{"id":116078,"date":"2024-07-25T08:00:40","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T12:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/?post_type=articles&p=116078"},"modified":"2025-12-18T13:43:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T18:43:30","slug":"your-personal-brand-is-your-promise-personal-branding-tips-for-ld-leaders","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/articles\/professional-development\/your-personal-brand-is-your-promise-personal-branding-tips-for-ld-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Brand Is Your Promise: Personal Branding Tips for L&D Leaders"},"author":52,"featured_media":116088,"template":"","tags":[33345,3122,33344],"class_list":["post-116078","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-elevator-pitch","tag-personal-brand","tag-personal-branding-tips","global_topic_tax-professional-development"],"acf":{"sponsored":false,"gated":false,"gated_content_type":"","file_attachment":null,"gated_content":"","form_instruction_header":"To access the full article, please fill out the form below:","pardot_html_embed":"","author_override":true,"author_name":"Sarah Gallo, CPTM ","author_image":"","author_bio":"Sarah Gallo, CPTM, is a senior editor at Training Industry, Inc., and co-host of\u00a0The Business of Learning<\/a>, the Training Industry podcast.","excerpt":"As a learning and development (L&D) leader, your personal brand could be the difference between earning a seat at the table and being left out of crucial conversations.","main_content":"As a learning and development (L&D) leader, your personal brand could be the difference between earning a seat at the table and being left out of crucial conversations. It could be the difference between an at-capacity training room and an empty one. It could even be the difference between taking the next step in your career and remaining stagnant.\r\n\r\nIn other words, your personal brand matters.\r\n\r\nTraining Industry\u2019s L&D Career and Salary Study<\/a> found that the most common career goal among L&D leaders is to move into a director of training or chief learning officer (CLO) role. Personal branding can help learning leaders advance into these roles by marketing their unique strengths and accomplishments.\r\n\r\nHere, we\u2019ll share personal branding tips and recommendations for learning leaders. First, let\u2019s consider what \u201cpersonal branding\u201d means in practice.\r\n

What Is Personal Branding?<\/h2>\r\nAccording to Harvard Business School Online<\/a>, \u201cPersonal branding\u00a0is the intentional, strategic practice of defining and expressing your value.\u201d\r\n\r\nAnita Ann Mihelic, CPTM, director of learning and development at ConstructConnect, says personal branding refers to the \u201cspecial quality\u201d that you bring to your interactions with your learners, your stakeholders and, ultimately, with everyone. It\u2019s about \u201chow people see you and how you make people feel when you\u2019re interacting with them.\u201d Your personal brand is shaped by the \u201clasting impression\u201d you leave on others, Mihelic says.\r\n\r\nYour personal brand also represents your expertise, says Amy DuVernet, Ph.D., CPTM, director of training and development at Training Industry. It encompasses your unique strengths, but it could also encompass areas where you\u2019re not as strong, she says. The quality of your work \u2014 and whether that\u2019s consistent or inconsistent \u2014 also factors into your personal brand, because it shapes others\u2019 expectations. Your personal brand is a promise of the quality and consistency of your work and expertise.\r\n

How to Build Your Personal Brand<\/h2>\r\nIt takes time to cultivate a personal brand reflective of your unique skills, values and strengths. Here are some tips to keep in mind as you get started.\r\n

Listen and learn:<\/h3>\r\nWhen Mihelic moved into an official L&D role in 2017 (before that, she took on certain team training responsibilities, such as training new hires), she was suddenly responsible for training employees across all teams in her organization. Much of the training she delivered was voluntary, so she worked hard to market her programs and communicate training\u2019s value. \u201cAt that stage, my biggest concern was that I wanted to be really reliable [and] really consistent, taking everybody into account because we have a distributed workforce. So, the virtual and hybrid experience of learning was really important to me,\u201d she says.\r\n\r\nAfter establishing a \u201cbaseline of quality and consistency,\u201d Mihelic was ready to begin building her personal brand from there. First, she considered what she wanted her personal brand to look like. She still wanted to be seen as very dependable and reliable. But mostly, Mihelic says she wanted others to see her training programs as relevant, immediately applicable and ultimately, \u201cworth everybody\u2019s time.\u201d\r\n\r\nTo build a personal brand that reflects her ability to deliver strategically aligned, job-relevant learning programs, Mihelic makes a point to ask her stakeholders thoughtful questions and to listen to their needs. This allows her to shape her stakeholders\u2019 vision into a quality learning experience and to act as a true partner.\r\n\r\nIf you\u2019re looking to build a personal brand reflective of your ability to act as a strategic business partner, making time to listen and learn is a great place to start.\r\n

Share your expertise:<\/h3>\r\nSharing your thought leadership is another way to build your personal brand and position yourself as a subject matter expert (SME) in the L&D space.\r\n\r\nAs a learning professional, there are many ways to share your thought leadership, including:\r\n