In my last post, I covered the importance for each and every professional to develop and maintain an online brand, since it is the wave of the future. Today, I just got done watching Charlie Rose dissect the historical and remarkable victory speech Obama gave yesterday after he won at the Iowa Caucus, and it got me thinking about a post I wrote almost a year ago, when Obama announced his candidacy (Post: Obama is a candidate from Hope and Community).

In that post, I analyzed Obama’s leadership and political brand traits all of which stems from hope. I also quoted one of Harvard Business Review’s HBR’s list of breakthrough ideas which was leadership rooted in Hope.

If you are an executive trying to lead an organization through change, know that hope can be a potent force in your favor. And it’s yours to give.

And, I can see a reiteration of those themes in Obama’s victory speech yesterday. It’s a tad long (~ 10 minutes) but I’m sure you’ll stay till the end:

Brand perspective

From a brand perspective, it’s very important what you initially define and run your campaign on. The Clinton campaign ran on “experience” vs. the relative inexperience of Obama. While Obama is running on the campaign of hope and change. And it may be a tad late to redefine the two brands right now.

Again, this is very similar to your personal brand that you publish on the online world. If what one finds when they Google your name is your social network with pictures of you doing kegstands, that’s likely to solidify as your brand. On the other hand, if what one finds is a blog of yours where you talk passionately about your career or your thoughts on philosophy you’ll be considered differently. Craft the brand you truly are and continue augmenting it with appropriate social media or social networks.