A few years ago, I was managing a team through real chaos. Revenue pressure. Internal friction. Too many priorities. I thought I was being decisive and transparent. My team was quiet. Not the peaceful quiet of focus. The quiet of people wondering if they were about to lose their jobs. That's when I realized something had to change.
I was leading the way I thought I should lead, not the way I actually led. My team was experiencing a different leader than the one I believed I was being. The gap between intention and impact is what a leadership brand really measures.
How I Found My Leadership Brand
I brought in Dr. Brooks Holtom and David Nilssen to help me understand what had happened. We worked through a process to build what we called a leadership brandbook. Not what I said I valued. What I actually did when pressure was on.
Your leadership brand is already there. People know what to expect from you under pressure. The question is whether you know it, and whether you're intentional about the liability side of your greatest strengths.
One: Accept Competence Is Assumed. People hire you because you can do the job. What gets evaluated is consistency under pressure. Two: Uncover Your Patterns. What is your actual genius zone? For me: decisive calls and coaching through complexity. Three: See Yourself From Outside In. Your team knows your patterns better than you do. Four: Build Infrastructure. Create systems that catch when you're defaulting to weaker habits under stress.
My Three Brand Pillars
Clarity Through Decisiveness
Makes Easier: Fast decisions under uncertainty. Clear direction when options are ambiguous. Quick pivots when data changes.
Makes Harder: Collaborative exploration of options. Sitting with ambiguity long enough to find better paths. Changing course without seeming erratic.
Transparency Under Pressure
Makes Easier: Building trust quickly. Honest conversations about problems. Aligned teams on what's really happening.
Makes Harder: Protecting people from information before it's final. Managing anxiety when uncertainty is unavoidable. Leading through phases where silence is better.
Development Through Challenge
Makes Easier: Growing people faster. Finding people's actual capacity. Building tough, resourceful teams.
Makes Harder: Psychological safety in early phases. Managing people who need gentler approaches. Retention of people who want predictability.
Four Aha Moments From The Process
The Guardrails I Built
Once I understood my brand, I needed systems to keep me from defaulting to the liability side. Here are the guardrails I use:
These aren't wishes. They're systems. Some are built into how my calendar works. Others are people on my team who have permission to call me out when I violate them.
How do I discover my actual leadership brand?+
Can strengths and liabilities really be the same thing?+
What are guardrails and how do they work?+
My team is quiet. Does that mean my leadership brand is negative?+
Dave Hajdu is the founder of the AI Officer Institute and Edge8 AI. He works with founders and executives across more than 20 countries to build the leadership capabilities the AI era demands. Learn how to build your own AI team at caiocoach.com.