When is branding like leadership?

Ah to be a brander… you get to build all sorts of equity… financial, reputational, and influential… so much fun! Leadership on the other hand is having the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual competencies to lead individuals and organizations to meet their objectives… high performance, revenues, market dominance, etc.?

On the surface, they seem vastly different but they couldn’t be more alike.

1. Vision and Purpose

Awesome brands begin with a vision - a “why do we exist” - that one phrase that captures who they are and what is their reason for being.?

• Tools for the creative mind
• Leading the global transition to sustainable energy and transportation
• Your trusted source for health and wellness
• The essential source for understanding the world.

Effective leaders also have vision and purpose.

• To make us the global leader in automotive technology with design, product quality and safety, customer experience, and business results.
• Empowering individuals and organizations to reach their full potential through effective leadership and productivity solutions.
• To create and manage the best financial services company in the world by providing clients with the best possible products and services, and by operating the company in a responsible and sustainable manner.

Their purpose and vision are eerily similar to the brand aspirations. As it should be. The leader must reflect the company brand and purpose and you would expect the CEO to operationalize that aspiration.

2. Building Trust

Brands must communicate a compelling promise that builds trust with their markets and customers. Effective leadership relies on building trust with team members, employees, and personal partnerships. Building a trust-based relationship is fostered through awareness of one another - the brand understanding customers and the leader understanding their organizational heartbeat. Trust drives empowerment, which is one of the most important factors in high-performance and high-performance helps fulfill a vision and purpose.

3. Awareness

Brands have an awareness of their customers and market trends. They understand who they are, what they want, and what they care about. Leaders need self- and corporate- awareness. They must understand themselves - accepting their “glows and grows.”? Once they have that awareness they can build corporate awareness - knowing the heartbeat of their organization - when it's flourishing, or drowning. And being able to assess these drivers to make the needed changes.?

4. Consistency

A powerful brand is consistent. Consistency sets consumer expectations, which contributes to trust, which cements loyalty - hence repeat revenues. Great leaders are consistent in their actions, decision-making, and communication - which drives trust, that cements loyalty, and contributes to a high-performance culture. Awareness is the foundation for consistency because without awareness one doesn’t know the basis for consistency.

5. Storytelling

Both leaders and brands utilize stories to connect with employees and customers on an emotional level. They inspire, motivate, and drive engagement. Consistent stories are based on awareness, and drive trust which promotes loyalty and empowerment because the vision and purpose are fulfilled

6. Adaptability

Successful brands and leaders have to rapidly shift to market changes. So do leaders. As new preferences and trends drive change both have to adjust their strategies to lead through change. If a leader or brand is adaptable, their stories evolve but with a core consistency that maintains trust and continues to fulfill both vision and purpose.

7. Authenticity

Authentic brands are true to their values and genuinely care about their customers. Authentic leaders are transparent and true to themselves, which fosters trust and respect among their teams. Authenticity is essential to consistency and trust. In fact, its the single most important factor in driving trust and loyalty and believing in a vision and purpose.

8. Emotional Connection

Marketers can some times end up in a marketing cul de sac by focusing on the logical aspects of a brand - the speeds and feeds rather than how a brand or leader makes you feel. Its not about how fast your car goes. It's about how you feel when you go fast. Dynamic leaders for emotional bonds with their employees.?

Final Thoughts

If you take a step back, you'll notice that these attributes embody being a good human. All of them are what you'd expect from a friend, lover, family member or boss. In the process of being human, a leader is born.