Expert Available: Leveraging Identity in Uncertain Times

WESTPORT, CT--(Marketwire - February 2, 2010) - As CEOs struggle to lead their companies through a difficult economic recovery, they may benefit from streamlining their leadership platforms in ways that get employees to sit up and take notice. While leaders generally focus on purpose, vision, mission, brand and values, they tend to neglect what actually drives and aligns all of these elements: identity, the unique characteristics that define value-creating potential.

In the recent study "The Identity Effect: Cracking the Code on Value Creation - How Identity-Based Management Drives Employee Engagement and Business Performance," Larry Ackerman, founder of The Identity Circle and author of "Identity is Destiny," demonstrates the compelling power of simplifying and strengthening the leadership platform.

Identity as a Leadership Lens

"There are significant missteps that leaders unwittingly take during times of change and crisis, including creating redundant messages; overloading audiences with too much information; focusing on the wrong elements; and being unable to create sound a measurement process," said Mr. Ackerman. "They fail to address and leverage the company's most important value-creating asset -- its identity."

By recognizing and assessing the economic benefits of identity, organizations and their leaders can begin to effectively leverage their companies' 'identity strength' throughout all operations.

How to Streamline -- and Strengthen

With this backdrop, Mr. Ackerman suggests leaders ask themselves:
1. Are we promoting redundant messages? How can I simplify my platform without losing its power and influence?

2. What measurements am I using to determine whether I'm effectively leveraging my company's core identity?

3. If change is necessary, where do I focus my efforts?

Mr. Ackerman is available to discuss the steps leaders can take to streamline their platform and maximize the essence of their organization's identity. During a discussion, he can elaborate on how leaders can:

• Engage employees to connect themselves to the company's identity in meaningful ways;
  
  
• Bring greater logic to the story they tell about the future of the enterprise;
  
  
• Measure, quantitatively, the impact of their leadership platform on engagement and performance;
  
  
• Align leadership closely with identity to maximize executive effectiveness.

"While an intangible asset, a company's identity can be discerned, articulated and operationalized as the main driver of value creation. This is the discipline identity-based management provides," Mr. Ackerman said. "Strong identities are derived from engaging ideas that are accessible and inclusive."

Key Elements of Identity-Based Management

Mr. Ackerman can also outline the key elements of identity-based management -- what companies that have made the effort to understand their identities do to put identity to work to create more value. They are likely to...

• Integrate identity and business economics: Identity provides the human model of how companies work; economics provides the capital model. Blending these disciplines results in a more reliable framework for shaping strategy, managing operations and measuring results.
  
  
• Lead through identity: Leaders can capitalize on the power of identity to achieve key components of success such as: authenticity, integrity and endurance.
  
  
• Close the value gap: Most companies operate below their capacity to create value. Closing the value gap -- via identity-based management -- would not only improve performance, but also improve the vitality of the economy overall.
  
  
• Let identity drive culture: Identity can be a natural "forcing function" for shaping a culture around the dynamics of value creation.
  
  
• Make identity the cornerstone of employee engagement: High levels of employee engagement start with organizational identity strength, followed closely by individual identity strength. All the workplace practices managers use to spur engagement can't substitute for this reality.
  
  

To speak with Larry Ackerman of The Identity Circle, please contact Frank Lentini at Sommerfield Communications, Inc. at 212-255-8386 or lentini@sommerfield.com.

About the Survey Methodology

The Identity Impact Survey is based on approximately 2,000 responses across five companies, lending statistical validity to the results in aggregate and for each company. Using advanced psychometric methods, the researchers assessed the quality of the survey and its predictive ability. The research results strongly support the effectiveness of this survey as a measure of intrinsic identity strength and its role in predicting business performance.

About The Identity Circle

The Identity Circle is a research, consulting and education company, that helps organizations and individuals clarify and capitalize on their unique, value-creating capacities in ways that improve performance, impact and reputation. The company offers Identity Impact Surveys, specialized consulting programs for senior executives and their teams and Identity Mapping® courses for employees and individuals.

Copies of "The Identity Effect: Cracking the Code on Value Creation - How Identity-Based Management Drives Employee Engagement and Business Performance" are available upon request or for direct download at http://www.theidentitycircle.com/library/type/identity_impact_survey/.

Contact Information: Contact: Frank Lentini Sommerfield Communications 212-255-8386 lentini@sommerfield.com