With Ambassadors on the Inside, Brand Championship Abounds

We all want our companies to grow right? We want to have our revenues soar and a line formed around our building filled with super-qualified candidates who want to join our team. We focus all of our time, money, energy and hope on external growth, often with our backs turned to what is happening on the inside. Many leaders neglect to take the temperature of their workplace.  

Not understanding just how “bought-in” (or not) their teams are with respect to their corporate vision, goals, and most importantly, the value they bring to the table, is a dangerous mistake.

This not only applies to investing in one’s culture, but also in defining, digesting, living and then promoting the value that each employee, manager and the team as a whole brings to the collective growth efforts of the firm.  

Makes sense, right?  So how can leaders get the growth vibe on the inside of their companies to match their external marketing and sales efforts?  

As with most things, it starts with the top.  

Leadership must clearly define their vision and their own personal motivations.  This is essential to uncovering the motivation of the rest of the team.  Each employee’s motivations are unique and if their employer fails to understand how they define success — and helps them to achieve it — they will never achieve the coordination required to grow smart — and sustainably.  

Once leadership defines their vision, motivation and execution strategy for internal/external growth, they must clearly communicate this throughout the organization. This is where transparency comes in. The more transparent management is about what their expectations are and how they plan on moving forward the more empowered the team feels to achieve both their individual and group goals.

When everyone is empowered, they are able to recognize strengths, challenges and opportunities within themselves, their colleagues, their firm and their clients/customers.  

Recognition — and accountability — are part of the “secret sauce” necessary to getting the whole crew rowing in the same direction.  

Those who are charged with growth strategy for their firms would benefit from remembering to address the following the next time they approach their strategic plan:
• Leadership
• Transparency
• Empowerment
• Recognition
• Accountability

The least expensive and most effective way to generate sustainable success is to ensure that the enthusiasm created by those on “the front lines” (marketers, salespeople, business developers) is mirrored by all of the folks who make the magic happen on the inside.  

This is growing smart.

Interested in growing smart? It starts with awareness. StrategyHorse is all about helping professionals and their organizations to “connect the dots” through a creative, pragmatic, intuitive and inspiring approach. To learn more please visit www.strategyhorse.com, follow Wendy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/strategyhorse or connect with her on LinkedIn. Wendy speaks to audiences all over the globe and is currently writing a book about how to achieve smart growth through increased awareness.