Welcome to transparency, whether you like it or not.
This is the time when people have access to unprecedented amounts of information, including deep insights into what your company is up to.
And they are using this information to form opinions – opinions that shape their attitudes toward your business; attitudes that drive their behavior with respect to your business.
When your executive leadership team agree that, “we’re aligned around a true purpose, are living it in this way, and, are clear we want to do this because it truly matters,” the effect ripples through your organization.As leadership aligns in a more purposeful way, their direct reports have more direction, feel better about helping get the business where it needs to be, and believe their work truly matters.
In turn, they help direct the rest of the company so that everyone acts and behaves in ways that push the company closer and closer to attaining its vision.
Soon, other people vital to the company’s success (e.g. customers, prospects, partners, suppliers, investors, etc.) start to see and feel how the business is changing for the better. They begin to find that dealing with the company, and its people, is easier and more gratifying.
It all starts with people on your leadership team. As their leader, you have the opportunity to increase your company’s fortunes by aligning them around a thought, spirit, and purpose that will truly inspire, motivate, and empower them.
Emotive Brand is in the business of helping companies see their vision and what it takes to make it truly actionable – and in new ways through the power of emotive branding.
We help business leaders create brand strategies, messages, and engagement techniques that transform how every member of their leadership team works together, leads others, and brings more enthusiasm and shared purpose to their work.
As a result, everyone in your company can do their jobs more aligned to the same purposeful strategy. The results of leadership alignment around thought, spirit, and purpose can change the trajectory of the business, its culture, and personal well being of employees.
For more information on Emotive Branding, please download paper below.
Emotive Brand is a San Francisco brand strategy firm.
Stowe Boyd is a researcher, speaker and writer working principally on social tools and their impact on media, business and society.
Back in 2012 he told delegates at the Meaning 2012 Conference in the UK that we are entering the age of “Post-normal Business”.
For Boyd, “Postnormal Business” results from a series of fundamental shifts for business:
We’ve often referred to Stowe Boyd and his musings. Awhile back, we referenced the implications of social business networking based on Stowe Boyd’s presentation on “Postnormal Business“.
Let’s now explore the four drivers of the Postnormal era: the VUCA syndrome.
Volatility – Things are moving, evolving, changing, and disappearing faster and faster all the time.
Uncertainty – It’s harder to predict what is coming, what to do, and what the results will be.
Complexity – The business world is becoming far more complex, media is highly fragmented, and it’s harder to see the woods for the trees.
Ambiguity – Decision makers are less decisive, issues are less clear, and choices are less obvious.
As a business leader, what can you do to cope with – indeed, prevail – in this turbulent environment? Here’s what Stowe Boyd suggests:
Counter Volatility with Vision.
Neuter Uncertainty through Understanding.
Master Complexity through Clarity.
Resolve Ambiguity through Agility.
To take these leadership challenges a few steps further, ask yourself:
Do you have a clear and compelling vision? Have you taken the time and effort to ensure everyone in your organization understands your vision, why it matters to them, and how they individually can help you achieve it?
Do you really understand what drives people to act in this environment? Remember, your employees, customers, prospects, shareholders, and partners are also experiencing VUCA in their personal and professional lives. Having empathy for them goes a long way to determining what you need to do in order to get them to help you make the changes you need.
Do you see things with clarity, or do they become increasingly complex with every meeting, every conference call, or every customer meeting? It pays to bring in people from the outside to help you get a better grip on the dynamic world around you, but it won’t help if they’re people just like you. Bring in people with a fresh perspective that will help you see the forest for the trees.
Do you run an agile organization, or are traditions, processes, second guesses, and doubts keeping your company from being able to jump over hurdles as they are encountered? Analyze information flows and behavior patterns to identify blockages and stumbling blocks in the progress.
VUCA promotes undesirable attitudes and behaviors in organizations. Uncertain, confused, and slow-to-respond businesses lose customers, employees, partners, investors, and reputation.
Many leaders are seeing that the effects of VUCA can be countered by defining a compelling and accessible purpose beyond profit that drives new attitudes and behaviors within the business. This new meaning-based way of being resonates with customers and prospects, making them more likely to admire, respect, and buy from the business.
Emotive Brand is an Oakland based brand strategy and creative agency.
We published a white paper on The Age of Meaning, in which we review the many implications this new era holds for business leaders.
Here we’d like to explore our claim that, “This is a time of positive, constructive and gratifying change…”.
Continue reading “This is a Time of Positive, Constructive and Gratifying Change…”
While we anxiously await delivery of our copies of Professor Gary Hamel’s latest tome, “What Matters Now“, we wanted to share some of the main thoughts being promoted.Clearly, the business world is in a state of flux.
Hamel’s book promises to present an agenda for leaders everywhere who are eager to. . .
Continue reading ““What Matters Now” – A Wake Up Call For Business Leaders”
