Clear on value

Your company brand must clearly demonstrate value to the prospective client, now more than ever, in order to quickly build trust with them.

“The other thing that I believe will change is – business owners/executives trying to save more money and, therefore, asking themselves, ‘Do I really need a lawyer to look at this or can I DIY without losing control of risk?’ Lawyers will have to work harder than normal to demonstrate their ‘value’ and why they’re an important part of the organisation’s value chain.”

– LOD director Anthony Wright in Lawyers Weekly, ‘What 2021 will look like for legal tech and innovation’, by Jerome Doraisamy 22/10/20

Lawyers and other advisors are quickly having to adjust from a time when the value of their services was unquestioned, to a new world where finding new ways of doing things, at a cheaper cost, has become the main driver for business decision-makers.

Service businesses need to communicate clear value like never before, and this requires consideration of both business strategy and brand strategy. Advisory firms without strong expertise in these fields are at a disadvantage.

Clear on point of difference

How are you different from your competitors?

These days it’s unlikely to be because of new technology or pricing strategies – at least, not for long, as other firms get on board with implementing innovative ideas.

Your real point of difference as an advisory firm is more likely to be about your people – what they stand for as a collective, what strengths and value they bring as individuals, and how well they are able to connect, serve and build trust with clients. But how well are you communicating this in order to attract new business?

“Although positive word of mouth and strong referral networks have always been a good source of business for many practitioners, this pandemic has called into question how firms will attract new business moving forward… With many firms already signalling that they’ll continue to operate at least somewhat remotely, they will need to consider additional touchpoints beyond the traditional phone call or in-person meeting to secure new clients. This is what I foresee as being one of the most prominent challenges for practitioners moving forward – firms giving themselves a genuine competitive advantage that continues to bring new clients through the doors. I think one of the most undervalued ways to do this is through offering truly exceptional client service.”

– LEAP Australia CEO Donna Broadley in Lawyers Weekly, ‘What 2021 will look like for legal tech and innovation’, by Jerome Doraisamy 22/10/20

Your genuine and sustainable point of difference as a team of advisors will start with clarity on what you do in-house… but you must also find ways to make this outwardly visible and clear – such as ways to stay top of mind with existing clients and referral sources, and ways to demonstrate your point of difference to wider audiences online.

Clearly demonstrated through your people

We have seen that business growth comes from trust and visibility. For a brand to be trustworthy, it must be visible in the right ways – that means that what your team members do and say, in person and online, aligns with and reinforces what the company represents.

With so much more of business being executed virtually and online now, the ways your staff present themselves and communicate to others is amplified further. I’ve talked about some of the ways we learn about a company culture through online interactions in the current environment in talks and articles such as this one.

In my work with people on how they represent themselves and the company brand, I have found that gaps in brand alignment are usually to do with a lack of clarity on what the brand stands for. When team members are brought in on the process of clarifying brand values, they begin to embody the brand. In addition, developing confident personal brands is necessary to empower and motivate staff to build trust with stakeholders through everything they say and do.

From collaboration to client service to networking to online thought leadership, your advisors and wider staff have the opportunity to demonstrate confident professionalism united with a clear company brand. Developing a cohesive team of trusted advisors is an edge that will encourage business growth beyond 2020.

References

https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/newlaw/29766-what-2021-will-look-like-for-legal-tech-and-innovation

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Let’s start with the explicit – and see how obvious they are to you!

Explicit ways your culture is displayed online

If you are in the news, the media’s representation of you will say something about your culture and your brand. And if you are proactively seeking media coverage to demonstrate your good news stories or your expertise – the perception of your organisation and you as a leader are still subject to how journalists and editors choose to portray the information you provide! As anyone who has tried this will know, it’s a bit of potluck as to how you’ll come across, despite your best efforts! Of course – how you are represented can highly depend on the publication you land in – I was recently misquoted (as in, words I did not say in a particular sentence were inserted, which changed the meaning) in an article in a tabloid with an enormous following!

With so many more people looking for jobs, there are more people looking to find out about your culture online, through social media and job search sites like Glass Door. These platforms reveal clear messages about how people see your organisation through reviews of leadership, culture, management, team members, brand, products and services.

Now here are some ways I can learn about your culture by reading between the lines…

Implicit ways your culture is displayed online

By attending a bunch of webinars on various professional topics recently, I have not only learned from the presenters… I have unintentionally learned about how some people see the organisations they work for. With people generally logging in (usually as a requirement) with their full name, and leaving comments and questions in the public chat during the webinar, you can see how some people feel about their organisation – and it wouldn’t be hard for the overly curious to find out where they work, even if it hasn’t been stated.

Certain comments left in the chat, in answer to a question posed by the presenter, inadvertently reveal how happy people are with leadership, management or work environment… or what they perceive the company stands for and the impact it makes. I wonder whether you’ve seen chat comments like these:

• “Sometimes my suggestions are listened to, but not always.”
• “I feel pigeon-holed in a certain skillset but I’d like to demonstrate that I can do other things.”
• “We don’t really talk about what our team is trying to achieve.”

Questions written in the chat, or that I’ve heard people ask in an online networking event (where you can see their face and their name), have demonstrated to me that:

• Someone was not receiving adequate professional development and training for their role
• Someone was unclear how their role made a positive impact to the wider team and stakeholders
• The financial health of a business was in question!

Consider also that these forums are often not a one-time event. Many presentations and discussions are recorded for sharing more widely with the professional community, through websites, email lists and social media platforms.

However innocently people engage during webinars, their natural and understandable enthusiasm to connect with ideas and to share with others can reveal some problems within your organisation. And while it would be wrong to attempt to control this, it is worth being aware of, since it highlights how necessary it is to prioritise a healthy culture, as well as to educate your people more broadly about how their actions represent the organisation online.

I’ve listed just a few examples… can you think of other ways a company culture is revealed online?

What to do about it?

Over the last couple of years I’ve been speaking and writing about building your awareness of how your culture is both portrayed and grown in the online space, and what you can do to become more proactive in guiding this, from within your organisation as well as at board level. In articles and presentations to business audiences, I have spoken about how culture is represented in internal and external, formal and informal ways. Now in 2020, not only do these points still hold true – they are more important than ever.

Some further reading:

What’s your board’s role in leading organisational culture online?

Ways culture is revealed through staff’s social media activity

Brand and culture expression through your people – creating a ‘net’ to catch and assess impression touch-points

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Plans have changed, communication agendas have changed.

Whether they are business owners and CEOs leading organisations, board members forging a path forward, consultants growing/recovering their client base or executives looking for a new role, the clients with whom I’m working on personal brand positioning and communication right now are doing things differently.

It’s certainly a challenge to plan a communication strategy that fits these difficult and constantly evolving times! There is the worry that you may miss the mark with your content, losing people’s attention and trust. Or that your offering is no longer relevant. Or that there is too much noise and you’re just adding to the pile, blending in. Or you simply don’t know where to focus now, and how quickly that will change – again.

But there are some constants we can still be certain of: Your personal brand strategy needs to come from a clear purpose, a clear audience, and a genuine belief that you can help. Because these things aren’t always clear, this is usually where the discussion starts.

Once you have a clear sense of purpose and audience, it’s time to tackle strategy.

Here are some personal brand communication tactics, flowing out of strategy, that are working for my clients right now:

• Don’t ignore the issue. Those still communicating ‘business as usual’ (and there are some out there) are failing to resonate with people and are possibly even pushing them away. Speak to the issues that are front-and-centre for your audience right now, and that are relevant to your work. What is your perspective? How can you help?
• It’s ok to self-promote. If people genuinely need your services or skills right now – particularly new, more relevant iterations of them – then they need to know they exist. What matters is the intention behind the promotion (Can you really help? Is that your primary motivation?) and giving deep thought to what and how you promote, so that it’s meaningful to and respectful of others.
• Share your personal experience/examples. While I usually warn against the warts-and-all, heart-on-your-sleeve approach to personal branding (I’m not against vulnerability, but I believe in considering context and purpose!)… right now there is more than usual wiggle-room for being human – and actually, it’s helpful. We humans need reminders that everyone else is human, too. It’s comforting and helps us to see we are in this together. Giving personal examples is also a great way to explain your perspective and provide tangible help.
• Inspire and celebrate. Some of my clients regularly celebrate the work of others, just because it’s how they operate. Encouraging, supporting and talking about others’ work right now is more important than ever before. It helps your audience build trust with the person you are celebrating, as well as with you. More importantly, it provides us all with much-needed inspiration right now.

And here is a final tip purely from my own experience reading/listening to/watching others online:

• Be gentle with your advice. I’m not always that! But right now my own experience consuming content is that I am totally overwhelmed by and turned off the type of ‘motivational’ content that feels like a survival bootcamp. If you are screaming at me to do more, be more and create more right now… I can’t hear you. I know there are things to be done, to figure out, to make happen. As someone who is always striving to achieve the next goal, I am conversely more effective when I am not so hard on myself – particularly now. For the time being, I am finding advice that tells me, ‘It’s hard, and I know how you feel. Here are some things that may help’… much more helpful than ‘Get your s#*t together!!!’…how about you?

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How are you coping with the (identity) crisis?

Who is that woman in her active wear? She seems to have a Monday-Sunday gym clothing combo on rotation.

She misses the sound of her high heels on the city pavement.

Her car is gathering cobwebs around the tyres.

She’s doing the grocery shopping on a weekday because she’s got the time (and she equally feels dread and excitement about it).

Her coffee meetings are on Zoom.

Her client workshops are on Zoom.

Her after-work drinks are on Zoom (and they are not that much fun).

She is grateful for Zoom. And yet… feeling the energy of presenting from a stage or sharing the space with the people you are working with is remembered wistfully, like the fading memory of her last holiday.

Weirdly, she feels more connected to her family than ever… but she misses their hugs.

She’s cooking a hearty meal by 6pm.

She’s going to bed at 9pm because she hasn’t just arrived home.

She’s waking up by 5am because her brain is totally confused (and she’s had enough sleep since she went to bed at 9).

These days I hardly recognise myself.

It’s a very strange thing, how this world crisis is creating ripple effects of all sorts… little mini-crises at the individual level. In my discussions with friends and colleagues over the last few weeks, I have heard many versions of my story above.

For some, it may be simply the surprise and confusion at finding yourself looking different, speaking and thinking about different things, and spending your days in a different way. For others, it may be a bigger personal crisis, like questioning your line of work or what you value spending time on (or with whom!). And for others, the crisis is more immediate, and it’s about putting food on the table today.

I am really grateful that I am only experiencing light frustration and a fair helping of amusement as I observe myself attempting to work out what stays the same and what must change. And I am also finding that my years of work helping myself and others think purposefully about ‘personal branding’, or who you are professionally, is proving to be a solid foundation in navigating such uncertain times. Defining who you are and what you want to communicate when it comes to your professional contribution is not only helpful for being clear to others, it makes it clear to yourself.

With a new flexibility to our days and time to think like never before, this is the perfect opportunity for many of us to finally get clear on our personal brand messaging. We have a unique opportunity to get reflective, digging a little deeper to fine-tune our passions and value points and to build a strong plan to communicate it outwardly. It’s one way to nurture yourself, reignite inspiration… and maybe, get over that mini-identity crisis 😉

Hope this is helpful! If you have a topic you would like me to address in the ‘Online Personal Brand Tips for Crisis Mode’ series, please let me know!

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‘Well-intentioned misinformation’

I recently heard this wonderful phrase from an accountant who has spent the last few weeks deep-diving into the governments’ support packages as they are announced, in order to guide his clients in a timely way. He expressed frustration at the plentiful ‘well-intentioned misinformation’ that is circulating, where people are eager to help but where their advice may be premature or flawed.

It’s certainly tricky navigating the fast pace of change and the nuances of developments as they unfold and sometimes course-correct, but those in advisory roles or those seen as advisors to their audience need to be extra careful with what they are putting out there right now – not just because of the potential damage to their own reputation, but more importantly – because someone might be taking that advice.

In a recent video I described my own frustration at the irrelevance of some content where podcasters are continuing ‘business as usual’ and not giving sufficient thought to how advice about growing your business or making money etc. may be received right now. It’s not that this subject matter is no longer relevant; it’s that it can’t be treated in the same way as it was even a few weeks ago. As I mention in the video – this is resulting in hitting ‘unsubscribe’ as respect is lost.

Practical LinkedIn Tip on CONFUSION: Careful with what you endorse through ‘likes’

I have seen examples of very well-informed and skilful professionals writing posts with great information for their audience on LinkedIn… and then ‘liking’ every comment made on their post, whether the comment is helpful/well-informed or not.

Be aware that when you ‘like’ a comment someone has left on your post, it is not merely a ‘thank you’ for engaging with your material; it can be seen as an endorsement of what they are saying. So if what they are saying is factually incorrect, ensure you are not aligning with the actual comment by ‘liking it’. You can counter with the correct information, or you can ignore it, or you can remove the comment. Just don’t ‘like’ it automatically.

Video: My Number 1 Personal Brand Tip for right now

Who is the bigger person?

It’s perfectly acceptable to correct someone who provides information you know to be misguided. Or to defend your position if you know you are right and someone is criticising you. But how you choose to do this is what really matters.

As someone who shares content almost daily, I know how frustrating it is to be criticised publicly by someone who is saying something untrue or even ridiculous… or who hasn’t bothered to read your post properly before pointing out something they think you haven’t considered!

But that will only make you look bad if you descend to that level of exchange. As counterintuitive as it feels, try thanking them for the comment before continuing with a measured response.

I cannot believe the amount of comments I see on LinkedIn – what is meant to be a professional platform – that reveal their authors to be less than professional. Heated comments that are overly defensive or personally insulting (even if in a ‘subtle’ passive-aggressive way) achieve nothing more than a demonstration of someone’s deeper feelings of inferiority and lack of professional judgement in the moment.

I’m not saying emotion has no place in business – showing emotion is good when it is constructive, supportive, inspirational or serves to connect people. But acting out because you don’t like what someone is saying has no place in professional conversations.

Practical LinkedIn Tip on EMOTION: If you wouldn’t say it to their face, don’t say it online

The truth is most people wouldn’t say those things, in that tone, to someone’s face, particularly someone they have just met or barely know. So why would you do it online… where everyone can see your heated reaction?

The difference between those who get emotional and those who choose to be the bigger person gives us the best example of the gap in people’s personal brands. While some don’t even see what they are communicating about themselves… others are building deep trust through their everyday reactions and interactions online.

Hope this is helpful! If you have a topic you would like me to address in the ‘Online Personal Brand Tips for Crisis Mode’ series, please let me know!

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This video includes:

• What I mean by a personal brand that is SIMPLE, CLEAN and SUPPORTIVE
• Why this is my Number 1 personal brand tip!
• Why I’m unsubscribing from podcasts that aren’t paying attention to these principles in the current times

I’d love to hear your thoughts – leave a comment on LinkedIn!

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More online personal branding tips for crisis times

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In summary:

• Work in the background on important but not urgent things you never usually get to (and some examples)
• Bring human qualities online (that’s where we are networking and selling now!)
• Find creative solutions to old OR new client problems (and we know how they feel right now!)
• I announce my new online tools coming soon to help with your online personal branding!

Shoutout in this video to WA Leaders

Hope you enjoy!

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It’s interesting to watch people’s varied reactions in the supermarket – people loudly complaining about others’ behaviour… or filming other people who are anxiously waiting in line… strangers nervously laughing together about the craziness of it all… or those trying to be kind to people who are less fortunate. 

Turning into a narrow intersection on the road yesterday, another driver went out of their way to back their car up to let me pass… and as I drove past, thanking the driver with a wave, I heard the driver of another car yelling at the one in front to hurry up. A stark contrast, and I felt pretty grateful that my exchange was the positive one.

A range of reactions, all perfectly natural when every one of us is dealing with some level of fear about what might happen next.

I am also hearing the occasional, ‘What’s the big deal?’ or ‘I won’t get sick!’, and I’ve witnessed the odd business owner say that they don’t need to change anything about how they do business. None of us know what will happen next, but for me personally, I think that the businesses and people who are responding proactively by making some changes are the ones who will ride out these challenging times and possibly even thrive throughout.

While the threats to life, livelihood, business and the economy are real, it’s important to be a light for others and for yourself in the darkest times. It’s that – or panic and try to hide from what is happening.

To me, trying to act as a light in dark times is on a human level about kindness and mindfulness, and on a business level about creative problem-solving, connection (even with social distancing!), and positive leadership.

Walking past an encouraging shop sign or experiencing a kind smile from a stranger are experiences that shine very brightly and mean more than ever right now. So let’s all try to be part of the solution because as they say:

If you’re not part of the solution, you are part of the problem!

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