We’ve spent the last few months in this newsletter thinking about culture. We’ve explored why it’s so tricky to pin down and think about. We took a look at the role that values play in informing a thriving, adaptive culture. And we took a dive into how employees fit into an organization’s culture, and how they derive value from the organization overall.
But we haven’t addressed one of the most critical aspects of a healthy, dynamic culture, one that all thriving organizations share: a strong sense—and perception—of leadership.
Leaders drive culture. They set the tone and pace of their team. They inspire the people they support and provide a beacon for the values that guide them. And they do so whether they’re aware of it or not, for good and for ill.
What’s your leadership “brand?”
If you lead a team of people within your organization, you have a reputation. That reputation was probably formed implicitly and organically; your team observes your habits and style, the tone of your emails, the way you provide feedback. You’re probably aware of some of these behaviors and you’ve probably (hopefully) spent a lot of time thinking about how you want to show up for your team. But for most leaders, “reputation” feels like little more than a perception, something they don’t have a lot of control over.
But perceptions are important. And we can shape perceptions to be closer to values that are important to us.
One way to think about the shaping of how we are perceived as leaders is to think about our “leadership brand.” This practice involves an evaluation of our core values, our strengths as leaders and teammates, and the impact we want to have on the organizations we serve.
CN has found a proven process for helping leaders craft and hone their brand as leaders:
Learn: We begin by exploring the idea of “brands” overall: what types of brands are usually successful? What brands of leadership does your organization need?
Create: We’ll then iterate and refine the individual brands for each leader, along with a plan for demonstrating the brand moving forward.
Align: Leaders can’t establish their brands in a vacuum: we’ll develop an overall leadership brand for the organization and a plan to bring that vision to life.
Mobilize: We’ll determine the first milestones, desired outcomes, and specific actions needed to ensure that these new brands have the biggest impact on how your org will move forward.
Reach out to learn more
As with all of the work we’ve discussed over the last few months related to culture and values, “leadership brands” can feel like a pretty fraught, complicated initiative to approach. We’d love to hear how your team thinks about leadership perception, aspirational and otherwise. What kind of brands do your leaders have? How do you think of yourself as a leader? Do you think it aligns with how your team perceives you? Reach out to us today and let’s find some time to discuss.