User Manuals, Personal Brand, and Presence, oh my!
Many who find themselves with new levels of responsibility ask the question “How do I show up as a leader?” Some explore writing personal user manuals, building their brand, or cultivating leadership presence. Let’s take a look at these approaches.
Writing a personal ‘user manual’ is a way to share our context, values, and working style. They can be part of our team’s onboarding process, or shared with collaborators to shed light on our preferred style of communication. While user manuals can serve a purpose, they don’t replace showing up as a leader. If we’re more comfortable behind a keyboard than in front of a roomful of people, it can be tempting to hide behind our manual at the expense of building true leadership presence. Overreliance on a user manual as proxy for live communication and relationship-building can make a leader appear unapproachable or even arrogant. User manuals are merely a tool to augment live and more nuanced forms of connection.
Building a ‘personal brand’ helps us to shape our narrative, how we’re perceived, and how we lead operationally and strategically. What do we want coworkers to say about our leadership style when we’re not in the room? Does it match our intention and our behaviors? 360 feedback can reveal the delta between our intentions vs how others experience our actions. If we’re feeling queasy at the thought of “personal branding”, know that it’s not meant to construct a glorified image that isn’t true to us, but to transparently convey who we uniquely are as a leader.
Cultivating ‘leadership presence’ is a blend of relatability, authority backed by credibility, confidence, and curiosity. Leadership presence isn’t the exclusive domain of “natural born leaders.” It can be developed through awareness of our actions and its impact on others, and through observing and learning from other effective leaders. Authority might be granted through titles and promotions, but credibility is earned through high
self-awareness, ability to read the room, and consistent demonstration
of values.
How we show up as a leader isn’t about any single action or one-time event. It requires intentional and thoughtful framing of what we want to represent, whether in a document or in person — it’s an ongoing curation of our best selves. At the heart of these approaches is one important skill: communication. Next month, we’ll look at how leaders can have more impact through developing effective communication strategies.
Margaret Lee authors a monthly column on coaching for The Design Better Newsletter, where this article first appeared. As an Executive and Leadership Coach with Design Dept, Margaret brings a wealth of prior experience leading UX teams and programs at Google. She works with clients to identify obstacles and insights, and to clarify a path forward. Interested in learning more? Reach out on LinkedIn.
