See 7 Habits of Remarkably Authentic Brands

Consumers have trust issues with brands. They are skeptical of brand messaging and instead often turn to their peers to inform purchase decisions. They also want honest relationships with the brands they support.

Indeed, 63 percent of global consumers said in a survey that they would buy from a company that they consider to be authentic over all other competitors. Consumers will reward the companies that communicate honestly about their products. They'll shun those that do not.

So, what makes for an authentic brand? How can your brand become more authentic? Here are seven habits of remarkably authentic brands.

1. Listen to your customers.

Your customers are talking about your brand online. Word-of-mouth has expanded to social media, and customers are voicing their opinions about your products. Find out what your customers are saying!

Social listening can help your brand learn how customers use your products post-purchase and what they like and dislike about their touch points with your brand. Some 83 percent of consumers said in a survey that they like it when a company responds to them on social media. So, join the conversation and "like," "comment" and "share" positive submissions. Also, do your best to accommodate the negative consumers.

2. Let go of who you think you are.

When you start listening to your customers on social media, you might just learn something. While your brand may see itself in a certain way, the millions of photos that customers post online may not be reflecting your brand message. Customers can do a lot to shape and enhance your brand lifestyle. Don’t be afraid to let go and collaborate with customers to build a stronger and more authentic brand.

3. Stand behind your values.

In the outdoors industry, you hear a lot about representing “the tribe” and how outdoor brands cater to the values of their community. In particular, you hear about brands wanting customers to believe in what they stand for, not just to buy their products.

What this often means is that brands position themselves behind causes their community supports. Some 64 percent of survey respondents have cited shared values as the main reason they have a relationship with a brand. Clearly stating your values is a mark of brand authenticity.

4. Be honest.

Authentic brands represent their products in a truthful way. Some 91 percent of customers said in a survey that they believed that brands should represent their products honestly. What this means is that you don’t deceive your customers with distorted reviews and product images.

Offer transparency by displaying customer-created photos collected from social media on your product pages directly, next to your stock images. That will give your customers a greater sense of transparency and trust.

5. Personalize your outreach.

Show your customers that you care about their needs. Seventy-three percent of consumers said in a survey that they preferred to buy from brands that use personal information to make their shopping experiences more relevant.

With today’s technology, you can upsell customers based on what they have bought in the past. Offer complimentary product discounts through package inserts, Instagram display ads or a tailored email marketing campaign.

6. Embrace your story.

Chances are, you have a powerful story line that you are not putting to use. It might be an amazing founder’s story or simply a declaration of why you believe in the brand you represent. Whatever it is, consumers want to know why you care about your brand.

If they find why you care compelling, you might convince them to care as well. Everything is about building a brand story, a story that your customers can see themselves in.

7. Make every day matter.

Remember that consumers are interacting and buying from brands each and every day. When it comes to being authentic, you need to be consistent. You should actively work to ensure that every interaction a customer has with your brand leaves a positive vibe. You don’t get to take a day off representing your brand. Create great marketing collateral that reflects your authentic brand voice and stay attentive, and helpful, to your customers.

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See 3 Ways to Turn Your Dumb Job Into a Dream Job

Employees know far less about employer expectations than their managers may realize -- an October report from Gallup of 1,000 employed adults found that only about half of the employees surveyed had a clear understanding of what was expected of them at work.

That means that fully half of employees are unsure about their career development. They don’t know if they’re on the right path or what they need to do to succeed in their roles.

And that makes for a bleak picture, which highlights a disconnect in today’s workplaces. Because, when leaders and employees aren’t communicating properly, goals are unclear, progress stalls and objectives aren’t reached.

Here are a few steps to get employees and managers on a clear path for professional development, for the sake of the employee and the company:

1. Focus job descriptions.

Start at the very beginning. Setting employees up on a fulfilling career path starts with the job description. Most employers approach the job description as a list of requirements or only an ad to sell their company culture. But that description really serves as an employee’s first introduction to a new role. Think of it as the entry point to the performance management process.

There's good reason to do that. Some 85 percent of candidatessurveyed by CareerBuilder in 2015 said that clearly defined job duties and responsibilities positively influenced their decision to apply. But, first, the description needs to accurately represent the position; otherwise, new employees will be set up for failure. They will think they were hired to do one thing, but their managers will expect them to do another.

And that's a recipe for disaster: Before the new hire even starts the job, he or she is already on a different page than management.

How to fix it: Take the time to understand the job before writing the description. Ask managers what they expect from the candidate, and inquire from current employees what they need on their team. Use these responses to draft a description. Then, put yourself in the place of the new hire reviewing it. Does the description accurately reflect the responsibilities of the job? Is it focused? Are the expectations clear?

2. Create and evaluate job families.

With an accurate job description in hand, employees can start the job knowing what is expected of them -- but do they know where they’re going? Do they understand future expectations or how to advance down their career path?

In a 2015 SHRM survey of 600 employees, 83 percent said career advancement was important or very important to them, but only 20 percent were very satisfied with how their company was addressing this need.

And that begs the question: If employees don’t know what is expected from them, how can they know how to advance?

While some employees may not be growing as much as their managers expect them to, some managers don’t recognize when their employees are taking on more responsibilities. In fact, 2014 research from theOffice of the Future found that 41 percent of administrative professionals surveyed said they felt that their job description had become inaccurate, given their new duties.

How to fix it: Use "job families" to show employees a clear career path and to help managers recognize when employees are ready to move up. Job families are groupings of similar jobs, showing their inter-relationships and structure in terms of their responsibilities, pay and advancement.

Job families detail what is expected from employees at each level, what requirements are needed and how to progress along a given career path in an organization.

Also encourage HR and managers to create job families that accurately reflect development within the company. If these groupings are already in place, review them to make sure they are clear and correct. When developing these structures, focus on what people do at each level, not their job titles.

Above all, make these career paths transparent and accessible for employees. Share your company's job families, explain them and make them available on the HR platform employees regularly use.

3. Align personal and organizational goals.

Job families help employees know what to do to reach the next level of their career. They can help employees set goals -- but do these goals align with their managers' goals? What about the goals of the organization overall?

Probably not. The Gallup survey found that just 32 percent of respondents said their manager helps them set performance goals. In addition, a 2015 survey of North American employees conducted by Achievers found that 61 percent didn't even know their company’s mission, and an additional 57 percent said they weren't motivated by that mission.

How to fix it: Managers need to help employees set goals that align with the company’s mission and objectives. First, review the company mission and vision with employees. Remind them of what they are working toward and how their job contributes to this overall purpose. Then, have managers and employees set goals together, with the mission as a focal point.

Sharing these personal goals with the whole team can keep employees and managers focused, suggests research from the Dominican University of California: Study participants who wrote down their goals, shared them with others and sent weekly updates to friends were 33 percent more successful in meeting these objectives, on average.

In addition, a 2015 report from Bersin by Deloitte suggested that high-performing companies should make individual work goals public for all to see. Sharing goals can help keep employees and managers on track, accountable for their performance and ultimately on the same page.

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What to Do When You Need Inspiration But It Just Won't Come

The human mind has a funny way of shooting itself in the foot. Just when you need to come up with an inspirational idea or a solution to a thorny problem, it has a nasty habit of over-thinking, locking itself into an endless loop and destroying any hope of a breakthrough.

You know what I’m talking about. It’s insidious. But fear not, there is a way out. You simply have to break the loop. Change things up. A simple change of place, process, players or perspective usually does the trick. If that doesn’t work, I’m afraid you’re out of luck.

When the ideas just won’t come, here are a few ways of getting the creative juices flowing:

Shut the computer.

When I need inspiration but my mind won’t play along, I shut the computer or whatever I’m working on and walk away. Then, when I’m doing something totally unrelated -- taking a shower, gardening, driving somewhere or lying in bed half asleep -- that’s when the light bulb comes on. Happens every time.

End the meeting.

When you’re in a meeting intended to brainstorm or problem-solve, don’t be surprised if the winning idea or ideal solution comes up after the meeting is over. Sometimes long after, when different people are around, or when some seemingly random event triggers an answer to a question you’ve been subconsciously pondering for weeks.

Planes, trains. and automobiles.

There’s something about a quiet conversation while moving that brings out epiphanies. I can’t tell you how many business strategies I’ve come up with that way: walking around the neighborhood with my CEO, driving to the airport with the head of a distributor, on a bullet train in Japan with the CTO, or on a cross-Atlantic flight with a random individual I happened to be seated next to. Maybe it’s just me, but it’s uncanny.

Quit being logical.

Near as I can tell, the part of your brain responsible for creative ideas is not the same as the one responsible for reasoning. Inspiration is not logical, nor is it task-oriented. I believe most people have a much easier time accessing that part of their mind when they’re relaxed, tired, engaged in some mindless task or casually bouncing ideas around with someone in an unusual but safe surrounding.

Give up and zone out.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stared at a blank screen, a white sheet of paper or a media board and racked my brain for a big idea that just wouldn’t come.

Finally, I give up, plop down in a chair and say, “Screw it, I’m done.'' It takes a while for my mind to shut off, but when it does, that’s inevitably when the answer comes.

Get outside perspective.

Consultants routinely interview top executives of companies that hire them. As a management consultant, I do the same thing, but not in the same way. That’s how I determine what problems need to be solved, but the solutions usually come from conversations with lower level employees, customers, or outside analysts. The reason is that leaders are always too close to the situation. They’re actually inside the loop, so they lack perspective.

Be alone with yourself.

I’m not an expert on meditation, but I do practice mindfulness as a means to quiet my thinking brain so I can spend quality time with my deeper, more intuitive inner self. I’m still a novice, but I think it’s indispensable for neurotic people who tend to over-think things with voices in their heads, as I'm known to do.

As I sit quietly, lost in thought while exploring this fascinating but elusive subject in the company of my trusty MacBook Air, I’m finding it frustratingly difficult to come up with a compelling end to the story. There’s only one thing left to do. (clunk)

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See If You Want to Remember the Important Stuff, You Need to Ignore the Background Noise

Can you effortlessly retain a phone number between the time you hear it and the time you dial? When introduced to a group of people, can you remember each of their names a few minutes later?

If the answer to either of the above questions is yes, you likely have an excellent working memory, i.e. your brain is easily able to hold onto a piece of information before deciding whether to toss it out or store it away as long-term memory. Congratulations! That’s a huge boon. Not only is working memory an important process for reasoning, comprehension and learning, it’s also highly correlated with intelligence.

So what separates those with high-capacity working memories from the rest of the pack? Somewhat counterintuitively, they’re better at ignoring information, according to new research from the University of British Columbia. Put another way, they’re able to quickly discern and focus on relevant incoming data, while recognizing (and promptly discarding) irrelevant distractors.

Previous research has hinted as much -- i.e. that those with high-capacity working memories are simply better at identifying and holding onto important stimuli -- but didn’t satisfactorily parse out how they’re able to do so.

By tracking participants' brain activity while completing a series of tasks, the researchers believe they have an answer:

Our electrophysiological measures reveal that although high-capacity individuals are able to actively suppress distractors, low-capacity individuals cannot suppress them in time to prevent distractors from capturing attention.

In other words, by reading their brain waves, the researchers found that participants with high-capacity working memories excelled at ignoring irrelevant sensory data so they could concentrate only on pertinent information to the taskt at hand. 

For proficient working memory, then, the power to ignore pointless background noise --- to tune out the construction work outside, your co-workers, maybe even your boss -- is just as important as the ability to zero in on what’s truly important.

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Good morning its Another day!

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