How to Rally Employees Behind Your Brand

Swap your corporate mission and vision statement for a collective set of values.

How much do your company’s vision and mission statements truly influence how your team does their daily work? Every company has one and swears by it, but in reality, it does very little in influencing your team’s work efforts. Vision and mission statements don’t get employees out of bed in the morning. There’s also a good chance they probably don’t even remember it, and it’s more than likely due to too much jargon, lack of specificity and purpose.

At REX, we co-create our core values and continue to define (and redefine) what they mean to each of us. This helps the team contribute their own ideas, based on their own personal experiences, to help drive a singular vision forward. If your team is able to identify with the brand it makes them feel as though they are part of the journey. Instead of creating a mission statement of “our objective is to make our employees successful and make money blah blah blah” – try a values-based approach with your team.

Here’s how to start:

• Be clear on the purpose of your company. Why does your company exist?
• Create a list of things your team values. What does your team value and why?
• Have them really think about their “WHY.” Why do they choose to work at your company?
• Now get clear on the vision. What does success look like to every single person?

When your team feels as though they can really identify with the vision and values of a company, they have a pillar to lean on when they feel deflated, unsure and lack direction. “Employees who find meaning in their work are more engaged and more likely to produce at a high level.” When your team can look at a commonly shared set of values that they’ve helped create they’re more inclined to be reminded of the common goal.

Ask yourself these two tough questions as a business owner and leader of people.

As a business owner, you’ve probably gotten comfortable answering tough questions. Behind the momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement and the rise of AAPI hate crimes being brought to light, an opportunity has been created for companies to reassess and re-strategize their inclusion and diversity efforts. Employees, job-seekers, and even consumers are beginning to hold companies and management accountable for any form of bias or insensitivity.

As a business owner and leader, spend some time reflecting on these questions and answering them:

• Is diversity represented at all levels of staffing with my company?
• Do I work to educate myself on the history of systemic racism, implicit bias, and oppression in the workplace?

Being able to answer these tough questions is the first step in change. As a leader, what you say and do has an immense impact on how your team will move and feel in the workplace.

Create a space of trust, stability, compassion, and have a plan.

Allison Bran, Founder of REX Marketing + Design was asked how she continues to rally her team given the current climate. With her team working remotely, it’s hard to catch signs of morale issues. “You can’t read body language or facial expressions when you’re not all working in the same office.” One thing she implemented was a “morning stand up.” Every morning the team hops on zoom call for a 15-minute huddle where everyone succinctly shares their progress, execution plan, and a general temperature check for the day.

Allison’s objective in creating this is to:

• Start the day with accountability
• Encourage momentum and recognize when momentum isn’t present
• Begin with focus and clarity on the day’s objective
• Provide a platform to talk about current events, the current climate and offer support

If you’ve taken away anything from this, it’s that in times of crisis, it’s more important than ever that employees get these four things from leadership: trust, stability, compassion, and a plan. As a business owner and leader, having a proactive mindset to create open channels of communication helps strengthen team cohesion, morale, and retention, and in times of instability helps rally employees behind your brand.

Guest article provided by REX Marketing + Design

REX is where brands are built. A 22x internationally award-winning agency, REX solves business problems with marketing solutions, for growing businesses. We believe that a brand is where company leadership, team culture, and customer experience intersect. REX delivers full business transformation that infiltrates every level of an organization through brand strategy, creative campaigns, and marketing activation.

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