Why brand values are the biggest team motivation

Knowing what you stand for as a brand gets everyone on board.

One of the things I’m most proud of with MadeBrave is the culture we’ve all built, together. Every single person who has ever worked here has added a little something to create the brand and culture that we have today.

A brand is what makes your business feel human and it allows people to identify with it on a personal level as they would with a friend. So - if you think of your brand as a human, you consider why it exists (purpose, vision, goals) what it looks like (visual style, logo etc) what it sounds like (tone of voice) and even its personality traits.

Over the last while or so, you might’ve heard the phrase ‘employer brand’ popping up in various blogs and podcasts, and it’s basically where you take your public-facing brand and turn it inside-out (or more, outside-in). It sits right in the sweet spot between HR, brand and marketing to attract the best people for your business and most importantly, make them actually want to stick around.

One of my most favourite TED talks of all time is called ‘The tribes we lead’ by Seth Godin. In his talk, he says that with shared goals and values, tribes give individuals the power to make a huge impact, and I couldn’t agree more. With shared values, you attract people to join your company who share the same values as you and the team, and it helps everyone to stay motivated through good and not-so-good times. With these shared values in place, you go from a room of lone wolves, to everyone working together as a pack towards the same thing.

So, how do you actually make this happen?

As mentioned above, there are lots of different building blocks to a brand, and if we keep going with this building analogy, there are others that act as the foundations to support everything you build (that’s why they’re often referred to as -  you guessed it - brand foundations). For example:

• Your brand ‘why’ (sometimes referred to as a ‘purpose’) is why your brand exists. In other words, if it was a person, what would get your brand out of bed every morning? Simon Sinek - who developed the ‘why’ concept - explains it perfectly in his TED talk, ‘How great leaders inspire action’

• Just as a person has values, so does a brand. They basically sum up everything your brand stands for and are the benchmarks for every single decision that you - and everyone in your team - makes. If something doesn’t sit well with your brand values, it’s a pass.

When these elements of your brand foundations are in place, this is where the fun begins. The thing is, brand values aren’t really much use to anyone if they just sit alone in the dark corners of a word doc on a drive somewhere. For brand values to really make a difference, they need to be seen in everything from how your brand sounds, to how it looks and maybe even, how you decorate your office. Earlier this year, we worked with three mural artists to bring our brand values to life in the MadeBrave studio - they were briefed with one value each, a load of paint, and free-reign over our walls (basically, what were were always told not to do as kids). Now, there’s a reminder of our brand values in front of us every single day - which really helps when it comes to making those decisions and staying motivated as a team (or tribe, in the words of Seth Godin).

For me, brand values are important because I want every single person who’s part of MadeBrave to feel proud to say that they work here and above all, to feel happy when they’re getting up in the morning to be somewhere that they actually enjoy. On a more personal level, anyone with a business will know that there are times when you think ‘why the hell did I do this again?’ and honestly, it’s those brand values and that purpose that has really helped me to dig myself out of a swirling vortex of doom and feel motivated to not only keep going, but to make things even better. Despite all the work that goes into defining brand values, it’s the living by them part that’s the hardest - but if you know what they are, make them visible and use them as benchmarks when making those small, everyday decisions, they’ll have a huge positive impact on you, your team and your business.

What are your thoughts on brand values?