David Kippen, Ph.D.'s Blog

I've said it before. Brand is more than the logo on your site. It's more than the slogan and the hype. It is also the type of communication that is routine in your organization, the dress of the employees, the way customers are handled, the atmosphere of the office as well as the actual corporate culture.

Let's venture a little farther into the corporate brand realm. Many companies talk about their diversity programs, the strength of their conviction to support a diverse environment, their belief in having opportunity for all types of candidates, open doors for whatever. It's wonderful to talk about these things. It's quite another to do things that support and nourish the substance of them so that they do not have to be discussed. The diversity initiatives don't have to be discussed because they simply are part of the environment, like the fingers on your hand.

There are some companies that talk about the great opportunities available in their organization for people of color and individuals of diverse experiences and backgrounds. Yet their diversity brand comes off slightly discolored when held up to the light of day.

What they're actually saying, when put to the test, is that women in the company are excellent secretaries and will rise to executive administrative assistants (for example). While they may have the education and credentials to qualify for more and have politicked to do so, their words fell on deaf ears. So they remain very confident, capable, self-assured executive administrative assistants. They're also well paid, to be sure. But the ceiling on their career path in that company has been cemented.

The other part of the company unspoken brand is where the diverse talent lives and works. Assignments can be doled out according to who has time. Team members can be paired up according to who has the talents that complement the other members as well as the required skills for the project. But I still remember what I said to my mother as a four-year-old in the Inglewood, California Sears & Roebuck as we made our typical way through a department store. "Mommy, why are there so many white people here?"

Now, Mommy was white. And although we didn't acknowledge the diversity in the family, it was there. We just accepted one another for who we were in every way. The color wasn't important. One was an excellent public speaker, another told great stories, the one in the living room was a great organizer, the one at the ice cream maker was great with the kids, and several were fantastic at making a particularly tasty dish for that holiday. That's the type of health and brand that needs to be silently, tacitly communicated by an organization. It doesn't matter what color you are, nor your age, height, weight, or color of whatever. What matters is the skill that you have and our ability to put it to use.

That type of communication is broadcast loudly in some organizations. It isn't intentionally broadcast at high volume. It simply resounds because it exists and is such an exception to some other places. That type of communication came across in the offices of two former clients (from the 1970s). Perhaps it was because they were law offices. There was an understanding that the people in the firm came there with certain skills -- extremely well-toned skills. And the quality of those skills was why those people were in the office. Each person was respected and given due deference.

Those clients knew that to keep their people and to keep their people happy, they needed to be sensitive to the career needs that were happening and where feasible, cater to those needs. Thus, if someone came in as some type of support staff, there was assurance that the training needed to make them a full member of the team was available. It usually took the form of coaching and on-the-job training. However, the staffer had already exhibited the necessary native intelligence to assure everyone they were capable of learning as well as successfully doing. That was one other thing about the firm. It was a break-away firm and just starting out on its independent legs. Everyone pitched in on projects. Everyone worked hard. There were periodic rewards of some sort so that everyone could revel in the small successes that came with the passage of time.

Unfortunately, not all organizations are like that client's office. There are the high and the mighty. There are the "I'm so much better than you" types. There are the ones who believe that a person from a particular neighborhood (translated to zip code) or of a certain color have particular inadequacies that simply cannot be overcome and thus limit that person to lower ranking tasks. These types of organizations tend to broadcast their illness, even in the Reception area. There's a certain way people talk to others. The roles the players have are cast and set and it's obvious.

Unfortunately, many candidates are so anxious to get a job, that they tune out these broadcasts so that they only hear the sweet harmony. The supporting tones that make the overall piece don't exist in the candidate's mind until they accept the job and have been in their role for a time. Then the ceiling starts getting too low. The "I'm busy right now" and the "Let me get back to you on that" comments build up into a wall of inaction, empty promises, and a subconscious questioning about why any of the mindless running around is important. None of it will get the employee any farther up but will eventually get them motivated to get going -- elsewhere.

Some employers put on a great show during the interview. There's the semblance of opportunity. There's a spectre of healthy diversity. They're only window dressing. Each person is a token element in order to make the branding and the corporate communication appear to be legitimate. But when push comes to shove, it's important to see which of those diverse personages are actually being promoted to higher positions because of the inroads they've made because of the opportunities to do. It's one thing to talk the talk. It's quite another to walk the talk. And the walk is actually the communication of the brand.

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About the Author:

Yvonne LaRose is a California Accredited Consultant whose office is in Beverly Hills, California. Her practice focuses on two general areas: Organizational Development and Career Coaching. Her column, Career and Executive Recruiting Advice was created in early 2000 and then moved to its own domain in mid-2002. She has written for CollegeRecruiter.com as a member of the Ask the Experts panel and a contributing author of articles since 2001, and began blogging for the site in late 2005. She became the site's career coach in January 2006 and has developed a long list of success stories from her interns in that short time. She also blogs from an extension of her site, The Desk of Yvonne LaRose, Consultant.

Blog Swap : Week 8