Branding begins with you.

I have worked with many organisations.

Listened to their hopes and dreams. Their visions and missions.

I have heard — time and time again — that their people are their most important asset. It is almost always the first thing they say in their annual reports and corporate brochures.

But when I enter such said organisations, I find that many of their pledges towards protecting their chief asset becomes lost in the everyday business of…running a business.

Somewhere in the drive to profit and sustainability, these organisations seem to forget their pledge and their people — their most important asset — become collateral damage on their way towards brand glory.

The irony of it all is that glory is an elusive destination when your generals and soldiers keep leaving you every few years. Worse, they may not leave you and you will become saddled with low performers who demoralise their subordinates yet command a high salary.

This is what I keep hearing from CEOs:

“I keep rewarding them but they are still not performing”

“I empower them but they don’t seem to want to take it”

“I can’t seem to attract the younger people to work for us”

Thousands of books have been written on this. Hundreds of courses have been built around the quandary that is leadership. Why is it so hard? And why is it that relatively few companies thrive? There is a Chinese saying: “the fish rots from the head down”. That is perhaps an apt description of many organisations.

We all know that leadership is never a walk in the park. But the key afflictions that I see in many leaders are behavioural ones.

These are the broad categories I’ve observed.

Please Like Me

For example, some leaders are extremely decent and caring but have an insistent desire to be liked, which clouds their ability to be fair or to make the tough decisions.

Do What You Think Is Right (but do it my way)

Then there are those who see themselves as nurturing and empowering. They have an uncanny ability to say all the right things at the right times. They tick every political-correctness box but are really control freaks at heart.

Don’t Mess With Me (please..)

Then there are those who are lovely, gentle and shy but feel the need to embody a steely no-nonsense demeanour so that they don’t get taken advantage of.

I Can’t Decide, So I Do Nothing 

Others are torn between rewarding loyalty and rewarding results in an ever-aging organisation.

Then there are those who are made powerless by government edicts of zero dimissal.  In work cultures like those, there only carrots, no sticks. No matter how badly-behaved an employee may be, they stay. That’s the rule. What you have is a boat with a leak and most of your energy is spent bailing out water to  stay afloat, instead of going full steam ahead toward the required destination.

Crash and Burn

I have also worked with several NGOs which are led by very strong individuals. They have enough force and perseverance to drive their agendas through for the benefit of their core stakeholders, i.e., the people they set out to help.

They spend so much of their energy fighting the cause, saving countless lives, that they sometimes do not leave enough of themselves to fight for their people within.

It is often the cause that unites rather than the leadership.

According to Ed Schein, Author of Organisation Culture and Leadership, 80% of an organisation’s culture is influenced by :

• What the leader attends to, measures, rewards and controls
• Leader reaction to critical incidents
• Leader role-modelling and coaching

The easiest to do is the first one. In a local context, the second one could do with improvements but it is the third point that leaders really need to take notice of.

There are no easy solutions but the first imperative for leaders who want to improve is to look within and recognise who they are as a Leader. In fact, they may find they are more suited to being good, reliable followers. There is nothing wrong with that and in fact, you may have a far happier employee as a result.

Once you have done this, then you can seek ways to address the weaknesses. So business owners who have extraordinary vision in a tech start-up business, for instance, but who have poor leadership skills should hire a Chief Operating Officer to fill in the gaps and help lead.

Others may require long-term coaching to overcome their personal fears and perceptions that limits them as leaders.

Personally, I thoroughly encourage everyone to find a coach.

There is a saying, “Physician, heal thyself” — an analogous exhortation for doctors to first be whole and healthy before they attempt to heal others.

Likewise for leaders. While providing coaching for your employees, you should be coached yourself. Leadership can be lonely and you are never sure if the feedback you get from your subordinates are the real thing, or highly watered down for fear that it may limit the messenger’s career.

Hence, leaders need someone who will not be afraid to give it to you straight in order for you to grow as a leader. Given time, a good coach can spot the BS you tell yourself and challenge you on it.

On coaches

Some coaches badger you into changing. Great coaches, on the other hand, will listen, act as your mirror, guide you and then allow you the make the final decision on the area of weakness you are working on. Ultimately, a great coach understands that no-one can make you change. You have to be ready, to want to change.

“If we don’t change, we will die” said a CEO, after he had embarked on a personal journey to look within, with the help of a well-known coaching course. With that realisation, he saw that to effect change, he was the person that needed to change the most. He stopped playing the nurturing, benevolent fatherly figure and became a fair but firm and caring leader.

Within 18 months, his organisation had a complete turnaround. Low-performing department heads became shining stars. He also acquired the courage to let go of those who could not change.

*NOTE: There are many coaches and coaching organisations in Malaysia. Vistage is one example aimed at CEOs. Arbinger is another. To find coaches, you can contact the International Federation of Coaching.

The Business of Grounding

Over the course of my professional life, I have met and worked with an amazing array of people, many of whom have been women. To me, the truly remarkable ones are those who are able to be steadfast in their focus on reaching a goal.

 

Image from www.pleasefund.us

They do this by remaining grounded in the facts and the reality around them.

They do this by carefully studying the situation.  

They do this by having a deep understanding of the characters at play.

Who makes up the project team? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Their likes and dislikes? Their prejudices and their proclivities?

Delightful Doodles and What They Tell Us

Google Doodles (we think they deserve a capital ‘D’) are always a pleasure. Sometimes, their themes are obvious – Google graced Malaysia’s 13^th General Election with a Doodle.

At other times, we learn things we would other wise never pick up in our daily diet of mainstream, must-know, “what’s-trending” reading. Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Maathai, was the subject of a Doodle for her seventy-third birthday on April 1^st this year.

On June 10^th, Google outdid themselves. They created a short animation of characters by children’s illustrator and writer Maurice Sendak. A party of his characters showed up for just that – a party. Sendak, who died on May 8, 2012, would have turned 85.

The lovely Doodle is playful and knowledgeable – characters are seen running against a medleyed  backdrop of his stories. Google, one of the most dynamic brands, showed real honour to another beloved brand.

In fact, it shows honour through all its Doodles. Google is willing to get creative with their logo, transforming it into rich, magical pieces of priceless information.

Why is this worth noting? Because, when you work in branding, you will find just how many companies hold their logos sacrosanct. To change a logo – indeed, even to suggest a change – can rattle a company to its core. The general feeling seems to be that logos are there to be revered. Here's a lighthearted example of a brand not afraid to laugh at themselves in a way that resonates with their target audience.

Great ideas beget great ideas. Google allows their designers to have fun. The brand is about empowering people through easy access of knowledge, and this is the best example how they do that in a way that cuts through the clutter. 

How are you using your logo? Is it telling your story or is it confining you?

Does it resonate and remind you of who you are every time you look at it?

Or is it just a pretty piece of corporate garnish?

Brand 'You'

Catching up with a colleague over a teh tarik is by far one of my favourite ways of working. It is relaxing, enjoyable and when it ends, a spark of an idea always gets lit.  The idea that day was life directions and how it was akin to branding a corporation.  

When I facilitate a branding process with my clients, I always ask them what the core purpose of their business is. Many of them immediately start rolling out the obvious functional aspect, i.e. ‘I sell this’ or ‘I provide solutions’. And so I get them to drill down deeper as to why their companies exist at all. What was the main reason that got them here? What was the impending need that galvanised them to start a company and become an entrepreneur?  My amazingly creative colleague then said, actually to get to that question, you really have to know who you are and what drives you. You have to know what your purpose in life is.

Simon Sinek, asks us to "Start With Why": and has even written a book about it. For the longest time, I knew that my path lay in service. But I mistakenly read this as saving the world and doing projects that were much larger than what I could handle.

Creating a Global Malaysian Brand

The other day I was giving a talk on "How to build a Competitive brand" to a group of CEOs and one asked how come there were so few great Malaysian brands. I thought about for a second and then answered, "because companies here aren't willing to pay for branding"

Malaysian entreprenuers often think branding or advertising is easy and therefore be done in-house. There is that make-do mentality that is a double edged sword. On one hand, it makes us immensely creative in cutting corners and bending rules, but in the long run, these creative measures don't quite provide the foundation needed to anchor and create a long lasting brand that resonates beyond our shores. We are great do-ers and thrive on quick fixes and quick wins. We desperately need to see some results by the 1st quarter or within 3 months, hence we become a very sales driven culture of push, push, push as oppose to creating a brand centric pull culture.

Brand Chaos

The last month or so I have been reading about or have attended talks about speed and chaos: how ‘business unusual’ is the next wave.

Those who thrive in chaos and are able to embrace change; and those that allow a certain amount of creativity, are those that will have the competitive advantage.

Eminent British artist Cornelia Parker 's  'Cold, Dark Matter'. She had the British Army blow up this shed and its contents to create an installation piece now displayed at the Tate Modern in Britain.

It is chaos managed so that the viewer can discern method and beauty.  Even without the background knowledge that this suspended piece was once an actual shed, the viewer can see various components - a hammer head, a bicycle wheel spoke - that reveal this.  'Cold, Dark Matter: Exploded View' offers a new perspective - the idea that even something blown to bits makes sense if the chaos is handled with knowledge and creativity.

Cold, Dark Matter: Exploded view is one of the premier attractions at the Tate Modern

Four years ago I proposed a working brand essence based on this theory of managed chaos, as a platform for creativity and growth. This was for a destination brand, industry lingo for branding a town city or country. The consulting economist, who was with an international design and planning firm, looked at me in horror and said that no investor would look at a destination that enabled or encouraged chaos. 

How times have changed. 

Brand Energy

Have you ever felt stuck in a rut, where nothing, not even the air was moving in your office?

Your people feel like they could do with a holiday, even when work has been less than hectic?  When you step into the office, do you immediately feel like leaving?

If you answered yes to any of the above, chances are you are suffering from low brand energy. Yes --  low brand energy. In Cantonese, the use the word Yen Hei or Ren Qi in Mandarin, which, translated, means "people energy".

Thriving, productive places have a certain buzz about them. It may be quiet but you can virtually hear the silent moves of purpose -- people walk with it and work with it.

It's a simple idea. Your brand is really brought to life by the people who care for it and nurture it -- from the dutiful receptionist to the visionary CEO. When everyone is motivated, their collective energy becomes the fuel that drives great work, which in turn gets business in.

The buzz of an energetic brand
(Image from www.business.burritos.com)

Speed up or die?

TWO weeks ago at the Khazanah Mega Shift event, I attended a talk by Chris Zook of Bain and Company. The topic was about Speed. Apparently we are now entering into an era of speed. Zook talks about how things are changing so rapidly that if we are to survive, we need to speed up as well.  For companies and organisations, this means that the most adaptable and agile are those who thrive over the competition.

Image sourced from: http://francisyeng.blogspot.com

Mark Zuckerberg, of Facebook fame, talks about eschewing perfection in favour of getting things done and I subscribe to that wisdom. There are times when we can talk or deliberate ourselves out of things and programmes that are beneficial for us. At one time or another, we've all dealt with organisations out there who can take months just to approve a brand or communications exercise and this was in line with world class ISO procedures. Compare this to the telco companies who now have a 48hr turn around time for new campaigns. Well apparently,  the new world class waits for no man.

So where does branding fit in with this clarion call for speed? Is speed everything? Do we then sacrifice quality for speed? In a world of constant flux, does branding become the compass? If you have a clearly defined brand, are you more likely to make decision for and against speed? Ultimately, are the best organisations those that deliver both quality and speed? Let me know what you think.

Much Ado about Awards

Last week, for the first time, I attended an awards ceremony where my brand was nominated for an award. The nomination came as a surprise as it was from industry clients. I must admit, after the incredulity wore off, I began to feel a little chuffed, as well as tremendously grateful.  Truth be told, I am not a fan of local awards. Even though I feel that they are important to some extent, there is always a lingering feeling that they celebrate and perhaps nurture a big fish in a small pond syndrome. However I was determine to put my skepticism aside, observe and perhaps learn what the industry at large was doing in terms of ideation and innovation.

The venue was impressive and the flow of cocktails and drinks more so.  There was definitely a lot of flash, pomp and ceremony to start and there was excitement in the air, fuel high on alcohol and hunger pangs. The line-up of nominees were equally impressive and kudos to the organisers for being as inclusive as possible in a rather diverse and sometimes fragmented industry such as branding, advertising, media, events and communications. There were awards for PR, Brand Consultancy, Media, Social Media, Viral etc.. Even my clients were suitably impressed as they valiantly came to cheer me on. The night was looking promising.

Are you aligned?

Today was a good day as I had just finished a brand alignment workshop with a key client. After nearly 5 months, it was now time to put things into action. As a consultant there is always an air of apprehension as to how the team will receive the brand and will they understand the brand enough to apply it across the organisation to begin building a brand centric culture rather than an organisation led culture. But they passed with flying colours, able to grasp the core of the brand and how they would like to align it internally.

For a brand to succeed, you have to have the right people on the bus. What do we mean by the right people, well that really depends on your brand. Which is why branding is important for culture building.

Founders, owners, senior management, all of you are responsible for the creation of the brand. You need to know what type of brand you want to be.

Is branding really necessary?

So last week I got a nice surprise over the phone to say that The Listening Tree has been nominated for Brand Consultancy of the Year by the Advertising and Marketing magazine. I was immediately grateful for the nomination and I must say it came at the right moment when I was wondering if branding in Malaysia was necessary. Not the branding aka marketing and communications but branding as a form of culture building to boost morale, loyalty and performance.

Through the years, I have come across many employees who are amazing people but due to a combination of our education system and the Asian culture of respect and conformity, have somehow let themselves become worker bees instead of leaders or even visionaries. In an organisation where 90% of them are worker bees, the journey towards establishing a standout brand is a long one, as the brand is literally being pushed upwards by only a few key people at the top.

The journey is not unlike that of Sisyphus' -

Why Brands Lie

I have always been a great believer in brands and not surprisingly I have chosen it as a career. I always thought that I was in the business of helping companies profit from building great brands. But after much reflection, I am really in the business of authentic transformations. My goal is not to promise profits for my customers but rather the promise of a journey of transformation that if followed through, will lead to profits. It is not an easy journey and demands much courage and tenacity from the brand owners, but the pay-off is highly rewarding in more ones than one.

Many companies in Malaysia see brand building as a good to have, but only if budget permits. For them it is very much - lets get our operation and process right first, lets design that great store, lets get a great advertising campaign to bring people to our store and then when the money comes in, then we will invest in branding. Now this may have worked for some companies, it has also been the stumbling block for sustained growth. How do I know this, because many of my clients from traditional industries are coming to me to help them cross a crucial threshold from local to world brand and they know that great process and ads alone are not enough.

When I commence any project, I always begin with a question - what business are you in?

The Great Let Go

I just watched a TED talk by Jessi Arrington who makes it a point never to buy new clothes. So travelling to LA for TED, the only thing she packed where her undies and proceeded to buy everything else when she landed. I thought that was such a cool idea but alas, I don't live in America the land of rampant consumerism and subsequently full of great discards. Here in KL, we have to import other people's rejects from places like Japan and the US. But beyond the point of mindful consumerism which she was promoting, what struck a chord was the idea of letting go. Before she left LA, she proceeded to donate all the clothes she had bought in an effort to not hold on to things and to revel in the wonder of her next buying jaunt.

How many of us are hanging on to things or issues that no longer serve us?

You had me at Hello Kitty

.

Hello

Hold that thought. I'll come back to Kitty in a bit

The story actually begins with my truly amazing helper, Hils, I am one of the few people that have been blessed with someone, who, for the past eight years, has helped keep me sane by making sure my place is spotless and tidy. There are days when things don't go too well in the office. I drive home dejectedly, put my key in the lock, open the door and immediately my senses are assailed with the fresh smell of pine and lemon. I look up and the place is spotless - all is right with the world again.

What Now Brown Cow?

Lately I have been observing the advertising industry and discussing it with my business coach. He laments that the industry has disempowered itself by letting Clients dictate timelines. ‘Where has all the professionalism expounded by David Ogilvy gone?’ he vents. What has happened to times when Agencies had the power to say ‘I respect your decision but this is not something I can do and good luck with your campaign’? Has the industry lost all its integrity?

Is the world that David Ogilvy once knew gone forever?

I have been in and out of the advertising industry for the last 20 years and I see both sides of the coin. There really is no clear or easy solution as to regaining their foothold as trusted brand custodians rather than just providers of brand support. Agency leaders have to constantly juggle professional integrity with the ability to keep cash flow up. Then there is the Asian context – clients range from being highly sophisticated to naïve. There are also those who don't know what they don't know. 

Brand Masterclass

Last Wednesday the 20th of April marked a historic day for me and The Listening Tree. We conducted our first Brand Masterclass for 12 visionary CEOs and Business Owners. I introduced this new service to enable small companies and start-up to create the right foundation for their brand. Business owners of smaller companies often tell me that branding is the last thing on their minds when trying to juggle HR, delivery, payroll and new business development. But for me this is the ideal time to brand.

Brand Courage

Yesterday I was on bfm as a speaker for The Resource Centre at 1pm. I spoke about the importance of performing brand audits and for some reason this word kept popping up - Courage. I had never used it before with my clients but pondering on it now, it seems to be one of the most important pre-requisite for great brands.

Do KPIs spell the death of brands?

Over the last two years or so, there has been increasing talk about accountability in the public and private sector. This backlash from the economic crisis has generated huge outcry for transparency and honesty.

Many local companies and public offices in Malaysia have over the last few years been adopting KPIs as a move towards greater accountability and performance. While I laud these organizations for the move, I must also express some concern over the ways that this has been done.

Delayed Brandification

Starting up a business is a time of heady excitement. Everything is fresh and new and so full of promise. With the mantra ‘time is money’ going over and over in your head, your first job as CEO is to get your company up and running in order to get the money rolling in. You’ve hired all the people you need, paid them the right amount according to market rates to put all the processes in place, and you are now busy with trying to get business in.

So three years down the road, you’ve got business coming in but something is not quite right.

Employer Branding: What a Clown Taught Me

It has been an amazing week for learning. I had the supreme pleasure of listening to Patch Adams talk about what makes him tick and he basically boiled it down to two words -- Love and Care.

I had been fortunate enough to hear him speak once before at the Art for Health conference in Manchester, UK. That was about 10 years ago when his fame was gathering momentum fresh from the movie debut and he had just started on the speaking circuit. He was full of energy and he spoke about doing what he does and why he did it. The stories were filled with sadness yet tinged with hope. That was the thing with Patch.

Patch Adams - doctor, clown,
 healer, carer

A decade ago he left me in awe of the indomitable spirit of one man and the feeling that that if he were around, then there would always be hope no matter how bleak the situation. Last week, the same man, albeit less energetic than before and perhaps due to the long flight, again left a mark of hope sprinkled with a liberal dose of love and care. 

If you can’t stop the genocide, alleviate the poverty or cure the sickness, the least you can do is spread laughter, fun, joy and hope through the single act of caring.

Newer and developing brands should take a leaf from the Patch Adams’ brand. I must apologise to Mr Adams for calling him a brand as he spoke vehemently against advertising but a brand he is. And the best kind of brand – the kind that inspires, empowers and makes you want to be a better person. What makes Patch Adams stand out is that he cares