I just read an article on the Wall Street Journal on the Girl Scouts.  They have just hired a Chief Marketing Officer and are going to rebrand a 95 year old brand.  Leadership will be at the core of their rebranding efforts, but they are trying to make it relevant to today's tech-saavy teenager.  The truth is that the Girl Scouts did not remain current with their target and over the past 10 years has seen declines in membership.  They lost relevancy.  It brings to mind some important branding lessons:

1.  A brand is never static.   Targets evolve and change continuously.  A brand must continue to redefine itself in order to remain relevant.

2.  Connection and engagement is at the core of branding.  You can't have connection and engagement with your target if you are no longer relevant.

3.  Relevance always requires a mindset that steps out of ourselves and out of our brands.  Great brands never believe they are the center, their target is. 

        

It sometimes amazes me to realize how much we need to know in order to be in business.  Whether you are in marketing, general management,  IT, or an entrepreneur wearing all hats there are constant changes in our world that have business implications that we need to keep up with. 

As a fairly new entrepreneur, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all today and decided to go out for a run to clear my head.  Technology and the internet are changing our lives more than we can even fathom at the moment.  Fortunately the foundation for leading people are still fairly straight-forward, but the complexities of what technology brings can often complicate it.   You know how that email ticks you off because you can't really understand the tone.  Or how the telecommuting limits face-to-face time or hallway time where informal communications happen. With our focus on learning and adapting to all the changes, time is short.   It is easy to gloss over the connections that matter when we opt not to make that phone call and instead we shoot off an email.  I do it too.  It is easy.

In leadership, as in sales, the personal connection is key.  When in doubt get face to face or atleast pick up the phone.  It is amazing how quickly we can put something back on track by making that personal connection. 

        

Maybe the word leadership or leader conjures up old images of command and control, antiquated and stodgy ways of being.  When I speak to businesses (small and large)and associations about Leadership, I invariably get a few people saying:  "I don't want to be a leader, it's not my deal"...or they say their way it in so many words.  The reality is that it is a bad word.  I think people think of leadership as a role and if they aren't in one with that word attached to it, well then it isn't for them.  I think of leadership as a way to get what you want in life.  Authentic leadership enables people to enlist others to assist and help them achieve their goals.  No one can be as successful alone as they can with the help of others.    I am searching for another word that captures it better and has a lot less baggage.

        

        

        

        

        

        

When I have asked people "Who is the one person that has inspired you the most in life?" the answer given is most commonly a parent or teacher.  And yet, we don't often think of those people as leaders, buth they often are.  Leadership is something that we solely think of in context of business...reserved for the president of some large corporation or business.  This is a common misconception about leadership and yet leadership skills are applicable to our daily lives, at work and at home.  I believe that we all have what it takes to be a great leader.