Develop People, to develop your Brand

Advocacy a key component in building your personal brand

Advocacy is critical in developing your personal brand.  You need develop others in order to develop yourself.  This contributes to your leadership brand through advocacy of peers, friends and professionals. So much of what we focus on in our lives deal with the typical command and control approach – control is an illusion it is about influence.  Influence can only be achieved through trust and advocacy in your actions.  Your personal brand is built or eroded based on your actions and interactions.

How many meetings have you attended where the outcomes have not been defined, but it appears to be more of a directive?  The meeting or conversation was really a one-sided directive versus a dialogue and creative discussion.

It is important to be flexible not only in your own plans but also when listening to peers and professionals.  There are too many people who begin meetings with decrees: “This is my view about where this project should head. And these are the steps we need to take.” That gives a meeting a direction and focus, but it may also dishearten participants from voicing concerns.

Gaining Buy-in through Advocacy

Thinking about your personal brand – how do you want to be perceived? Think about creating a catalyst for new ideas and insights to the question.  Make your brand known as an advocate and collaborator.

Consider taking the approach—to encourage debate, ideas, dialogue and innovation. Position the opportunity in a different way to your peers and professionals, “Here is the area where we really need to do something. It is a difficult area, and there are several ways to address the problems. Now, this is my current view of the path we should take, but I could be wrong. I want you to feel free to disagree and offer alternatives.” Then I have to be willing to discard or modify my hypothesis if someone comes up with a better approach.

Make the commitments through all of the discussions – activate. All of the participants need to agree on the deliverables and to set their own timetable to infuse buy-in.

• What are the actions?
• Who is ultimately responsible?
• What are the deliverables associated with the actions?
• Deadlines - when will they be delivered?

Then they will have an ownership interest in the follow-up, rather than just going along with abstract ideas. People often select a more aggressive timetable when people act as a group versus the naval gazing when you ask who is on point.

You can reinforce the principle of ownership in many ways for your personal brand, by driving this entrepreneurial approach to driving new opportunities. When you apply this principle, you must be patient as people need to make mistakes and learn from them.  Become an advocate for people and cultivate growth for others and your personal brand.