What is my message? is a question that has an out-sized impact on our lives, even when we aren’t aware of it. We are forced to answer the question in all sorts of ways. It comes up in the essays we write as part of our college applications, where admissions officers strain to figure out which candidates to accept and which to reject. The question raises its head again as we search for jobs after graduation – whether from high school, college, or graduate school – and are faced with the not-so-simple task of expressing who we are on one or two pieces of paper called a resume. 

If you succeed in your job, you come face to face with the question again, as you rise through the ranks to a supervisory, or leadership, position. What is your message, then, to the people who work for you? …

… Not, what tasks do you want them to complete, but, rather, why should they follow you, beyond the fact that you’re their boss? 

The question slips into our lives on more modest levels as well: for instance, at large social gatherings when you are introduced to people for the first time. Or, at intimate dinner parties, when you are one of only a handful of people, who are thrust together for three or four hours and need to figure out how to keep the conversation going. 

In all of these situations, you have a choice. You can try to discern what is important to someone else and tell them what you believe they want to hear. You can supply information you feel is safe and easy for others to digest. Or, you can make a point of finding ways to tell people something about who you are at your core, and risk making yourself vulnerable, if only for a moment. 

The fact is that taking the “safe” route isn’t safe at all. Most people, from college admissions directors and would-be friends, to the people who report to you at work, are searching for signs that give them reason to believe that you are someone with integrity — someone they can trust. 

This is where identity comes into play — those special characteristics that reveal how you create unique value in the world. Your identity is ‘an integrity machine.’ It expresses what makes you the individual you are. It invites people to trust you. 

Hiding what you stand for takes a toll on everyone. It may make it easier for you to navigate business or social relationships that require chameleon-like skills to maintain, but, over time, it erodes your sense of self-worth: you know you’re faking it. Moreover, keeping your true self hidden makes life harder for others by keeping them guessing; off balance, in fact. 

Until I faced an auditorium full of people who were interested in the subject of identity, I had kept my message under wraps, at least publicly. For years, I’d lived under the radar. While working with companies and individuals, I knew who I was, and, certainly, I let my passion for identity show in everything I did. Yet, I never had the courage to stand up and be counted. I had let my writings and my work speak for me. Now, I would speak for myself; I would make my message clear: I am Larry Ackerman and I am driven by the need to help people to see. As I spoke these words in that auditorium that day, I exhaled deeply. I felt completely naked as I stood before my audience, knowing there was no going back. I was finally free. 

Answering the question, what is my message? Is liberating. It frees you from the fear of telling the world who you are and doing what you know you must. It brings the self-confidence to not be deterred by what others may think of you, even in the face of possible rejection. You may also realize that you no longer have a choice: you must take a stand. 

Consider your message a personal declaration — a commitment to follow one path and walk away from others. What makes declarations so powerful is their intent, which, in short, is to remove doubt. It is to make something clear to people that wasn’t clear before. Personal declarations lift the veil of mystery. They state something emphatically about who you are, often, for the first time. 

Your identity is the source of that declaration, the essence of your message. It’s a message the world needs to hear. 

The post What is my message (and why does it matter)? appeared first on Larry Ackerman.

With good reason, companies today are increasingly seeking to put a stake in the ground that illuminates what they’re all about, why they’re here, apart from the need to make money. Getting this right is a powerful force that can, like a magnet, help attract and hold the right people for the right reasons, improve customer loyalty, and even draw investors, whose time horizons are well beyond the next quarter. Many books and articles have been written that assert seemingly critical differences among various kinds of company statements and, further, how to craft each one. These include mission, vision, purpose, brand, and identity statements. An online review offers these general descriptions:

A mission defines what an organization is, why it exists, its reason for being

A vision isfuture-based and is meant to inspire and give direction to employees

A brand is your promise to customers and other stakeholders, derived from who you are, and who you want to be 

Purpose is the driving force that enables a company to define its true brand and create its desired culture

Identity clarifies who you are as an organization, and what distinguishes the company 

Allowing for a few differences, these descriptions are largely the same. They all potentially represent a company’s “north star,” pointing the way forward in a manner that is designed to guide decisions and behavior. Here’s a statement that, with a few, small word changes (or none at all), conforms to all of these descriptions, equally well. It is Ikea’s stated mission: To create a better everyday life for the many people. The company’s declaration effortlessly translates as follows:

… As its vision: A better everyday life for the many people

… As its brand promise: To create a better everyday life for the many people

… As its purpose: To create a better everyday life for the many people

… As its identity: An organization dedicated to creating a better everyday life for the many people 

Clarifying the logic of one 

There is simply no good reason a company must have a mission, a purpose, a brand promise, and a vision, or even two of these. One will do. And, one type of company statement is not more important than any of the others. What matters most is that whatever statement you select be informed by the unique contribution your company is capable of making in the world; i.e., how it creates proprietary value. 

There are three other criteria worth mentioning. Your company’s north star needs to be distinctive – it is about your company and yours alone. It needs to be authentic – it cannot be fabricated, or invented; it can only be discovered. It must be sustainable – it has to have the bones to be nearly timeless, despite how often you may need to express it differently to maintain its relevance.

In short, less is more. Employees have enough to do without having to memorize, let alone help operationalize, two, three, or four separate ideas. Make it easier for them to succeed: Simplify! What label you choose is far less important than the substance of the statement you embrace.

Eighteen months after the Dow engagement began, the company replaced three of its original statements with one: To constantly improve what is essential to human progress by mastering science and technology, and modified its values to support this mission. The result helped employees put their collective energy into one, value-creating idea that inspired innovation and commitment, and helped produce the economic, social and environmental benefits Dow’s stakeholders deserved.

If you’re in the market for a mission or a (fill in the blank), keep the following criteria in mind. 

Make sure how your company creates proprietary value is the foundation of that statement.

One statement is enough.

Ensure that your statement is distinctive, authentic and sustainable.

Your employees will thank you. Executive communications will be streamlined. Conversations will be more focused. Expectations will be clearer. The connection between company mission and individual jobs will be easier to make. Accountability will be enhanced. 

When it comes to forging a compelling north star for your organization, the above measures are the only ones you really need. Then the real work begins: how to translate that north star into decisions and actions that will illustrate its power and prove its intrinsic worth. (Stay tuned; that topic is coming up next.)

The post How many north stars does one company need? appeared first on Larry Ackerman.

How often have you heard well-intended executives and other high-ranking leaders (priests, coaches) say these words — their goal: to ‘protect’ their institutions from embarrassing publicity, which might muck up their brands.

Talk about misguided measures. At the core of every successful brand is integrity — it’s the only thing that generates trust in whoever your customers happen to be (consumers, investors, college football players, alumni, parishioners). Mess with integrity and you mess with the value of your brand, whether it’s your company’s or your own.

My nominees for most egregious brand follies winners in recent memory are: Penn State, Toyota, BP, Olympus and the Catholic church. Who comes to mind for you?

No doubt, there are more, lurking in the shadows of decency, waiting to shoot themselves in the foot and blow millions in dollars and good will, not to mention trust.

Here, in brief, is how not to become a brand follies nominee: 1) Next time you’re faced with a tough call that might cost the company money in support of its values, write the check, 2) Be real. Share a story or two about when the organization didn’t get it right, but went on to fix the problem, and 3) Take stock of all issues that could potentially rock your corporate boat and figure out how to address them, directly, now.

And your nominees for the next round of brand follies are…?

The post How to avoid the brand follies appeared first on Larry Ackerman.

Which leads me to my point: Often, a seeming business problem, is something else; it’s an identity problem. You just don’t recognize it.

If you want to know when a business problem may be an identity problem, here are 5 signs to watch out for – any one will do the trick. 1) Frequent re-organizations, 2) a growing portfolio of un-integrated acquisitions, 3) loss of brand relevance, 4) persistent turnover at senior levels, and 5) low employee engagement.

At the moment, the poster child for this alternate reality is Yahoo. The notion that Yahoo has an identity problem is public knowledge; my concern is that Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s new CEO, and her team aren’t going to ask the right questions. (Deciding whether the concern is a media company or a content company is, at best, a place to start.)

If any of the signs I note above apply to your company, change the conversation, now. You’ll be surprised at what emerges.

The post When is a business problem really an identity problem? (Just ask Yahoo) appeared first on Larry Ackerman.

We’re not just in the season of 12s; we’re also in the season of believing. In family, in friendship, in giving, in — yes, for some — even Santa Claus. So, I have chosen to offer up a little “belief” quiz.

Here you go: 12 items to challenge your belief system. (For example, I believe that technology (see below) isn’t the answer to our prayers most people think it is.)

I believe companies …

I believe brands …

I believe politics …

I believe nature …

I believe children …

I believe our economy …

I believe money …

I believe in being …

I believe technology …

I believe aging …

I believe crises …

I believe I am …

So, what do you think, or rather… believe?

The post What do you believe? appeared first on Larry Ackerman.

I recently read an article about Starbucks and its attempt to rejuvenate itself by going back to its essential, idiosyncratic roots, its eclectic, neighborhood gestalt, which eventually spawned its enormous success. Analysts are betting against the company’s ability to make this work. Howard Schultz, Starbuck’s founder and current CEO, says it will. I say it will. Why? Because innovating from the core – going ‘back to the future’ to jump-start innovation is the most natural act in the world.

Ford does it by continuing to ‘democratize the automobile,’ something it’s been good at since 1900.

IBM does it by applying technology solutions to solve the world’s thorniest business – and now societal – problems.

Apple does it by irrepressibly finding new ways to ‘humanize the computer.’

How does your company do it?

Why are we obsessed with promulgating the “new and improved” when the life of our organizations depends on constantly re-interpreting its original vision, or purpose in ways that marry up to how people and markets are changing?

Why do we look outside for answers that are right under our noses?

###

Flickr photo courtesy of H. Kopp Delaney

The post Innovating from the inside-out appeared first on Larry Ackerman.

Jim Press – once the top Toyota executive in the U.S. – recently stated that “The root cause of [Toyota’s] problems is that the company had been “hijacked by anti-family, financially oriented pirates.” Those executives “didn’t have the character to maintain a customer-first focus.” Why would such a paragon of corporate success shoot itself in the foot? I can’t help but default to the old (and admittedly tired) adage that money is the root of all evil. I don’t want to believe that, but these guys make it hard not to.

Toyota’s acceleration debacle is poetic. Toyota’s slogan is Moving forward, which they – not just their vehicles – did, in no uncertain terms. The automotive analogies are many … hitting a wall, crashing, spinning out, etc.

I’m disappointed in Toyota. They let me down. (Disclosure: I own a Lexus SUV.) More important, they let everyone down. I expect they’ll get religion, get their act together, and once again thrive. What’s most upsetting to me is the countless number of other “Toyota’s” out there, who will wind up going down the same road as these guys. What a waste.

By contrast, there’s Ford, who earned a healthy, $2 billion-plus in the last quarter. Somehow, they managed to stick to their core principles, profiting from their identity.

Apart from fixing their product problems, and issuing heartfelt mea culpas, I think Toyota’s management should do personal penance. In the meetings they have with non-Toyota executives, in the speeches they give at conferences, even in the words they speak to their children over the dinner table, these people need to send a message: Never do what we did. Why?

Because the costs of turning your back on who you truly are, are just too high.

The post Toyota’s “Acceleration” Problem and What It Means for You appeared first on Larry Ackerman.

The seeds of Tiger Woods’ undoing were sewn years ago – and they had nothing to do with him being the king of golf. 

Tiger’s father, Earl, apparently told his son, over and over, that he would be a catalyst of change in the world, that he was “special,” that golf was his vehicle to greatness. Bad parenting. All Earl did was inflate Tiger’s ego – and self-image – beyond reasonable human bounds. Earl was manufacturing a God – a perfect being, whom all others would adore, not just admire.

Tiger took it all in and became the icon he was “meant” to be – almost. Somewhere inside Tiger-the-God lay Tiger-the-human, just waiting to reclaim his rightful place in the mortal world. And that he certainly has done.  

I feel sorry for Tiger. He’s lived a lie most of his life – “I am holier than thou” – and now that lie has been exposed. Now, he has to face his mortal self, and that may take some time.  

Tiger’s self-reverence went to his head, starting, most likely, at a very young age. And it consumed him from the inside out.  As much as he may be the poster child for the dangers of self-made celebrity perfection, he’s not alone. There are others – other sports figures, politicians (God knows!), CEOs, and just plain folk, who lose touch with who they truly are, set impossible standards for themselves, create God-like personas, and set themselves up for inevitable failure, shame and embarrassment. It’s not worth it.  

If Tiger can achieve a more realistic understanding of himself – his earthly, rather than his “saintly,” gifts – he stands a chance of re-engaging people in positive ways. With his fame, he might indeed get people to listen to his more humble, but important message: Be yourself, know your limits as well as your strengths, keep both feet on the ground at all times. If that happens, redemption will be his – and Tiger might actually become the catalyst of positive change in the world his father wanted him to be.

The post Down with “God” – The Problem with Tiger Woods appeared first on Larry Ackerman.

Reminds me of my work for Norsk Hydro someyears ago, a 100 year old Norwegian conglomerate under attack from shareholders who felt the parts were worth more than the whole. My work for Hydro helped keep the company intact, but that’s another story.

The value-creating power of GE comes from managers crossing business lines on a regular basis, the creation of second-to-none generalist-leaders whose experience transcends the division they happen to work for at the moment. Strip out too many businesses to unlock shareholder value, and GE dies. So does one of the world’s most powerful schools of management.

There are always parts of organizations that can be shed for good reason – they just don’t fit. But in GE’s case, nothing fits and that’s the beauty of it all. GE is a paradox of focus…to be good at what it does, it needs to stay multi-disciplinary. Disassemble the company – even just a few of its main economic pistons – and the institutions will wither. This is the logic of identity-based management: who you are is as important as what you do. It is what separates great companies from good ones, to borrow from Jim Collins’ book title. But too many executives just don’t get it.

Jeff Immelt has a responsibility to investors, yes. But his larger leadership responsibility is to others as well, like up and coming managers who, if they survive “GE-U,” fire up others, including other organizations, which benefits everyone, even society. Immelt needs to be the steward of GE’s identity – its invisible, ultimately powerful, drive to be the purveyor of continuous rustworthy change.That’s what GE really “sells,” that’s how GE creates proprietary value,and the only way it can continue to do that is if it stays fundamentally intact.

The post Who is GE without all its parts? appeared first on Larry Ackerman.

Whether it’s Barack Obama, or Hillary Clinton or John McCain, these people have identities that are at the core of how they might create value as president of the United States. It would be a gift to us all, if they’d share these with us. They should be themselves and show themselves. It would change the nature of the race and, broadly, writ, the nature of politics. (It would also put a lot of polling people out of business.)

Absent such courage, politics remains the land of no integrity—a place where what “you” want is what “I” must become in order to succeed. I have often imagined a system where the dynamics of genuine identity played a central role. But, then, maybe such a system would have to be branded something other than “politics.” Maybe such a system would spark, in fact, the next American revolution.

The post An identity for Obama appeared first on Larry Ackerman.