Welcome to Personal Brand: Executive Perspective with Michelle Madziva, a weekly column dedicated to the art and strategy of personal branding.
When we talk about personal branding, the conversation often turns to visibility, professional image, networking, communication and how individuals position themselves in their respective industries. We discuss what executives should say, how they should present themselves and how they can become more recognisable in their fields.
However, there is another side of personal branding that deserves more attention: the reputation you build through the way you treat, develop and influence other people.
I recently came across a story about Dr Emmanuel Efe Emefienim, the Founder and CEO of Premium Trust Bank in Nigeria, which offered a powerful illustration of this.
During his career at Sterling Bank, Emefienim made a deliberate investment in his own executive education, attending more than 15 programmes at Harvard Business School. What makes his story particularly interesting is that he extended that investment to some of the managers who reported to him, sponsoring them to attend executive programmes as well. When he eventually left Sterling Bank to establish Premium Trust Bank, six of the seven managers he had personally sponsored and developed chose to join him. They left the comfort of an already established bank and ventured into the ‘unknown’ with a man that they believed in.
There is a significant personal branding lesson in that story.
He had not simply built a reputation as a competent banking executive. Through his actions, he had also established a reputation as someone who invested in people. His influence was not confined to the position he occupied or the authority attached to his title. It was reflected in the professional relationships he had cultivated and when the time came for him to start something new, that reputation travelled with him.
This is an important distinction for anyone in leadership. You can have an impressive LinkedIn profile, a polished professional image, an excellent track record and a list of achievements that reads beautifully. But what do people experience when they work with you? What do they learn? How do they grow? And what do they say about your leadership when you are not in the room?
A personal brand is not built exclusively through deliberate self-promotion. It is shaped by repeated experiences people have with you. It is influenced by whether you keep your word, acknowledge other people’s contributions, share knowledge, create opportunities and demonstrate genuine interest in the growth of those around you.
For executives, this is particularly important because leadership creates an audience beyond the boardroom. Your employees, colleagues, suppliers, business partners and professional networks are all forming impressions of you through their interactions with you.
You may be known publicly as an accomplished CEO, but if the people who work closely with you describe you as someone who takes credit for their efforts, withholds opportunities or feels threatened by their development, there is a disconnect between the brand you are presenting and the experience you are creating.
A strong personal brand requires alignment between what you claim to represent and how people actually experience you. This does not mean that every employee must like you. Leadership involves difficult decisions, accountability and conversations that may not always be comfortable. It means that even when expectations are high, people should be able to recognise fairness, integrity and a genuine commitment to helping them perform better.
So, what can executives do to build this dimension of their personal brand?
Start by becoming intentional about developing people. Recommend a talented employee for a course, share an opportunity, introduce someone to a useful professional contact or give a junior colleague the responsibility of leading an important assignment. Recognise contributions publicly and when a team delivers, acknowledge the individuals behind the results. Your credibility does not diminish when you give someone else credit.
Be generous with knowledge. Experience becomes even more valuable when it helps someone else avoid mistakes, make better decisions and grow professionally and most importantly, develop people without feeling threatened by their progress. Someone you mentor today may eventually occupy a position more senior than yours. That should be something to celebrate, not fear.
There is a reason some professionals remain respected long after they have left particular organisations. Their influence was never entirely dependent on the office they occupied. They built relationships, created value and left people with positive experiences that continued long after their departure.
As you work on your visibility, refine your professional image and build your reputation, remember that your personal brand is also being written in the experiences of the people who encounter you.
One day, someone may be asked what it was like working with you. That answer will say something about your brand that no biography, award or carefully written LinkedIn headline can fully communicate.
Do not only build a name that people recognise. Build a reputation that people can confidently speak about.
Michelle Madziva
Founder & CEO, Grand Curations
