So you wanna be excellent, huh?
Years ago, I heard a speaker define "brand" as what people take away from their experiences with you, or your company each and every time they engage with you. Let that sink in for a minute. Think about the brands you trust, and the brands you don’t trust. Your favorite toothpaste, restaurant, your least favorite basketball team, or elected official. You get it! Brands work both ways. There’s the image, creating a visual that catches the attention of those you meet with, or those who see you in the public eye, whether live, via imagery, or these days via zoom or social media, and then there’s the substance behind the image. We all know people and organizations with amazing visuals, and little to no substance. Singers and bands with great sound, and no ability to have a decent conversation. One hit wonder stores that lure us with amazing ads, only to have one amazing product, and a store full of junk.
In the fast moving days of speed networking, dating apps, having check-lists for our check-lists, Asana Gantt charts for our Microsoft Teams Activity Planner’s, leaders can get derailed building the image of excellence, and overlooking the substance required to build a brand of excellence. So, what does it take? Here are four of my principles:
1. Know Your Role, Play Your Role: This one might sound simpler than it is. When I say know your role, I don’t mean know the role someone assigned you. I don’t even mean know your title (although that’s important- SO do not go losing your paycheck over this blog!!) But this is deeper than that. What’s your gift? What is the greatest contribution that YOU are called to contribute to this organization/ corporation/ group? I believe fully that you have a God given purpose for using your gifts at your job, a board, church, or volunteer organization. That purpose may change over time, and it is up to you to be consciously seeking that purpose at all times. Poor performance is often related to misalignment in this area. When we are misaligned, we have often said yes out of flattery, guilt, loyalty, or misinterpretation of need. That lasts for a while, and soon, our performance starts to dip, we’re unfulfilled, our peers and superiors are disappointed, and if we live in Minnesota, no one is communicating, but everyone is being passive aggressive…more people get added to the team, chaos ensues….I digress, but you get the point. LOL. When all you had to do was get aligned with your purpose. On the flip side, as a leader, if you are leading people, push them to get to know their purpose and role, and don’t allow them to stay in roles that are not aligned, simply because you think you ‘need’ them, or their feelings will be hurt if you shuffle the deck. The only business that has ever closed because someone died or left a role, was the business that no one needed.
2. Ownership & Accountability: We all make mistakes. We all fail to complete tasks, communicate effectively, honor commitments, and more. The difference between your brand being one of a leader who makes mistakes, and a leader who never takes responsibility for their mistakes, is what you do after those mistakes. Most people simply want to hear “I’m sorry.” Most of my business relationships that have ended poorly have ended because I realized we did not have shared accountability. In a partnership, there’s rarely equal risk. Today, one of my team members asked me one of the hardest parts about being CEO, I didn’t share this answer, but the truth is, that one of the hardest parts is that every day, a large number of people make decisions that they don’t have to pay the ultimate price for, but I do. Employees, consultant’s, board members, partners, contractors…I get calls, emails, tweets, about all of their decisions. I mitigate that by working hard to ensure that I choose people each one of those categories who have shared values, and two of those values are ownership and shared accountability. That means that you own your stuff- the good and the bad, I’ll celebrate you when you soar, and should a mistake cost the organization, I’ve got your back, and we’ll own it together.
3. Performance & Execution: If your brand is defined as “ what people take away from their experiences with you, each and every time they engage with you,” then you must perform and execute each and every time you are given the opportunity. Not each and every time you think it matters, or each and every time it’s a big project, or when it’s a crisis, or when you get that message that everything is falling apart- but each and every time. Big and small tasks. No limelight, and ten thousand spotlights. You. Must. Perform. And. Execute. With. Excellence.
4. Strengths-Based Collaboration: Collaboration requires recognizing the strengths of others, building and facilitating teams beyond your immediate circle, and managing those teams from concept to execution. I’ve built a career out of managing multi-sector collaborations in multiple domains, and while it’s often described as herding cats, it’s never harder than when those cats are volunteering for their assignment. Leading with influence when you don’t have authority requires motivating people who signed up to do something, to actually follow through and do it. Back to step # 1. If you stay in your lane~ owning your own gifts, it makes it much easier to spot great gifts and maximize those gifts and talents through collaboration, because you find yourself longing for the gifts of others to complement yours as you build your team.
As a founder, I have to stress frequently that although my vision and values are important elements for our organizational culture, I am very clear on my weaknesses, so I have recruited each of our team members as very important partners that must fit together like a missing finger in the gloves that become Team CEI! That means that I don’t expect team members to join and work to become mini-me’s. In fact, it scares me a bit when it starts to happen, because it means they’re likely failing to fully leverage their own strengths in pursuit of their own scope of work. Developing a brand for leadership excellence requires constantly cultivating the strengths of others and creating collaborative environments that nurture those strengths and enable them to work together to create something that is greater and more meaningful than what could be accomplished independently. Even more, leaders must strive to equip team members to identify the strengths of their peers and begin to leverage and nurture them for more accelerated and impactful results themselves. This is truly the proof of your effort.
The pursuit of a brand of excellence is not an assertion of perfection. It is however a commitment to do more than try. I chose a metal block on my desk with the word leadership on it for this blog post because that block has been with me in a few offices. My kids, nieces, nephews and friends kids have all played with it and it looks quite beat up…just the way a leader looks after a few years on the job…But the results are still the same- kids are still drawn to it every time they come in my office. And a leader who has been through the fire and continues to show-up and perform using her gifts, knowing her role, and playing it; leading with accountability, with ownership for her scope of work; performing and executing to the best of her ability, on-time, every time, and cultivating collaboration throughout the organization and beyond, will find that others are drawn to her in just the same way!
Today’s environment demands leaders who aren’t looking for a shiny new brand, but who can demonstrate a brand of excellence time and time again. Share your thoughts about what a brand of excellence means to and what you’re doing to cultivate it in your organization.
