Leaders are faced with a multitude of unforeseen situations at work and throughout their careers. If you are leading in ways that come most naturally to you, and making decisions before circumstances force your hand – you’re allowing your personal brand to organically evolve, grow and flourish. This means that you are proactively managing your brand, rather than allowing those around you to define who you are and what you stand for as a leader.

Yet too many leaders lose focus and find themselves juggling problems rather than delivering solutions. Why? According to my organization’s research, 65% of leaders (director level and below) are unqualified to be effective leaders. They lack the required people skills (78%), self-awareness (81%), teambuilding skills (69%), coaching aptitude (72%), trustworthiness (77%) critical thinking (66%), problem solving acumen (62%), patience (70%), communication skills (59%) and overall executive presence that employees expect from their leaders. This research was conducted based on a survey of the 15 things that the most successful leaders must do automatically, every day.

Those who are unqualified to lead often create an environment of confusion to make themselves look relevant. Because they don’t trust themselves enough to share their momentum with others, they complicate things for everybody and keep the organization and its people from growing. These types of leaders eventually get exposed and find themselves faced with a difficult career path. They have chosen not to develop and manage a personal brand that inspires others. In fact, their career path is littered with inherent risks created by their own identity crisis and negative reputation.

You know that you are managing your personal brand rightly when your executive presence begins to reverberate; its sphere of influence magnifies.

Leaders that have developed and are managing their personal brand are focused on simplification, creating a workplace culture where every employee is given the opportunity to advance; where teamwork is valued and the goal is to strengthen the organization and its position in the marketplace and the industry they serve. They are able to simplify because they know themselves (their personal brand) so well. These are leaders that are extremely in tune with their behavior and its impact on others, and they are focused on how to share this ability with others. Leaders that manage their personal brands are those who continually cultivate innovation and initiative. They know how to earn serendipity – their own good fortune. They are able to see, sow, grow and share opportunity in their work and throughout their careers. You can measure your own proficiency by taking this quiz.

Innovation is only possible when people are empowered and encouraged to be themselves (live their personal brand). It thrives in an environment that celebrates differences, where everyone works together for the betterment of a healthier whole.

Managing your personal brand is a never-ending journey of trial and error. Committing to managing your personal brand is a leap of faith. You must begin to think like an entrepreneur who is constantly in search of their leadership impact and influence. By remaining honest and true to yourself about who you are and what you represent as a leader, you will eventually discover your leadership style, the workplace culture that “best fits” your style, and the type of people that allows your leadership to flourish.

When you stop managing your personal brand, you begin to lose touch with your leadership formula for workplace and career success. You quickly become irresponsible to those whom you currently lead and serve. To most effectively and efficiently manage your personal brand, here are the ultimate five steps you must take to assure you stay focused and maximize the results of your leadership and career journey.

1. Value Your Distinction; Trust Yourself

Most leaders are not aware of what makes them unique; the natural qualities that give their personal brand (leadership) distinction. Discovering your leadership impact and influence is being able to know your unique qualities, characteristics and skill-sets. Managing your personal brand requires you to put your ideas and ideals to the test; learning to know what works and what doesn’t work. Pay close attention to how others react to you and how you can refine and build upon your thinking and approach. This requires focus and tremendous patience.

Others will not value your leadership distinction until you can trust yourself to enough to put it into practice each and every day. Trusting yourself is about sharing your knowledge, your wisdom, your secrets. It’s about allowing those around you to experience the real you, not your title. When you trust yourself, you do not hesitate to share the harvest of the momentum that you are building with others.

Managing your personal brand is like being a scientist that fails 85% of the time in their quest to discover the right formula and breakthrough. This is why less than 15% of leaders have a personal brand. Perhaps this explains why great leadership is so rare.

Personal brand management is about continually elevating the valuation of your leadership talent to align with the marketplace. If they are out of alignment, you have work to do.

2. Be Responsible; Hold Yourself Accountable

Personal branding is the ultimate individual responsibility. That’s why it’s called “personal” branding. No one should manage your personal brand but you. Yes, others can influence it (e.g., mentors/sponsors/advisors) – but in the end, you must make the commitment to manage it. Personal branding can be frustrating. This is why leaders grow complacent. As a leader, you must know the variables that define your personal brand and hold yourself accountable to manage them.

Here are four questions to get you started:

I. What is your enduring idea?

II. What is your primary differentiator?

III. What is the primary experience that you deliver to those around you?

IV. Whom does your personal brand serve?

A personal brand is the total experience of the relationship that others have with your leadership. If you are unable to answer these questions, it will be impossible for you to manage your personal brand. This is why leaders end up becoming followers over the course of their careers.

Managing your personal brand can also be called “managing my leadership image, identity, capabilities, and resources, which will allow me to have the most impactful career and significance on others.” Unfortunately, most leaders still view personal branding as a self-promotion campaign rather than a leadership development requirement.

3. Communicate Your Identity; Put Your Authenticity to The Test 

The workplace of the future will be less about silos and more about boundary less environments. As such, the importance of your job title will diminish and your personal brand will become the ultimate identifier of what you are able to deliver and how you can contribute to the growth of the organization (see image below). The metrics of an employee’s performance review will be based on how well they manage their personal brand. The authenticity of the individual will truly be put to the test.

This paradigm shift will require employees to communicate their personal brands more simplistically, efficiently and with more clarity than ever before. With this responsibility comes tremendous accountability to continually refine the answers to the four aforementioned questions – this will require you to broaden your observation of how others are experiencing your personal brand and be an effective listener.

Personal branding is the ultimate reinvention process. You never stop reinventing yourself, when you make the commitment to manage your personal brand. Too many factors force you to reassess your personal brand relevancy and thus you must continually course correct along the way. This is why the greatest leaders in history are those who enabled environments of continuous reinvention and innovation (e.g., Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc.). As a leader, you can’t enable the innovation of products and services unless you know how to innovate yourself.

4. Carefully Select Your Resources; Effectively Align Your Brand

The individuals you choose to associate yourself with and with whom you decide to align your personal brand will influence your leadership and career journey. This represents a critical stage in the management of your personal brand – as it requires you to be extremely mindful and disciplined about the relationships you forge, networking goals and the resources you need and share with others. For example, you may be offered the opportunity to be a board member for a highly reputable organization. While the role would serve a great purpose, perhaps it does not optimally align with those your personal brand serves. Don’t be irresponsible to the people you are expected to serve by taking on a responsibility that may look good on your resume – but that’s not a good fit for your personal brand.

Time is your most valuable asset and how you choose to use it plays an important part in how you manage your personal brand. Have a thorough understanding of the resources that align most optimally to strengthen your personal brand, but equally know how you want to share the resources you have available to advance the needs of others. Only you will know when it’s a good fit.

5. Be Entrepreneurial; Seize the Opportunities

You can’t develop as a leader nor seize opportunities in your career unless you know what you are looking for. Many leaders are unclear about their ultimate career path because they are uncertain about what experiences and skill-sets will further strengthen and increase the value of their personal brand. Having the entrepreneurial spirit is what allows you to navigate, course-correct and see and seize the right opportunities for your personal brand.

As a young executive, while at Sunkist Juice Beverages, I knew that one day I would be a business owner. While I was in the early stages of my leadership development and career, I was aware of my personal brand. I knew that to reach my ultimate goals, I had a lot of skill sets to develop and business competencies to learn. When I decided to leave Sunkist, instead of searching for a more elevated senior executive position (the traditional path), I made the decision to make a lateral move with an organization that would allow me to learn about the operational/manufacturing side of the consumer packaged business. Though I took a non-traditional career path – it was the right decision that not only helped me to mature as a leader, but also enabled me to strengthen my personal brand with the knowledge I needed to start my own food business.

Managing your personal brand is not a linear path. It’s a long journey of winding roads where you will encounter multiple diversions; this requires you to be entrepreneurial. Along the way you must ask yourself these three questions to keep yourself focused and your personal brand development on track.

I. What Must I Keep Doing?

II. What Must I Stop Doing?

III. What Must I Start Doing?

It’s a journey that only you will understand – until you have finally found “your leadership zone” -- where the management of your personal brand becomes second nature and your ability to influence innovation naturally multiples. At this point, you will find certainty for yourself and others during uncertain times – your career success will become significant and the impact you create for those around you will be immeasurable. Be proactive, practice patience and avoid getting distracted. Manage your personal brand before someone else does.