Leadership

Leela Gill is a thought leader and VP of Marketing for Intelligence Node, with 15+ years of experience in Retail, FinTech and HR Tech.

Working from home is the “new normal,” and remote work is likely here to stay for many large businesses.

For example, in May 2020, Twitter announced that its employees can continue to work remotely indefinitely. And in a recent Gartner Inc. survey of chief financial officers, 74% reported they expect some of their employees will keep working remotely after the crisis ends.

So, as we reorganize our work processes for remote teams, we can use the opportunity to build a better team. Here are four principles you can apply to build a high-performance culture.

1. Be transparent about goals, processes and results.

We know that crisis is emotional but we may forget the human impact. People may not be producing at their typical levels of either volume or quality for a variety of reasons including adapting to new work norms or accommodating family schedules. As marketing leaders, we can remind ourselves and our bosses that gratitude and inspiration are expressions that will payout dividends now and in the future. And frequent communication is critical. When contacting employees, customers, or the general public, a leader’s voice is more important than ever. You can’t post the same messages at the same frequency as if nothing is happening. Nor should we hide or be silent. Now is the time to emotionally connect and communicate more with your employees, customers and your pipeline.

Traditionally, executives set annual and quarterly objectives and key results, and translate them into goals for managers. At best, these goals were reviewed every 90 days with employees. But working remotely has forced many of us to bring a more deliberate focus to measuring productivity.

I have found that higher performance can be achieved with small, simple techniques. Tools and procedures, like sharing key performance indicator (KPI) documents and using collaborative project management software, are perfect supplements to group meetings and can align your team to drive higher performance.

As an example, I set up a shared document for my team, with quarterly department goals and metrics. Within this group document, each team member has their own worksheet with their specific goals, metrics, projects and accomplishments. The items in these worksheets are hyperlinked directly to the document outlining department goals and revenue objectives.

Because the whole team works within the same document, each member can see what everybody else is doing and how their own work fits. We spend one meeting a week reviewing the progress of every team member. Because we look at our goals every week, instead of every 90 days, we stay aligned and focused, building a high-performing culture.

2. Formalize collaboration, mentoring and orientation.

Now, while working remotely, almost every business I know is using Slack or a similar tool to enable the rapid communication ostensibly available in the office. As a best practice to drive higher performance, especially for global teams, make sure to establish overlapping work hours with your direct reports so you can have synchronous interactions outside of meetings that deliver faster, clearer decision-making.

In addition, relying on these communication tools presents an opportunity to deliberately incorporate more effective collaboration and business norms. For example, if you never formalized your mentor program, now is the time to put it into action. Schedule mentoring meetings between your employees and ask them to let you know how these meetings are going. What does your new hire onboarding process look like while working remotely? Make sure new hires are paired up, have one-to-one channels with mentors and get special attention as they get started with your company.

For high-performing team collaboration, adopt the daily standup meeting to help everyone align on work priorities. This technique is common practice for engineering teams, but not so much in other departments. What we found when we started holding daily morning standups was that it became a great way to not only make sure we all stay on track but to fight the isolation of working from home. People connected more, and communication was frequent.

3. Pay attention to both the quality and the quantity of communication.

Many teams are finding alternatives to the spontaneous morning coffee runs, the midday water cooler talk and the after-office happy hours with online activities like trivia games and performing art Zoom calls. These are great techniques to build a high-performance culture. In addition, you also need to create social-distancing versions of the regularly scheduled one-to-one, the team meeting and the all-hands meetings. (Don’t have those? Now is a great time to start.)

Monthly all-hands meetings with the CEO and leadership team can increase the sense of a shared purpose. In my company, the CEO gives a report on the company’s growth, discusses upcoming important programs and then opens it up for questions. Employees can submit questions anonymously for this town hall-style segment, and I find that they appreciate the candor of the answers.

Working remotely underscores the importance of supporting your team and staying positive, which can drive higher team performance. At least once a week, find time to acknowledge your team members and post photos on your Slack pages about successes. Though you might not have done this before, find fun ways to celebrate and reward people with tokens of appreciation, like coffee coupons or e-gift cards. I bet you will see your team productivity increase significantly.

4. Manage your personal time and energy.

Working from home presents an opportunity to create the optimal rhythm for you. This can help you become happier as well as more productive. At home, you can discover solitude to focus, which might have been harder to do in the office. Take advantage of that!

Schedule time on your calendar every morning to review the top three things you need to get done for the day. Make it a habit. And take the time to go for a walk at lunch. Create rituals that keep you healthy both mentally and physically.

Establish start and stop times. Separate your workspace from family space, and physically leave your workspace at the stop time. Encourage your team to pick up these habits, too, in order to perform at a higher level.

Properly managing remote work can help you create a lasting high-performance culture.

When in the office, many managers take for granted that merely being physically present with people creates culture. This has never really been the case. To build a high-performance culture, make the effort to unify your team around a shared purpose and the pursuit of transparent goals. Let a little more fun and personality into the business environment. Finally, practice and encourage self-care and healthy work-life balance. Those practices can help you create a better team, whether or not you return to your physical office.

6 MIN READ By LEE FREDERIKSEN, PH.D., HINGE UNIVERSITY

1. Consider your overall business strategy.

A strong, well-differentiated brand will make growing your firm much easier. But what type of firm do you want? Are you planning to grow organically? Your overall business strategy is the context for your brand development strategy, so that’s the place to start. If you are clear about where you want to take your firm, your brand will help you get there.

2. Identify your target clients.

Who are your target clients? If you say “everybody” you are making a very big mistake. Our research clearly shows that high growth, high-profit firms are focused on having clearly defined target clients. The narrower the focus, the faster the growth. The more diverse the target audience, the more diluted your marketing efforts will be. So how do you know if you have chosen the right target client group? That’s where the next step comes in.

3. Research your target client group.

Firms that do systematic research on their target client group grow faster and are more profitable.  Further, those that do research more frequently (at least once per quarter) grow faster still.

Research helps you understand your target client’s perspective and priorities, anticipate their needs and put your message in language that resonates with them. It also tells you how they view your firm’s strengths and your current brand. As such, it dramatically lowers the marketing risk associated with brand development.

4. Develop your brand positioning.

You are now ready to determine your firm’s brand positioning within the professional services marketplace (also called market positioning). How is your firm different from others and why should potential clients within your target audience choose to work with you?

A positioning statement is typically three to five sentences in length and captures the essence of your brand positioning. It must be grounded in reality, as you will have to deliver on what you promise. It must also be a bit aspirational so you have something to strive for.

5. Develop your messaging strategy.

Your next step is a messaging strategy that translates your brand positioning into messages to your various target audiences. Your target audiences typically include potential clients, potential employees, referral sources or other influencers and potential partnering opportunities, to name a few of the usual suspects.

While your core brand positioning must be the same for all audiences, each audience will be interested in different aspects of it. The messages to each audience will emphasize the most relevant points. Each audience will also have specific concerns that must be addressed, and each will need different types of evidence to support your messages. Your messaging strategy should address all of these needs. This is an important step in making your brand relevant to your target audiences.

6. Develop your name, logo and tagline.

For many firms, a name change is not required. But if you are a new firm, are undergoing a merger or are burdened with a name that no longer suits your positioning, a name change may be in order. Even if you don’t change your firm name, a new logo and tagline may make sense to better support your brand positioning.

Remember, your name, logo and tagline are not your brand. They are ways to communicate or symbolize your brand. You must live it to make it real.

And don’t make the mistake of showing the new logo around internally to get a consensus. The name, logo and tagline are not for you. They are for your marketplace and should be judged on how well they communicate, not how much the partners like them.

7. Develop your content marketing strategy.

We could have called this step “develop your marketing strategy.” But we didn’t. Instead we call for a content marketing strategy.

Why? Content marketing is particularly well suited to professional services firms in the Internet age. It does all things traditional marketing does but it does them more efficiently. It uses valuable educational content to attract, nurture and qualify prospects.

Remember that your brand strength is driven by both reputation and visibility. Increasing visibility alone, without strengthening your reputation, is rarely successful. That’s why traditional “awareness-building” advertising or sponsorships so often yield disappointing results. On the other hand, content marketing increases both visibility and reputation at the same time. It is also the perfect way to make your brand relevant to your target audiences. Case closed.

8. Develop your website.

Your website is your single most important brand development tool. It is the place where all your audiences turn to learn what you do, how you do it and who your clients are. Prospective clients are not likely to choose your firm solely based on your website. But they may well rule you out if your site sends the wrong message.

Further, your website will be home to your valuable content. That content will become the focus of your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts so that your prospects, potential employees, and referral sources will find you and learn about your firm. Online content is central to any modern brand development strategy.

These days, professional services websites come in two varieties. The first is a branding site. Such a site tells your story and conveys who you are, who you serve, and what you do. In short it conveys your brand message. The other variety does the above and also generates and nurtures potential new clients. We call these High-Performance Websites.

9. Build your marketing toolkit. 

The next step in the process is to build out the remainder of your marketing toolkit. This might include one-page “sales sheets” that describe core services offerings or key markets served. In addition, there may be a brief “pitch deck” that overviews the firm or key offerings and an e-brochure about the firm. These are rarely printed pieces anymore.

Increasingly this marketing toolkit also includes videos. Popular video topics include firm overviews, case studies or “meet the partner” videos. Key services offerings are also very useful. If prepared appropriately, these tools serve not only a business development function but also are important for brand development.

10. Implement, track, and adjust.

This final step in the brand development process may be one of the most important. Obviously, a winning brand development strategy doesn’t do much good if it is never implemented.  You might be surprised at how often that happens. A solid strategy is developed and started with all the good intentions the firm can muster. Then reality intervenes. People get busy with client work and brand development tasks get put off… then forgotten.

That’s why tracking is so important. We strongly recommend tracking both the implementation of the plan as well as results. Did the strategy get implemented as planned? What happened with the objective measures, such as search traffic and web visitors? How many new leads, employee applications and partnering opportunities were generated? Only by tracking the entire process can you make sure you are drawing the right conclusions and making the right adjustments.

There you have it — a 10 step brand development process to drive the growth and profitability of your firm.

Additional Resources:

• Get strategies, tips, and tools for developing your firm’s brand with Hinge’s Brand Building Guide for Professional Services Firms.
• Download a free copy of the book Inside the Buyer’s Brain to learn how to build a powerful brand to help your firm close more sales.
• Uncover your firm’s true differentiators and give buyers a reason to pick you out of the crowd in Differentiation, Positioning & Messaging through Hinge University.

Type “change management” into a search engine, and you’ll find dozens of articles citing a high failure rate for organizational change initiatives. In the 1980s, leaders excitedly embraced change management as a discipline. By the mid-1990s, practitioners were scaring people with stories of failed initiatives and the career damage they can cause.

And this failure narrative lives on decades later. Due to the perception that the majority of change management initiatives fail, I asked several hundred participants in a change management webinar, “Within your company, what is the biggest barrier to successful change management?”

The overwhelming response was: “After the meeting ends, the debate begins.”

What I believe this really means is that leaders do not adequately address the hidden resistance. Leaders announce that a change is coming, but don’t address the fears that cause people to resist. Employees want (and deserve) to know what the change will require of them, how their current jobs will be altered and if their paths forward in the organization will be affected. When information is scarce, confusing or inconsistent, office politics and a culture of “no” halt progress. Employees may openly question why the change is even necessary.

Often, it’s not clear who’s really leading the change. If IT introduces new technology, then IT may be responsible for getting people to adopt it. Some companies perceive change as a systems design job, so they give charge to the project management office (PMO). Still other organizations view resistance to change as predominantly a psychological or training challenge, and they look to human resources for direction. And some companies use dedicated internal change leadership groups or outside consultants who can apply formal change management methodologies.

Rarely are change management initiatives guided by the professionals best positioned to make them effective: marketers.

To be sure, change management can be technically challenging, psychologically messy and call for a system-thinking approach. Traditional leaders may think of marketing as heavy-handed selling that evokes mistrust and resistance. But that isn’t what good marketers do.

Good marketers give purpose to the work and convey messages for the betterment of people. Good marketers listen and communicate the right message to the right audience — and do it using a variety of channels over a period of time. They understand that change takes time, which is why they are uniquely positioned to help ensure change management is successful.

Today, marketing alone touches every corner of the business, making a cohesive, living whole out of a company. Marketers listen to leaders and managers, employees and candidates, customers and the public at large. They craft messages to communicate not just a company’s offers, but its values and culture. Then they measure data to understand how people respond to these communications. Iterative, dynamic marketing conversations unite business, products, brand and people.

In other words, good marketers make change happen.

I’ve found that change management initiatives succeed when they follow the familiar cycle of marketing and sales: Raise awareness. Identify pain points. Share information that helps recipients of the communication make decisions. Take them on a journey. Overcome objections.

Change is not a temporary disruption that an organization gets over. Healthy businesses change continuously. As they grow, develop new products and enter new marketplaces, organizations reimagine and reinvent who they are. Marketers discern those shifting identities and shape conversations that allow them to blossom.

So, next time you have to implement a change management initiative, tap into your internal experts — your marketing team — to help run a successful mission-driven program that will change hearts and minds.