If You Can Fix the Leak, Say So: Why Personal Brand Is a Leadership Responsibility

Merve Kagitci Hokamp
Oct 13
6 min read

There's a Buddhist parable I come back to when I'm coaching leaders who shy away from visibility.

A group sits in a room. It starts to rain. A leak appears in the ceiling. Water drips — quiet at first, then relentless. Everyone shifts their chairs. Someone grabs a bucket. The conversation continues, but now everyone's distracted, uncomfortable, trying to work around the problem.

One of them is a plumber. She sees the problem immediately. She knows exactly how to fix it. She's done it a hundred times. But she stays quiet. She doesn't want to seem arrogant. She doesn't want to "make it about her." She thinks, if they really need help, they'll ask.

No one asks. Eventually, the room floods.

That's what happens when you're capable but quiet. You're excellent at what you do, but invisible to the people who need you. You downplay your strengths instead of making them searchable, referable, and recognizable. You think your work will speak for itself.

It won't.

What a Personal Brand Actually Is (And How it Often Gets Misunderstood)

Personal brand is not aesthetics. It's not posting selfies with motivational quotes. It's not bragging, and it's definitely not a vanity project.

Personal brand is clarity. It's making your expertise visible, accessible, and understandable to the people who need it. It's the difference between being qualified and being recognized as qualified.

Jeff Bezos put it simply: "Your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room." Your personal brand is your professional reputation — made visible and intentional.

And whether you're a VP trying to move into the C-suite, a consultant building a practice, or an entrepreneur launching something new, this matters:

Professionals with strong personal brands are significantly more likely to receive opportunities through their networks (LinkedIn research)
"A person like me" is consistently rated more trustworthy than a company spokesperson (Edelman Trust Barometer)
Executive presence is largely about how others perceive you, not just what you deliver behind closed doors (Stanford Business School)

You don't need a ring light. You need a clear promise of value and the willingness to make it known.

Why Smart People Resist This (And Why That Resistance Is Costing You)

I work with exceptionally talented people. High performers. Strategic thinkers. People who've built products, led teams, turned around departments, launched businesses.

And I hear the same objections:

"I don't want to be that person who's always talking about themselves."

"Isn't it obvious what I do?"

"I prefer to let my work speak for itself."

Here's the problem: work doesn't speak. People do.

And if you don't shape your story, someone else will — often inaccurately, incompletely, or not at all.

The corporate leader who's brilliant at organizational transformation but never talks about it gets passed over for the strategy role because no one outside her immediate team knows what she's capable of.

The consultant who can cut through complexity sits waiting for referrals that never come because people don't know how to describe what she does.

The entrepreneur with a game-changing approach stays invisible because she's waiting for customers to somehow discover her.

Let me be clear: visibility is not the same as vanity.

Bragging is exaggerating your value to impress people.

Branding is expressing your value so people understand where you fit and how you can help.

If you can fix the leak, say so. That's not ego. That's service.

The "What If People Roll Their Eyes?" Fear

Someone probably will roll their eyes. That's fine. Those aren't your people anyway. Haters hate. You need to learn to shake them off.

If you're doing meaningful work and no one hears about it, you're not helping the people who need you. You're helping your comfort stay intact. And that's not humility — it's self-protection disguised as professionalism.

Don't confuse discomfort with humility. Don't confuse silence with professionalism. The more value you offer, the more responsibility you have to make it knowable.

Personal Brand as a Leadership Skill

Here's the reframe: personal brand isn't a marketing tactic. It's a leadership skill. And if you want to lead —whether that's leading a team, leading a function, or leading your own business— you need to be clear, consistent, and confident about what you bring.

Whether you're angling for a board seat, building a client base, or positioning yourself as the internal candidate for a C-suite role, this clarity is non-negotiable. The people making decisions about your future — hiring managers, potential clients, executive recruiters, board members — don't have time to decode your humility. They need to know what you do and whether you're the right person for what they need.

Where Most People Get Stuck

The number one thing that stops people isn't lack of expertise. It's lack of perspective. You're too close to your own work to see what makes you different.

You think everyone can do what you do. You assume your approach is obvious. You can't see the forest because you're standing in the middle of the trees.

The VP who thinks she "just does normal management stuff" discovers her superpower is translating executive strategy into team-level execution.

The consultant who thinks his work is "basic project management" learns that clients value his ability to get senior stakeholders aligned in half the time.

The entrepreneur who thinks her framework is "nothing special" finds out it's the clearest, most practical version people have been struggling to implement for years.

You can't see these patterns on your own. You need to borrow other people's eyes.

What to Actually Do

Define Your Purpose / Your IKIGAI: This is where most people skip ahead because it feels too philosophical. Don't. Getting clear on your ikigai — that sweet spot where what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what will pay you all intersect—is the foundation everything else builds on.
Name the problems you reliably fix. Not in job title language or jargon. In plain, human terms. Write down three problems people bring to you over and over. "New managers drowning in meetings." "Teams avoiding hard feedback until issues blow up." "Strategy decks that never turn into action." Get specific.
Borrow outside eyes. Ask three people who've seen you at your best: What do you call me for? What result do I create when I'm in the room? What's my superpower, in your words? You'll hear patterns you can't see from the inside.
Create Your Narrative: Once you know what you're here to fix, you need language that makes it repeatable, memorable, and clear to anyone who asks what you do. This is about giving people the exact words to describe you, refer you, and remember you.
Update your LinkedIn / Internal HR / CV. Say what you do, not just what you are. Formula: I help {who} go from {pain} to {result} through {how}. Example: "I help growth-stage companies scale operations from chaotic to predictable through practical systems and clear ownership."
Socialize Your Brand: You can have perfect clarity and a compelling narrative, but if no one sees it, nothing changes. This is where you make your expertise findable, repeatable, and impossible to ignore.
Make your work referable. Give what you do a simple name. "90-Minute Decision Sprint." "Revenue Operations Playbook." "New Leader Onboarding System." People remember names. They can repeat names.
Collect proof as you go. Save the thank-you email. Write down the metrics. Ask for a testimonial while the win is fresh. Two sentences: the problem, what you did, the outcome. Proof converts skeptics faster than credentials.