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Leadership
Focus on your unique skills to build executive presence and overcome imposter syndrome
Identifying your ‘superpowers’ will help you develop a personal brand that will enable you to develop executive presence and flourish as a leader. Here’s how to do it.
How would you rate your level of confidence relative to your peers? Relative to how you want to feel? If you’re like most executives, your confidence could use a boost. Most of the leaders I coach seek advice on overcoming imposter syndrome and communicating with confidence. This challenge is a smart place to focus. When you feel confident, you are more likely to be perceived as confident. And confident leaders establish credibility and executive presence.
Certainly, there are plenty of hacks to help us overcome imposter syndrome and communicate with confidence, from deep breathing to power posing to positive self-talk. But in my experience coaching thousands of leaders in workshops and private sessions, I’ve found that developing your personal brand is the most effective way to transform your confidence and credibility.
When I say “develop your personal brand” I’m not talking about becoming a social media influencer or monetizing your content. I am talking about identifying your true, authentic, differentiated strengths or superpowers so you can be yourself, on purpose. By “on purpose” I mean unapologetically, in a disciplined and intentional way, focusing on yourself to reinforce your ideal professional identity. These unique strengths or superpowers could be industry or functional expertise, skills, leadership style, values, personality traits, accomplishments, or credentials.
When you are clear about what makes you unique and consistently show up in alignment with that identity, two things happen. First, you feel more confident. Second, others see you as confident. This is how you build credibility and start to achieve your career goals.
How to clarify your personal brand
Before highlighting the ways that building your personal brand fuels confidence, let’s address the practical question: How do you clarify your personal brand? In my coaching work, I encourage my executive clients to focus less on LinkedIn and how they dress, and more on self-concept clarity and on identifying their unique strengths. Once you’ve identified and articulated your unique strengths, the communication part comes easily.
Here are some effective exercises to help you identify your unique strengths:
- Self-audit
Take out a blank page and write down your unique strengths. What differentiates you from your peers? A consultant I worked with realized that, while many peers had technical expertise, her distinguishing strength was translating complexity into clarity. Naming this superpower gave her a language to own and share confidently. - Seek external input
Email at least five colleagues, mentors, or trusted peers and ask: What makes me unique? What is the first word you would use to describe me? One CEO I coached discovered that his team consistently described him as “calm in a crisis”. This theme became central to his brand, and he leaned into it as his leadership style. - Review formal evaluations
Look back at performance reviews or 360-degree feedback. Which strengths are consistently identified? Do themes emerge? If evaluations repeatedly highlight “strategic vision” or “inclusive leadership”, those are not throwaway comments. Rather, they are your core brand strengths. - Leverage personality assessments
Tools such as MBTI, DISC, or Big Five can provide insights. My Myers-Briggs profile is ENTJ, but for my personal brand, I’m just an “E” – extrovert. That’s the one trait where I’m off the charts. Where are you off the charts? - Identify your archetype
Archetypes are universal patterns of human identity. Recognizing your archetype can help you tell your story in a way that provides you with purpose and resonates with others. After taking the Archetypes Quiz, you can discover whether you’re a Hero, Magician, Caregiver, or any one of the 12 professional identity archetypes. These labels provide a vocabulary for describing your brand consistently and powerfully.
“Introducing yourself can be an anxiety-laden experience, and with good reason.”
By completing these exercises, you create a data-driven, holistic picture of your unique professional identity. This clarity is the foundation of a confident, credible personal brand.
Here are five specific ways that developing your personal brand will boost your confidence and credibility:
Building confidence from the inside out
Psychologists distinguish between global self-esteem (your general sense of self-worth) and domain-specific self-esteem (your confidence in specific areas). Personal branding taps directly into the latter. When you take time to identify your unique areas of expertise – your brand “superpowers” – you build domain-specific self-esteem. You’re not claiming to know everything; you’re simply owning your strengths.
One client, a COO, described the shift this way: “I stopped trying to fix my weaknesses and started showing up with my strengths in the spotlight. I felt like I belonged in every room I walked into.” The research supports this. Clarity on your focused self-concept leads to improved self-esteem or global confidence.
Introducing yourself with conviction
Introducing yourself can be an anxiety-laden experience, and with good reason. As they say, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” The truth is, your self-introduction is the most direct way to reinforce your personal brand. These are your words about you from you. But let’s be honest, most of us waste this opportunity to introduce ourselves with conviction.
I often hear something like, “I’m a VP at XYZ Corp,” and that’s it. It’s technically accurate, but it tells me nothing about who you are or what sets you apart. One consulting leader told me she was frustrated with the challenge of introducing herself. With broad experience across industries and functions, she didn’t know what to say. We did some work to identify her unique strengths and concluded that her superpower is creating impact, both for her clients and internal teams. She started introducing herself as a consultant with a history of creating impact with clients and internal teams. That shift changed how people perceived her and how she perceived herself. Her confidence soared, as did her career trajectory.
Having a framework to speak up and add value
I once coached a senior executive who had just been promoted from VP of customer experience (CX) to SVP of real estate development at a large bank. She went from being the go-to CX expert to feeling out of her depth in meetings with architects and developers. Her confidence plummeted.
I asked her a simple question: “What unique value can you bring to these meetings?” That’s when the lightbulb went on. I encouraged her to use the following phrase to interject in meetings: “Based on my expertise in CX, I have an idea…” This prompt worked brilliantly. Once you’ve identified your personal brand superpowers, this can work for you too.
It is about defining your unique expertise, staying in your lane, and communicating your value. When you know your brand strengths, you have a go-to lens and vocabulary. You don’t have to dominate the room; you just have to show up and contribute with clarity. That’s how you build credibility, especially in high-stakes contexts.
Entering high-stakes situations with focus and calm
Before giving a keynote at her company’s global leadership summit, one CEO I coached told me she felt panicked. It was a defining moment. As she stepped onstage, she took a deep breath and repeated to herself: “I’m a world-class strategic thinker who leads with empathy. That’s what got me here.”
That simple reminder was all she needed to reset and step out onstage with confidence.
You can do the same. Remind yourself that while you don’t know everything, you do have unique, valued strengths. When you’re clear on your personal brand, you can take the stage with a grounded, confident mindset.
You don’t need to have all the answers; no one does. Instead, anchor yourself in the unique value you know you bring.
Taking control of your narrative
One of the biggest boosts to both confidence and credibility comes from owning how others perceive you. When you actively reinforce your brand, you don’t have to worry about being misunderstood.
A few years ago, a corporate lawyer, originally from India, told me she felt her accent was holding her back. “I don’t want to be known as the immigrant,” she said. “I want to be seen for my expertise.”
I encouraged her to shift the frame. Instead of trying to erase her accent, she began introducing herself as “a corporate lawyer with global experience”. Her accent served as evidence of her valuable global experience, and her confidence soared. She noticed people started responding to her differently.
Here’s the question for you: What part of your identity are you hiding, and how might you create a narrative that highlights the value you provide?
So, here’s my advice: take some time to identify your unique strengths.
Final thought: grow your confidence by consistently being yourself, on purpose
Once you’ve identified your unique personal brand strengths, consistently communicating them is key. Whether you’re on stage behind a podium, in a 1:1 meeting, or updating your LinkedIn profile, you’re consistent and intentional. You stop second-guessing. You start hearing people reflect your brand back to you:
- “You’re the consultant who drives big impact.”
- “You’re the leader who keeps us grounded in customer experience.”
- “You’re a world-class strategic thinker who leads with empathy.”
- “You’re the corporate lawyer with a global perspective.”
That’s when you know your personal brand is landing. That’s when your confidence grows. It’s like a positive feedback loop.
So, here’s my advice: take some time to identify your unique strengths. Do a self-audit, seek external input, review your formal evaluations, take personality tests, and identify your archetype. From these inputs, highlight a few strengths that inspire and distinguish you. Then double down. Reinforce them through your communication: how you talk to yourself; how you introduce yourself; how you speak in meetings, how you enter high-stakes contexts; and how you control your narrative. Developing your personal brand is easier than you might think, and it reaps significant rewards. Do the work, then be yourself, on purpose. That’s how confidence and credibility grow.
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