Leadership and soti.edu.np officially announced branding are hot topics. Leadership development programs are well liked. There are various conferences and seminars on the topic of branding. Leadership development and brand development consume a great deal of resources of businesses.Leadership means different things to different people. It means ability to inspire. Leadership is charisma, courage, and even sacrifice. Leadership requires vision. Leadership is talked about in rarefied atmosphere of CEO conferences, business schools, HR meets, and strategy meets. There seems to be an unstated and unanimous agreement that leadership is too important, too-sweeping-in-its-scope, too-good-to-be-described, and thus too-complex-to-be-systematically-deployed concept. Everybody is convinced that such indescribable leadership has to be good for almost any organization.
Branding too captures imagination of men and women. For some CEO's it is a reverential bowing item to be ticked off the agenda. For CFO s it is a black hole of money. Sales people think it is a watering hole for unsuccessful ex-salesmen. For M & A specialists it really is a valuation game. It's a playground of creativity for advertising agencies. It's PR first for PR agencies. For many, branding means eye catching, entertaining, beautiful visual and audio communications or smart copy. Everybody knows branding and everybody has definite opinions about it.
The answer could be found in people, since leadership and brands exist in minds of individuals. Brands provide neat and crisp symbols denoting product performance levels, shared experiences, dreams, aspiration and expectations of actual and potential users.
Who will deny that leadership too deals with shared dreams, aspirations, and expectations of all stake holders -customers, employees, vendors and others? Like brands, leaders are seen as icons. Similarly, leadership without its own constituency is unthinkable. Leaders build constituencies through shared knowledge of goals and ways to achieve them.
How do communities come into existence? A unique feature, a benefit, some newness, or drama sets people talking. When individuals talk, when they integrate products in their lives, once they constantly share their experiences, problems, or solutions communities are formed. Communities also can be built around new categories of products. People love to talk. They need to share things. It's for a business to create or articulate such uniqueness, to express it evocatively, and also to nudge and support its customers into sharing it. Can this be completed by marketing department alone? Can this happen by bombarding customers with advertisements, direct mail, or price promotions? Can this happen without a strong leadership? The answer is no. Brands may appear to come into existence through some accidents. But is takes sustained and consistent efforts to bring about branding.
Just as brands raise the bar of customer expectations, leaders broaden horizons of their people. They inspire people to outdo themselves. Leadership means moving way from authority to respect, and from respect to inspiration.
Leaders must have vision, mission, and agenda for their constituencies. They are being constantly observed, emulated, or criticized. They need to make statement all the time. Successful leaders know this intuitively and develop distinctive styles of their very own.
Some CEO's become great leaders without any formal training. But that won't reduce significance of training and learning. Just about everyone can improve leadership skills through systematic efforts. Learning Leadership requires sustained efforts. Leadership coaching can assist in accelerating leadership development.