I recently had to lead through a significant organizational change at work. Now, one of our departments has all new employees. Although this isn’t a bad thing, it does present both an opportunity and challenge – brand building. To illustrate this point, one of my new team members was sharing some common frustrations, but I tried to encourage him to stay calm and to continue to deliver high service to his internal partners and clients. I reminded him he was building his brand. As a result, he was a able to step back from what was frustrating him and refocused on what he was trying to build – a solid reputation and quality brand. Within minutes I received an email from one of his partners singing his praises. My immediate response was a thank you to his partner, and I quickly shared the good news with my team member, with a simple tag line – thank you for building your brand! 

Likewise, we are all in the brand building business, no matter where we work, or what we do, and we do this in three primary ways:  

Response: How we respond to others has a significant impact on our brand. We all know when we get treated rudely, disrespectfully and/or nonchalantly and it impacts the way we think of others and the institution they represent. If we get good responses from others, we tend to think favorably upon them and that goodwill spreads to the institution they work for. We have to always be conscious of our responses to others, especially in times of stress and interruption. For we never know the impression we might be leaving.      

Respect: When we treat others with respect, we do so by paying attention to them in an inviting way. Quality customer service hinges on one person’s respect for another. I am always amazed at how some are extremely effective with this skill, especially when dealing with disgruntled customers. Have you ever seen a rude and angry person diffused with kindness? It is amazing to witness and is a skill that can be learned. It not only builds our brand, but again, it spreads to impact the brand of the organization or entity we may represent – including the Kingdom of God. 

Reflect: What image and persona do we reflect? This begins with our outer appearance, for people can’t help but size things up according to their appearance. If something reflects a clean and professional image, it immediately increases its brand quality. This goes for both people and organizations, but then there’s the inner reflection. This is what we project through our body language, tone and overall projection of communication. This can obviously be positive or negative and quickly highlights or diminishes our outward reflection. The greatest reflection we can share of course as believers is the light of Christ that resides in each of us. Perhaps we don’t feel much like shining, but He always does and is always willing to step in and shine through when we surrender to His will over our own.  

Application: “Man In The Mirror”  – Luke 9:23 
Michael Jackson immortalized the “Man In the Mirror” expression through his hit song. Yet, the descriptor carries a lot of merit in that building a brand begins with each of us. The person we truly are not only serves to build our brand, but it builds the brand of our workplace – and even the church. However, we are limited in this ability. For in the end, it’s Gods work in each of us that works through us and does the brand building. This happens when we receive Him not only as our Savior, but surrendering to Him also our Lord.