Guest post by Lisa Martin
There is no single, definitive way to be a RockStar Leader. You can certainly learn by example but trying to adopt someone else’s leadership style will never work in the long run.
I’m a huge believer in defining your own leadership brand. I get how odd and disconcerting it may feel to see yourself as a ‘brand’, but go with me because applied correctly the concept is really powerful.
If I ask most people to name what they are most brilliant at (their superpowers), they are likely to hesitate or tell me about the skills they think are most exciting or marketable.
If I were to ask you what personality traits really make you…you, you might find it hard to narrow it down to just two or three that really set you apart.
I find that many people think of their brand as the role they play in an organization – as in, I’m the VP of Marketing or the Director of Sales.
But a leadership brand is not a title. It’s a promise. It’s a promise of how you will use your unique abilities and traits to deliver results that people can count on.
Knowing who you are is fundamental to becoming a RockStar Leader. It helps you zero in on exactly how to invest your energy to make the biggest impact rather than taking a scattershot approach.
It also becomes abundantly clear how to differentiate yourself within your organization. There may be many people who play a similar role, but none will have the same leadership brand as you.
ABOUT LISA MARTIN
Lisa Martin has made it her mission to help companies keep and cultivate rising leaders. She’s a leadership coach, speaker, creator of the Lead + Live Better™ programs and bestselling author of Briefcase Moms. She’s counseled Best Buy, PwC, TELUS and UBC. She’s helped thousands of people lead and live to their fullest potential. You can find her on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Lisa will be one of the guest panelists in our upcoming Leaders Breakfast Panel: Leadership for the Future in Vancouver on March 11.
