Ask yourself this simple question – if you were to leave, how much of your reputation would get left with you?

For many C-suite executives, the answer would be “hardly any.” The issue arises due to the fact that many such executives get so deeply involved with the company that they start to become inseparable from it. For instance, your emails will bear a logo of the company, your mentions in the press will feature the company’s name, and so on. Essentially, you become so deeply, inextricably linked with one entity that when you leave, most traces of you stay with your ex-employer.

It is understandable, given that most executives spend the majority of their working time at one company, with long tenure ahead of them. But what can one do when it comes time to leave? Here is why, as a senior leader, your own reputation is significantly more important than that of your company.

Your Job Title Will Eventually Change, But Your Reputation Won’t

While your company’s logo might be a nice addition to a business card, you should always put your personal brand in the center. In short, personal equity is the value that the executive possesses independently of the company he or she works for. This is the main reason why every C-suite leader should think seriously about their own personal brand.

LinkedIn was one of the most important platforms for social media engagement for business leaders in the last five years, and for a very good reason. Having one’s personal brand positioned correctly on LinkedIn can have multiple advantages:

1. Help attract the right audience
2. Assist in building relationships with influential names in the industry
3. Give the much-needed leverage the post-leaving executive needs to gain new opportunities

While frequent updates will help keep your following engaged, one update per week is enough to keep your presence on the social network relevant without spamming your followers.

What to Post

When it comes to what to post on LinkedIn, it is best to avoid announcements. Yes, it is tempting to write a post about your exciting news or announcement, but such material is much better suited for press releases. Instead, focus on writing about your ideas, and the way you see the world around you and your professional field specifically. Your readers will relate better to your words, and they will allow you to show off your personality in a way that only you can. Essentially, such posts will allow you to position yourself as an expert in the field (albeit, a humble one). It is much harder to put these kinds of thoughts onto paper, given the amount of time one spends thinking about their ideas and articulating them properly. Fortunately, here is the next point.

You Are Not Required to Write Them Yourself

If you are one of those C-level executives who find it extremely hard to write anything longer than a short paragraph, don’t worry. Many senior executives find the task of writing posts for social media to update their personal brand nearly impossible. Fortunately for them, there is such thing as a ghostwriter. Their job is to take ideas that you, the executive, already have, and put them into words in a way that is easy to read and understand by the general public without “filtering” them in any way.

Your Legacy Will Stay With You

Ultimately, your personal brand is likely to be the only thing that will remain with you beyond your professional career if you invest time and effort into it. This is why, as a leader at the highest level (C-level), you should consider investing your time and energy into the creation of such brand, separate from your current employer. It is the only way for a senior leader, from both a realistic and aspirational standpoint, to truly differentiate his or her legacy from the rest.

It is not vanity or ego that dictates the necessity of a personal brand, but rather a necessity to stand out from the crowd for a senior-level executive. The executives who recognize that fact early and invest significantly into their own personal brand are the ones who benefit most from said investment.