In 2024, the influence of strong leadership on brand growth has never been more pronounced.
Nearly 90% of business executives recognize the importance of leadership development programs for ensuring the long-term success of their organizations.
Effective leaders inspire teams to foster authenticity, invest in personal leadership growth for employees, and keep them engaged, according to Mike Sharrow, CEO of C12 Business Forums.
Who Is Mike Sharrow?
Mike is the CEO of C12 Business Forums, the world’s largest peer-learning organization for Christian CEOs, business owners, and executives. Under his leadership, C12 has experienced remarkable growth in global membership (>2X), the full-time Chair community, and business scale. Before being named C12’s CEO in 2016, Mike held executive roles in several entrepreneurial ventures.
Delving into the critical link between core leadership values and brand strategy, Mike stresses the importance of authenticity in aligning the brand's identity with its digital ambassadors.
He poses an important question: Do leaders genuinely embrace the mission, prioritize customers, and embody the company's values?
Mike reflects on Robert Bortins, the CEO of Classical Conversations and a prominent figure in the homeschooling industry. He admires how Bortins' online persona perfectly represents the values of his company. Bortins' family actively embraces the company's mission, and his unique voice authentically reflects the beliefs and core principles at the heart of his business.
“Social silence is better than the dissonance of values or sense of disingenuous posturing,” Mike adds.
Given that effective leadership development programs can significantly increase a company's cash flow, I asked Mike about the types of leadership development initiatives that businesses can implement to boost their financial health.
“Many CEOs struggle with alignment, clarity, and ownership thinking. Leadership doesn't spontaneously combust after a certain amount of time - it requires cultivation, reward, investment, and modeling. Every business is in the people business, but leadership development requires intentionality,” he explains.
Mike mentions that every year C12 Group shuts down for two days to invest in personal leadership growth for each employee through the Global Leadership Summit, where companies C12 serves also join.
“Hundreds of our top-performing companies around the world have found placing their key executives in peer advisory programs aligned with the CEO and rigorously committed to general management best practices like the C12 Key Player program delivers real results. We’ve seen hundreds of future CEOs launched out of that experience.
Many organizations are struggling with succession plans, but growing leaders is one of the best ways to provide for the future needs of the business. Developing leaders within has to be viewed as a strategic component to recruitment and talent sourcing overall,” Mike concludes.
Mike highlights two strategies that leaders can adopt to strengthen their brand's market position:
- Be passionate about defining your identity, including what values will govern every aspect of your company's interactions, and ensure that the market experience aligns with those values consistently
- Implement demand-generation strategies focused on delivering value, and addressing real problems for your target market. Aim to establish trust by supporting your audience before attempting any transactions
Mike suggests that when a business authentically commits to addressing a particular need, customers will recognize and appreciate the sincerity of the commitment, leading to stronger connections and trust.
Check our podcast to learn how to build audience trust.
Mike also shares with me several methods that leaders can use to enhance brand trust:
- Understanding your current market position, the needs, and concerns that foster loyalty among existing customers, and explore strategies to effectively support employees, customers, and vendors in your supply chain
- Thoroughly evaluate your market position to understand your target audience, their needs, and how you can best serve them
- Understand your existing drivers of customer loyalty and invest heavily in the things that matter most to them
“We’ve seen that investing in that strategic listening cycle has unlocked 30% gains in customer loyalty and fueled 18% compound annual growth rates on existing revenue streams in the past 5 years,” Mike notes.
Strategic leadership can improve a brand's image.
In Mike's opinion, as companies grow, the need to invest in brand strategy, brand management, identity, and clarity grows with them.
“During my first two years as CEO, I conducted a series of “brand audits” and found out we needed to eliminate nearly 20% of our locations and dramatically invest in our training and development around product delivery.
Eventually, this included a brand relaunch and tools to provide alignment and consistent calibration to how we say who we are, what we say, what we do and the terms used. It’s a painful process! However, we’ve seen customer lifetime value (CLV) grow 250% through increased retention, quality, pricing, and loyalty through this process”, he added.
If you're looking for a professional agency to help improve your brand recognition, credibility, and loyalty, be sure to check DesignRush's listing of top brand strategy agencies.
How Strategic Leadership Drives Business
Common challenges among employees can result in stress which ultimately impacts productivity negatively.
Hence, I asked Mike what leaders can do to address these common challenges:
“Over 800 of the companies we serve through C12 employ professional, third-party workplace care or chaplaincy services for their people. The NFL, local police, US Congress, armed forces, and hospitals have deployed chaplains for a century.
In the past 30 years, over 2,000 Workplaces in America have found chaplaincy as a strategic way to ensure, beyond the traditional “EAP” approach, that every person has access to a person who cares 24/7.”
He suggests that leaders should watch the indicators of negative turnover to see what upstream drivers can be addressed. Additionally, leaders should address burnout factors personally and maintain a balanced approach to work-life integration.
He points out that Bandwidth, a web hosting and innovation company, applied this value to things like work hours, schedule, and workplace policies to promote family and individual well-being.
“Some of our best employers have set up generous programs to come alongside team members going through hardships, making the workplace not only somewhere you can show up but where you can find hope and help.
Particularly in settings with remote/virtual teams, putting in place intentional connection times for relationships to combat isolation, mental health, and disconnectedness is key,” he added.
Watch C12 Group's video to learn how to maximize business growth with AI.
Mike and I also discussed how leaders can improve employee engagement and enhance their company's growth.
He suggested that investing in informed strategies to promote well-being and flourishing in the workplace can lead to a significant increase in employee engagement, which is twice the industry average. Such initiatives result in higher levels of productivity and employee retention but also contribute to enhancing the overall value of the enterprise:
- You have to know your data and know your people. So, we recommend an annual culture survey so you don't confuse feelings with facts and you can inform the roadmap of priority activities appropriately.
- Then, leverage appreciative inquiry, focus groups, and consultative discovery to get everyone on the same page of what change is required.
"Make sure your mission is reflected in the culture you create for team members,” he adds.
Talking about how leaders can ensure the development of next-gen leaders for long-term business growth, Mike emphasizes that the process goes beyond mere training programs. It requires a systematic approach that differentiates between training, aimed at enhancing current skills, and development, which evaluates an individual's current performance against their potential for future growth.
“A deliberate onboarding, feedback, assessment, and growth plan process across the company provides the foundation and culture to grow the future of the business,” he added.
To support the growth of their companies, leaders should:
- Invest in creating a plan. While many are playing defense against external factors, that is a far cry from playing offense with a rigorous commitment to planning. As the saying goes, “Plans are worthless, planning is everything"
- Start with taking their leadership team through a deliberate assessment and crafting of strategic plan factors
- Cultivate a “Buffalo Culture” within the company that calls up everyone to rally together and run into the storms ahead for greater outcomes, togetherness, and less chaos
