How does a leader build personal authority in a way that impacts their wider business?
Nancy Duarte literally has her name on the door, but clients aren’t buying time with Nancy.
Duarte Inc. has more than 140 employees working in the business, delivering messaging engagements.
Nancy’s job is to draw attention to the business and attract inbound opportunities.
She does that by building and maintaining her position as an authority.
She obsesses over a frustration her buyer would pay to resolve. In her case, that’s creating a presentation that leads to change. Then she develops her unique perspective on that subject (through the yellow pad technique). Finally, Nancy develops a repeatable, named process for creating engaging presentations. That last piece is the intellectual property owned, delivered, and sold by Duarte Inc.
She shares her expertise on stage and in books.
It’s her name, her voice, her thinking.
But with that attention, she points back to Duarte Inc.
“Here’s how I think about storytelling, here’s how we apply that thinking to circumstances like yours at Duarte Inc.”
In a business where expertise is sold, it’s the leader’s role to attract attention and opportunity.
This is the work of building excess demand and minimising choppy revenue, and it has to be led by you.
That means putting your personal expertise front and centre, which is not the same as putting your personality in the spotlight.
Your personal thinking draws the work in. The business delivers it.