A company with engaged employees is easy to spot. In these organizations, the culture is clearly defined and employees understand the purpose and goals they are working toward. Simply put, there is a feeling of shared success.

The benefits of engaged employees for the company are proven. Companies that engage their employees are 18% more productive and 16% more profitable. It pays to make your company a place your employees want to work. To fully engage an employee, a company must satisfy the individual’s need for success, fulfill their desire to be part of something larger than themselves and create an emotional connection to their workplace.

Your company is sending out communications every day, but do these messages paint an accurate picture of your customers’ experience with the company? If your customers see a disconnect between what you say you do and what your employees actually do, then that creates a “credibility gap” for your brand.

When your employees’ actions are in alignment with your brand messages, you have the opportunity to create credible communications that drive action by reinforcing your customers’ relationship with you.

When companies participate in M&A activity, they understand that there will be challenges associated with combining two unique businesses into a single entity. How customers will react to the combined business is a big concern. Managing customer expectations, ensuring that the company’s external brand is shifted smoothly and value remains high all need to be addressed in the external rebrand.

However, this does not tell the whole story, as it does not address the need for clear, internal communication and an effort to merge the cultures of each company so that all parties are on the same track, moving toward the same purpose. In many ways, a company’s culture is its brand, and if the employee experience and attitudes vary throughout the company, the customer experience will begin to reflect that.

Over the past four months, our Brandonomics interviews on The Businessmakers have highlighted top brands and their marketing strategies. We’ve interviewed marketing leaders from various industries about their new strategies, their best campaigns and the direction they see their brand going next year.

Here are three very interesting trends from these interviews that all marketers should consider in their planning this year:

Speedbumps. Potholes. Detours. These are all barriers that keep us from getting to our destination, or at least getting there quickly. The road to innovative thinking within your business often faces the same challenges. Sometimes we get detoured down the wrong path by the wrong questions. Sometimes there are unexpected bumps that keep us focused on the wrong problems. And more often than most of us would like to admit, we have tunnel vision that keeps us from seeing the big picture.

If you want to be innovative and grow your business, you have to first avoid the traps that slow innovative thinking and detour big ideas.