If Your Team Were a Brand, How Would It Feel to Work With You?

Every team already has a brand.

Not the one on the website.

Not the values on the wall.

The lived one — the one people experience in meetings, emails, deadlines, and moments of pressure.

The truth is simple and uncomfortable: everything we do and say communicates.

And intention, on its own, is never enough.

Most teams I work with have good intentions.

They want to be trusted. Reliable. Collaborative. Professional. Human.

But wanting to be those things doesn’t automatically mean you’re experienced that way.

That gap — between intention and impact — is where team brands are quietly built or broken.

________________________________________

Intention vs Impact: Where Brands Are Really Formed.

If you want to be known as reliable and trustworthy, but you consistently procrastinate, miss deadlines, or need chasing, people won’t experience you as reliable — no matter how committed you feel internally.

If you arrive late for meetings, even occasionally, the unspoken message often isn’t:

“they must be busy.”

It’s more likely:

• “you don’t respect my time.”

• “can I trust you with this task?”

• “what will you be like with a client?”

These interpretations aren’t fair or unfair — they’re human.

And they happen whether we like it or not.

Your brand (as a team and as an individual) is formed in these micro-moments:

• how you prepare

• how you follow through

• how you show up when it’s inconvenient

• how predictable you are under pressure

This is why alignment matters more than aspiration.

Alignment is being congruent with how you want to show up in other people's minds and your consistent behaviour.

________________________________________

The Team Brand Experience: How Do People Feel Working With You?

We all have brands we trust — not because of what they promise, but because of how they make us feel.

It could be:

• a manager who greets you personally and makes you feel seen

• excellent service that makes everything easy

• a knowledgeable person who removes confusion and helps you decide with confidence

Those experiences build loyalty because they reduce effort and increase trust.

Teams are no different.

Whether you realise it or not, your team delivers a brand experience every day — internally and externally.

So it’s worth asking:

• What is it like to work with us?

• Do we make it easy or hard for people to engage with us?

• Are we clear, responsive, and consistent?

• How do people feel after interacting with our team?

Inside organisations, this matters more than most teams realise.

If colleagues avoid working with your team, brace themselves for meetings, or feel drained by the process — that becomes part of your brand.

Equally, if people seek you out, trust your judgement, and recommend you to others, that’s also a brand — built through behaviour, not intention.

A question worth sitting with: Would people recommend working with us?

Not because you’re “nice.”

Because you’re effective, respectful, and trustworthy.

Brand experience isn’t about being liked.

It’s about being easy to work with, clear to engage, and solid under pressure.

And once teams get curious about the experience they create for others, accountability becomes far less personal — and far more purposeful.

________________________________________

Physical Presence: What You Say Without Words.

Brand communication isn’t just verbal.

Your physical presence speaks loudly:

• eye contact (or lack of it)

• body language in meetings

• whether you’re present or half-elsewhere

• how you enter and exit conversations

• punctuality, posture, energy

Non-verbal behaviour often carries more weight than words.

A leader can say “this is important” while checking emails, interrupting, or rushing the conversation — and the body language wins every time.

Teams notice.

Clients notice.

Suppliers notice.

And slowly, a story forms:

“they say one thing, but behave another way.”

________________________________________

Interpersonal Presence: Who You Are Under Pressure.

Then there’s interpersonal presence — how you show up emotionally and relationally, especially when things get hard.

This is where team brands are truly revealed.

How do you:

• navigate stress?

• handle disagreement?

• respond to feedback?

• deal with conflict?

• behave when you don’t get your way?

Under pressure, we default to habit — not values.

Some people withdraw.

Some become sharp or defensive.

Some avoid difficult conversations entirely.

Some over-control.

Some appease.

None of this makes someone “bad”.

But it does shape how safe, trustworthy, and effective a team feels to work with.

And again — everything communicates.

________________________________________

From Values to Behaviour: Where Accountability Becomes Possible.

This is why values alone don’t create accountability.

Accountability becomes meaningful when teams can answer:

• Who are we at our best?

• What behaviours help us achieve our goals?

• What behaviours quietly hold us back?

When teams get honest about this, something powerful happens:

• conversations become clearer

• feedback feels less personal and more purposeful

• accountability shifts from blame to shared ownership

Instead of:

“that’s just how they are,”

the question becomes:

“is this how we’ve agreed we want to show up?”

________________________________________

Legacy: The Brand You’re Creating (Whether You Mean To or Not).

Every team is creating a legacy — consciously or unconsciously.

The real question is:

Who do you want to be known as — now and in the future?

Not just for results, but for how you achieved them.

When teams look at their future brand — the team they want to become — it changes the present:

• decisions become more intentional

• behaviour matters more

• individuals realise they are brand ambassadors every day

Because you don’t switch your brand on and off.

You carry it into every interaction.

________________________________________

The Power of Three.

If you want a practical place to start, start here.

Choose three behaviours you want your team to be known for — and define what they look like on an ordinary Tuesday, not just at your best.

Ask:

• What would people consistently experience from us if we lived these?

• What would need to change in how we run meetings, manage deadlines, and communicate?

• What would we need to stop tolerating?

Because the team you become isn’t built in big moments.

It’s built in repeatable ones.

That’s where alignment lives.

That’s where trust is built.

That’s where brands become real.

Here’s to brand us,

Warm wishes,

Lori