5. A little personality goes a long way toward humanizing and improving your personal brand.
You have to be more than a talking head in a suit if you want to be known as anything other
than your 3-letter title (if your PR is fair) or a 4-letter word (if your PR is suspect).
Illustration by Jessica Hagy
6. Avoid the stodgy stereotype, like...
Mikkel Svane, CEO of ZenDesk
8. Money, shockingly, is boring stuff. Competence, stability, and functionality are all boring
(but yes, important) unless they’re in service to a greater, grander goal. It’s what you do
with money that matters—define that purpose, and you go from ordinary to amazing.
Illustration by Jessica Hagy
11. Are you an interchangeable cog in your company’s machine (the top cog, actually)?
Are you and the company you steward seen as one and the same or as completely
separate entities? If not, it’s time to speak up, and say something worth both listening to,
and buying into. Illustration by Jessica Hagy
14. Beyond your day-to-day duties, your board seats, your philanthropic roles—what does your
off-the-resume life look like? Do you even have one? Cultivate a personal project or a
deeper family connection. The depth it adds to your character (and to your life) will benefit
you more than any golden parachute. Illustration by Jessica Hagy
15. Get yourself out of work more often, like…
Mark Shapiro, President of the Cleveland Indians
Out of guesses? Mark was at the
Taylor Swift concert.
17. Teleprompters. Talking points. Approved questions. They’re all great ways to stay on-topic
and on-brand, and also great ways to sound inauthentic and robotic. Don’t be afraid to
sound sincere, emotional, or enthusiastic. Speak your mind (you know, that thing that got
you into the C-suite in the first place) and your audience just might listen—and even
remember what you said. Illustration by Jessica Hagy
18. Speak real words in public, like…
Scott Harrison, CEO of charity:water
19. KNOW A CEO WHO'S SUPER
INTERESTING ON TWITTER?
We do. If you're not following @bhalligan you're
missing out. Tell us who else should be on our list
in the comments below.