Leading Beyond Authority!

Yesterday was the second day of the Common Purpose matrix course in Norwich. For much of the day we were listening to leaders in the city and the challenges that they are currently facing. Perhaps one of the most interesting topics was the question of how a business built on the reputation of a founder can stretch the ethos and culture behind that individual to represent the whole business as it begins to evolve. Internal marketing and ensuring that people inside the organisation understand the brand as well as external stakeholders have become a growing part of the marketers role. I wonder how many people in large companies understand their brand to be the same as the understanding their customer have?

Other challenges included the quest to continue to focus on Marketing Norwich and to build the World Class Normal For Norfolk campaign, and the pressure of funding that so many not for profit or social enterprise organisations are now facing. It struck me that throughout the day people were not responding to challenges through the constraints that their job roles may typically impose, but instead there was a sense of liberation and freedom to express ideas and put forward suggestions and solutions. Is leadership sometimes compromised or restricted purely by the individual’s perception of where their boundaries sit?