Stick With Your Brand Positioning And You Will Have A Better Chance At Growing Employee Engagement
For the first time in a decade, the average tenure for CMO's in corporate America has dropped from 48 months to 44 months between 2014 and 2015, according to Spencer Stuart, a senior-level executive search firm that has been analyzing this information for over 10 years. And in other parts of the world, that time is even shorter, with the average tenure for a CMO in the U.K. at a mere 18 months. The research also reveals that 73% of the new CMO’s in 2015 are moving into this position for the first time in their careers. There are many dynamics that are causing this trend but I want to focus on the implications this has on effectively creating a culture of high engagement.
I have had the opportunity to work for a number of global iconic brands in my career, including Whirlpool, Carrier, and HP. And with few exceptions, when a new CMO joined the company, he/she felt pressure to make an impact and create their legacy through the brand. Given that one of the primary reasons that turnover is so high with this position is the increasing pressure on performance, it’s not hard to understand this attitude. When you also consider that 73% of new CMO’s are taking on this role for the first, time, there is a strong drive to hit the ground running and shake things up to reinforce the decision made by the company to bring in new blood. And since the new CMO is more than likely painfully aware of the short tenure for the role, he/she has a sense of urgency in doing something immediately, with that 44 month clock ticking the day he/she walks in the door.
I’m certainly not implying that in some cases, the brand promise, campaign, and positioning should not be changed because of a clear lack of success in driving growth. But in many other cases, driven by the desire to have an immediate impact and leave a legacy, a new CMO changes those things for the sake of changing them. And the impact on employee engagement can be significant.
For those employees who have embraced the former brand positioning and promise and have become advocates, they now have to be educated on why the change is happening, why it’s relevant to the company and to them, and what they need to do differently. This involves not only a significant amount of new learning, but also a degree of “unlearning” something for which they have bought in and supported. For those who are not engaged, this change gives them one more excuse to sit on the sidelines. Why get excited and engaged about our brand and our promise to our customers when it will more than likely change again in a relatively short time frame? The attitude becomes one of just waiting it out for this to pass and life to get back to normal.
Companies with high engagement like Southwest Airlines and Enterprise Car Rental have established a strong brand promise, positioning, and campaign and have stuck with it over time. These companies have given employees an opportunity to learn and understand the positioning and their roles and embrace it in the way in which they do their work and serve their customers.
Employee engagement is not something that happens overnight as a result of an all-hands meeting or a directive from leadership or an event. It’s a journey that takes time and an ongoing effort. As a result of this journey, you create a culture where employees:
- Know what you stand for and are trying to accomplish
- Understand it and see the relevancy to what they do
- Become committed to making the vision and brand promise a reality
- Change their behavior to align with the objectives
- Become recognized and rewarded so that new behaviors are part of the way they interact with customers and each other
Without consistency in the brand promise and positioning, any momentum that builds can be derailed and the journey starts all over again. That means higher costs, lower productivity, lower excitement and engagement by employees, and a huge challenge in delivering on an ever-changing brand promise.