Strategies for Positioning Yourself as a Thought Leader

In my conversations with the top C-suite leaders, one thing often comes up: the hesitation and fear to step into personal branding. I hear things like: “What if I look self-promotional?” “I’m too busy running the company.” “My work should speak for itself.” But here’s the truth I share with my clients: You’re not just competing for market share, you’re competing for attention. And in a world where 82% of people trust leaders who have a visible presence online (LinkedIn, Edelman Trust Barometer), staying invisible is no longer an option. Here’s why personal branding is non-negotiable for high-authority leaders: 1️⃣ People trust leaders, not logos. Your corporate brand can only go so far. Studies show that 76% of executives are more likely to trust a company led by a CEO they recognize and respect (Harvard Business Review). By building your personal brand, you humanize your business and earn the trust of stakeholders, employees, and even investors. 2️⃣ Your influence can attract top talent. Nearly 50% of employees say they research a company leader’s social presence before deciding to join (Glassdoor). Personal branding doesn’t just help you attract customers—it’s a magnet for the best and brightest talent. 3️⃣ A strong personal brand is crisis insurance. Think about it: When a crisis hits, would you rather be an anonymous figure scrambling to explain yourself or a respected thought leader people already trust? Leaders with strong personal brands have an edge in controlling the narrative. 4️⃣ You’re already being Googled: control what they see. Like it or not, 71% of professionals Google their leaders (Forbes). If your online presence is nonexistent or outdated, you’re missing a huge opportunity to tell your story your way. I tell them: Personal branding isn’t about self-promotion, it’s about leadership. Here’s how you can start: 1. Share your expertise. Write LinkedIn posts or articles about the challenges your industry is facing and how you’re solving them. Thought leadership builds authority. 2. Show your values. Highlight causes or initiatives you care about. Employees and customers want to align with leaders who stand for something bigger than profits. 3. Be visible but authentic. It’s not about perfection—it’s about being relatable. Share stories from your leadership journey, lessons learned, and even failures. If you’re afraid of personal branding, here’s the truth: Your reputation isn’t optional, it’s already being built, with or without you. The question is, will you own it or let others decide it for you? The leaders dominating their industries today aren’t just experts in their fields- they’re visible, trusted, and human. And when you build your personal brand, you’re not just investing in yourself. You’re building credibility, trust, and opportunities for your company. Are you ready to take control of your narrative? #Leadership #PersonalBranding #Headhunting #ExecutiveHiring #Growth

On my clients’ minds: “How do I rebrand myself as someone who is capable of a higher level leadership and influence?” Changing how people view you isn't an overnight process although we wish it could be. Changing your brand in the workplace takes concerted time, effort and stamina to continually show up in new ways and teaching people to expect new things from you. Here are three strategies you can try to shift others' perception of you from a doer, expert or high achiever to a more influential and strategic leader: 1️⃣ Stop Over-Relying on Expertise and Start Leading Through Influence ▫️Start delegating tactical work and investing time in setting direction, shaping strategy, and influencing others. ▫️Redirect your colleagues to seek out your direct reports for answers instead of always coming to you. 2️⃣ Position Yourself as Valuable AND Visible ▫️Stop assuming results speak for themselves. ▫️Proactively align and advocate your work results to company goals and talk about impact in strategic terms. This positions you as a leader who is visible and valuable. ▫️Say things like, “This initiative helps us reduce risk in X,” or “This supports the CEO's Q3 priority on customer retention.” 3️⃣ Be Seen as Future-Focused, Not Just Reliable ▫️Many professionals unintentionally brand themselves as “reliable and steady," but not as “innovative, visionary, or future-ready.” ▫️As organizations endure immense pressure to grow, adapt or change due to economic or competitive pressures, how are you helping them identify and navigate these challenges? ▫️Shift your language from past-tense accomplishments to future-focused initiatives. Instead of “I've always done X,” say “I'm currently focused on growing our capability in Y,” or “I'm exploring ways to help our team do Z more efficiently.” What tip will you try? Or, what tips can you share to help someone successfully rebrand from a humble high achiever to influential leader?

I'm working with four C-suite leaders to build their thought leadership online. Each was having trouble knowing what to say, how to say it, how to format it, and where to put that content. Each was a master at their craft, with a lot to share, but just stuck when it came to actually sharing it. (Proving that thought leadership doesn’t just “happen" and that even the most brilliant leaders and thinkers need a strategy for getting those leading thoughts out there in the wild.) Let me start with my really simple definition of a thought leader: A thought leader is a person who really knows his/her stuff who thinks out loud in public. They are prolilfic - they share a lot. They have strong opinions and unique points of view. (So yeah it's hard to be a thought leader unless you have those things: expertise and opinions and the chutpzah to share). Thought leaders share: 🔸 What they know and how they do things (expertise) 🔸 How they know it (perspective) 🔸 What’s coming next (vision) Here's how you should approach your content if you want to be a thought leader: 1. Document your top customer questions. Then document your areas of expertise and passion. Find what's common between them and those are your topics. (You only need 3-4 of them). 2. Find a way to capture your knowledge. You can answer customer questions interview style with someone and record it (if you are the talking type). You can write their loose thoughts (if you are the typing type). Understand that it takes time to get thoughts out of their brain but at this stage it doesn't to be pretty, eloquent, or even particularly organized. 3. Enlist some help organizing, clarifying, and creating the content (because you're busy, you don't love to write, and so on). 4. Decide where to distribute the content: website (blog), social, a newsletter. 5. Publish weekly on each channel. Easy? Well, maybe not, but it IS straightforward and totally do-able. You're just not doing it. 😂 And don't forget that you need a really good profile - professional photo, banner that says something and has a CTA, strong about section. Because everything you do online will send traffic back there.