[MUSIC] Goal setting. Finally, you might be saying to yourself, here's a step I really do know well. I have no doubt that people who have progressed in their careers have done so because they were effective at setting goals and then meeting them. But setting goals for you as a leader demands understanding what genuinely matters most, and where you're going to do your best work. So consider this starting point as you frame goals. Do you want to work in a place where you can demonstrate effective leadership? Where there are fantastically talented people? Where you're passionate about their mission? Where it's an idea factory? Where it's a fun place to work? Where you're going to make the most money? Where you know they will value your work? Where you will be challenged the most? Where you'll have an outstanding set of supervisors? Or are there other goals? Do you know what your goals are? Think about where you and your newly expressed brand will fit best, and then like any good project manager after goal setting, pin down your strategies. Learning again from branding strategies, I like to think about STP, segmentation, targeting, and positioning. Segmentation directs brands to start by understanding their audiences, not just one, but all the stakeholder groups that matter. So too does a personal brand need to understand the audiences that matter most to them. Do you use identical strategies for all your audiences or do they differ based on different goals? Which stakeholder groups matter most to you? Is it the people to whom you report or the ones that are reporting to you? Are there audience or customer groups that are of greatest concern? What about the media? Do you consider all of them of equal importance to you? With whom do you communicate most? I recommend you consider these questions so that you can be strategic in altering your investment strategies, and by that, I mean investments of your time and energy. Then, imagine targeting and reaching these audiences with the most audience centric approaches. Consider what matters most to them. Taking another lesson from master brands, think about Nike for a moment. This is a company that started out as a shoe brand dedicated to helping make high performance runners better. But over time, as they began to understand their brand better, Nike was able to appeal to the high performance qualities in all of us. Even weekend warriors could be inspired by the just do it rallying cry. And doing this allowed them to use their same brand's character to be relevant to tennis players, golfers, basketball players, and a lot more. Can you envision how to make your brand increasingly relevant to different audiences that you care about and with whom you communicate regularly? Do you use the same communications approach? Do you use the same stories? Can you name an example where you really got this right? Where you engaged one of your audiences especially effectively and can you think of one in which you did it badly? What can you learn from these to better shape your strategies for the future? You can do it by understanding your brand's positioning, which is the primary work we did in the insight and analysis stage after your brand audit. Positioning demands seeing yourself in the context of other brands. And in particular, where you're different and where you're not. This slide reflects a very common perceptual map that places competitive brands in relation to one another on two axes, in this case, effectiveness and distinctiveness. As you study this map, imagine how these brands are likely perceived. Brand C in the upper left is seen as effective but not unique or distinctive. Whereas Brand B is more distinctive but only of average effectiveness. It's only Brand A that seems to stand out as both effective and distinctive. The wonderful clarity of these mapping exercises helps you understand how you may be seen relative to other leaders. Are you one of many or are you differentiated? And is your differentiation relevant to the audiences that you care about? In a 2015 study, research firm Millward Brown found that the top 50 members in its Brand Z research posted a difference score of 139 points, and saw their value leap to 124%. The bottom 50 companies, in contrast, logged ratings of 96 points and 24%, on the very same measures respectively. Yes, being different, relevantly, really matters. So try this exercise and map the leadership talent of people around whom you work, and on this perceptual map. Try using the two axes, effectiveness and distinctiveness. Where do you fall on this map? Where are those around whom you work? And what role does your communications effectiveness play in the way you rate your colleagues? This question naturally follows all the brand related work in subsequent videos. We'll go into greater depth in helping you build your communications effectiveness. But my message to you is to bring your brand's character into the way you communicate. Because, as a brand, is it natural for you to be a talker or a listener-responder? As a brand, are you one that highly engages with others or are you blunt and terse? Or do you story tell? Do you draw in metaphors, or are you literal? When you communicate with others, do you understand in advance the desired beliefs and behaviors that you seek, because great brands do. Do you have a primary message or any value that you're known for, one that is central to your brand, because great brands do. And are you a multimedia communicator? Or do you tend to relay too heavily on emails and texts? Are you truly audience centric? The last step for you will be the prioritization of your audiences. And it's common to know colleagues who make it a priority to focus on their colleagues and their staff first. They see them as the most important group that will insure their own personal effectiveness. Yet others focus on what sometimes is called managing up, which is the practice of focusing on one's supervisors. Each of these come with different benefits and risks, both personally and professionally. Which audiences inform you the most? What about family, your boss, your staff, employees? The most loyal employees, the most effective employees? Think about the audience that most informs your choices today, and ask yourself if this prioritization reflects the brand you want to be, not just the person you are today. Think about leaders you admire, and imagine their prioritization strategy. Can you see it? Now one more reminder that I hope will inspire you to take on the lessons of great brands. That you will go forward and complete your brand audit, including taking the honest feedback from others. And then, go do the analysis of that audit to product insight about your brand. And then finally, you'll set your personal goals and strategies, all in the name of becoming the brand that you wish to be en route to becoming the leader you wish to be. And my final thought is represented in this Venn diagram, which you can envision the intersection of the work from the audit and your professional and personal work as well. That sweet spot of knowing one's purpose, which seems to inspire great leaders. So go be that brand. Be the one that informs your actions, one that is intentional, and finally one that is just plain great. Because it's my hope that doing this will leave you to lead better. [MUSIC]
