SelfBrand Strategy II. The Leader

Jack Welch

The Leader
Jack Welch

When you have a leadership claim, you can appeal to people who want to do business with the principal player in an industry, the person recognized as a leader. You can also take advantage of the leadership premium. Leadership, in and of itself, gives you a halo effect. As the leader in your category, people will assume that you are better than others who are the number two, number three, or number ten player. You must be better, or why else are you the leader? You've got proof, too. You've got a track record of accomplishments and arenas where you've played a leadership role.

The Leader Personality

Coca Cola

Leader Brand

Leaders are people who have high self-esteem and appear to be confident as well as competent. As a leader, you feel comfortable making authoritative statements that others follow. You identify yourself by your accomplishments and success. You can be aggressive and impulsive, and often you are perceived as intimidating. You tend to project strength and ignore feelings of vulnerability and weakness. You seek stimulation and action, and you can feel constant pressure to take more responsibility. On the other hand, you like the attention and visibility being a leader gives you.

Most of the time you:

  • Are highly energetic and competitive
  • Like attracting attention of others

But sometimes you:

  • Make others feel pressured
  • Don't seem to care about others

Generally people see you as:

  • Ambitious and on top of everything
  • Strong-minded, confident, competent
  • Big picture thinker and a strong leader

But you can:

  • Be too demanding
  • Put others down
  • Avoid change

How to Execute the Leader Strategy

See You Are a Brand, p. 53 - 55 for ideas, examples and exercises on how to execute the leader strategy. You must be able to fill in the blank in the following statement:

Leader Positioning: You're a leader in __________ (list industry, job function, or basis of leadership claim).