Customers today demand more depth, emotion, and personality from companies. As a result, it seems every brand is trying to be more “human” these days, but few are getting it right. We proclaim “customers first,” change “we” to “you” on our corporate websites, and post a few heartwarming photos and videos. But that’s not enough. In order to truly transform our brands, we must first look internally and cultivate highly human marketing leaders and teams.
“Human is not just a cosmetic marketing issue; it’s an internal cultural issue,” writes Kathy Klotz-Guest, founder of marketing and communications firm, Keeping it Human. “It’s time to take the palliative organizational ‘human’ medicine internally.”
1. Put emotion back into leadership.
Feeling emotions is what makes life rich. You need your passions. – Daniel Goleman
We are emotional beings and when we are moved, we act. More importantly, if we are not moved, we ignore, we discard, we move on without hesitation. Take a lesson from Kent Thiry, CEO of kidney dialysis company DaVita. Thiry understands that you take care of customers by inspiring and taking care of employees. He creates one-of-a-kind employee rallies where he somersaults, sings, ziplines, rides in on a Harley and delivers purpose and inspiration with pizzazz by being incredibly authentic, caring and vulnerable. His heartfelt speeches are often filled with tears of empathy and pride. He delivers and creates extreme loyalty with his core values, rituals, recognition and heart. His results? He has led a company turnaround FROM revenues of $1.6 billion, losses of $56 million and a share price of $2 TO revenues approaching $6 billion, net income of $374 million and a share price near $60. Wow.
Catalyzing an Authentic Culture to Create a Human Brand
