Why Creating A Team Brand Might Be Your Best Bet In 2021 With Karen Tiber Leland

Even as we sit on the verge of bringing an end to COVID-19 with the new vaccines, the trend towards a decentralized workforce seems likely to be an integral part of the new normal. With that in mind, in this episode I talk about going beyond team building to team branding.    Team branding is essentially about defining a given team’s brand and then translating that brand into a strategy, a code of conduct, and a series of actions. If you do it right, it can have a powerful impact on a team’s alignment, effectiveness, and engagement.    Pre-COVID I always did team branding work in person - usually on off-sites.  However, I’ve found a variety of interactive ways to get a group engaged on video conferencing.  Do you need a team brand?   Does your team need a deeper alignment or commitment to their current project or overall strategic direction?   Does your team want a closer relationship with their team members and a clearly defined code of conduct? This is especially important if you’ve found that working remotely has broken team cohesiveness.   Does your team need a renewed engagement with the team or renewed inspiration for a project or departmental purpose, as we move into 2021?   Does your team struggle with the resolution of ongoing issues or disagreements you want to see solved?   Are you having difficulty getting your team members to embrace change - either personally or as a group?   Do you have an upcoming project, new team member, or have you recently had major changes in your team players?   Have you recently gone through organizational, market, or team changes that would make a revision of your current team brand important?    If you find yourself having answered any of these affirmatively, there is a good chance a team branding might be your best bet in 2021.    Take a look at my book The Brand Mapping Strategy: Design, Build And Accelerate Your Brand or contact me directly at [email protected] for a free consultation.    About Karen Tiber Leland   Karen Tiber Leland is the founder of Sterling Marketing Group, a branding, marketing, and color strategy and implementation firm helping CEOs, executives, and entrepreneurs develop stronger personal, business, and team brands. Her clients include Cisco, American Express, Marriott Hotels, Apple Computer, LinkedIn, and Twitter.   She is also the best-selling author of nine traditionally-published business books that have sold over 400,000 copies and been translated into 10 languages. Her most recent book is The Brand Mapping Strategy: Design, Build and Accelerate Your Brand. She regularly writes for Inc.com and Entrepreneur.com and has had articles published in Self, The Los Angeles Times, American Way, The Boston Globe, and many others.   Karen has spoken for Harvard, The AMA, Direct Marketing Association, and Stanford, among others. She has been interviewed on The Today Show, CNN, CNBC, and Oprah.   Get in touch with Karen on Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook   Resources   If you think a team brand might be something that would be good for your organization or your department, then I invite you to reach out to me at [email protected] and set up a free consultation call where we can discuss your team needs and the possibility of generating a team brand.   The other thing you can do is look at my book The Brand Mapping Strategy: Design, Build And Accelerate Your Brand, available on Amazon which has a whole chapter on team branding.