Lets start with the word “brand”, which seems to be in greater use than ever before, with much energy expended around “personal branding”, etc. A quick search yields radically varied definitions of the term, from a declaration that your brand is simply what you say about yourself on as many social networks as possible, repeatedly, until it somehow “sticks”, to the Wikipedia definition that:
A brand is a collection of experiences and associations connected with a service, a person or any other entity.
…which to my mind is much more substantial, lasting, and very close to “reputation.”
What are the experiences and associations that others have of your IT shop? What are the few choice terms that would be repeated by your customers to describe your department? Following are three examples you might be shooting for:
Precision: If your team is known by its precision, it means that you are data-driven in everything that you do, take getting the numbers right very seriously, and show pride in that behavior. In practice it might mean that when you have low confidence in a number, you state as much, rather than blowing smoke through a presentation, regardless of the pressure to do otherwise. It requires double-checking, on your part and all the way down the line. It requires identifying the individuals on your team who exhibit this trait, and figuring out how they can help you set the bar high for others. It requires getting it right a high percentage of the time, but also coming clean when you discover that a prior representation your team made was incorrect.
Executive teams, Boards of Directors and your customers may not see as much of this trait as you would imagine, and it tends to get noticed. A precision brand tells others that you know what you are talking about, and when you present something, whether its a trivial report or justification for a million-dollar investment, your facts will be solid and need little checking on their part, a good position to be in over time. Precision gets your investment approval limits raised. Precision is a good branding word for others to throw out about your team.
Preparedness: Similar to precision in that you set an expectation for yourself and for your team that you will always be prepared for deadlines, meetings and presentations. You are known for being prepared for these events and you will not waste other’s time when that is not the case. In practice this means that you may routinely do activities like acting out “dry-runs” of important presentations with members of your team, before you go live to the outside world, to ensure that the team is prepared in every respect.
Have you ever cancelled a big meeting because it was obvious to you that everything was not in place for it to be highly productive? Assuming that you have a high preparedness rate overall, you may find that others, even at the most senior level, will appreciate your willingness to pull the cord on that rare occasion and cancel a meeting, with the expectation that a quality event will occur a few days later. Preparedness trains others that when they are invited to a meeting by a member of your team, it will be worth their time, and gets them to hit the accept button on the invite. Preparedness is a great branding word for others to throw out about your team.
Partnership: If you consider yourself to have a collaborative approach to your work, is that the case for the bulk of your team as well? Are the team members with a collegial approach identified, praised and leveraged to model this behavior to others? This is another trait that tends to stand out in larger organizations. If you get a call from a business customer remarking that it is the first time they have ever been brought together with Mary from X department, with a thank-you for your facilitation role, you may have a real opportunity on your hands to build this as a brand. Partnership puts you and your team in the key role of bringing people together, and influencing the direction of the organization beyond the traditional scope of IT. Partnership is another great branding word to obtain.
Just as one would seek to control their personal brand as it pertains to their career journey, I’d suggest that you take a few minutes to consider the established brand for your department, and set goals for any changes you’d like to make over time. What branding words would your leadership team provide if they were surveyed? How about your customers? Are your vendors and partners supporting you in your branding efforts as well? For example, if you’d like to be known for technical advancement, do your prospective IT candidates see examples of that in the materials they are presented with upon first researching your company? Or are they sent off to an antiquated HR vendor site where they are asked to re-enter their resume, field by field? If there is a disconnect in this experience, is the gap important enough that you need to take control of it from whomever is managing that vendor, or otherwise make a change?
Your staff, partners and vendors determine the experiences other have, and the associations they will make about your team, becoming your brand over time. As IT leaders I’d suggest that we need to realize this fact, and make building our department brands a high priority.