Know your audience to show leadership

- Fishermen say that to catch the right fish, you have to use the right bait. And the same thing is true when you're building your visibility as a leader. The first thing you need to determine is who do you want to hook? In other words, who is your target? Whose recognition are you looking for? And what outcome do you want? Do you want to be seen as a leader by your colleagues and peers, or maybe you want higher-ups at your company to see potential that would support your advancement. Going outside your company, maybe you want to be seen as a leader in your industry, including by your competitors, or perhaps you'd like to be seen as a leader in an entirely new industry, or you'd like to leave your regular job behind and just make it big on the business lecture circuit. No matter what your goals, in order to make sure you're successful, you need to plan it, how, when, and where you'll be seen in order to make sure that it raises your professional profile for those most critical targets. To do this, you need a platform, a way to distribute and share your message. A platform can involve leveraging your role, your company, and your professional network to build your visibility and get to those individuals you've identified as your targets to see you as a leader. Inside your company, the platforms may include posting on company message boards, speaking at company events, or doing activities to be a good corporate citizen. There's more than one way to catch a fish, and sometimes it will be with content, while other times it might be modeling leadership behavior. When trying to impress external contacts, you may want to leverage the brand recognition of your company to initially build your own visibility. I know, you might be thinking, if I give speeches on behalf of my company, they'll just remember the company, but nothing could be further from the truth. Giving a talk as a representative of your company can have longterm value for your own personal brand. When I worked for the third largest bank in the United States, I was often invited to come and give speeches because they wanted someone from my company. But today, that company no longer exists, but I'm still invited to give speeches on the lecture circuit. If you craft a compelling message and you project your leadership, your own brand might outlast your company, no matter how big your company is. You have to make sure that what you create gets the recognition and visibility from the audience you want, and that you're using the right platform. If you don't catch the right audience, stop, rebait your hook with a new idea, and try again, and toss everything that doesn't work overboard.