I’m fascinated by how branding shapes company culture.
Culture is a direct result of how you intentionally define the core of your business.
What values drive hiring? What driving factors influence your important business decisions? Good culture results in positive brand representation to the public. Great culture equals great output. Crappy culture equals crappy output.
The “general public” includes business partners, customers, team members… the list goes on.
I was recently watching Simon Sinek and Marie Forleo discuss Leaders Eat Last, a book about leadership in business and creating sustainable culture. The book talks about culture, good or bad, and how it “trickles down” to every position in a company.
It’s a hard thing to maintain when you scale and grow a company, but here are some great points that Simon makes in the video:
“It’s not the people, it’s the environment.”
If you exist in a bad environment, then you’re normal self will not exist. Meaning, if you hire someone and introduce them to an already crappy corporate culture, you will not see or experience their best self. “When we get the environment right, humans will do remarkable things.” When leaders create a circle of safety for their team, then the automatic response is trust and cooperation. If you build trust, your team will follow. When an organization’s team does not feel safe in the environment, that is a leadership problem.
“We name leaders not because they are in charge, but because they went first.”
If you create and foster an environment that builds trust by way of good leadership, that directly effects the quality of return on leadership investment. In other words, “I’ll scratch your back, and by default you’ll want to scratch mine back in return.”
“We are designed to take care of each other”
When you do, receive, or see a positive interaction, that positive experience becomes something to remember by the person that was experiencing it. When people feel good, they become more generous because of a chemical release of Oxytocin. You are providing value and building equity as a leader when you do something nice without expecting anything in return. This is actually wired in our very nature as human beings.
This is also true to building relationships with clients or customers. If you build trust, you will build brand equity and loyalty. If your customers are going elsewhere for their business that signifies a brand experience problem. If you take care of your brand experience, then your customers will take of your brand. You are creating a positive and valuable experience for them, and in turn they’ll want to support you. They’ll probably want their friends, family, and peers to support you too.
If you work within the world of human emotion and wiring, it will create brand experience. So, be sure it’s a consideration for your business. Brands are made up of people, no matter how you look at it.
Now it’s your turn: So, how has your brand shaped your leadership and your culture?
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I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to leave your thoughts, comments, and feedback in the comments below.
~ Christine