Manifest your greatest aspirations by uncovering your personal and organizational ‘why.’
It wasn’t until Guillermo didn’t get the board seat he was aiming for that he went on a journey to understand his purpose and become able to substantively communicate his “why.” Doing this using the time-proven Excavate–Tell–Affirm™ process from Revealing Genius changed the trajectory of his career. By developing his brand manifesto, Guillermo came alive.
At the time Guillermo applied for that board seat, he was an accomplished executive, the recently retired president of a division of a large, well-known company. He had grown a brand to be a global household name. He was one of two on the shortlist for the role. So why didn’t he get it? The chair said the other, equally qualified candidate was better able to link her “why” to the firm’s reason for existing and how she could add value.
The “purpose” Guillermo has now excavated? “Expanding possibilities.” The “why”? “To fuel empowerment for achieving breakthroughs that matter.”
Wow.
Today, Guillermo serves as an investor/advisor to two organizations and as a board director for two others.
Another example of the power of purpose: Peter had recently retired from being CFO of a $100M nonprofit. Going through the Excavate-Tell-Affirm™ process enabled him to discover what would bring him joy, fulfillment and income in his next act—teaching “finance language” to nonprofit CEOs. Peter called the one-minute brand affirmation that accompanied the final product “a love letter” to himself that only he would read.
Inspired? Read on for more stories about people’s success after excavating their purpose and how you can make it happen in your world. The example in the last section of this blog describes the bonus power that can be achieved when an organization and its top executive go through this process together.
Individuals’ Next Success After the Excavate-Tell-Affirm™ Process
Taking what I learned about building brands as a CEO and CMO helped me create the Excavate-Tell-Affirm process, which has helped many C-suite executives articulate their brand
value, including their extraordinary why. Here are six worthy examples:
- A CEO emeritus of one of the largest payers in the nation repositioned himself to become a mentor and investor to innovative healthcare technology firms in the behavioral health space.
- A neurosurgeon who dedicated his life’s work documenting complex surgical procedures is finally becoming known for the innovative surgical training techniques he is using to train the next generation of brain surgeons.
- The president of one of the largest health systems in the nation, at the apogee of his career, strategically remessaged to attract a seven-figure salary in a role where he could impact millions of lives with one of the largest healthcare disruptors in the world.
- A physician executive took on her first CEO role for a telemedicine company and is making her mark specializing in #hyperlocal healthcare and revitalizing rural communities.
- A nurse who moved up the ranks to the C-suite at the same prestigious health system over 41 years pivoted into a private consulting practice and now has a waiting list of top-tier clients in need of her unique leadership development approach for large multi-location organizations in healthcare and beyond.
- A scientist from one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world rekindled her love of medicine and her work and found the courage to share her point of view, which has led to significant internal support and funding of a moonshot project she masterminded.
Organizations Can Benefit, Too
I hope you’ve enjoyed those stories of individuals’ success. Creating a brand manifesto can be particularly powerful when an organization does it alongside its top executive. Here’s a case in point.
When The Atlas Enterprise worked with Revealing Genius and strategy consultancy Clarke & Esposito to build its brand manifesto, it created unprecedented alignment among its leadership team members—the board directors and its founder and public voice, Aaron Cohen-Gadol, M.D.
Before creating the brand manifesto, the non-profit’s leaders were struggling with how to talk meaningfully and compellingly about the organization’s portfolio of products together, then as stand-alones. Since developing the brand manifesto, the team has been able to describe the non-profit’s offerings so their complexity is heard and understood.
In addition, the brand manifesto development process helped Dr. Cohen recognize and acknowledge that his personal brand (and manifesto) was just as important to organizational success as the overarching brand. He wrote a brand manifesto for himself, too! (Read the case study about this initiative.)
Get Your Next Success by Boosting Your Brand
My clients tell me they’ve been passed over for dream jobs and board seats; they lead tech companies that don’t get funded because their narrative is too complex to understand; they watch top talent leaving their company to go with a competitor because the competitor’s CEO is perceived to be more passionate about a cause.
Don’t let these things be true for you!
Ignite your next success! Learn more about building a brand manifesto for yourself or your organization through Revealing Genius. We’re honored to work with boards and leadership teams as well as individual leaders. You can also learn more via our free 10-minute webinar, Brand Leadership Summit or online course.
