Don't Undermine Your Brand With Poor Leadership

Poor leadership at the top of your company can sink your brand in both the eyes of consumers and employees. If your external brand suffers, it's likely because management failed to deliver on the brand's ideals. When a brand fails in terms of employees, it's due to managers who lack vision to move the company forward. Here's how to avoid having bad leadership undermine your company's brand.

Look to Great Examples

There are plenty of great examples of how fantastic leaders exude their company culture as you look for inspiration in terms of your brand. Oprah Winfrey, one of the most recognizable brands in the world, overcame adversity in 2007 when a child sex abuse scandal hit her Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. Despite the bad press, Winfrey cleaned up the teachers at the academy and instituted better safety protocols. Mark Zuckerberg came under fire from Congress for allowing privacy leaks and fake political campaign ads on his social network, yet Facebook still thrives as the number one social media platform in the world.

Find Your Own Impressive Leaders

Avoid poor leadership in your brand by finding your own impressive leaders to take over the reins of running your company. Credentials and an extensive background capture your attention, but those factors do not necessarily mean someone can help lead your firm. People with high emotional intelligence relate to employees by knowing what they want, what drives them, how they work and how to empathize. Ask pointed questions of potential candidates to see if they have the right EQ for the job. Evaluate people's ability to pick up on someone else's emotions and their ways of inspiring people, and if the candidates are self-aware of their own emotions.

Discover Empowering Leaders

Great leaders empower others to make your brand great. Managers and executives can't do everything on their own, which is why they must have the ability to trust their teams, delegate authority, and create a culture of innovation and collaboration among teams. Get to the bottom of a candidate's panache for inspiring a team by asking how he would run a particular project. Is the person someone who pays attention to every single detail of another person's work on a project, or does he trust people to get the job done?

Find Leaders Who Learned From Mistakes

Experience comes from learning from your mistakes, and that's what turns good leaders into fantastic ones. Pick out managers who learned valuable lessons from their mistakes and overcame their obstacles. Someone's honesty and humility about a mistake builds trust with you and teammates. It also shows that good leaders adapt to conditions quickly to make things right. This type of quick thinking and problem-solving in a crisis can save your brand in the future if something goes awry.

Your brand doesn't have to suffer from bad leaders. Learn how to hire ones that edify your company and understand what it takes to grow. Doing so can prevent a lot of pain and heartache when challenges occur.

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