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Have you ever thought about that? As a leader, you communicate all the time, as people constantly perceive your action and inaction. Whether you like it or not, you are building your legacy with every interaction with others. I call this "Legacy in Construction".

So the question is, what kind of legacy do you want to create? That's the Leadership brand you are creating knowingly or unknowingly. So the question is, what kind of Leadership brand do you want to make?

Building a Leadership brand takes time and effort. It's a deliberate attempt and can reap long term benefits. Creating a Leadership brand and living that brand is entirely different. One can let the Leadership brand build on its own, or you work hard to make it.

As you know, companies use brands to communicate the essence, purpose, and value of their goods or services to their stakeholders, who can range from consumers and customers to current and future employees and regulators. These brands create an image in the audience's mind, which in turn evokes specific thoughts and emotions. It represents a promise to your stakeholders.

Just like a company brand represents the image of a company, a Personal Leadership Brand embodies the impact you have on your followers and stakeholders—the emotional experience that comes from working with you.

The brand is the perception in the eyes of the 'We' holder. It's not about what we think about ourselves, but it is about how people perceive you, and therefore, it's not about your 'identity but your reputation. Identity is what you think about yourself, and reputation is the judgments made by others about you. I have seen leaders often worry about what they think about themselves rather than checking how their actions are perceived.

Although you convey your leadership brand through daily interactions, you may not know how others see you. Crafting a leadership brand helps you become self-aware of the leader you are today and the leader you strive to become. It's strategic. Like a product, your leadership brand embodies the impact you have on your followers and clients.

Many people hesitate to consciously build their brand as they find the exercise very artificial or don't spend time on it, or don't know how to begin.

It's not as difficult as it sounds to be. Start with your brand statement.

A strong leadership brand is more than a statement. It's the symbol of who you are as a leader, what you do, and how you do it from the perception of others. It evolves through your interactions with others as a result of the behaviours you exhibit.

'I want to be known for ……….. '(your value) 'so that I can …………' (your purpose)

Values and purpose tend to be timeless, but how you demonstrate them will change as you evolve in your experiences and career.

Paraphrasing the words of thought leader Simon Sinek, your purpose is your why. The cause or belief that gets you out of bed every day truly inspires you to do what you do. It's the incentive beyond a paycheck that keeps you committed to doing your best for the company, for yourself, and those around you.

Examples of some Leadership brand statements –

• I want to be known for being a results-driven leader with high standards for myself and my team to develop others to think independently and perform at their peak.
• 'I want to be known for having a character of commitment, ownership, humility, and integrity so that I can step up to a broader role and make an impact in my organization and on my future.'

Thus, creating and living your Leadership brand statement helps articulate your values and purpose, builds your confidence and enables you to impact the people and environment around you, thus leading to a high recall.

It will be a good idea to craft your brand statement and keep refining them by seeking feedback. It will help you work on how you want to socialize and, more importantly, live your brand in your day to day action.

As a next step, I suggest you identify two Brand coaches who can help you on this journey. Ideally, one from within the organization and the other external.

Just like we know that in communication and marketing, for a brand to work, people must know about it. For your Leadership Brand to be effective, it's no different: You have to declare it, socialize it, and publically live it.

Hey Divya,
I hope you are doing good and things are sunny at your end.
To answer your question, I joined back work after a long break. What helped me the most was a five-minute introspection before my meetings and presentations to organize my thoughts and conceptualize what I will communicate. Getting nervous about joining back after a break is expected. Once you get to the routine of things, it eventually fades away, and your confidence returns. Till then, try the tricks that I told you.
Break a leg!!
Adios!

We have become so engrossed in the daily and hectic schedules that we fail to notice things that are often so plainly visible. Whether it is the beauty in our surroundings, the emotional triggers of other people, or our repeated error patterns - we are often unable to see beyond things in our daily schedule.

Here are some simple steps to enhance your observation skills and make them razor-sharp:

• Live in the moment: Observe the changes in the surroundings no matter how minute. Doing so would also enhance your memory, and you would soon see patterns in the occurrence of certain things.
• Observe and reason: Now that you have observed something - ask yourself the significance of that observation. Logically analyze the situation and pinpoint the purpose behind it.
• Observe and solve: Next, see if there is an issue attached with your observation. Can something be improved through your reasoning? Ideate and solve everyday problems.
• Observe and deduct: What are the things/habits that are cluttering your life? Observe and remove them from your life. There would be things that add no value to your life, yet they stunt your growth.
• Observe and enhance: If you feel something is 'good' - observe and think of ways to make it even better. Be it a situation, your behaviour, or any other aspect around you - look for ways that you could enhance them.

Observation skills are something honed with time and consistent practice. All you need to do is, be present at the moment and look at every minute happenings.

Life is not a bed of roses, and there are bound to be a fair share of triumphs and setbacks.

Setbacks represent that you are getting a step closer to being successful. They are indicators of your hardwork. Instead of being disappointed by failures, all that is needed is to figure out how to get better.

• Own up the setback: When you put the responsibility of a failure on someone else's shoulders, you would always try to do the same the next time you face a setback. The most significant win in a setback lies in taking responsibility for what happened. Avoid blaming the situation and work towards making it better in the future.
• Accept the setback: Avoid sugar-coating the situation by saying, "Oh, it's nothing. I'll do well next time." Instead, try saying, "I'll identify the issue". Give yourself a chance to think deeper and accept whatever happened. Simply speaking, "It's not an issue" encourages your mind to avoid facing setbacks in life. How then would you learn from it and not make the same mistakes again?
• Identify the issues: Evaluate what went wrong and the area that caused the setback. Not doing so would increase the chance of encountering the same setback time and again. This would end up making you feel like you are incapable of doing the concerned task.
• Focus only on the outcome: Focusing on the effort serves little benefit. Focus on the result and manoeuvre your attempt to achieve those results. It will encourage you to think divergently and redirect the steps to accomplish your aim. Avoid putting more focus on the effort if you are unsure of the outcome.

Someone who does not work towards something never fails. Look at failure & setback with optimism. Ask yourself - 'Has anybody who did not encounter failure ever succeed?'

When you take the initiative, you make the conscious choice of stepping out of your comfort zone, shattering your limiting beliefs to rise high and meet your true potential. Here are four reasons why you should start taking initiatives today:

1. It gives you the confidence to go beyond your comfort zone: The foundation of initiatives lies in the desire to move beyond what you already do and explore what you can do better. It gives you the confidence to accept and learn from setbacks.
2. It makes you proactive: Initiatives are driven by the will to stay ahead of the situation. When you take the initiative, you train yourself to predict and foresee possible solutions to problems that might come up in the future.
3. Initiatives = innovation: When you take initiatives to do something, you essentially begin coming up with multiple ideas to address the situation. Doing so promotes divergent thinking at the subconscious level and enhances problem-solving.
4. Initiatives lead to better decision making: When you 'decide' to take the initiative, you have already decided on the best way to deal with a situation. Doing so helps you make better decisions and forms an effective cycle of creative thinking and decision-making.

Initiatives make 'good' even better and put on on a path where you will always seek to grab opportunities and learn all along.

In this video learn about the Art of Persuasion in detail.

- Elements of Persuasion - How to build credibility,

- Understanding Human Emotion,

- Providing Supporting Information and Finding Common Ground.

- How to be Persuasive in your everyday

In this video, learn about the importance of Paralanguage and the components of Speech (Paralanguage) - Pace, Pitch, Volume, Power of Pause, Visual Aids and how to prepare a Presentation.

Presentation not only includes how you have created PPT but also how you are presenting it. Check out the key points in the video below:

Personality Development training is important. It helps in many aspects.

Here are the few important questions answered in the below video:

- What is Personality?

- What are the key components of personality?

- If we want to develop personality from where we can start?

- Importance of mind in personality

1. Think in English:

Tell me about yourself which can help me to gauge your candidature as an Economist to me?

Good morning/Afternoon Sir/Ma’am.

Thank you for giving this wonderful opportunity to me to introduce myself to you. I am ————-(Your Name). We are five members in my family including me.  I am native to —— (City Name), and open to relocate to ________ (city name as mentioned in the job description). Currently, I am pursuing B.A. in Economics at the ___________ (University Name), and I will be entering into final year of my graduation studies in the next couple of months. Ever since, I started studying Economics in my school days. I realized, I enjoy analyzing things connected to the society, and the Mother Nature. Since my childhood days, I have witnessed my family focusing upon correct utilization of house hold items, and guiding us towards understanding the whites, and blacks of the possible outcomes. I believe, this somehow further boosted my interest towards Economics as a career option. 

• For me Economics is all about making right decisions at the right time, and studying the possible outcomes.
• I have an analytical approach towards things I do. I believe, that helps me to understand a wide range of issues from what determines the price, causes, and consequences.
• I believe, economics is having an excellent graduate prospects. Economics is truly all around us. Studying the subject gives me a generalist understanding of the world we live in and its inner workings.
• The case-based learning emphasis on economics degrees makes it really easy to see how the theory has real-life applications, particularly when considering the recent volatility of global markets.

What I find extremely attractive being an Economist is that the profession is so demanding, everything changes so quickly and every day is a new sunrise. Such a dynamic environment is certainly very exciting, but maybe a little bit stressful too. However, I can multitask, and deal with pressure.

Currently, I want to secure a job with ___________ (company / institute name you are appearing for). 

My long term goal is by gaining work experience of 07-08 years in the field of Economics. I wish to work on a senior position, contributing to the betterment of my work place and the society. 

I am a self-motivated, and a disciplined soul. I am always keen to up-skill myself by learning new things whenever I get a chance. I have done my internship(s) / project(s) from this (these) company (ies), and my role(s) was (were)…….. I am a certified resource in _________ (certification names). 

Apart from studies, I enjoy participating in drama. I am a player of Badminton too.

My strengths are my analytical approach, my human touch to the situations, my appreciable communication, and presentation skills. I believe upon being realistic.

In my free time, I enjoy spending time with friends, sometimes cooking, listening to music, doing drama, reading, travelling, and playing outdoor sports.

Thank you very much for making me to speak about myself. If you have any specific question, pls. ask, I will be glad to answer that.