Here's how you can align your brand strategy goals with your boss's expectations.

To get your brand strategy in sync with your boss’s goals, first, understand the business objectives and key KPIs they care about. Talk openly to make sure you’re aligned. Can you back up your ideas with solid data especially in your industry/market... whatever is vital to your product or service.

First Listen...! To align your brand strategy goals with your boss's expectations, start by really understanding what they want to achieve. Have regular chats to update them on your progress and get their input. Make sure your goals are SMART—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound—so you can clearly show how your efforts tie back to the big picture. Use data to back up your decisions and show the impact on revenue and market share. Be flexible and ready to adjust your plans based on feedback. Celebrate quick wins and highlight long-term successes to keep your boss confident in your approach. By doing this, you'll stay on the same page and drive success together.

Aligning your brand strategy goals with your boss's expectations requires clear communication and strategic planning. Here’s how: Understand Expectations: Have detailed discussions with your boss to grasp their vision and goals for the brand. Set Clear Objectives: Define specific, measurable goals that reflect both the brand's needs and your boss's expectations. Communicate Regularly: Keep your boss updated on progress and any adjustments needed. Gather Feedback: Regularly seek input from your boss to ensure alignment and make necessary tweaks. Be Proactive: Anticipate potential challenges and propose solutions that align with the overall strategy. This approach ensures cohesive goal alignment and effective execution.

Actively listen to their feedback and seek clarification whenever needed to ensure alignment. Share your insights, ideas, and rationale behind your proposed brand strategy goals with your boss. Frame your strategies in a way that demonstrates how they support the overarching business goals and address key challenges or opportunities faced by the brand. This is super important: Maintain regular check-ins and progress updates to keep your boss informed about the performance of your brand strategy initiatives. Be transparent about successes, challenges, and areas for improvement, and be prepared to adjust your strategies based on feedback and evolving expectations.

Maintaining an open dialogue with your boss is vital for alignment. Regularly discuss your brand strategy initiatives and how they relate to the company's overarching goals. This involves not just reporting on progress but actively listening to feedback and being willing to adjust your approach based on your boss's insights. By fostering a collaborative environment, you demonstrate that you value their perspective and are committed to achieving shared objectives. This proactive communication helps preempt misunderstandings or misalignments between your brand strategy and your boss's expectations, ensuring a more cohesive and effective approach.

Ego is the antithesis of flexibility. Many a creative writer has heard the term "kill your darlings," meaning you should not be unwilling to drastically change a creative decision if changing it will result in a better story. The same can be said for brand strategy, especially when dealing with your boss's expectations. Brands work best when they are consistent and unified across all platforms, and you can't simply update your boss with the brand standards you want like the brand's Facebook account. Ultimately you will have a better brand if you integrate your boss's ideas more fully into your brand rather than being stubborn and taking them on like an incongruous addition.

Proactively is a great way to build trust with your boss. When I was Head of Brand at Accenture I reported to the CMO, but was also a member of the CEO’s Global Management Committee (GMC) giving me access to the C-Suite. In GMC meetings, also attended by my boss, I would hear potential changes in strategy directly from the CEO and her leadership team. By listening closely and anticipating changes to our brand strategy I could create a quick plan to be ready should the ask come from my boss. It’s important to point out that I would never jump the gun and initiate the plan without confirming the change in strategy and plan with my boss, as this may be seen as undermining them, which leads to the opposite of trust!

Figuring out how your boss likes to communicate is crucial. They have a lot to do. Communicating how they like makes it easier on them and shows you understand them. And that goes a long way to getting them to pay attention and value your contribution. So, figure out their communication style: - Do they prefer a certain time of the day? - Do they prefer short or detailed proposals? - Do they prefer it in person or over a video call? - Do they prefer a written proposal or a presentation? Going against their preferred communication styles can make it feel like a burden to them. Understanding how they like to communicate makes it easy for them. And it will make your proposal have a greater impact.

It’s true that changes in brand strategy should only arise as a change in business strategy happens, and at the request of your boss. Having said that some people treat the brand strategy and brand plan as one and the same. The brand plan, activations and media plan are often done along with the brand strategy annually, and it’s easy from brand leads to get complacent and just implement the full year plan. The best plans are likely to change often based on performance, or shift in priorities which have nothing to do with the strategy. I would even go as far to say that if your brand plan doesn’t change you’re likely not managing it effectively! In anticipation of this I would only ever lock in 1Q of my plan at a time.