If you have a leadership problem, you also have abrand problem

13 May If you have a leadership problem, you also have abrand problem

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Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.
Peter Drucker

The book “Super Pumped” by Mike Isaac follows the ups and downs of Uber from the first glimmer of an idea until today. And sprinkled through is the idea – “We don’t have a brand problem. We have a leader problem.”

It is a meaty story that entrepreneurs will pick over for years. However, thinking that you can separate the brand from leadership is a false distinction. Like brand and products or brand and anything an organisation does, they are all a part of the same tangled Gordian Knot. 

In short, if you have a leader problem, you also have a brand problem.

Yes, leadership as a function is not defined by pomp or hierarchy. and away from the media’s glare and strategic activities, how leadership influences the brand result can be harder to discern.
Instead of blinking lights, leadership as an attribute held across all areas threads through the organisations day-to-day actions, and is woven into decision-making. 

Leaders who advance their brand result are keenly aware people are paying attention to their behaviour and model what they want others to follow. They make even hard decisions with compassion, and inspire confidence to stay the course when things get tough. They understand the organisation’s commercial and cultural achievements feed each other.

Leaders who erode their brand result are blind to those same things. They say one thing and do another then stand perplexed when others do the same. They ride roughshod over the consequences of their decisions as collateral damage. When obstacles and problems crop up, fear and repercussions rule the day. Nothing matters except the bottom line, and they will trade anything to keep it growing—even the soul of what they care about.

There is a world of nuance between the two with most leaders sitting somewhere in between. Not terrible. Not terrific. And equally and as an outcome, most brand results likewise sit in the middle. Slowly advancing and eroding in equal measure. They never entirely take off and nor do they plummet.

I’ve seen the mark a leader can make when they understand the role, not as titular head, instead of as a model for how things should get done.

Whatever tone the leader sets, wherever they sit in the organisation, others will follow and respond in kind. And that tone will infect others they work with and in turn, customers and other stakeholders. It will shape how promises are made and kept and the value placed on unheroic work. In short, it will shape the brand result.

If you think you have a brand problem, it’s worth asking if you also have a leadership problem.

Thanks for reading