Leading…By Design

This week, the participants in the Lead With Your Personal Brand Bootcamp are learning to create a leadership environment BY DESIGN. What does that mean exactly?

Every person, leader or follower, has a personal brand.

Clarity on that personal brand allows you to HARNESS it to design experiences that inspire others.

As John Quincy Adams said about leadership, “if your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.”

But what does it take for us to inspire this kind of action?

Owning Your Personal Brand

When you think about all the people you consider great leaders (not society in general, who YOU see as a great leader), likely there is something about them that is the SAME as you. You may not be able to put your finger on it, but it’s tied into those person’s VALUES.

And specifically, values they have that are the SAME as yours.

Whether they were fighting for a cause you believe in, showed up to defy the odds like you did, made a sacrifice that you find honorable, or are continually innovating to improve, all of these things are tied to your values.

As a leader, if we don’t start by owning our personal brand, we will always be trying to show up in ways that aren’t natural to us. We will be trying to take our stand for change in someone else’s way. And each time we do that, we become removed from our own stand.

By getting clarity on our values, and owning our personal brand, we can determine HOW we are going to take our stand, and the environment we want to create around that…which is what allows other people to align themselves with us.

Creating a SPACE

Now, I want you to think about all the people in your life that you LIKE hanging around with. Your campfire.

Whether it’s friends, colleagues, family members, clients, partners, you name it, there’s a specific reason you like to have them around your campfire.

Regardless of the things you find they have in common (being fun, intriguing, passionate, curious, the list goes on) the ONE Thing that brings them all together is that they somehow FIT into the environment you desire around your campfire.

Therefore, by harnessing your personal brand to create an environment (whether physical or virtual) that MATCHES your campfire, you present a space where people can easily identify whether or not they “fit in”.

And when they are an enthusiastic YES, those are your people.

The people who are already innately aligned with your values and what you are trying to accomplish.

No Perfect Matches

Now, let’s be honest. Your campfire is built based on YOU. Which means, it should 100% match YOU.

Which also means, it will NEVER 100% match someone else.

Just like no other person in the world is the 100% perfect spouse for you, you will attract people to your fire who are not a perfect match.

However, if you are showing up authentically in your values, it gives other the opportunity to create a conscious trade.

“OK, I know that I value wealth, and it’s not the primary thing people are talking about here, but I’m OK with that.”

You give people the option to choose you. And to NOT choose you. And to change their mind based on what’s right for them.

It’s not about trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It’s about being honest about what it’s like to hang out with the best YOU, and giving people a choice.

A True Leader

Just as in the quote from John Quincy Adams above, the most important step is to change the FEELING of being in your space into action.

And not action on behalf of the people you are leading. Action for YOURSELF.

Actions, as late, have been defined as, “a thing done, an act”. Rather, a list of things to do that we check off as we go.

My preferred definition is this: “the process of doing something, typically to achieve an aim.”

The important difference, of course, being the “to achieve an aim”.

Our goal, as a leader, is not to achieve a thing just to achieve a thing. To create an environment to say that we did that activity. No.

It’s about taking action that LIVES our values. That SHOWS people what we care about. The creation of a FEELING.

What if that aim we were trying to achieve was to create a feeling in others? The same feeling they get around our campfire? Feelings of courage, ingenuity, empowerment?

Now THAT’S what I call living your values.

THIS is what it looks like to Lead With Your Personal Brand. Leading…By Design.

The Lead With Your Personal Brand Bootcamps were created to walk you through this process. And the best part? They are INCLUDED in your Silver Membership with Your Business Peeps ($25 USD/month). Join Today.