Organizations continue to works towards flatter and self-managed systems where each individual is a self-actualized person. But for some reason, some known and some unknown the persona of the CEO continues to maintain a certain power. People hold the CEO to a super-human standard.
As people, we place high expectations on roles and the CEO is no exception.
Unfortunately, this makes the CEO positions susceptible to fear. Fear can be perceived as weaknesses by others so, in response, many leaders hold on to the mantra of, “Don’t admit to it. Don’t dwell on it. I am the boss and everyone relies on me.” Continue Reading
Here are four strategies for infusing your organization with greater optimism:
Be Aware of Negativity: Take action when you see negativity start to spread: When you notice your people harping on negative situations, help them change their state to break the rumination cycle. Consciously foster positive experiences to counteract the negative ones. Use humor whenever appropriate.
Celebrate Every Win, Big or Small: When your team experiences a victory, celebrate it. When someone does something positive or acts in alignment with your core values, give it attention. Encourage your team to celebrate wins of every size. Savoring positive experiences helps counteract the brain’s tendency to ruminate and overanalyze negative events. Celebrating even small wins helps you build positive momentum. On-the-spot recognition goes a long way.
Ask Empowering Questions: When you’re brainstorming with your team, it’s easy to focus on what’s wrong with an idea. Cultivate “value sensitivity” by asking people questions like: “What’s great about this idea?” “What can we leverage here?” “How can we build on this idea?” “What can we learn from this?”
Always End on the Positive: When giving feedback to employees, many leaders have a tendency to leave things on a negative note instead of a positive one. Always end on a positive note that gives clear direction to build momentum. Feelings of shame and guilt hinder learning and performance. Compassion and support promote positive change.
By: Greg Breeding – President & Creative Director at Journey Group.
I’ve served as an art director for the U.S. Postal Service for seven years. It’s a curious and delightful job and one that has brought me a great deal of creative fulfillment throughout my tenure. The process is quite fascinating, involving not only folks from the Postal Service but also American citizens who’ve been selected to help decide appropriate stamp subjects. Yet, as an art director, one of the most rewarding aspects of my work is developing relationships with the artists themselves.
The stamps I art direct — such as Johnny Cash or Batman — are typically assigned to me, but every now and then, I get to pitch my own ideas. There’s an open call to propose topics for ongoing series of stamps, such as those that feature the American flag or celebrate holidays or love. While there’s no shortage of creative ideas floating around my work/life atmosphere, as a designer and as president at Journey Group, it’s knowing when to capture the right idea that’s key — and then where to find the perfect collaborator.
Part I: Art directing and designing a stamp
The Love series started in 1973 with a stamp by pop artist Robert Indiana, and stamps from the series remain a favorite choice for those mailing valentines, wedding invitations or love letters. As an art director, Love stamps present an engaging creative challenge. You want to pitch something fresh and new, but the subject also needs to appeal to a broad audience — and reference the soaring emotion of love without being too saccharine or melodramatic.
As I was pondering ideas I had banked away, my colleague, Mike Ryan, creative director at Journey Group, campaigned to have Anna Bond design a stamp.
Anna Bond, for those who may not recognize her name, is the creative genius behind the wildly successful Rifle Paper Co. I first met Anna about 10 years ago when she was just beginning her design career and have kept up a long-distance friendship with her since then.
“Since I was little, it’s been my dream to design a stamp. I’ve always said that’s one of my top-five career goals.” — Anna Bond, Rifle Paper Co.
I, along with the rest of the world, love her vintage-inspired illustrations and aesthetic sensibilities. Upon hearing Mike’s suggestion, I knew she’d be the perfect illustrator for a Love stamp, and I had a hunch she would be up for the challenge. In 2015, Journey Group interviewed Anna for a feature story for the Postal Service website Beyond the Perf.
When Anna was 8 years old, she was given her grandfather’s stamp collection in a binder.
“I didn’t realize it, but looking back, it’s obvious that I was drawn to the graphic design of stamps,” she said. “Since I was little, it’s been my dream to design a stamp. I’ve always said that’s one of my top-five career goals.”
With the help of the team at Journey Group, I was excited to help make that dream come true.
The work
I struck up a conversation with Anna at a stamp show in New York, and we met for coffee to brainstorm about the future stamp. She was immediately on board, and I was delighted about the collaboration that was taking shape.
A floral design felt like both the obvious and right choice for this stamp, based on the series and on Anna’s aesthetic. I am also a sucker for hand-lettering, and I have always loved Anna’s loose, cheerful script on her stationery. We agreed that the design should be in the middle of the plate, with the word “Love” written in her script and surrounded by her signature flowers.
Anna began to work her magic, and in short order, we had two leading designs, one version on a dark green background and one on a white background. The stamp with the white background was ultimately chosen as the final design.
Anna and I were present for the First Day of Issue ceremony in Love, Arizona, and I was delighted to receive affirmation that Anna was the right choice. The audience was composed of many stamp collectors, as well as many fans of Anna’s work.
Part II: Translating stamp art
We were thrilled with the final stamp, and we were equally excited to extend the stamp’s success to another product that we work on at Journey Group: the Postal Service magazine USA Philatelic. For the spring 2018 issue, we knew that the Love Flourishes stamp would make a gorgeous and eye-catching cover.
Journey Group’s art director Ashley Walton and production designer Brittany Fan were enlisted to translate the stamp art to the magazine. Inspired by the stamp artwork, Ashley wanted to make the two-dimensional design come alive by using actual flowers and paper cut-outs for the cover.
With this concept in mind, Ashley and Brittany trekked to Washington, DC, to hunt for flowers at wholesale markets. A particular challenge was finding flowers with the right color, texture and feeling that would evoke Anna’s illustration — without knowing the exact names of the seemingly countless floral varieties.
Arriving with their arms full of flowers, Ashley and Brittany worked with photographer Len Rizzi to prepare the shoot in his studio, including laying out the design with hand-cut paper shapes and type, styling the flowers and mounting them in foam core, and managing consistent shadows, despite the differing depths of the material.
The team wanted to conjure up a cover that was soft, romantic and delicate and yet would stand up well next to Anna’s original artwork.
From start to finish, we were delighted with how the partnership with Anna Bond played out. As a person who works intimately with stamps, it was a pleasure to work with someone who still loves using stamps and sending mail through the post.
“It’s so special to receive a letter in the mail these days,” Anna said. “I’m used to getting mail that I don’t want to open, so I think a letter automatically makes you feel good because you know someone put effort into it. It shows they care.”
Anna’s effort and care with this design emphasizes the key to any successful creative collaboration. As an art director, what I’ve learned is that you give someone like Anna basic parameters and boundaries, and then you let her go. That’s when it goes well. The hardest and best thing I do as an art director is select the right artist. If I do that, the work flows beautifully. Choosing Anna for this project was the right call for the right time, and I loved helping her work find its way onto a stamp.
About the Author of this Post:
For Greg Breeding, strong communication—visual or spoken—is always about clarity. A graphic designer at heart and by trade, Greg’s decidedly Swiss perspective is shaped by years designing magazines, art-directing postage stamps for the U.S. Postal Service and taking an annual pilgrimage to (where else?) Switzerland to study the craft. Since co-founding Journey Group in 1992, he’s brought strong design thinking to many client relationships, building rapport through genuine interest, well-told stories and a subtle Southern drawl.
Focusing primarily on short-term goals can hinder long-term motivation because achieving short-term goals without an overarching purpose doesn’t result in lasting feelings of fulfillment.
When companies focus primarily on short-term goals, it’s usually because they don’t have a strong company vision. For them, what has to get done tomorrow is more important than what the company should become in the future.
When the goals are short-term, employee motivation comes in two forms:
Extrinsic: This type of motivation makes employees achieve a goal they didn’t set and likely perceive as arbitrary, like increase revenue by 5%. It doesn’t push them towards anything they want: they do it purely because they have to do it and their job relies on getting it done. It has no joy. The motivation is purely functional; there is no personal choice.
Goal-Based: This type of motivation is based on goals employees want to achieve, like winning an award or buying a Porsche. They will work hard so they can make enough money to buy the car. It only has joy until they achieve it. After they achieve the goal, it no longer inspires them and future goals need to become more extreme to be equally motivating (I got a Porsche, now I need a Lamborghini).
Neither of these forms of motivation helps people grow towards being the best versions of themselves: they don’t help them self-actualize. These motivations only make them act out of necessity or perceived necessity.
Not only do they hinder employee growth, but they also lead to dysfunctional organizations: Most companies that focus on short-term goals force an extrinsic goal—like grow sales by 5%—on a person and the person will attempt to achieve it by convincing themselves that they are working to achieve some goal that is unrelated to the company’s goal—like a new Porsche. The person isn’t motivated by what the company seeks to achieve and the company’s actions show they don’t care about what the employee wants to achieve personally. This creates employees that don’t care about the success of the company and only care about achieving some reward that motivates them temporarily. And, it leads to a lack of shared goals among team members and discord in an organization.
Companies with long-term, purpose-driven visions can align themselves with the journeys the employees want to go on in their own lives and grow with the employees toward a shared goal.
This isn’t to say short-term goals aren’t important—they are because they create concrete things to work towards—but they must be motivated by a purpose-driven vision shared by the company and its employees.
Is your vision strong enough to motivate your employees? Are you hiring employees whose personal visions overlap with your long-term vision?
P.S. If you need help creating a company vision that will help create highly motivated employees, we’ve created The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Company Vision. Find out more by clicking here.
By: Tyler Williams – Lead Link of the Brand Aura Circle, Zappos
Here is our mindset shift at Zappos. One of our insights is that our current customers are incredibly loyal and love us. Similar to how my mother loves JC Penney and literally asks for a JC Penney gift card for every birthday, anniversary, Christmas, etc.
I remember my mom got really disappointed when JC Penney tried to revamp their stores and branding to appeal to a younger demographic. This backfired on them in two ways. One the younger generation was not impressed, and would rather be caught dead than shopping in one, and it alienated their hyper-loyal, an aging customer.
So how does a brand stand the test of time?
Is it by taking your marketing dollars and trying to appeal to the up and coming consumer, and continually making that evolution? Is it clever ad campaigns, social content, environmental or social responsibility, new value props? While those things can help prolong your companies life, I don’t believe its what will make your brand be around 1000 years later.
Since I’ve been leading our Brand Aura here, I’ve been racking my brain on how we can penetrate authentically into these markets. Sports, Esports, Streetwear, Fandom/Nerd Culture, etc. The list of opportunities is endless, and as our customer base ages, but continues to love us, do we walk away from them and cater to these other markets? Then I started imagining how I would see JC Penney coming into these markets, and it wasn’t a pretty thought. So how can we do it?
As a Zapponian it’s been drilled into my very soul that we are Customer Service first!! In fact, we call ourselves a Service company that just happens to sell (fill in the blank). Once I completely put myself in the Customer Service Mindset, it became evident. The purest service is to be in service to others.
So I believe the secret to an aging brand (we are the old farts in the e-commerce space) is to step behind others and make them the hero.
About the Author of this Post:
Tyler Williams is the Lead Link of the Brand Aura Circle; a circle that specializes in creating Zappos’ unique and quirky persona via events, campaigns and experiences nationwide. Tyler is also the long-time company Fungineer, responsible for such popular internal events as “Boots and Shorts Thursdays” and “Tutu Tuesdays.”
Leadership qualities go beyond simply having followers or giving orders.
If you are a leader of a ten-person team and only two of them follow you, you are not leading.
Influence is a key marker of a leader.
How do you recognize a leader?
It’s not by their prominence.
A leader can be out in front, in the middle, or following behind.
You recognize a leader by the response of their followers. A leader is someone who influences others to follow a course of action when they have a choice:
A leader is a person who says to others, “follow me!” And, they do.
A leader is a person who suggests, “I think this is the way to go.” And people go there.
A leader is a person who takes action. And others join in.
A leader is a person who does something new and others begin to do it also.
A leader has genuine followers—people who follow of their own volition.
If a leader shouts in the woods and no one hears them, are they a leader? No.
Your leadership impact depends on the ability to influence people, not your ability to command, coerce or manipulate.
Your leadership is measured not by what people do when you’re there, but by what they do when you’re not present—when no one is watching and they have the freedom to make personal choices.
Leaders who seem to be competent and know what they are doing.
Leaders whose character they respect.
A person could have any title they want and not be a leader. But if you look closely, you can recognize who the real leaders are in your organization, community, and world.
Purchases always solve problems. And, problems are always driven by deeper needs. In between the problems and the deeper needs are tensions. These tensions are value-driven: in other words, they are driven by wanting the world to be one way and not another.
Each value has two poles: a positive and a negative (e.g., clean/dirty, love/hate, freedom/suppression, etc.).1 It is the battle between these two poles—because moving towards the negative is always a possibility—that creates tension in customers’ lives. It’s these tensions that companies should seek to solve.
A company’s goal should be to create offerings that move the customer closer to the positive end of the value spectrum. By doing so, the customer associates positive movement in their lives with the brand.
Different companies can solve similar problems in people’s lives. It’s the way in which they uniquely reduce the tension that differentiates one brand from another.
Consistently giving customers tools to overcome tensions reinforces behaviors. Reinforcing behaviors is what makes customers develop a relationship with a brand and makes them likely to consider that brand first when making a new purchase. Reinforced behaviors lead to purchases.
When an ad falls flat, it’s usually because it has nothing to do with tensions or it solves a problem that the customers don’t associate with the brand—it isn’t linked to a reinforced behavior. It may be visually appealing; it might even be clever enough to win an award. But, just being visually appealing or clever doesn’t drive purchase. The lack of effectiveness results in companies constantly switching directions. And when they constantly change directions, they lack the consistency required to create reinforcement.
Companies that don’t solve a tension have weak brands. Companies with strong brands consistently help customers overcome tensions and become the heroes in their own journeys.
The best way we’ve found to uncover these tensions is to talk to your customers: specifically your Brand Lovers—the customers that love you the most. These customers love you because you help them in their lives over and over again. As a result, they have a better perspective of what you can do when you’re at your best than your average customer does.
Once you understand these tensions, you can more clearly express your ability to solve problems and more easily reinforce desired behaviors to a larger customer base.
If you’re like most businesspeople, you’ve entered problem-solving meetings excited to devise a solution, but then left feeling like you wasted valuable time.
Often, the solution is similar to something already in place or it was brought up early in the meeting. It feels like the meeting could have been more easily accomplished in an email that didn’t take you away from your desk.
With results like these, it’s easy to question the value of brainstorming. And, it’s understandable why most businesses don’t devote time to regular brainstorming sessions.
What is Brainstorming Really?
Most “brainstorming” meetings look something like this: A bunch of people get in a room and suggest solutions to a problem. People comment on the ideas as they come up. Eventually, one mediocre idea triumphs.
But, this isn’t brainstorming.
Brainstorming, as conceived by advertising executive Alex Osborn, consists of coming up with as many ideas as possible (wild or tame), without passing any judgment.
Brainstorming is about producing ideas, not picking a solution.
This why most problem-solving meetings produce poor solutions: they fail to set aside time to focus solely on generating ideas.
Ideation + Evaluation = Less Ideas
By not focusing solely on idea generation, what ends up happening is that the meetings become a free-for-all with anyone being able to say what they want, whenever they want.
It may seem like this the best way to encourage people to think freely and create a steady flow of ideas. But, it does the opposite: it causes people to fixate on ideas and have their thoughts drift toward existing solutions.
As creativity researcher Patricia D. Stokes observes, “Free to do anything, most of us do what’s worked best, what succeeded the most often in the past.”1
Additionally, allowing people to say anything they want combines the processes of ideation and evaluation. Ideation activates a different part of the brain than evaluation. And, by switching back and forth between these two modes of thinking, you impede the ability of either function to work at its maximum level. In short, switching between ideation and evaluation hinders the generation of ideas.
These sessions end up resulting in a battle over a narrow range of ideas. And, that isn’t brainstorming.
Evaluating solutions should come after the brainstorm has ended, not as part of the brainstorming session.
Creating an Environment of Openness
The brainstorm leader’s goal is to make sure that communication isn’t forced in one particular direction. The leader should help keep everyone on track and set an open, nonjudgmental tone for the session.
The leader must make it clear that there will be no criticism of ideas. The goal is to get as much feedback, ideation, and data out of the group as possible—not to discuss a specific solution.
This method is contrary to the way most people approach group brainstorming. The goal is not to come into the meeting with an idea in mind and then try to win people over to your way of thinking.
Brainstorming isn’t an essay contest or a debate. Evaluating and deciding on a solution comes later. It is essential that the leader makes this distinction clear.
Focus exclusively on generating ideas without judgment. This forces people into being more open and receptive, creating optimal conditions for idea generation.
Facilitating the Art of Listening
The most important factor in producing ideas in a group brainstorm is listening to other people’s ideas, without constantly focusing your attention on the solution you want to champion.
Hearing is a passive act of sensing sound. Listening is a conscious, active process that requires you to give your full attention to the person speaking.
Creating an attitude of openness by not allowing evaluation in the brainstorm makes it easier for people to listen. It’s harder to fixate on a solution when there’s no chance that a decision will be made. The natural impulse to prove a solution becomes minimized.
The creative process is the result of linking ideas to existing memories or ideas and creating new combinations. By listening to others during a meeting, you have the opportunity to receive new ideas that can combine with your own ideas and memories to create more new ideas.
Ideas propagate ideas.
Generating as many ideas as possible is important, as there’s a direct correlation between the quantity and quality of ideas: the more ideas generated, the greater the quality.
Like Ray Dolby, creator of the Dolby NR noise reduction system, advised, “You have to have the will not to jump at the first solution, because a really elegant solution might be right around the corner.”2
Two Keys to Making Your Brainstorming Sessions Work
Establishing an environment of openness and listening to others creates the best conditions for brainstorming.
Create an environment of openness. Only produce ideas; don’t evaluate them.
Actively listen. Pay attention to what others say. Ideas propagate ideas.
Focusing on openness and listening will vastly improve your ability to generate original and valuable ideas.
Everyone I’ve taught these keys to—whether in my creativity workshop or when I introduce them before leading meetings—has found them to be valuable in their own work. I hope you do too.
A company is stronger if it is bound by love rather than fear.
Herb Kelleher
The passing this week of Herb Kelleher—the man who filled the skies with flying hearts—made me reflect on compassion and the way we treat ourselves and each other.
At the beginning of each year, many of us set resolutions for ourselves and our businesses: we want our personal lives and our business lives to be better than they were the year before.
These resolutions are usually about fixing something that we perceive to be broken. We fixate on the negative. We give in to our inner critic. And, in doing so, we often forget to cultivate the positive.
This is to the detriment of ourselves and our businesses.
The goal of every leader should be to care about their teams and genuinely want to build them up individually and collectively. True leadership is about leading people, not organizations.
For us to be compassionate towards others, first we must be compassionate towards ourselves.
This year, when setting your goals, don’t focus purely on negative things that need to be changed. Instead, also take time to reflect on the positive things inside of yourself and how they can be enhanced and amplified.
This year, begin your leadership goals from within.
As the year comes to a close, we want to say a special thank you to Brian Beitler and Mckeel Hagerty for their contributions to the Cult Branding blog. We also want to thank Tom Grimes, Marcus Thornton, and Tony Hsieh for many great discussions and insights throughout the year. And, we want to thank you for your readership. We look forward to bringing you insights on building brands that both employees and customers love in the coming year.
Below we curated the most popular, shared, and discussed articles from the Cult Branding blog in 2018. Please enjoy these three fantastic blog posts as a way to reflect as we enter the new year.
We wish you and your family a happy, healthy, and fantastic New Year.
Best,
BJ, Salim, and Aaron
How To Be MORE Creative
Being creative is essential to business: it provides the edge to beat the competition. In an increasingly competitive market, creative thinking is no longer solely the function of departments like advertising and product development; it is now necessary for everyone in the organization. Learn more about how to maximize your creative potential.
Don’t Differentiate, Create More Brand Desire!
The focus on differentiation as a driving discussion for a company or brand is flawed. The primary reason is that differentiation starts with a focus on what competitors are doing and not necessarily on what the customer wants, needs, or values in your brand. Read more about creating brand desire.
Lead With Purpose
What makes a good leader? Great leaders focus on solving the problem, rather than being bogged down by focusing on the situation and how it applies to themselves. In the face of adversity, great leaders become outward-focused rather than inward-focused. Find out more about leading with purpose.
