How strong brands inspire great teamwork

Last December I volunteered at an AMAZING women’s leadership event and it taught me loads about teamwork. In fact I wrote a LinkedIn post about it.

Recently I was thinking  once more about why participating in this event was such a strong example of teamwork. And I realised that many of the reasons were linked to the brand.

Let me explain. The event was run by Aspire, a brand whose single – minded purpose is to inspire and equip women to lead change and make a difference.

And it was because of the strength of this brand that as volunteers, we were able to perform as a brilliant team.

Here’s how a strong brand inspired teamwork

We all strongly believed in the purpose of the organisation. We understood how the event was contributing to this purpose and more importantly our role in making this happen.

We were inspired by Aspire’s vision. This united the team and gave us a sense of being involved in something bigger than ourselves.

We understood the organisation’s values and were expected (and happy) to abide by them. This made us accountable to each other, to conference attendees and speakers (who we were there to help), to our wonderful team leader, Julia and to Sam, President of Aspire, who led the conference.

Finally although we were very different as individuals, as a team we had a distinct and unified personality which was set by the brand. This gave us energy and focus as we went about our tasks – and we were told it was infectious.

But this didn’t happen by chance. We didn’t show up on day 1 and expect magic. In fact this was the second time I’d volunteered at Aspire and this had definitely not been the case first time round.

So how did it happen?

1.  Volunteers were chosen because they had experienced the impact of the brand (as mentors, mentees or event participants) and because of their ability to deliver the brand because they understood it.

2. Volunteers were briefed thoroughly on the brand, and it was embedded into what was expected of them and what they needed to achieve during the event.

3. Volunteers were held accountable to the brand and any activity or behaviour that contradicted the brand was called out and addressed.

And that’s how a strong brand inspired great teamwork. I’m not sure if those at Aspire would say  that this how they achieved it.  But as a brand strategist who was a member of that team, that was my very positive experience. And I’m sharing it because I think there are learnings for us all – whether we are leading or part of a team.

Want to build a strong brand strategy that inspires teamwork? We can help so do get in touch.