How to develop a strong internal brand for your L&D team

With the notable retirement ?from the world of football of Sir Alex Ferguson and David Beckham as the season ended in May, ?I was minded to reflect on the impact of personal and commercial brands of both hugely successful people. When Sir Alex's retirement was announced, the share price for Manchester United FC dipped, no doubt because Sir Alex's personal brand of strong, no-nonsense leadership is so dominant and synonymous with the success of the club overall.

Brand Beckham has, it would appear, already prepared interested members of the public for David Beckham's next phase in his career, without any announcement having been made about any specific ventures; there is an expectation of success in whatever he does. This expectation is born largely, ?I suspect, from his exceptionally strong and well managed brand.

My reflections turned to the branding of learning and development in law firms. Do L&D departments have a brand and, if so, what does it say about them? If not, why not? In organisational terms, a brand needs to demonstrate consistency, clarity and authenticity. A brand has to be believable. It will only be believable if the activities that take place under its umbrella are seen by end users to be authentic and genuine.

Do professionals care about the quality of the training and development they receive? I believe they do when they are engaged with an L&D activity but, at other times, I suspect they rarely give L&D a second thought. A good brand will completely negate this as an issue, because professionals will have confidence that, when they engage with anything delivered by their L&D team, it will be fit ?for purpose and of a high standard of quality, assuming of course that this is ?the brand message desired.

What is your L&D team's reputation like? What is the team known for? Where do their strengths lie? What do you want the brand to say about the team? If you have a brand, are you convinced that others have the view of the L&D team ?that you would wish them to have?

If you do not have a clear brand for your L&D function, turn to your favourite external providers and examine what they do well. Ask yourself: what do they do that you admire? Why do you bring them into your firm to work for you? What can you learn from them that will help you to be clear about the standards you wish the function to meet?

Getting the quality, choice and timing of offerings right to meet L&D needs or support change initiatives are all good ingredients for building and maintaining a quality brand. Once those core elements are in place, communicating that the team is meeting development needs is essential. Marketing of an internal business services function to internal clients is important if the team is to be fully utilised and perhaps be stretched. How often are managing partners or practice heads heard to say ?"I didn't know we could do that"? Promoting and communicating the ?brand can help with this awareness of ?the capabilities of the L&D team.

Developing a style that is readily recognisable as belonging to the L&D team, while conforming to the firm's style guide, helps to reinforce the L&D brand. The chosen L&D style can be used to promote the brand of the L&D function through training materials, promotional materials and other forms of communication, such as email signatures. Time spent 'styling' slide decks, handouts and any other materials issued during training will be well spent if it helps to make the brand obvious, better known and easily recognised. Consistency and clarity of branding is key so that users will begin to identify the L&D function's style with an expectation of quality training and development opportunities.

Once the visual impact of the brand is established, the L&D team should strive to behave and deliver a client service that a successful external training or consultancy provider would deliver. External training providers should perhaps be seen as an extension of an in-house L&D function. The service to learners will appear to be seamless if this is to be achieved successfully. A strong L&D brand is a help when using external providers, as they will be able to modify and blend their delivery and materials to match the L&D team's requirements more easily.

Authenticity of a brand only comes with the experience others have when interacting with it. Brands have to be carefully managed, as we regularly see with consumer products and celebrities alike. Caring about the maintenance of the L&D brand is vitally important to it being seen to be authentic and not just a gimmick for short-term and short-lived attention seeking.

Expectations and confidence in the team will be raised by making it obvious that everything the L&D team delivers supports the brand messaging and brand image through consistency, clarity and communication. This in turn will promote engagement, not only within the L&D team but across the firm as well, because of a strengthened belief that they are being developed and invested in. So what are ?you waiting for? Brand your L&D!

Sue Beavil is the senior learning and development manager at international law firm Mayer Brown (www.mayerbrown.com)