Why Companies Need to Immerse Their People in Their Brand

I read an article the other day from Fast Company titled “This is why no one wants to be a middle manager anymore.” This appropriately titled article accurately addresses the challenges of stress and anxiety, mental burnout, and the seemingly overall dissatisfaction and missed marks of these mid-tier employees. Can you blame them?! Aren’t we all feeling high stress and anxiety levels, some version of burnout and an overall dissatisfaction with the state of things these days? This is a humanity issue, not just an employee or, in the case of this article, a middle manager issue.

We are all feeling the pressure of immense change around us, from social culture and global health issues to shifts in workplace dynamics and everyone battling with the “something feels off” feeling. So, needless to say, companies and/or brand ecosystems are feeling it too. Why? Because all these teams are made up of these highly stressed, dissatisfied people. We’re all in this together. I know, before you queue the feel-good music, the point is that brand culture is people culture and it’s our job as brand creators and leaders to immerse our people in healthy environments that support both the growth of the business and the individual. 

So, let's explore some of these dynamics as it relates to the individuals on your team and how those dynamics influence your brand experience... 

When starting a new brand project, I explain to clients that at times things will get personal. It seems to surprise them at first, but then something changes, they quickly become excited to feel a part of the process, a part of the brand. They are woven into the fabric of the brand, which gives them a sense of duty and responsibility to uphold the brand they helped create. This is what each employee needs to feel. They need to feel a part of something bigger than themselves, a part of something that connects, offers stability, and a sense of belonging. I’m not talking about hosting a bunch of team-building activities and giving everyone branded swag, I’m talking about creating clearly defined paths for our teams, our communities, to belong to, to identify with, and to aspire to be a part of. 

For the first part, let’s talk about what having a healthy brand culture feels like.

Intentional hiring and trial periods

The concept “hire slow, fire fast” rings true here; although why hire or fire until both parties are ready? What if we had trial periods where both parties get to know each other, see if it’s a good fit, and that it’s worth committing to? Ahem like dating?! Yep! It's true though, we already do this in our personal life, why should work life be any different? Still creating a relationship, still investing time and money in a person, still have the same risk of it not working out, so why not? Before you think of this as a logistical nightmare, think about the latter; you hire someone, do all the paperwork, new employee costs, press releases and social announcements to decide it’s not a good fit a month or two later creating an emotional rollercoaster for the team, the person and the company morale. Seems worth a try, right?   

Relationship building

Somewhere along the way this phrase became “soft” but how can something so integral to life itself be considered soft? Our entire lives are built and defined by the relationships we have with others from early childhood development and life partners to business networks and followings, so shouldn’t this be a skill worth developing in your team? Brands are built on the fact that customers, employees, and other businesses want to have a relationship with them. It’s time we teach and lead our individuals on building, nurturing, and engaging in healthy relationships. Maybe during the trial hiring period, we offer books to read and courses to take to help measure our “relationship opportunity costs” when investing in new employees. Just a thought.

Personal development and goal setting

This is something I discovered years ago and have never looked back. I’ve been creating action plans and personal development goals for the last 10 years and am living proof that it can change your life. Without stumbling into this habit on my own, I wonder if I’d be where I am today. To my point, we should be helping our people help themselves. We should be empowering them and inspiring them to reach their full potential. Talk about a team building exercise, yes please! 

Values and job tailoring

Values make up the essence of a brand culture. The brand, their people, and their customers, all have to align with similar values to create authentic connection and loyalty. Truly “a practice what you preach” herd mentality is necessary for a brand culture to exist. Showing employees how the brand lives its values is key to believing them. This needs to happen throughout the employee experience from beginning to end. When determining an employee's potential, we should be learning how and where they align best with our values through their individual contribution. This is where we can “tailor” a job specifically to them, giving them a sense of unique ownership in the process of determining their role and valued contribution. And again, at the end of their term, giving them a chance to share feedback with the team, by creating a safe space for them to exit a company in an honest way.  

Brand story sharing and ownership

Sharing the brand story is not as simple as slapping a bunch of well-crafted words on a wall or a PowerPoint that some brand messaging wizard created (haha I know I’m even disappointed by that). The brand story has to be personalized, experienced and felt from within the team. Sure, we can and should share our successes, milestone arcs and start up stories, but we also need to have people hear it from the team, in their own words. This gives them the opportunity to feel a part of it. When your team and customers hear anecdotes from others and learn the true uniqueness of the brand, they feel connected and part of an inside story. That’s part of belonging, that’s building and nurturing a brand culture. They write it, not you.

For the second part, let’s discuss what happens when companies lack a unified brand culture. 

Quiet quitting

This “kitchy” little phrase came out this year (thanks TikTok) to describe disempowered employees who no longer felt the need to go “above and beyond '' in their work. It’s interesting because somewhere along the way it became expected to do more than the expected. For the overachiever types who prescribe to this method of thinking naturally (Hi, it’s me, I'm the problem lol), this can quickly become a way of life that unfortunately leads to high stress, anxiety, burnout, and a strong need for validation. It’s simple, above and beyond should be recognized, rewarded and deeply appreciated by the team and its leaders. So in reality, it’s not about “quitting,” it’s about creating boundaries, healthy boundaries which see the above section, we should be showing them by living them ourselves. 

Misalignment and burnout

If we aren’t showing our teams how to live by what they value, ultimately our shared values, and we aren’t leading them down a path to personal growth and goal achievement, then all we’re asking them to do and be is what we tell them to be. That’s exhausting for all parties. Who has time as a business owner to micromanage every to-do list or the desire to tell someone how to do a job that we hired them to do because; twist, we didn’t have the time to do it! When employees feel a lack of trust, responsibility, empowerment, and quite simply, like they aren’t ever doing enough, we’ve already lost them. We wouldn’t accept this behavior from a personal relationship, so why should we accept it from a professional one? Is it simply because we’re paid to? Hmm I think that conversation is changing too. 

An “acceptance of everything, stand for nothing” culture

This is a big one, and truth be told, a lot of brands have experienced backlash as of late from various forms of virtue signaling and compliance due to political and social demands. Businesses (and people) are at a standstill in the acceptance category, damned if you do, damned if you don’t, a "needing to explain themselves" narrative that frankly should just be understood through healthy, inclusive actions not words. If we take the time to get to know our people, invest in their growth, and live our brand (and personal) values by example, we can authentically stand for who we are, not what everyone else is telling us we need to be.  

Inauthentic individuals contributing to inauthentic teams

It’s so easy for people to “put it on '' when going through an interview, a first date or social event. We all want to be seen in a positive light, so we highlight the good and shelve the bad, but sooner or later you get the real person. We all have our ups and downs, positive and negative qualities, but how we manage those as individuals is what makes us who we are. Awareness of this is the first step, the second is doing something about it. As a team, it’s our duty to help each other become who we are whether that means staying on the team or not. 

Brand culture insecurity

Progression, growth, and change don’t come from maintaining a ‘group think’ mentality where people simply choose to agree rather than challenge. These are the types of environments where people feel like if they speak up, they’ll lose their job, or be ridiculed or be seen as an outsider by the team. People need to feel like they are themselves and have a voice without being shamed for it. For the sake of the longevity of the team, it’s our duty to show our individuals how to be emotionally intelligent, how to give and receive feedback gracefully, how to have respect for their fellow teammates and be loyal to the greater good of the brand culture. These are skills some intuitively possess, and others learn from life experience, but are rarely ever taught in school, at least in the traditional sense. Showing our individuals how to be themselves in the comfort of others without having to agree, without having to be bullied into submission, without being forced to match unrealistic expectations that don’t align with who they are or who we are, is the only way the conversation around culture can change. When people genuinely respect each other, the conversation changes completely. 

So, in circling back to that article, one point towards the end of the article jumped out at me, it stated that ‘... instead, managers are often left to their own devices [to acquire] strong emotional intelligence and relationship-building skills.’ I wholeheartedly agree that people in a manager/leader type role should have higher levels of EQ and be “great with people,” but part of the onus is on the brand or company they work for to engage, nurture, and immerse their employees in what it means to be a part of that brand. Feeling supported, guided and empowered by the company you work for or with is the ultimate win for creating brand loyalty both internally and externally. Isn’t that what we want, loyal happy people that help us sustain our purpose? 

In my experience, how brands shape, influence and grow their people, their team, and their customers, determines how they live their purpose as a company. This cycle below shows just us how we can do that ...