Ken Schmidt on Building Employee Loyalty & Advocacy for Unconventional Leaders

The traditional methods of fostering employee loyalty—like offering perks such as free snacks and game rooms—are no longer enough to meet the needs of today's workforce. Modern employees seek deeper connections, a sense of purpose, and opportunities for personal and professional growth. Leaders must now adopt unconventional strategies to build lasting loyalty. Drawing inspiration from iconic brands like Harley-Davidson, known for its deeply loyal community of Harley Owners Group (HOG) members, offers valuable insights into creating long-term employee engagement and advocacy.

About Ken Schmidt

Ken Schmidt, former Director of Communications at Harley-Davidson, is the author of Make Some Noise: The Unconventional Road to Dominance. His book draws on the metaphor of a motorcycle ride to explore how brands can cultivate customer loyalty, using a three-question approach: What do your customers say about you? What do you want them to say? How can you get them to say it?

More about Ken Schmidt on https://kenspeaks.com/ or on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-schmidt-5b08115/

 

What We Discussed in the Episode

1. What are some common mistakes leaders make that unintentionally erode employee loyalty?
2. What qualities make a leader effective in building employee loyalty and advocacy?
3. How important is it for leaders to empower employees as brand advocates on social media? What tips can encourage this?
4. How do you measure the success of employee loyalty and advocacy programs? What key metrics should be tracked?
5. How can brands align their employee engagement efforts with their identity and culture, like Harley-Davidson has done?
6. How does adopting an unconventional leadership style impact employee loyalty compared to traditional methods?

_____ About the Growth Hacking Culture Podcast

The Growth Hacking Culture Podcast is a series of insightful interviews with prominent experts on mindsets, skills and mental resources to grow individually, lead motivated teams and create human-centric work cultures. These episodes are about thought provoking ideas to scale up and growth hack human-centric and performing work cultures. Hosted by Ivan Palomino