Is your company’s brand invisible to employees? Do your employees really know how to deliver upon your brand every day? Many companies are quite challenged to define the meaning behind their brand (what they want the company to be known for) and how they plan to bring that meaning to life (the behaviors necessary to do the brand). Therefore, the brand is relatively invisible to everyday employees.
Unless you operationally define how to do it, thus making it VISIBLE!
To make your brand visible, employees must know how to take appropriate action on clearly defined beliefs. This approach infuses accountability into the workforce and creates a shared expectation for consistent, visible, on-brand behaviors and experiences. Beliefs are invisible, but you can see behaviors. Not only are behaviors visible, they are also measurable. Most behaviors can be observed. Therefore, infusing them into job descriptions and the evaluation process provides a great way to educate, gain commitment, and ensure the right actions are taken. Most company leaders want this type of accountability infused into the work culture but don’t want to make the necessary investments (people time and financial commitment) to clearly define the right behaviors for employees: behaviors that will truly define the work culture experience and ultimately define the customer experience.
If perhaps you don’t agree that defining your company beliefs and behaviors for employees is critical to success, then take a moment to think about what might happen if you don’t make the investment. Here are a few possible scenarios:
- Employees in your company might create their own interpretation (meaning) of the brand, which will have an impact on their attitudes about the company. This could have a negative impact on your work culture and the customer experience.
- Employees in your company will behave in ways they see fit to bring the brand to life, leading to inconsistencies for customers. This will diminish customer loyalty over time.
In Truth 6, you’ll find a philosophy, framework, and some tools that will enable you to clearly define beliefs, behaviors, and experiences for the brand concepts (values and strategic benefits) that are most important to your company. When implemented, these concepts and the experiences behind them will lead to increases in employee loyalty and productivity, customer loyalty, and new sales.