Personal Brands = The SOUL of a Business
We’ve all heard the old saying, “people buy from people”. But while we’re spending so much time on marketing strategy, sales KPI’s, on-boarding procedures, upselling and NPS results, what’s really happening with our employees and their relationships with their jobs?
In a June 2017 study conducted by Gallup, only 15% of employees world-wide were engaged. One of the primary reasons being that the environment of “work” was never created to support the workers, but to support the business. A job itself is defined as, “a paid position of regular employment”. The minimum viable requirement is “I pay you to do tasks”.
And not the way YOU would do the tasks. The way I want the tasks to be done.
No wonder people aren’t engaged.
I doubt in the post-COVID environment that it’s gotten better. Work has become a place where we are told what to do. We do our job, and then get to go home and be ourselves after.
I’ve even seen HR representatives preaching to, “leave your personal life at the door”.
Are they kidding? What, my personal values are as easy to remove as my jacket?
Umm…no.
There’s got to be a better way.
Finding a Soul
As opposed to the definition of job above, the definition of soul is, “emotional or intellectual energy”. So, by extrapolation, to have a soul is to have emotional and/or intellectual energy.
Would you describe your workplace thus?
Even entrepreneurs, creating their OWN companies, fall into this trap.
In all the effort to build out strategies, tactics and metrics, we forget to create an environment of emotional and intellectual ENERGY.
So, how do we do that?
The first step is to MAKE THAT THE GOAL.
How could you measure the emotional and intellectual energy of your work environment? Each company is different, but asking the question is the start of reaching that goal.
The Soul of the Founder
As an entrepreneur, your business activities should include tasks in which your energy thrives.
When does your energy thrive?
When you do things that are in alignment with your personal brand.
When you accomplish things that are in alignment with your personal values.
When you are making the contribution YOU want to make.
All of these things are tied to who YOU are. They are the things that drive YOUR emotional and intellectual energy.
And they have nothing to do with strategies or tactics.
THIS is the foundation for a business with soul.
Metrics with Soul
Once you have outlined the activities in your business that drive your energy, THEN it’s time to get those into metrics that support your goal. As you can imagine, this has very little to do with many of the most common KPI’s (from OnStrategyHQ) such as:
Number of Engaged Qualified Leads in Sales Funnel
Net Promotor Score
Time to Market
Keywords in Top 10 Search Engine Results
NONE of these measure anything to do with energy.
So what if we got more creative? If we wanted to look at measuring emotional and intellectual activities that DROVE those numbers, perhaps we would measure:
% of Sales Calls with an emotional or intellectual connection
% of Client Engagements that ended in a smile
% of Users who enjoy using our software
% of Keywords related to the targeted FEELINGS of our brand experience
Now, when we’re being creative (and let’s face it, unique), we may end up picking metrics that are either too difficult to track, or DON’T end up driving the desired results, but there is always freedom to evolve and change them until they DO work ;)
Supporting Employees with Soul
Now, if your business is growing, you’re going to need more people. So, what kind of people do you want to choose?
Although the majority of people still hire for a set of skills, one of the most important things is to find employees who are aligned with your company vision and brand experience.
Where does that start?
The SOUL of the business. The personal brand of the founder.
And when your business is focused on creating an employee experience that drives THEIR emotional and intellectual energy, you can teach almost any skill ;)
Let’s look at an example: a battery.
A battery slowly gets used up throughout the day. But if the environment it’s in is constantly charging the battery, it never runs out.
But if it’s away from its charger for 8 hours a day (or more), the battery dies.
Humans work the same. It’s not possible for them to work non-stop without a charge.
And if you think they’re getting charged once they go home (with parenting, homework, chores), they’re not.
Companies NEED to be creating CHARGING STATIONS for their employees, based on the employee’s personal brand.
Only then, will we be able to get the most out of our resources.
And when you have practice doing that for yourself, it’s easier to do it for your team.
In Summary
People have values, emotions and feelings.
They desire to do work that is both emotionally and intellectually stimulating.
It IS possible for companies to create environments that do this for their employees. Which in turn allows those employees to create a memorable brand experience for your customers.
But we NEED to start with the people. By lighting their individuals fires at work, we can create one BIG bonfire that brings warmth and light to our industry.
Now that’s a competitive advantage ;)
For more ideas on how you can bring this framework to your organization, let’s chat.
