So, you’re thinking about repositioning your business with a more conscious, environmentally responsive and socially just identity.
It used to be enough to just do a rebrand. Simply hire a specialist consultant, restructure your key message, change the look and feel of your brand, and get a reputable certification like B-Corp.
But no longer. Because what our purpose-driven business pioneers are discovering is that it’s not enough to address the potential of conscious business through brand positioning alone. Enduring brand performance comes from something much deeper than surface-level redesigns. To realise the potential of a rebrand and make a meaningful difference, an organisation’s people need to be willing, and able, to get in touch with what is going on in their inner lives.
Mindset: The source of conscious business
Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits drive the real-world potential of your business and therefore it’s brand.
Conscious business must come from the inside out. It needs to be true to who your organisation is and authentically reflect why your people show up to work every day.
Treating it as a rebranding exercise that can be resolved with dazzling design and an assortment of certifications won’t get you very far. Because below the surface of any rebrand are a number of deeply human elements that are often overlooked. Let’s focus on one of these human elements – the mindset of the organisation and its people.
Mindsets – our deeply held beliefs, values and higher purpose – are integral to doing good business. In the words of Donella Meadows, “mindsets are the sources of systems”. They drive the lives we lead and the actions we take, which in turn drives the real-world potential of the work we do.
What is a mindset? The different mindset’s we can choose to adopt for ourselves can broadly be grouped into 3 categories:
Which mindset do you and your organisation regularly adopt?
What our conscious business pioneers are realising is that you can’t just change the outside of your business, because what’s going on in our inner lives – our beliefs, values and higher purpose – will always find a way through. Unless organisations are authentically aligned, inside and out, the potential of any conscious rebrand will fade. This means that regardless of how well-intentioned the rebrand is, or which certifications you get, the business needs to be genuinely aligned and consciously living it every day.
In particular, conscious business requires a culture of everyday leadership – people who purposefully come to work every day to do good business. People whose work is about more than the paycheck – work that is an integral part of their personal wellbeing, as well as the wellbeing of their stakeholders.
These features are the hallmarks of a Benefit Mindset. Anything less is simply insufficient for sustaining the long term potential of a high-performance conscious business.
Nowadays, people can see straight through you. They can tell if you’re not walking the talk and if you can be trusted. They want to connect with people and organisations who are being true to who they are, know what they stand for and believe in making a meaningful difference.
Therefore, if you’re in the business of being a conscious business – guess what, you are also in the business of developing mindsets. It’s where the leverage lies for infusing purpose, authenticity and everyday leadership into your organisation.
Want to find out more about how you can develop mindsets within your organisation? Check out this post on Becoming an everyday leader.
