Recently I was labeled as “poster child of change” by reputable partners of a multiple top global consulting firm. Today, I wanted to share with you what is behind the label and how you and your company can perhaps benefit too.
Behind the consistent change I am experiencing in my personal and professional life, I recognize that the three ingredients in this yummy mix are three quotients: brand, digital and leadership. You may wonder how in the world quotient fit with these three components. These quotients offer us a measure that we can utilize as a starting point for an improvement. Knowing the quotients let’s us know when a change is just a change or whether it is an improvement. Who does not want to make an improvement, right?
When everything is constantly changing, knowing the quotients and their parts can be a guide in deciding what improvement we could make, or better yet, should make that will generate the high-performance impact. We can more effectively manage the change by knowing the effect on the quotients at any given moment and adjusting as accordingly.
Are you building your company’s brand, digital and leadership quotients? Do you know what needs to improve and how? Building these quotients is a better long-term guarantee of building shareholder wealth than stock buy backs.
1. Brand Quotient (BQ) – It is more than the consistency of what you put out on the world wide web about your company. It should be the look and feel of your entire enterprise. And it is the accuracy of your mission statement as communicated by your whole organization, not just marketing and sales.
Accurate depiction of what your company is about, as delivered to current and potential customers, is essential. Just in case you are wondering how to improve your Brand Quotient, you may take in consideration the following brand ratio drivers:
Alignment – How well is your brand aligning with your Mission Statement? Is your brand a fit for your real customers? For the work that you do?
Unity – Can your brand be recognized across wide-range of products, services or categories? Is it a fit for everything that you do?
Differentiation – Does your brand separate you from the competition? How willing are you to take a bold and courageous stand for something you so firmly believe?
2. Digital Quotient (DQ) – This is a measurement of your ability to make efficient use of the digital media to convey accurate and timely messages about your brand through the key social media channels. That involves leadership by being so closely associated with the monitoring the of all social media aspects to create a most desirable digital footprint.
This should include the following:
How well are you reaching and communicating to your customer base
How well you are opening two-way communicating channels
How willing you are to hear changes in customer needs and preferences
How well do you communicate messages from the customer through your organization (To sales? To product development?)
How are you focusing your digital media efforts at your future prospects or targets
With good use of digital media, you can make the necessary adjustments. It opens the opportunity to listen to multiple markets while potentially generating more growth and expansion from local to global or global to local – Glocal.
And this can’t be accomplished without allowing trial and error that will lead you to innovation and change. By allowing your company to measure quickly not only level of change or innovation, but also social media impact through the digital footprint.
Related: Power of Innovation: Fast, Furious & Financially “Glocally” Rewording
3. Leadership Quotient (LQ) – Starts with leadership responsibility that organizational mission and vision is accurate and timely. And when is finalized or adjusted, to be accurately conveyed in the brand and brand messages. More than ever leadership needs to make sure that company (all departments) is listening about the changing needs in the markets.
Responsibility to make adjustments in vision and mission, based on what the markets are requiring is totally in leadership hands or not (then you know what you need to improve urgently). You might be surprised how many powerful insights supported by latest research and stories can drive crazy (good crazy) your organization to make not only needed but also desired changes. This change is not only applicable to Fortune 500 companies and startups, but also academia, entertainment, and sports industries just to name a few in a ways nothing else it can.
How? What? Why? It is the hidden power that reaches beyond the bottom line, quota, reorganization, downsizing, outsourcing and any other trick under the sun that you may try to get done. But the reality is this, it can’t happen unless you and your organization had developed and integrated Leadership Quotient (LQ).
Where is your company fitting in? How well are you doing in each of these areas? LQ, DQ and BQ? Which quotients, and which part of each quotient, are more important for you or need the most work? How are you going to accomplish desirable results, fast?
Ready for more? Join me in NYC at Innovation Collision 2015 – Design Thinking, Creativity, and Crowdsourcing powerhouse event!
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Learn… Lead… Love… Izabela Lundberg (@IzabelaLundberg) is CEO and Founder of Izabela Lundberg International. She is an Executive Consultant, Trainer & Speaker for Fortune 500 and Professional Athletes & Coaches. She is #1 International Best Selling Author & Leading Authority of Leadership Transformation From Fear to Greatness. Drawing on her extensive global business management, diversity, and high-performance impact expertise through her work with people from over 80 countries, Izabela also writes and speaks on topics such us Strategic Leadership & Influence, Legacy Leadership, & #HighPerformance #Impact.