What is success? As a Keystone Leader, you should have your own unique answer to this question. Success is not one size fits all. Creating a meaningful leadership brand and serving your audience requires digging deep and deciding what’s most important.
Taking stock of where your brand stands is a key part in achieving your goals. While sales numbers and bottom line results are critical measures, so are the softer indicators like your impact on your community and your personal fulfillment in the work you do. In order to truly define your success in business, you must activate your leadership brand in a meaningful way.
How do you measure success when it comes to building your brand?
Step 1. Determine Your Definition for Success
“Whenever you see a successful business,
someone once made a courageous decision.”
-Peter F. Drucker
Creating success requires decisions, which aren’t always easy to make. And this also applies to how you define what a successful brand looks like. Because here’s the truth: you can’t measure something if you don’t know where you’re going. So from the start, you must decide on the indicators of success for you personally. What is your ultimate goal? Where are you headed?
Defining your leadership brand’s success starts with your “why.” Why have you started your business? What is your main motivating factor? What is the purpose for your products and services? Your why serves as the bedrock of your brand’s success. When you are clear on your why, you can choose success measures that map directly back to that purpose.
For example, my why in business is comes the belief that everyone deserves to lead well, maximize their potential, uniquely add value and live a life that matters. I am motivated by a vision to see the lives of leaders transformed so that they can influence the transformation of others. So while I have specific goals around connecting with prospects and new clients, working with existing clients, creating and selling my products, teaching and booking speaking engagements, I measure my success by my own fulfillment and alignment with my purpose and vision.
Here are some ideas to consider when deciding on your brand’s unique markers of success as a business leader:
- Engagement: Does my connected community actively interact with my content and offerings?
- Referrals: Am I getting repeat customers and referrals from happy clients?
- Brand evangelism: Have I created raving fans who are excited to talk about my brand and spread my message through word of mouth? Have I created an emotional connection to my brand message?
- Testimonials: What are my brand’s fans (customers and clients) saying about their experience working with me and interacting with my brand?
- Bottom line results: What are my monthly or quarterly sales numbers for products and services?
- Customer feedback: Are my customers or clients getting the intended results from my products and services? Are they satisfied?
- Thought leadership & influence: Am I seen as an expert in my field?
- Personal fulfillment: What needs to be present in my brand for me to feel personally satisfied as The Complete Leader? Do I love what I am doing, in business, and the way that I a doing it?
Activate: So now, create a list of those things that adequately measure and indicate your brand’s success. And next to each, list the specific things you will track on a regular basis. Remember to always tie them back to your why and vision! For example, if you decide that it’s key to get feedback from clients after they work with you, connect how it aligns with your why and vision. Measure this by asking for testimonials and distributing surveys.
Step 2. Measure Regularly and Promptly
Measuring your success with markers and benchmarks must happen on a regular basis to stay on track with your goals. Your goals are elusive if you don’t pay attention to how you are actually accomplishing them.
For instance, I add a call to action in my newsletter and inviting newsletter subscribers to respond to a specific question or provide a comment. It is a simple way to measure my success in sharing my brand’s message through the content created. It’s so rewarding to receive a response about what spoke to my readers specifically.
Another part of the measuring process is the creation of your system. You must decide how you will you collect and store this information regularly. Here are some ideas for ensuring you collect feedback on a regular basis:
- If your social media tool allows, have engagement numbers emailed to you monthly. Or, schedule a specific time each month to calculate them manually.
- Schedule a few hours on the same day each month to tabulate total monthly sales from all products and services.
- Implement an online survey system that automatically collects testimonials from clients after their last session.
- Set up a Google alert so that you will be notified anytime your brand is mentioned on the web. For your convenience here’s the link: https://www.google.com/alerts.
Activate: Now look at your list from step 1, and next to each specific measure, write down the system you will use to collect it and the frequency. Find an online tool to use to measure and track your success.
Step 3. Follow the 3 R’s: Review, Reflect and Revise
As a Keystone Leader, part of feeling complete as you lead is to anticipate and welcome change. And things that seemed really important three months ago may not be important today. Therefore must sure to build in time to review your success measures.
One way to review is by scheduling regular check-ins – monthly or quarterly – to review all of your results. Take the time reflect on the gaps by looking at where you’re exceeding your goals and where you are falling short. Revise where appropriate, and decide where you need to tweak and make adjustments. Document your progress as you go to create a “rinse and repeat system” that you can use over and over.
Activate:
- Schedule your reviews for the next 12 months on your calendar. Follow the 3R process of measuring your success.
- Don’t forget to share your results with your team! This is a great time for both rest and celebration!
Because branding allows you to express your uniqueness as The Complete Leader, put your flag in the sand and decide to create success on your own terms. This is your chance to leverage your brand’s influence and use your business to make an impact in the lives of your connected community. Live up to your vision and your greater purpose!
Want a little support in going through the steps above? Leave me a comment below and tell me what the key measures are of YOUR brand’s success. As always, it’s my pleasure to serve and support you. I love hearing from you! Continue to lead well.