It should be a goal of every corporate leader to get their employees to buy into the company’s mission and brand. Yet, the further you get down the line, the more difficult it becomes to do that. You end up with people who don’t feel like they have a purpose within the organization and then they’re there just for the paycheck.
In this episode, I explain how you can help your employees feel like they have a purpose and a voice within your organization by creating and utilizing a team anthem specifically for your customer service team. I also explain what a team anthem is, the three reasons we utilize team anthems with our clients, how to create your team anthem, and more!
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Transcript
Hey, hey! It’s Andrea and welcome to the Voice of Influence podcast. One of the things that we often talk to people about is brand awareness and the opportunity that people on, sometimes, the frontlines or throughout the company have to be able to truly represent and embody their brand.
That is something that leaders usually want. They want everybody in the company to be on board and buy into the mission, the vision, and the values of the company. And yet, it’s very easy, the further you get down the line in terms of seniority to end up with people who feel less than excited about the brand, less than committed to the company and the company’s success where it might just feel like a job. It just feels like a job to them that they want to maintain to get paycheck, which is a legitimate reason to have a job.
But there’s something significantly missing when there are people in your company who work at your job just to have a job, something significantly missing for them and for you.
One of the most important things for us to remember when you are a leader is that the people around you want to know that they have a purpose. They want to know that their voice matters. If their voice doesn’t matter within the company or with your customers then it’s just a job. However, if they find purpose and meaning and believe that their voice really does matter then they’re going to have a different level of investment into the success of the mission and vision and values of the company.
One of the things that we do is work with individuals on their own voice of influence, so helping people to really believe that their voice does matter to find their authentic voice so that they can make a difference. So that their advice can be _____, so that their expertise can be accepted and utilized, and so that their leadership can be followed.
When people are searching for their voice of influence, one of the tools that we utilize is the Fascinate Assessment in order to be able to help people kind of understand how the world sees them, how they are perceived by others. It is a fairly simple assessment, which is what I love about it because I love the really in depth stuff but at scale. In depth is very difficult to apply and utilize fully.
The Fascinate Assessment has just enough meat on the bones that it can really make a significant impact. But it’s also simple enough that people can take it real quick and then have some results right away and come up with what they call a personal brand anthem, something that would help them to remember what their purpose is. And so this is an assessment that we use and I love the terminology, the anthem.
So, we have applied this idea of having an anthem to the importance of having one as a team. A personal anthem would be based on your personal purpose. The things that you’re particularly good at or what you bring to the table that is significant and that others need to know about how other people really see you when you’re at your best, but what about the team as a whole?
A lot of times companies have, you know, values and mission statements and things are super important to the DNA of the company and you want to maintain that throughout every bit of the company. But what about teams? You know, sometimes a team needs to have their own sense of identity. Why does our team in particular matter?
And it’s interesting, but customer service can tend to feel like it sort of everybody wants to be important. Everybody wants the customer experience to be good, but at the same time it has historically been sort of these are the people that are taking care of the hard stuff and they’re dealing with the hard conversations. They’re just cleaning up the messes and that sort of thing.
The problem with that is that if you are hiring people to participate in customer service and you want them to do a good job, then you’re trying to hire people that care. You’re trying to hire people that would be good with people and that sort of thing. Those are all very important things.
But if they don’t have a personal connection to the purpose, to the vision, to the mission of the company, if they don’t see how they fit in as a team, as a customer service team that matters to the bottom line, that matters to the leadership of the company, if they don’t feel like they really matter, then whether they mean to or not, whether you mean to or not, they’re going to end up feeling as though they don’t really matter.
I’ve spoken with a number of managers or customer service teams or call centers who feel as though the bigger company and the leadership of the company doesn’t respect the fact that their frontline customer service people need to understand what’s going on in the company.
So when there is a strategic initiative that starts or when marketing is going to take a turn or a new product is going to come into play, many times the customer service team is the last one to know about these changes, which is unfortunate because they’re often the one place that customers actually have contact with the company itself.
One of the very first or most important voices of your company is your customer service team. And if they don’t sense that from you, if they’re not getting that sense or they’re not truly connected to the bigger purpose, mission, vision of the company then it becomes more difficult for them to really truly embody it and represent your company well.
So, today we’re going to talk a little bit about creating a team anthem for your customer service team. Why we do this? Why is this a piece of what we help companies to do and how can you do it for yourself? So we’re going to start here with an anthem.
So an anthem, let’s think about this in terms of a national anthem. So the United States National Anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner is played on a regular basis at ball games and sporting events and political gatherings and all kinds of places that is played on a regular basis. Why is that and what is it about an anthem that is so important?
Well, we got three things here. So first of all, an anthem is really, really important for providing perspective. When an anthem is played before a competition, there is a sense of we are all together under this anthem, under this one nation and we are a part of this bigger story.
There is perspective to be gained when we take a step back and say, “Wait a second, this is what we’re all about. This is where we came from. This is where we’re headed, this is what we stand for,” that sort of thing. So, having perspective and understanding that in the moment of the fight, in the moment of that point of a competition where things get really intense prior to that you’ve said that moment is important. But overall we’re on the same team. And when we can say that, then those little moments though they might be intense and people might fight really hard to come out the winner. That’s great.
But bringing that sense of perspective allows people to remember that they’re really a part of something bigger than themselves. And this is not just about me and winning this competition, but who we are as a people and where we come from is really important. And that we don’t have to compete on that in particular. The anthem reminds athletes who and what they’re actually representing. This is about something bigger than ourselves.
So, when we offer people an anthem, when they have an anthem to rally around, then that helps them to gain a perspective about what we’re all about, where we come from and the fact that this is about a bigger story, this is about more than me, “I am not the only piece of this puzzle that matters, but I am a piece of the puzzle that does matter.”
And that brings us to point number two. A good anthem calls out our identity. Who do we say that we are as a people, as a company, as a nation, who do we say that we are? In the United States National Anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner, at the very end you hear a very clear “This is who we are. We are the land of the free, so we are free and we are a home of the brave.”
So, this is where you can really find a place when you are brave. You are brave and you are free and that piece of identity at the end of the national anthem, every time it is sung, every time a whole huge crowd or every time that we hear “The land of the free and the home of the brave” and that is belted out at the end and we all rally around that sound, those words. It’s an amazing opportunity for people to f to be reminded of their identity and who we are. This is important. I am important. I can be brave and I am free.
Then finally number three an anthem provides, I don’t know if you’d call it motivation or really a sense of purpose. So perspective and identity and purpose, they all sort of come together. They come together to help people to feel like they know, “OK this is what we’re all about. This is where we come from, this is what we’re all about and this is what I’m here to provide. This is how I show up. I show up as brave, I show up as free, I show up with respect that sort of thing.
So when a company adapts this idea of having an anthem, a good anthem is going to provide those three things; it’s perspective, a sense of identity, and a very clear purpose. This is where we come from. This is who we say we are and this is what we say we’re all about an anthem, for even a team like a customer service team is going to bring all those three things to bear. It is going to make sure that those three things are hit on so that the team can rally around this anthem and have that sense of identity and perspective and purpose.
But what happens when there’s an anthem and there is a sense of discrepancy between what the anthem says and what people are seeing in their company or in their country. When they see an anthem, when they’re hearing an anthem and they hear these words like respectful invitation or, you know, freedom and bravery and these values or these words that really call out something really beautiful and important and purposeful. And then they look at the company or they look at the country and they say, “But that’s not what I’m seeing here. I’m seeing a discrepancy between who we say that we are and what we’re actually doing.”
You’ve probably been quite aware of some of the controversial ways that the anthem in particular of the United States National Anthem has been used to discuss this and bring up conversation about the discrepancy that athletes are seeing between the anthem itself and what they’re seeing in the way that it plays out for equality. And the way that some of these people have chosen to address this or to bring this discrepancy to light is to kneel during the anthem instead of stand, which is an interesting way to do it.
There are lots of different perspectives on this and having had grandparents or relatives that have served in the military almost giving their lives or giving their lives for the country, I can understand the depth of intense feelings that people have around this issue. And yet I think it’s important that we always look at, especially for if you’re going to have a voice of influence, you going to be able to take perspective. You got to be able to look at the way that other people are seeing the world as well.
So, why would somebody kneel during the national anthem? Is it possible that they actually do respect the national anthem and they respect the many ways that people have contributed or sacrificed for the freedoms in the country so much that they see that there’s a need to do it even better. They see discrepancies between that freedom that we proclaim in the national anthem that people have fought for and what they’re actually seeing in real life. And this is a way that they are choosing to bring this to light.
So the point for a company is that there are going to be times that even if you do create an anthem or if you have a set of values that you say, you know, on a big scale mission, vision, values for the company. And those get down to the people who are on those front lines that you get down to the customer service folks and they look around and they say, “Yeah, but I’m not seeing that here and I’m not seeing that here.”
How would you like them to handle the discrepancies that they see? Do they have an opportunity to share their voice, to help make the communication or the anthem that of the company actually get everybody aligned underneath of it so that it’s not saying something that’s not true about your company because if values aren’t aspirational, I don’t know what they are.
Obviously, they’re not going to be perfect in a sense an anthem should be calling out what’s already present, the strengths that are already there in your company or in your customer service team or in you as an individual. But if people are seeing discrepancies, they should see discrepancies. What should they do with those discrepancies? What do you want them to do about it? Do they have the opportunity to really voice their concerns and make a difference? Does their voice matter?
So, as you’re thinking about an anthem and giving people an anthem, it’s not something that you actually create for other people. Instead, it works so much better if a team gets together to create their own anthem because then they do have a voice. When you do have that company mission, vision, values and then try to get it to filter out through the whole company; different sites, different divisions, different teams, it’s good to have all that but it’s even better when a team can come underneath of that and in alignment with what you’ve already created be able to get even more specific about who they are as a team and who they are as an individual.
When they do that, you’re going to find that the people, the individuals have a clear sense of what they bring to the table, their own sense of perspective, identity and purpose and that they see how that connects with their teams sense of perspective, identity and purpose and then they see how their team fits into the strategic mission, vision, and values of the company then things feel more aligned.
People don’t see as many discrepancies or when they do, they have a better sense of what to do with those discrepancies when they come up. So as for the technical pieces of an anthem besides this general sense of perspective, identity and purpose, how do you do that? What process can you go through to take your people through this opportunity to find an anthem for your team?
There are different ways that you can do this. There are different people that have different systems that give you one word or give you a set of values or give you whatever. There are lots of different ways that you could do this. And the basic concept is that you want them to be very, very clear on the perspective, identity and purpose.
The way that we do it with companies when we do a voice of influence program for like a customer service team or a sales team is we go in and we identify the strengths of the team itself. People take the fascinate assessment and we give people the opportunity to create their own anthem and then from there, their own anthem in the Fascinate Assessment is like an adjective and a noun. It’s what you do best and how you do it.
So for example, empowering expression is one of the pieces of my personal anthem. So when I walk into a room, I’m thinking to myself, “This is what I bring to the table. I bring empowering expression. This is the perspective that I have. This is where I come from. I know in my own mind and heart just the background of why that’s important to me and what I’ve done to be able to get to the point where I can actually help people with that. I know that’s my identity. This is who I am, this is what I provide. But it’s also my purpose.”
I can help people by helping them be able to express themselves. And when I have that as my main mission, when that becomes the goal then most other things tend to fall into place because I’m very, very focused on what I can bring to the table. I’m very, very focused on my anthem.
When it comes to with voice of influence, and our anthem is Voice of Influence, what we have chosen to do is to take that same model, the adjective and the noun and create four or five different adjectives, noun phrases that would describe different pieces of who we say that we are and what we’re all about. And by doing that then we use a one sentence to describe that to make it very clear and then we use a question to ask, “Are we really doing that? How does this actually play out? Is this a thing that we can actually do? Are we doing it well?”
And so that is the basic format of the team anthem that we help teams create. You can do that on your own or if you need help with that, we could certainly help. But that is so important for people to be able to come together to create this together. And once you have an anthem, you can utilize the anthem to create a system of checks and balances to create a system of accountability if you’d like to incorporate it into your personal reviews, personal reviews for the person.
If culture and tribe and getting everybody together to be aligned with that mission, vision, and values of your company is important to you then spending time on an anthem, spending time on giving people a voice, helping people to find their own voice and to be able to connect it to the voice of your company is so worth it. Because in the end you’re going to get more buy-in and you’re going to get more engagement.
When people really feel like they understand the perspective of what this company is about, where they came from, what your company says that they are, who they are and who they are as a team within the company and then their purpose. When they know that your purpose and their purpose are connected, they’re going to be motivated to be able to do more and really truly embody the brand of your company.
If you’d like any more information about creating an anthem, you can find more information on our show notes at voiceofinfluence.net/99 and folks that means that next time it will be Episode 100 for the Voice of Influence podcast and we are celebrating here on our team. We’re very excited about Episode 100. So in that episode, I’m going to be back again to share with you what we have distilled over the past two years, two plus years of interviews and working with clients, working with individuals on their voice of influence. What are the six main elements of a Voice of Influence? Why are they so important?
Clarity around these things changes the game. When you are wanting to a difference, you need to know the six elements for yourself and for helping your team know these six elements for themselves. If you’re looking for emerging leaders to come up and come up the ranks in your company, this episode is for you. You’re going to want to hear it. We’re excited to share it with you next time and until then, until Episode 100. Go and find an anthem for your team and go make your voice matter more.