leaders want to be seen and what they want to be known for based on own personal goals and targets.

In my opinion, it is important to understand that leadership branding is something dynamic. It evolves as so do leaders. They grow personally and professionally, become more experienced and develop more hard and soft skills. The more goals you achieve and the greatest impact that you have, the more powerful your message should be and the better image of you, you want others to have.

I found this Harvard Business Review article very interesting as it shows 5 reasonable steps to define your leadership brand:

Define what are the major results you want to achieve in the next year

Define what do you want to be known for

Define your identity

Construct your leadership brand statement and then test it

Make your brand identity real

Do you have the right personal leadership brand?

Take a moment to think about these 5 steps and test your personal leadership brand to see if other people have the same opinion and if your brand statement is a true representation of yourself.

kullatheworld

Leadership branding in five steps!

jnakul

Although Calvin does a great job at defining Personal Branding, on a more serious note - I strongly believe the first step in building a personal brand is determining what one wants to achieve and then outlining the specific qualities that would help her/him get there. Also, I strongly believe that personal brand is not really a static thing - it is constantly evolving as people go through different experiences in life. And these experiences are what make each person unique.

sdmhendrix

2001 - Kilpatrick is elected Mayor of Detroit, Michigan.

2005 - Elected for second term as Mayor of Detroit with 53 percent of popular vote.

How did he do it? How did his brand have positive perception amongst citizens.

I would say, he knew his customers - the citizens of Detroit....

cecilia-dantas

This is one of my favorite Ted talks, not only because she’s a great story teller (and because it got me through the worst part of summer recruiting), but also because it is very hopeful. For anyone who has ever felt insecure or inapt, this is a must see. I also just love the idea that you can “fake it till you make it”—its all about your personal branding!

sburt1mit

Personal Leadership Branding is a vague business school term for many people. It was for me too, until I reflected back on my experience with leaders in the workplace. For me, no one typifies a leader with a personal brand more than the electrifying, death-defying Tony Reali, the host of ESPN’s Around the Horn.

When Tony arrives at work, he makes it a point to greet everyone there with more than a passing “Good Morning.” His earnestness and humor defines the culture at the ESPN studio in Washington DC. Throughout my time as an MBA at Sloan whenever I need to give a speech or interview or find myself in a situation when I really need to grab someone’s attention, I always ask myself what Tony would do. This reputation is probably what has kept 1 million viewers coming back to Around the Horn for the past 12 years. This is as good an excuse as any to have a Tony Reali retrospective.

abobrands-blog

(In)effective Leadership Brand

We all have our list of characteristics that makes an effective or ideal leader. We can also probably list the least desirable brand characteristics of a leader.

Here is a list of my favorite traits of bad leaders.

Micro-managing

Talks the Talk, but doesn’t Walk the Walk

Takes Credit for Everything

And now for some of my favorite examples:

Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft

Jeff Skilling, former CEO of Enron

mzaman5

Personal Branding

When considering personal branding, few names match the level to which Sir Richard Branson has gone to brand himself as the CEO and leader of Virgin

From music, airlines, to investment groups, Branson has created a conglomerate of different businesses. Most notably he uses his almost playboy status to promote Virgin Airlines which then translates into the brand as an almost chic, hip way to travel against a backdrop of drab and dated competitors

In that sense his charisma and notoriety has aided the promotion of this particular brand within the Virgin family. Now, shooting even higher, Branson is after space travel

Virgin Galactic fits in the line of the Virgin image as it intends to make space travel sexy and available to those who aspire to emulate the ‘playboy’ image as Branson does

While Branson’s brand has served to bolster the image of Virgin across various industries, it is a delicate balance to ensure Branson nor Virgin cause the other to fall in brand value

mitbrandingclass

We demystify the process, says Patrick Ambron, Brandyourself’s 24-year-old CEO. We try to make it as transparent as possible so you’re not feeling…

We’ve all done something in the past that we’re maybe not too proud of. Or even worse, we may share a name with someone else who has done many strange things online that we’re not too psyched about (for example, I share a name with an opera singer, a teenage blogger who writes about some racy subject matter, and a Mormon wedding dress designer).

So perhaps it’s not too surprising that BrandYourself, an online reputation management tool, has started to build momentum. In fact, I’m surprised that they haven’t been coming to campuses like ours to try to sell themselves as both a service and an employer — I can’t imagine a more receptive audience than a bunch of MBAs.

juandtc

Video Resume: Google Please Hire Me

Uploaded on Jul 29, 2011

For more, go to: http://www.googlepleasehire.me

A funny example about personal branding

cestmts

Personal Branding: The Critical Role of Leadership, Intellect, & Integrity

In preparation for Tuesday’s class on personal branding, I reflected on the critical role that one’s image plays in the workplace. To optimize your value to an organization, I maintain that three individual characteristics dominate: leadership, intellect, and integrity.

sharonhodor

Just Google ‘Sharon Hodor Schwarzkopf’

A 2 second Google search for myself under ‘Sharon Schwarzkopf Hodor’ brought up my Facebook picture, My Instagram picture, my brother, my sister in law and the Hodor character from Game of Thrones (??!??).

Imagine my Facebook profile picture would be me on a vacation on a beach in a bikini. Would I really want that to be the first image that might come up when a recruiter googles my name before an interview? (and they do). I am also unsure I would appreciate my interviewer to know I am a mother, a wife, and that I love to travel that can be reflected in most profile images these days. Why? I just am not sure that such personal information is beneficial as a ‘first impression’ data input.

"The Internet is the primary reason that taking a proactive personal branding approach is so important. When you apply for a job, you can rest assured that the prospective employer will “Google”, “Bing” or otherwise conduct a web search of your name. Your online presence is likely to have been fully vetted before the employer calls you for an interview, and that’s assuming an interview is still desired after your web persona (i.e., personal brand) has been thoroughly evaluated."

(from : Why personal branding matters? http://www.metrochicagojobs.com/a/t-why-personal-branding-matters-in-your-job-search-what-you-must-know-au-dumas,-michelle-articles-a7454.html)

The social internet trend can be fun and addicting at the same time. But unfortunately we tend to forget two very important things:

EVERYONE can see it

It is there for EVER and EVER

There is already a struggle on separating the personal from the professional and with the use of the internet the challenge increases even further.

wustok

Almost all of us here at the MBA program are generation Y, which means that we all grew surrounded by computers and electronic devices and were able to adapt fast to the changes. We were the first one to start using the technology to share remotely with others through the web.

Now, the generation U (born after 1996) is taking the lead and understanding better how to use social media not only to communicate with others but also to create a personal branding, which is built from the very first post in one of the hundred of social media websites.

In the same way, personalized marketing has replaced mass marketing, so businesses need to change towards this fact if they want to survive in the future. The video attached gives 4 simple steps in which you need to approach this new market.

#mitbranding

#mitsloanbranding

qhtony14

I am googling around the web about leadership branding and found this HBR article. Whilst I am not 100% convinced by its “five steps” methodology, I simply cannot agree more on the first step that “Leadership brand is outward focused; it is about delivering results”. I have seen a quite a few leadership branding failure in my last role; often times people tend to blindly brand whatever they have in their inherent strengths, rather than selectively branding those relates to their goals. Branding should not be blind, based on delivering results (Another way of describing it is: regardless how much efforts you pour into the branding, it needs to be backed by results).

A typical example that illustrates the failure is one of the directors in the company I used for. She’s from UK (no offense to UK leadership style), typically diplomatic, traditional and sometimes ruthless. She branded herself excellently that everyone knows that’s her leadership style; however, the vibe that the previous director left for the office is easy-going, honest and frank, for which people are used to work under this atmosphere for more than 10 years. The abrupt change of the management style caused incompatibility between the new director and the rest of the office, and she failed to motivate people to work towards achieving results and was eventually asked to leave.

gabrielng

As our class shifts towards personal leadership branding this week, it allowed me an opportunity to reflect on what this topic means to me. In answering the question of what my points-of-difference and points-of-parity were, it really made me realize that it was up to me to define how I wanted to...

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