Video: Own Your Own Brand—Before it Owns You
When What You Say Doesn’t Match What I See, You’ve Got a Branding Problem
Transcription
As the topic of the speech promised you, things that might be getting in the way of your leadership brand that people are not very likely going to be able to tell you. Either because they can’t articulate what it is exactly, or they don’t even know.
The first is, incongruence. When I say something that doesn’t match what you see.
Tell me in your working life if you’ve ever seen a presentation that looks some version of this: (Hands held in front of the body, twisting uncomfortably) “I’m so excited about the new marketing initiative, I think it’s uh, really going to revolutionize uh, our fourth quarter.”
(LAUGHTER)
I can tell by the laughter in the audience that you have seen some version of that in your working life. It seems a few of you have someone in mind!
What’s the impact of that kind of woman on her audience? What’s the impact? (Someone in the audience says: No impact)
No impact, right.
That’s a problem for the woman because her brand is now: No Impact.
About 2 months ago I got called to work with a woman down in Wall Street. I was brought in because her manager and her HR business partner said that this woman is brilliant! She’s the most insightful woman in the entire organization. She is the go to person if you have a question about anything!
But when she has to present to the board, or even to her colleagues she is just so boring. She’s so boring that she’s having no impact. It’s hard to get people to buy into your idea, or even remember what your idea is, if they’re not even paying attention. They’re on their smart phones while you’re up here, talking.
What that means is you have to show up with energy!!
If you say that you’re excited, we want to see the excitement! We need to see some expression, we need to see some body language going on, some gesture, something going on in the face.