How to Establish Yourself as a Leader on LinkedIn
LinkedIn has become an increasingly important social media platform. Professionally it’s the world’s largest networking site with over 500 million users. It’s a great platform to not just to network and showcase your brand but even establish yourself as a leader. Leadership is a vital skill to have no matter your profession. To help you with it I’ve put together this guide for you based on my live interview with Kanika Pandey .
Why Establish Yourself as a Leader on LinkedIn in the First Place?
Establishing yourself as a leader on LinkedIn helps build your career, your brand, online visibility and helps establish trust and credibility. LinkedIn is the best platform to establish yourself as a leader as you have access to a vast network of professionals including other leaders. You can connect with people from all over the world that you usually wouldn’t meet otherwise. Endless opportunities!
What is Leadership Anyway?
There is no one universal definition for leadership so it is subjective and open to interpretation. However, one can say that it is very much linked to the desire of wanting to make a difference, aspiring to be a better human being, wanting to make an impact, and also bouncing back from tough situations. Kanika personally believes that ‘’leadership is a hidden desire to inspire people’’. Your desire combined with your skills requires an expression platform- LinkedIn.
What are Your Leadership Skills?
You need to dig deep to discover your leadership skills. As human beings we all have core skills. Consult a close group of people – family, friends, team, including yourself to help you identify your top three skills. People close to us know us more than we realise. For example, Kanika’s top three skills are:
Drive
An innate, biologically determined urge to attain a goal.
Courage
Strength to deal with the toughest challenge.
Empathy
Ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

The Driver Behind What You Do
Before you even start writing on LinkedIn, you must identify the driver behind what you do. Core drivers are:
- Visibility online builds credibility
- Communication with internal and external teams
- Break stereotypes
- Help the community
LinkedIn Content and Your Leadership Style Aligned
Once you’ve established your driver you now ready to create content on LinkedIn. To do this you must determine whether you’re a specialist leader or a generalist leader. A specialist is a person who concentrates primarily on a particular subject or activity. They have a niche area that they are known for. A generalist is a person with a wide array of knowledge on a variety of subjects. Your content should be aligned with your leadership style. That way it’s relevant and targeted to the right audience.
Leadership and LinkedIn Content Creation
Remember LinkedIn is a very sophisticated platform with top business leaders from around the world on it who read a lot, so they want good content. Please know that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel to create content on LinkedIn. Just follow the following good practices:
Be Yourself
Age-old advice but so true – you must show the world who you are!
Use What You Already Know
Utilise what you already know about your industry & create content around it.
Showcase Your Passions/Interests
Create content around your passions/side interests (present professionally of course).
Seek Inspiration
For content inspiration utilise Ted Talks, social media platforms, life experience, and books like leadership development and professional development books.

Think Outside the Box
Don’t just limit yourself to written content, consider video content (huge right now).
Have a Content Schedule
Have a content calendar in place to help you with planning, structure, and consistency with your content creation.
Be on Point
Stick to your main drive and intent when creating content so you don’t lose your way.
Add Value to Your Audience
Create content that adds value to your readers (this is your why and how).
Don’t Reshare Posts
Avoid resharing posts (unless highly relevant) – create your own to build your brand.

By implementing these points which are highly actionable and highly practical your well on your way to establishing yourself as a leader on LinkedIn. And, to implement video content for your LinkedIn book your Free Strategy Call HERE.