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The July 2007 HBR has an article I am just getting to on Building Your Leadership Brand. The authors examine companies that focus leadership development on building a general leadership capability versus individual leaders. They refer to this general capability as a leadership brand. They define the LB as a:

“reputation for developing exceptional managers with a distinct set of talents that are uniquely geared to fulfill customers’ and investors’ expectations.”

The authors recommend five key principles to follow when building a leadership brand:

1. Basic Leadership – setting strategy and developing people
2. Managers must “internalize external constituents’ high expectations of the firm.”
3. Companies must evaluate their leaders ACCORDING to those expectations.
4. Companies must invest in broad-based leadership development that help managers meet customer and investor expectations.
5. Track the success (or failure) of attempting to build your leadership brand.

I am very interested in their approach. Don’t develop people, develop the pool. Let everyone rise rather than putting all of your eggs in one basket. You mitigate your risk that way. What happens if Johnny All-Star winds up doing something naughty on YouTube? Its back to the beginning for you.

This also makes sense in the times we live in, it is a very progressive model. As the authors state:

…given the short tenure of most CEOs and the changing fortunes of the corporation in a dynamic marketplace, we think that too intense a spotlight on the individual leader is both naive and incomplete. Expanding the competency model to include an external focus allows companies to offset that risk, by enabling them to tailor their leadership model to their own requirements.

Next time we will look at how to build a leadership brand.