What you wear effects how you think.
How you think effects how you feel.
How you feel effects how you act and behave.
How you act and behave effects how others will respond to you.
Prior to starting Radiant Image in 2019, I had a 25+ year marketing consulting career helping businesses and non-profits of all shapes and sizes market their products and services. Throughout this time, I became aware of a gap that existed in many organizations between the Marketing department and the HR department when it came to nurturing employees to be brand ambassadors.
Marketing departments focus most of their time on creating and managing traditional and online communication channels. Typically, their work with employees is geared towards creating logoed clothing for them to wear, getting people to attend events, creating consistent policies for employee email signatories and social media platforms and teaching everyone the narrative and talking points that support the brand.
By contrast, HR departments are immersed in ensuring that their organizations are compliant with a myriad of government-mandated regulations and rules that would make most people’s heads spin. Onboarding, ongoing compliance training, employee manuals and navigating endless employee issues consume most of their time.
What’s missing is cultivating employees as brand ambassadors when they’re on and off the clock.
After all, people create perceptions about who they are no matter if they are at work-related events or out and about on the weekend. How they behave, interact with others and look creates positive or negative impressions that can either support or hinder their opportunities as well as their employer’s.
Companies would benefit from providing education to employees to help them become more self-aware of their strengths and blind spots and how they present themselves to others. Coaching on presentation skills and the art of conversation, as well as body language, listening skills, eye contact and voice tone are useful as are tips and etiquette training for virtual meetings, texting, social media, emailing and phone use to build and maintain relationships.
In addition, guidance on clothing color and style, plus glasses and hairstyle choices can help employees look and feel “together” and confident. All of these help them to build self-confidence that will positively impact their happiness and their ability to do their jobs well.
In an age where finding and keeping good employees is challenging, providing them with a deeper level of self-development opportunities can be the benefit that sets an employer a part.
It can create a greater sense of loyalty that is reminiscent of era’s of the past, where people stayed with companies for many years and spoke with pride about their employer. That’s the best branding there is.
Interested in expanding the self-development opportunities for your team?
Radiant Image customizes programs based on your employee’s needs. We can work one-on-one with individuals or create workshops for teams. Learn more about our business services or contact Candace Sanborn at [email protected] for a free consult!