Life Changing Events in May

Are you a Leader, Entrepreneur or dealing with change in these tough economic conditions?

We are delivering three life changing evening workshops on the 18th, 19th and 20th May to hone your soft skills - vital in these difficult times.

Click on the appropriate link for more info and to reserve online - places are limited so do book early to avoid disappointment.

18 May - Leadership Brand
19 May - Entrepreneurial Brand
20 May - Vital Transitions

And feel free to contact me if you have any questions or queries: louise@mowbraybydesign.com

Bob Quick resigns

Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick resigned this week after he was photographed entering Downing Street carrying a secret briefing note detailing an undercover anti-terrorism operation - codenamed Pathway. The operation was brought forward, a house was raided on Wednesday and twelve men were arrested.

What should have been a good news story has now turned into what will be remembered as a blunder - and from all reports, it really is such a pity. Mr Quick has a solid reputation and has contributed vitally to our collective safety and security over a solid career spanning thirty years.

Inevitably, being in the public eye presents a unique set of challenges, extremes and rewards that most people will never experience. And with it, a great deal of responsibility. One could argue that Mr Quick is not your typical celebrity, however, anyone who is going to be photographed walking in and out of Number 10 should take note.

The world we live in is media driven and relentless. Even today, Gordon Brown has had to apologise publicly on behalf of junior aide Damian McBride. McBride is reported to have sent rather juvenile smear emails to Derek Draper who runs a Labour supporting website and we will probably see these in print in the Sunday papers tomorrow.

And so the lessons in the tales - we all have a personal brand or reputation to protect - not only for our own gain, but for the health of the organisations that we represent, whether commercial or political. The only way to be in control of this is to create a level of self-awareness, a firm understanding of how our actions relate to how we are perceived. If you are the person in charge, the one who heads up any group where your people's actions may have a direct effect on the success of the organisation, then send them all back to school. Personal branding school.

Piers Morgan interviews Sir Richard Branson

"I think reputation is really all you have in life - and that's something which you've got to fight to protect." Sir Richard Branson responding to a question from Piers Morgan on Piers Morgan's Life Stories - ITV.

I often refer to Branson when speaking or presenting - call it an enduring, compelling fascination with a powerful personal brand doing it his way. All the way. Sir Richard gets it, in the way that I believe Piers Morgan himself gets it - another one to watch.

This interview is a must see.

Leadership brands - the banks

I was watching the Treasury Select Committee's grilling of four former bankers last week. The interesting face of this story is the perception of banks in the broadest sense. When we look at the global brands that had until September last year have been synonymous with institution, due diligence, risk management, trustworthiness, solvency - we are now faced with an entirely different perspective. Bankers on the other hand have in recent years been perceived as risk-takers, financial wizards having a magic touch earning bonuses in multiple millions. The two have never really been congruent.

And with bankers bonuses being limited in bale-out banks, and the banks themselves being institutionalised, I believe that we are going to see very different leadership brands.

The premise of a strong leadership brand is that the leaders in the organisations they work for personify the aspirations of the corporate brand - and the successful application of this has a direct effect on the bottom line. So we expect that those working for Nike, swoosh, just do it - will in turn display the fundamental characteristics and personality of this well known brand - if they don't it, it has a negative effect on investors and customers alike.

And how will this now translate to the banks... with a whole new set of criterion, will the leadership in turn change dramatically to reflect the current situation? Somber leaders for somber times?

Intuition...

One of my clients is an entrepreneur of note. Having worked with him last year on his own personal brand, I am now working with all of the heads of the companies that he invests in. From my perspective, its interesting to see that there are a number of key common traits in the people that he is backing. From his perspective, he has chosen these people and their ideas based on a gut feeling. When it comes to the wire, he relies on his intuition.

And I find that these savvy smart people that seem to embody the word success really do use and trust their intuition more than most. They take all the knowledge that they can gather using their five senses, and combine it with the one thing that is difficult to quantify. They research, analyse, logically work through the data and assuming it stacks up, then tap into a wisdom or 'knowingness' that just has nothing to do with facts or figures. In my clients' words... "there are so many similar ideas, technologies, services - assuming that there is a level playing field, the only thing to bet on is the people involved." Interestingly, he has bet on people with healthy personal brands... they are compelling to their markets, absolutely authentic and consistently consistent.

Top down...

Fabulous company that I am working with at the moment. What a great group of people, most of whom I styled over two days this week. The interesting thing about their image culture is that they have chosen very similar types when it comes to those who are dealing with clients, or the 'face' of the company.

Image culture, as a component part of corporate culture, is always top down. Very simply, if the CEO, board, directors have a sloppy image, you can read between the lines and without fail, the rest will follow. We tend to choose people who are just like us in more ways than one.

From my perspective, I only ever work with organisations where the stakeholders are part of the project. There is little point in attempting to implement lasting, positive change if leaders aren't taking the lead.

Perception VS spin

I am working with a company that needs an image overhaul of note. In the interests of confidentiality I shall refer to them as the 'fat-cats', which they will no doubt find amusing.

Love their new leaner more 'elegant-cat' corporate brand in which they have invested time, effort, and bundles of lovely money. The issue that they now need to address is their people - not all of them live up to the glossy images and clever words. It seems their market is not buying this makeover, doesn't trust the lick of paint... feels that they are only papering over the cracks.

So we now have the original market perception of fat-cats, fighting with the new brand image of elegant-cats, and it has resulted in what I will politely refer to as a brand incongruency, stronger still, a brand-lie. Or, in terms we are all too familiar with, we now have a typical case of perception VS spin.

Image Culture, like all culture is 'top-down'. I take my hat off to the management team for embracing this next phase of bringing it all together. Without their commitment, not only would fur surely fly, but their competitors would get to make a juicy meal of it.

Perception is reality...

Perception, really, truly, is reality. First impressions really, truly, are lasting impressions. I met with a rather extraordinary bunch of people this morning to discuss their organisations' Image Culture. On the one hand, we had the passion, power, commitment of a truly inspiring individual - on the other, we had feedback from the broader community who don't 'get' the value. The two are worlds apart.

Sometimes, passion, content and commitment are not sufficient. If the market that you are attempting to appeal to is not buying, then it is cause for a broad rethink, a re-alignment, an adjustment. And the way to get there is through understanding what your markets want to buy, where they perceive the value. No matter how passionate we are about things, no matter how good and worthy they truly are... unless the value is perceived, we will always be battling, rather than achieving a flow.