Consolidate and succeed

Most companies have a different strategy for each component of the brand portfolio. The marketing function is usually responsible for managing the corporate and consumer brand and HR is usually responsible for the employer brand. There is significant value in all three functions working closely with executive and the senior leadership team to ensure the organisation capitalises and leverages the 'sum of the capabilities of a branded leadership culture.'

Defining branded leadership

So, what does it take to engender branded leadership? It begins with re-defining what it means to lead - and sharing that definition throughout the organisation. It's not enough to say "we're empowering employees at all levels to make choices". The workforce must understand that every choice has consequences, and by thinking through the consequences of the choices they're making and bringing others along, they're exercising a form of leadership. The essence of brand leadership can best be defined as "to lead is to decide".

One of the 'stand outs' for companies that recognise the importance of branded leadership and its link to employee engagement and customer value and ultimately business success is the hotel giant Ritz-Carlton. In a report from The Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement, Sue Stephenson, the hotel's senior vice president of human resources, points out that even employees who have no contact with guests affect the company's financial success. "The employee washing dishes or cleaning silver never interacts with the customers in the restaurant, but they understand their role, which is that the cleanest dishes and shiniest silver will help create a great culinary experience in the restaurant.

"Ritz-Carlton constantly reinforces to employees how they contribute to satisfying customers, and thus generating profits. Hotel management frequently holds beginning-of shift 'pep rallies' at which exceptional customer service stories are shared. In addition, every employee has the green light to expend up to $2,000 to 'delight a guest' who has had a customer-service issue. Strong compensation and rewards are also a large part of the Ritz-Carlton mix," Stephenson says.

Implementing a branded leadership program

Whilst every organisation is different, every implementation plan should touch on at least the following steps:

1. Agree on brand differentiators as fundamental decision tools.

• Work with your heads of operations to understand "why we do things this way around here" then work with your chief marketing officer to understand why the marketplace rewards your current brand differentiators.
• If there's any daylight at all between these perspectives, facilitate discussions about how to close the gap.

      2     Assess the current decision-making process

• What criteria does your organization use to define leadership?
• What do you need to do to move your leadership to a more universal, inclusive definition?
• Which leaders need to put their support behind this changed definition?
• Work with the leadership team to align the answers to these questions with the brand-driven differentiators.

      3.   Define leadership simply

• Distil the product of these discussions down to a few, simple principles. Your goal should be simple enough to fit on a cocktail napkin, memorable enough to recite after hearing them once.
• Validate with leaders. Gather their commitment to participate in a cascade-based process to explain them.

      4.   Managing the change process

• Transforming an organisational culture from one that is fixated on decision making authority residing only in the top ranks into a branded leadership culture involves change which needs to be managed carefully in an open and transparent environment.
• Clearly define the reason and communicate the vision for change throughout the organisation.
• Communications should begin with a clearly defined vision, objectives and the benefits of a branded leadership culture.

       5.    Use internal communication tools

• With increasingly dispersed global workforces and the pace of change there's is a need for internal communication tools to replace the traditional face-face meetings to ensure decision making does not become clog in the executive suite and employees are empowered to make decisions which support the customer promise.
• IBM use an internal social networking platform called 'Beehive' and found one of the main uses of the network is not for social chat on company time, but for connecting and collaborating with colleagues across different time zones which collectively results in a culture where the collective wisdom of the workforce drives innovation and decision making across all levels of the organisation.

       6.     Align rewards and recognition

• Traditionally companies reward leaders based on transactional measures such as sales, staffing costs and whether budgets have been achieved or exceed - so this is where leaders focus their efforts at the expense of employee engagement.
• Recognising and rewarding leaders who measure high on engaging employees and tracking this to financial outcomes is a win-win for all - the company, the leader and the employee.
• Leaders tend to focus their efforts on where they know they are being measured so they often pass off employee engagement as merely "the soft stuff!" This is your, and their opportunity to help the workforce join the mission of the brand.

       7.    Connected thinking

• Encourage collaboration between business units responsible for the corporate, consumer and employer brand strategies. Use 'connected thinking' to enhance understanding of the role and importance of aligning the customer promise with leadership values, behaviours and actions.
• Marketing wants to target consumers, and human resources really does the same thing - target potential employees. Communications is the function that ties it all together. Collaboration that leverages synergies will result in a brand leadership culture where the customer promise is aligned with the employee promise.

Successful implementation requires strong commitment and visible sponsorship from senior leaders. But surprisingly, it's not the uphill push you might expect. In our experience, people at most organizations show up wanting to do the right thing. They want to contribute to their organisation's success, the more closely they're able to align their behaviours to brand drivers, the more engaged they become. As engagement and empowerment are so closely linked, the empowering message at the heart of decision-based, branded leadership tends to be warmly embraced at every level.

About the authors

Brett Minchington (www.brettminchington.com) is the Chairman/CEO of Employer Brand International, a global authority, strategist and corporate advisor on employer branding. He will be presenting at the 2011 Australian Employer Branding Summits in April - for further details please see www.collectivelearningaustralia.com

Dr. David Kippen PhD is President and CEO of Evviva Brands (www.evvivabrands.com) and a globally-recognised leader in brand strategy