Examples of successful Brand U teams are often found in sports and music. For example, a winning football team is an assemblage of Brand U, each of whom has a specific function. Some players may be superstars. However, the winning football team usually has everyone subordinating personal glory to team success. The coach shapes team …
Wealth used to be in land, then property, plant, and equipment – hard assets. Now wealth is in Brand U people whose ideas and knowledge are portable. So, the issue of happy workers has become a major topic as organizations try to engage and inspire us to contribute our ideas and knowledge. They want more …
Brand U leadership often surfaces in battle where the consequences of poor judgment are fatal. But, can an extraordinary Brand U make a difference in a business organization or a team? Studies continue to indicate that leadership is often exemplified in teams and small organizations. For example, small product development teams have developed breathtaking products, …
Brand U leaders seem to be self-selecting. A person sees an unfulfilled opportunity, need, or requirement. Nature, organizations, and the marketplace hate a vacuum. Someone will fill it. This someone is often a Brand U leader. So, Brand U leadership is more often seen as a personal issue – a desire to commit, inspire, share, …
Why don’t Brand U’s want to go into management? Management not too many years ago was everyone’s dream? The perks, responsibilities, authority, power, and money were the heralded benefits of management. The problem is that management is not what it’s cut out to be. In many cases, its challenges outweigh its benefits. Many of us …
Not all leadership examples are warm and fuzzy. Look at the ‘Chainsaw’ Al Dunlap, sidebars. He secured his position in business history by authoring Mean Business: How I Save Bad Companies and Make Good Companies. He prided himself on his CEO Genghis Khan-like qualities. Finding the right balance between management and Brand U leadership may …
For a while, Taylor’s scientific management was thought to provide answers to good management. In his time, Frederick Taylor was a Brand U guru. Taylor’s ideas were largely based on scientific and technological ideas of predictability, command, and control. If everything could be measured, science would provide efficient answers for designing, producing, and delivering products …
Do you think the boss of bosses in your organization doesn’t have to perform, sweat bullets, or be accountable? Well guess again. They have the ultimate Brand U challenge: Succeed or perish. Even top Brand U bosses are accountable to perform and make their numbers. Job homesteading and board cronyism are dying at the board …
The Brand U message is to depersonalize the situation, understand what’s happened, fix it, and move on. This attitude shift from ‘them’ to ‘me’ is a significant change in our perceptions of work reality. We can’t change the realities of the competitive marketplace and how companies respond. The only thing we can change is our …
Another paradigm being destroyed is pay based on seniority, cost of living increases, job title, entitlement, or responsibilities. Companies link team rewards and individual pay to project and process performance. Individual and team objectives are also aligned with the company’s strategic vision and mission to inspire and reward new work habits.