Archives For creativity

The Grading Tango | Honest

10/05/2013 — 1 Comment

Everyone will have a perception about your abilities. Sometimes they’re unfounded. Some are accurate… you know the rest…

We have an idea of our capabilities and we’d like those around us to be as accurate as possible in their asses them. The truth is sometimes we really want people to see our capabilities as higher than they really are.

Leaders want their teams to admire them for how smart and great leaders they are. Team members want their leaders to overrate them so they seem a tad bit better than their colleagues. They want to be further acknowledged by having greater responsibility inferred on them.

weight The Grading Tango | Honest

be secure enough about yourself to be real. THAT is integrity and the basis of credibility

Who are we fooling? The sad truth is that when we portray ourselves to be better at something than we really are, we set our teams and ourselves up for failure. There is a fine line between stretching yourself and misrepresenting yourself. Misrepresenting yourself includes you not correcting people who rate your abilities as greater.

I don’t deny, being ‘graded’ better than you really are can present an opportunity for you to go up to ‘the next level’. There is a greater risk of failure. The stakes are higher and the reputation that you’ve worked for years to build could be destroyed in an instant.

Be honest about your abilities. Firstly, to yourself and to those who attempt to enlist you with a perception that you’re greater than you are. Be honest that you aspire to the quality they’ve graded you to and state exactly what you’re doing to get there.

Related: Wine | Why You Must Love Obscurity and Structure | Why You Must Love Obscurity

This will give you credibility with people. Integrity is when your words and your actions are one. This is a character we want everyone around us to have. The irony is we, ourselves, are willing to compromise this when it comes to us. We want everyone else to be truthful about his or her abilities while we want to seem greater than we really are.

Stop trying to get ahead through the image and be the real deal. Leaders, teams respect and will follow a leader that is real. Leaders love team members that are honest about their capabilities.

The danger of being dishonest cannot be overstated. It will be obvious that you’re incompetent when it matters most. And those are the defining moments. Those critical moments when you’re required to deliver at the level you’re not are the times people are either catapulted further up or taken down to even lower depths.

Don’t be smug; be real. Don’t undermine yourself; say exactly where you’re at. There is nothing wrong with being on a lower rung on the ladder as long as you’re working on getting better. Be honest.

[image by: pasukaru76 | cc]

In Self Leadership , , , , , , , , , ,
 permalink

More Than Logo; Understanding And Translating Your Brand

25/03/2013 — Leave a comment

Don’t mistake logo for brand. Your logo is not your brand. It is only a part of your brand. It is a representation of who you are. More like the hairstyle you wear that sets you apart from other people.

It is your dress style and your walk that your friends use to spot you from a distance. Because your logo represents you, you must give a great deal of attention to it.

But the attention you give to that representation must not overtake the action that is supposed to reinforce.

You can have a great logo with a bad brand and a bad logo with a great brand.

4407353653 4f029bdfc5 z More Than Logo; Understanding And Translating Your Brand

your brand is more than just one thing; it is a collection of everything you are and do

|| image by Cordey | cc

 

A great logo will not save your reputation from bad service. A great logo can become a symbol of all things bad no matter how good it is, if the service that backs it fails to meet the needs and expectations of those you serve.

Your brand is the totality of who you are. It is the heart with which you do what you do. It is (what should be) the unique flair with which you make the world a better place.

It is how you live out who you are and who you say you are. Your brand is the experience you create for those you serve as you make your products or services available to them.

Your brand is integrity or the lack of it. It is giving value in a memorable and client considerate service. Or not.

Your brand is an integration of all the systems in your organization. It is how your team serves each other as they work toward delivering to those you serve.

It is not just how you treat your clients; it is also how you treat each other. It is how you interact with your suppliers.

Your brand is reflected in how your team feels in delivering to your target market.

Your team and suppliers must have the same experience you aim to deliver to your clients. That is the essence of brand integrity.

When you think about your brand, do not just thing about how you are perceived by the clients loyal to you. Do not think about how the world sees you but consider the totalities of the experience you give all round.

Who is your “brand self”?

In Ideas, Leadership, Productivity, Social Media, Vision , , , , , , , , , , , ,
 permalink

Brand Integrity; A Secret To Brand Loyalty

20/03/2013 — Leave a comment

.

"In the event of an emergency get your oxygen mask on first before assisting children… and passengers acting like them. 

Welcome to Lanseria Airport, if this is not where you want to be, you've got some serious issues…"

You will hear something like this on a typical Kulula flight.

Kulula, a South African domestic airline, is the perfect case study of brand integrity. They are consistent. Kulula makes it on my list of favorite airlines. Not only from airline experience but also from a brand perspective because of how obvious they are about who they are.

Besides lessons of being a brand, Kulula is a great resource for leadership lessons. In case you haven’t already, you have to read this post, which shares another secret for brand loyalty.

 

IMG 20130206 1656341 1024x498 Brand Integrity; A Secret To Brand Loyalty

being consistent with the brand experience to those you serve is key in keeping them loyal to your brand

 

If your eyes were closed and you heard a Kulula ad that didn’t mention their name you would know it is Kulula. That’s because they are obvious. They are not some stuck up, uptight, prim and proper airline. This brand is a person.

It is that friend with a great sense of humor. The guy you’d go to a party not for the sake of the party but to hang with. The staff seems to take on the character of the same person. Either they have some intensive humor training so humor flows through their service teams or they only hire funny people.

(Hey Kulula, if you are reading this, I’d like to know how you keep it funny. PS: can you throw in an interview? I mean, can I interview you?)

Did I mention it is also just the right amount of funny? Not too much it’s corny and boring and not too little you ask for more. Just the right amount of funny.

This airline embodies the efficient P.A. everybody wants. I’ve received reminders about flights. It may not be a big deal for you, but it matters to me. Especially when you had the wrong day and or time for your flights.

Simple, small things make a big difference in brand experience. What do you love about some of your favorite brands?

In Ideas, Leadership, Productivity, Social Media, Vision , , , , , , , ,
 permalink

Boldly Be; A Secret To Brand Loyalty

18/03/2013 — 2 Comments

People love brands for different reasons. Like the old saying goes, “Different strokes for different folks”. People have their reasons for preferring brands to others.

The biggest reason people love the brands they do, is because they are a reflection of something about them or something they aspire to. If your favorite brand were a person, it would be the one person you’d take everywhere and want to introduce to everybody you know.

Reasons such as great customer service and value for money constitute some of the justifications people decide to follow and be loyal to brands.

bull brand1 1024x497 Boldly Be; A Secret To Brand Loyalty

be bullish about your brand

Above all the (lowest) standards for service people appreciate about brands, there is a reason that is rarely acknowledged as one of people love the brands they love.

Nike, Apple, Red Bull, Billabong, Virgin, Nandos, Kulula… you can complete the list with your favorite brand. All these brands have one thing in common that people who love them appreciate.

It is this simple:

One of the biggest reasons people love these brands is that the brands their “brand-selves”. Not only do they love brands because they are themselves but also because they are boldly who they are.

When brands are bold about who they are, they give make it easier for people to decide whether they follow or not. If they do pledge their allegiance to your brand it is likely not a short-term thing.

When a brand is inconsistent with their identity so is affinity and loyalty to their brand.

In the same way you snub people who are one person today and another on a different day, your brand is snubbed if people have to keep guessing who you are. How often do you keep changing aspects of your identity as a brand?

It is important that brands evolve but that is what changes in your brand needs to be: an evolution. Too much rapid change too often can be upsetting to loyalists.

If your brand does need serious renovation do not take too long to do it. However, make sure you are clear about who you are. Declare it up front. Live it boldly and be consistent. How consistent and upfront are you in being you?

In the same way you love people who are themselves, let not your brand be pretentious.

Stop apologizing for who you are as a brand. Just be your “brand self”. Those who will not like you will look for one they like and those you will like you will really like you. They’ll love you.

Remember: not everyone will love you and the best you can do is be boldy your “brand-self” regardless…

In Ideas, Leadership, Social Media, Vision , , , , , , , , ,
 permalink

Useless Critique

15/03/2013 — 1 Comment

For anything to become greater, you have to not only identify its limitations. Whether it’s a team, a system or a product, it will never be any greater without it being critically looked at. ‘Critical’ has become a synonym, for mean or nasty.

‘Critical’, in our instance, simply means careful and objective analysis. You can be objective without being nasty. And, for those who are nasty and dismiss their nastiness in, “I just speak the truth… People don’t love to hear the truth”: the truth can be said without being nasty.

People, teams and organizations, love things that will make them greater. They love truth; they just can’t stomach the plate it is sometimes served on.

3264923513 4a4c05f7b2 b Useless Critique

critique should help you, your team and enterprise get better, do it right

|| image by laverrue | cc

 

Truth

Critique that doesn’t help is critique said or delivered in a mean way. Irony: when mean people demand being treated nicely. In fact it is the “meanies” who often demand that they are not respected enough.

Don’t lose the beauty of truth by the way you say it ~ @gregdarley

Critique given in a distasteful way, draws attention from what the critique needs to accomplish to the way it is given.

Useless critique is critique that draws attention from what it is supposed to accomplish, to itself.

More or Less

The man who started with the phrase, “More or less” should be locked up somewhere to never the light of day. Which is it? It is more or is it less? This phrase does not help much in amking anything greater.

If you cannot identify whether your next measure should be more or less, then you are stuck. If you use it, you make your team stuck; what are they supposed to do?

I Don’t Know How…

I know you’ve done this at some point in your life. (I hope you’re still not doing it). When it is time to give your opinion and you use, “This needs to get better but I don’t know… I just can’t describe it but…”

If you, as a leader, can’t describe it, how is your team supposed to make it happen? Non-specific critique will never make anything greater.

As leader, you must have clear sight of the future your enterprise is trying to create. If you can’t describe it, you can’t pursue it.

Good, Bad, Ugly

If you are going to use, “This is great, bad…” or other similar statements, say what about it you appreciate or do not. This kind of critique empowers others to magnify the great stuff and subtract the bad stuff in future initiatives. Say what you hate and like about something.

And, don’t be nasty about it…

What other critique doesn’t help much? What annoys you the most (besides being critiqued of course) when people critique?

In Ideas, Leadership, Self Leadership, Teamwork , , , , , , , , , , ,
 permalink