PERSONAL BRANDING: Your title gives you authority. Your reputation gives you influence

**Welcome to Personal Brand: Executive Perspective with Michelle Madziva, **a new weekly column dedicated to the art and strategy of personal branding.

Each week, we will go beyond the usual conversation about profiles, photographs and social media to explore what truly makes a person memorable, credible and influential from reputation and executive presence to visibility, leadership, communication and the value attached to a name.

Whether you are an executive, entrepreneur, professional or public leader, this is a space to examine how you are perceived, what you are known for and most importantly, what you are deliberately building around your name.

What happens to your influence when your job title is taken away?

Remove “CEO” from a CEO’s name. Remove “Managing Director”. Remove “Director”. Remove “Minister”.

Who is left?

It is an uncomfortable question, but an important one because it forces us to distinguish between two things we often treat as the same: authority and influence.

A title can give you authority. It can open doors, command attention and give your voice a certain weight but influence is different. Influence is what remains when the title is no longer doing the talking for you. It is that which makes you memorable long after you have left the room.

Increasingly, this is becoming an important conversation for professionals, entrepreneurs and business leaders.

We live in a world where people can search your name before meeting you, read what you have said online before doing business with you and form an opinion about you before you have even entered the room and told them about yourself.

Your reputation often arrives before you do. That is why personal branding becomes more than a social media trend. It is about taking deliberate steps towards building the reputation attached to your name and shaping the narrative associated with your brand.

Everyone has a personal brand, whether they have consciously created one or not. The question is: what are people saying about you when you are not in the room?

In my work around personal branding, strategy and leadership, I have noticed that many highly capable professionals struggle with visibility. They are good at what they do, but their expertise is not necessarily known beyond their immediate organisations.

They have the qualifications,experience and results but they can not clearly communicate what they want to be known for. Hence, they end up being outshined by individuals who are less talented than them but are way better at articulating the value that they bring to the table.

There is nothing wrong with being private but there is a difference between privacy and invisibility. If nobody knows what problems you solve or what you stand for, opportunities can easily pass you by.

There are leaders whose names immediately bring certain qualities to mind. For some, it may be innovation, integrity, entrepreneurship, philanthropy or even excellence.These associations are built over time through consistently working on their personal brands, being authentic and visibile.

Research by Weber Shandwick and KRC Research involving more than 1,700 senior executives across 19 countries found that executives attributed, on average, 44 percent of their company’s market value to the reputation of its CEO.

The research also found that CEO reputation was closely connected to overall corporate reputation. This research clearly shows the importance of intentionally building your personal brand whilst you build your business.

The strongest personal brands are the ones that know what they stand for, the ones that understand the value they bring and consistently show up. Personal branding is not self-promotion. It is reputation management.Your name,reputation and expertise are all valuable assets and like any valuable assets, they deserve to be deliberately built and protected.

Your title gives you authority. Your reputation gives you influence.

One day, the title may change, the position may change, the organisation may change but one thing that will never change is your name.

Build a name that can stand on its own, build a strong personal brand.

Michelle Madziva

Founder & CEO, Grand Curations

Corporate Strategist | Personal Branding Consultant

Email: [email protected]