Your Leadership Brand: Is It New Coke or Coke Classic?

Make sure you really, really know.

In 1985, Coca-Cola decided to change the formula for its flagship drink, Coke.  It was sweeter, and outperformed both the then existing formulation of Coke as well as Pepsi in taste tests, surveys, and focus groups.  So it made the switch, and on April 23, 1985, it launched New Coke.

And customers lost their minds.  Seventy-nine days later, Coca-Cola brought back the old version as “Coca-Cola Classic”.

Moral of the story:  Coca-Cola didn’t own the brand.  Their customers did.

And it’s the same with your leadership reputation.  You don’t own it.  Your colleagues do.

People will say, “Perception is reality.” 
It’s really more that others’ perception of you is the reality.  It’s your reality in which you lead.

Years ago, when I was just several months into my new leadership role, my manager told me, “Dave, people think you don’t care about them.”
I was stunned.  Did I care about them?  Of course I did.  Even my wife was stunned: “You? Not caring? C’mon!!” (I love my wife! 😊)
But did any of that matter?  Absolutely not.  People felt and believed I didn’t care about them.

And it stops there.
That’s all I needed to know.

So I stopped digging the hole I was digging for myself, and got out of my office more.
My colleagues owned my reputation.  I didn’t.

If you’ve ever done Myers-Briggs, remember, it tells you what your preferences are, i.e., who you think you are.
That can be a long way from how others experience you.

So get yourself some feedback.  Have the courage to ask, “How am I doing?  How can I be better?”
Don’t be like me back then, and think that just because you work hard and do well, people will appreciate it and you.

They own your brand.  You don’t.