Blog
What Really Matters to your Brand’s Success? Empathy.
If I asked you what really matters to your brand’s success, you would probably only talk about things that can be explained rationally and measured empirically. Nothing wrong with that, after all that’s the way we think and talk as business people. However, if I asked you what really matters to you as a human being, I bet you would find yourself talking about things that are hard to explain rationally and virtually impossible to measure. You know, messy things like the need for safety, the desire for connectedness, and the joys of love and beauty. What really matters to your brand’s...
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Love Your Critics
Nobody likes being criticized. This is one of the least productive of human traits, because few things are more effective than good criticism when it comes to changing our results or our ways. If you went to schools that gave out report cards, you’ll remember how few critical words it took from a teacher to alarm your parents. “Not focused in class” or “Tends to talk out of turn” were enough to get mom and dad engaged in a hurry. As adults, most of us get criticism from only a small handful of people: family, bosses, and spouses. Friends could be a great source of criticism, but the implicit...
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The Value of Values
Why don’t companies value their values? This question comes up for us often because we’re engaged with brands at an emotional level, not just intellectually or strategically. We’re working hard to connect brands to humans who make lasting emotional decisions a lot faster than they can come to logical ones. One of the strongest emotional binders for human beings is shared values – they’re the basis of religion, among other things – so it’s logical to conclude that companies with strong brands put a lot of value into their values. But often, they don’t. More likely, they neglect them for long...
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CEOs – If You Had to Write an Employee Letter Explaining Your Vision, What Would It Say?
As a CEO, you have a challenging job. You carry an awesome level of responsibility. You have to balance vision and reality across a diverse spectrum of activities and people. You have to make sure everything your business does leads to a profitable outcome. Most important, you have to lead your products, processes and people toward that outcome. Translating leadership vision into organizational action isn’t easy. You know where you want your business to be, but it isn’t easy getting other people to see what you envision, to feel your passion, or to be as deliberate and focused in...
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Why Brands Should Invest In The “Messy” World Of Feelings
Business management thrives through almost obsessive measurement, quantification and control. Algorithms drive decisions. Data informs conversations. Dashboards display results. But where does human emotion – the driver of all decision making – factor into these business practices? How do algorithms know how people feel, and how that impacts on how they act? How do metrics – however precise – give you insight into the deep-felt needs, wants and aspirations of your employees and customers? How does your dashboard – however glitzy – convey the fluid world of brand decisions that sway one way...
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For Employees, Employee Engagement Starts With The Letter “C”
If one thing marks the companies with highly engaged employees, it is that the top people of the company – the “C-suite” – are in sync with the idea that “people matter”. Working together, these leaders put forth ideas, hopes and aspirations which their employees, in turn, use to fuel their personal desire to create more meaning in their lives. The leadership “walks the talk” by acting and speaking in ways that demonstrate their intent, their positive attitudes and their shared purpose. What sets these engaged workplaces apart is that the...
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If Grandma Could Do It, Why Can’t The CMO?
My grandmother used to tell stories to the kids in my neighborhood. She would gather us around, get this far-away look on her face, and start in on a tale of some kids in the woods or a rabbit in the meadow or whatever. They would always be just as long as they needed to be, no longer. We would hang on her every word. Once I asked her to retell a certain story we had heard from her years before, and she agreed. But as she told the story, it kept taking twists and turns I did not remember from the first time. ‘That’s not the story, Grandma,” I objected. She nodded with certainty. “Yes it is,”...
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Releasing The Pent Up Meaning Within Brands
One of the joys we have in our work is watching as our clients, who run highly successful companies, are surprised and delighted to see how their brands can matter more to people. We’re not in the business of creating illusions. We dig deep into our client’s business to uncover “meaningful truths” that are already operating below the surface. By shedding light on the rational and emotional value of these truths, we are able to show our clients just how much they can matter to people on both a rational and emotional level. What is most interesting to us is how our...
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Going Beyond The Numbers of Employee Engagement
We were reminded about the sign Albert Einstein had hanging in his office: “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” We’re not here to say that the measurable dynamics of employee engagement don’t count. But we do believe that what really counts in employee engagement can’t really be counted. That’s because employees are inevitably driven by how they feel. There’s nothing strange in that; all rational thought and action is driven by emotions. So what drives how employees feel? More important, what...
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The Goal is to Align Employees – But the Key Question is Not “How?”
Nothing slows down an enterprise more than a workforce that is working at cross purposes, unmotivated and uncaring. And nothing dims the prospects of an enterprise more than having a workforce that fails to innovate, isn’t inspired to be creative, and which just checks in and checks out day after day. The eternal question is “how” to align employees to what the business needs and there are many methods, tools and professionals devoted to getting employees to shift their attitudes and behaviors. But, even these efforts are not producing the desired result. We believe this is...
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Another Gap in the Story
It’s hard to watch the Rana Plaza story play out without a sense of déjà vu. Back in 2003, Walmart won the dubious distinction of “Sweatshop of the Year” for tolerating abusive practices by suppliers of low-priced garments in developing countries. Gap Inc. was the first American clothing retail tarred with that brush, back in the 1990s. And here they are today, the two major hold-outs against an industry-wide agreement to prevent more deadly disasters in the Bangladesh garment trade. Have they learned nothing? Gap in particular is hard to understand. Walmart has a history of brushing off...
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Mindful Leaders Resolution #1 for 2015
Lead by proudly, confidently and passionately proclaiming a new destination for your customers, your employees and your business. Going beyond profit, declare your intention to do well by doing good. Give everyone the answer to their burning question, “Why?”. Why does your business exist? Why is that good? Why does that matter? Interested in learning more about how to create your Purpose Beyond...
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Leadership in a COVID-19 World: Navigating “Fields of Paradox”
Turbulence Takes a Toll The acceleration of COVID-19, the speed and intensity of change, the current economic terrain, and the pressure to innovate, adapt, stabilize, and address each new challenge (of which there are many) with focus, grace, empathy, and precision is no doubt taking a toll on all of today’s business leaders. The current state of affairs reminded us of an interview with Gianpiero Petriglieri, Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at INSEAD, who provides insights into the implications of turbulent times on leadership. “Whatever sector or industry you...
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Humanizing Technology: It Isn’t All About Apple
Humanizing technology is essential, but it doesn’t mean copying everything about Apple. It seems everyone holds up Apple as the perfect brand. Human centric design. Humanized communications. A human touch at every moment. Great products. Great marketing. Great branding. Great success. All good reasons to respect, and even envy, the Apple brand. However, does that mean Apple has a monopoly on the idea of humanizing technology… and the success that comes from doing that? Hardly. But a technology brand doesn’t have to copy everything Apple does (and look like a copycat in the...
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Turn Your Brand Around Through Emotionally Meaningful Behavior
Turn target audience members into hot prospects Turn hot prospects into customers Turn customers into regular users Turn regular users into loyal customers Turn loyal customers into brand advisors Turn brand advisors into brand recruiters Purpose: Do it by embracing a purposeful intent for your brand – a high order idea about how your brand makes life better for individuals, society and/or the planet. Empathy: Do it by taking on an empathetic attitude to all the people vital to your brand’s success – see the world through their eyes, walk a mile in their shoes, come to understand what...
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