Are Your Managers Building Your Brand, Or Just... Their Careers?

You’ve poured everything into building a strong brand.

You’ve defined your position. Identified your target market. And crafted a compelling story.

But are the right people in place to actually bring that brand to life every single day?

It’s a critical point often overlooked.

A strong brand is more than good marketing. It’s built from the inside out. It takes every department, team, and person working toward the same goal. All dedicated to serving the brand, not their own agendas or departmental silos.

If teams aren’t aligned or managers focus only on personal success, the best brand strategy will fail.

Brands need consistency. Consistency requires cohesion. And if your teams aren’t cohesive, then your brand will never be.

And that starts with your managers.

You need skilled leaders who are committed to the brand's vision.

But more than that, you need managers who are coachable.

These managers understand that their role is to boost the team. When the team thrives, the brand grows stronger.

Servant Leadership: Serving the Brand, Not Themselves

In 1970, Robert Greenleaf coined the term "servant leader." This describes someone who has a desire to serve before seeking leadership positions.²

A higher purpose than personal gain motivates servant leaders.³ They focus on building a stronger organization. They prioritize the needs of their team over their own interests.⁴

This isn't about being "nice"; it's about being effective.

This kind of leadership enhances workplaces and boosts the strength of organizations. It also helps to improve financial results.⁵

These leaders want to help the organization's vision. So, they are open to feedback that can boost the organization and their service.

In short, they are willing to listen, and they are coachable.

The Power of Listening (and What Happens When Managers Don’t)

When managers listen to advice from everyone in the organization, they boost performance and improve decision-making.⁶

This makes intuitive sense.

In today’s complex business world, no one knows it all.⁷ So, it’s wise to ask your team’s experts for advice.⁸

Yet, how often do we see managers ignore advice, even from those with equal or greater expertise?⁹

This usually happens for one of two reasons, driven by opposing forces:

1. Insecurity: They don’t want to admit they are less sure than they feel they should be.

2. Power-Hunger: They think their views are better than those of others.

Both reasons go against the two key traits of coachable people: honesty and humility.¹⁰

People who can’t admit their weaknesses (insecure) lack honesty. And those who think they are always right (power-hungry) lack humility.

Insecurity Breeds Dishonesty (and Hides Problems)

When managers are insecure, they view every situation as a test of their personal merit.¹¹

They are more interested in proving their worth than in meeting the organization's goals. They see everything as a threat..¹² They worry about being discredited. Their energy focuses on what they know, not what they don’t. They also try to protect themselves from these perceived attacks.

This defensive behavior blocks open communication. It prevents others from offering helpful advice.

Some managers make things complicated to hide what they don’t know.¹³ They might silence others, too. They believe that asking for advice is a sign of weakness.¹⁴

But a manager's goal isn't to be omniscient.

As Facebook’s former VP of Product Design, Julie Zhuo, writes, a manager's job is to “get better outcomes from a group of people working together.”¹⁵

To get the best outcomes, we need different perspectives. This helps us see what’s really happening and what improvements we need.

That demands honesty.

Craving Power Leads to a Lack of Humility (and Bad Decisions)

Psychologist Abraham Maslow noted that the person who neurotically seeks power “is the one who is just exactly likely to be the one who shouldn’t have it … The task, the job, the objective requirements of the situation tend to be forgotten or lost in the shuffle when such a person is the leader.”¹⁶

People who crave power often ignore advice from others, even experts.¹⁷

This is the flip side of insecurity:

• Insecure managers often act dishonestly. They silence opinions to cover up what they don't know.

• Power-driven managers often lack humility. They don’t think others can give good advice.

A feeling of power often exacerbates a natural human tendency: overvaluing our own opinions.¹⁸

This causes those in power to overlook advice. As a result, they tend to think narrowly and make less accurate judgments.¹⁹

People with strong feelings of power often don’t believe they need to rely on others:

• Advice from subordinates? Dismissed. They believe they know more.

• Advice from experts? They become competitive. They try to discredit it and get more stuck in their views.²⁰

Listening to someone's advice means believing they can offer something useful that you don’t know yet.

That requires humility.

Coachable Managers: The Engine of Your Brand

To serve the organization and build great teams, you must be coachable.

Being coachable stems from honesty and humility.

Coachable managers set aside their egos. They focus on serving their teams and the organization. And when they are coachable, they can better coach their teams.

They see what the organization and the team need. They don’t focus on promoting themselves. They can transform a group of individuals into a powerhouse team. And channel talent to achieve strong performance that builds the brand.²¹

A manager must be open to coaching. If they aren't, they will primarily act in their own interest, whether they know it or not. They won't best serve the organization and the brand.

Your brand can be a powerful force. But it needs dedicated leaders for its success.

P.S. Do you think your brand message isn't hitting the mark? Or maybe your teams could work better together to bring your brand to life? It might be time to consider how coachable and brand-focused your leaders are. Reply to this email, and I’ll help you uncover how coachable leadership can boost your brand and align your team.

References

1. Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle, Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell, 2019.

2. Abraham H. Maslow, Eupsychian Management: A Journal, 1965; Robert K. Greenleaf, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness, 1977.

3. Suzanne J. Peterson, Benjamin M. Galvin, and Donald Lange, “CEO Servant Leadership: Exploring Executive Characteristics and Firm Performance,” Personnel Psychology, 2012.

4. Jeff R. Hale and Dail L. Fields, “Exploring servant leadership across cultures: A study of followers in Ghana and the USA,” Leadership, 2007.

5. Peterson, Galvin, and Lange, “CEO Servant Leadership.”

6. Kelly E. See, Elizabeth W. Morrisson, Naomi B. Rothman, and Jack B. Soll, “The detrimental effects of power on confidence, advice taking, and accuracy,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2011; Nathaniel J. Fast, Ethan R. Burris, and Caroline A. Bartel, “Managing to Stay in the Dark: Managerial Self-Efficacy, Ego Defensiveness, and the Aversion to Employee Voice,” Academy of Management Journal, 2014.

7. Elizabeth W. Morrison, “Employee Voice Behavior: Integration and Directions for Future Research,” The Academy of Management Annals, 2011.

8. Frederic Laloux and Etienne Appert, Reinventing Organizations: An Illustrated Invitation to Join the Conversation on Next-Stage Organizations, 2016.

9. Leigh Plunkett Tost, Francesca Gino, and Richard P. Larrick, “Power, competitiveness, and advice taking: Why the powerful don’t listen,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2012.

10. Schmidt, Rosenberg, and Eagle, Trillion Dollar Coach.

11. Julie Zhuo, The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You, 2019.

12. Nathaniel J. Fast, Ethan. R. Burris and Caroline A. Bartel, “Research: Insecure Managers Don’t Want Your Suggestions,” Harvard Business Review, 2014.

13. Noel Tichy and Ram Charan, “Speed, Simplicity, Self-Confidence: An Interview with Jack Welch,” Harvard Business Review, 1999.

14. Fast, Burris, and Bartel, “Managing to Stay in the Dark.”

15. Zhuo, The Making of a Manager.

16. Maslow, Eupsychian Management.

17. Tost, Gino, and Larrick, “Power, competitiveness, and advice.”

18. Tost, Gino, and Larrick, “Power, competitiveness, and advice.”; Ilan Yaniv, “Receiving other people’s advice: Influence and benefit,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2004.

19. See, Morrison, Rothman, and Soll, “The detrimental effects of power.”

20. Tost, Gino, and Larrick, “Power, competitiveness, and advice.”

21. Schmidt, Rosenberg, and Eagle, Trillion Dollar Coach; Marcus Buckingham, “What Great Leaders Do,” Harvard Business Review, 2005.