CEOs Guide to Prepare for Your Brand Strategy Workshop
You’ve set a date and sent the evites. Now it’s time to prepare your team for your workshop. These simple strategies will make sure everyone arrives excited, prepared, and ready to think big.
Summary: The more you give, the more you get. Learn how to prepare your team for the brand strategy workshop, and get the most out of the experience in this guide for CEOs and Founders.
Make a Big Announcement.
Use your weekly leadership team meeting to announce the brand strategy workshop. Set aside 10 minutes in the weekly agenda to discuss why you’ve decided to invest in the company’s brand strategy.
Why does this work matter to you? And, why should it matter to them, too?
How will a brand strategy impact the company?
What do you expect from participants?
Share the basic details of the event: when, where, who.
1:1 Coaching Calls
Turn the workshop into a leadership development opportunity. Reach out the key players on your team and encourage them to take an active role in the success of the workshop.
Connect the workshop to people’s individual performance goals in one on one coaching conversations. The workshop is a unmatched opportunity for team members to work on their professional skills and executive presence.
Encourage team members to share their strengths. Influencers can motivate others to participate, thinkers can ask meaningful questions, and creatives can offer original solutions to old problems.
Thought Starters
Send out thought starters one week before the workshop. Thought starters are quick, independent activities that introduce the concepts of brand strategy and get everyone’s creative juices flowing.
A thought starter could be an article to read, a video to watch, or questions to answer. These thinking nuggets prime people so they arrive warmed up and ready to get to work.
BONUS! If your brand strategy workshop is with me, I provide thought starters for you in a link that you can easily share with your team.
Want to make the thought starters really powerful? When you send them out, include a motivational message from you, their fearless leader.
Workshop Kick Off Message
Get the workshop started with a short, inspirational speech about why the work matters. Follow the KISS Method, keep it simple:
Remind the team why the work matters to you and to the company.
Encourage participation, creativity, and honesty.
Thank them for arranging their schedules and deadlines to accommodate the brand strategy workshop.
