The "Good" – applying leadership principles to make your team more effective
I know this is loosely related to B2B marketing, but I read a great article about Colin Powell's leadership principles and thought about how I could apply them to my marketing team.
Here are my 5 favorites out of the 18 lessons in the article. You can find the rest at Chally.com.
-
Being responsible sometimes pisses people off. My thoughts —
You have to make the hard choices because most people won't. You can't
procrastinate, treat everyone equally or worry about being nice. Doing
that only makes things worse for everyone. -
Never neglect details. When everyone's mind is dulled or
distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant. My thoughts — You have
to execute the details or the strategy is worthless.
Vision alone does not equate to success. -
You don't know what you can get away with until you try. My
thoughts – In today's hyper competitive market (especially in my space
– online marketing) you can't be timid or sit around waiting for
approvals. Better to try, fail and learn from it than to do nothing. Of
course you need to take measured risks not reckless ones. -
If it ain't broke don't fix it is the slogan of the complacent,
the arrogant or the scared. My thoughts — You have to constantly be
trying to improve your strategy, tactics, processes and execution
because the competitors are not standing still. -
Plans don't accomplish anything. Theories of management don't
much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved.
Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds. My
thoughts — You have to have the best people to
get the best results. And you have to create the right environment for
success – that means managing by getting into the trenches, leading by
example, rewarding hard work, innovative thinking and creativity while
weeding out the poor performers (see number 1 above).
The "Good" – knowing that there is no such thing as overnight success
Over the holidays I read two good books : Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk of winelibrarytv.com
fame, and Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh McLeod of
gapingvoid.com fame.
I’m not going to do a full reviews here, since honestly I’ve
hated book reports ever since 5th grade. That said, I recommend both books as they are
quick reads with wisdom on how to turn your unique talent/passion into a
business that provides happiness and hopefully some income. While chock full of lessons on how build your
personal brand via social media, the key message I took away is an old fashioned
one that is lost on most people today….work hard!
McLeod’s third chapter is titled “Put the hours in” and
Vaynerchuk devotes a section to “Hustle.”
Per McLeod: “Doing
anything worthwhile takes forever.
Ninety percent of what separates successful people and failed people is
time, effort and stamina.”Per Vaynerchuk: “Too
many people don’t want to swallow the pill of working hard every day….if you’re
making money through social media, you don’t get to work for three hours and
then play Nintendo….That’s lip service to hard work. No one makes a million dollars with minimal
effort unless they win the lottery.”
I know this isn’t exactly a new/original concept, but as a
marketer I see a lot of business/creative people who think they can come up with a great
idea and that is will take off virally via social media. Overnight success is a myth and I like that
these authors don’t go there just to sell more books (see all the authors of
day-trading and real-estate investing books for that).
Check out the books for loads of useful marketing strategies/tactics
for harnessing the power of the social web to build your brand. While
it doesn’t fit into the theme of this post, I absolutely loved Vaynerchuk’s
ninth chapter entitled “the best marketing strategy ever.” It’s one word long: CARE! It’s
so damn simple but so powerful. I need
to give it more thought and bake it into my 2010 marketing plan for my company,
then I’ll write another post.
The "Good" – understanding that marketing is an investment not an expense, and a science not an art
I recommend that you read Sergio Zyman’s first book, "The End of Marketing as We Know It." Sergio is
infamous as the guy responsible for the biggest flop in the history of marketing….New Coke. He’s come a long way since then and now runs one of the top marketing consultancies in the country. While his book is primarily about consumer marketing, the lessons within are applicable to B2B marketing as well. I was hooked by the first sentence of the first chapter.
"The sole purpose of marketing is to get more people to buy more of your product, more often, for more money."
It’s a simple but powerful definition of marketing, and I love it because it reminds people that marketing is a critical strategic function and not just a tactical group that does advertising, promotions and PR. Here are some other key takeaways from the book.
- When you understand that marketing is what you do to sell stuff, then
the money that you lay out is an investment instead of an expense. - The marketplace today is a consumer democracy. Customers have options, so marketers have to tell them how to choose.
- Plan your destination. Make it where you want to be, not where you think you can get. Once you have your destination, develop a strategy for getting there.
- Marketing is a science. It is about experimentation, measurement, analysis, refinement, and replication. You must be willing to change your mind.
- Figure out what is desirable and make that what you deliver; or figure out what you can deliver and make it desirable. But remember, the former is a lot easier than the latter.
- Sameness doesn’t sell. The value of your product will be determined by its differentiation from the competition in ways that are relevant to customers.
- Measure constantly but use the right yardsticks; focus on profit, not volume; on actual consumption, not share of market.
- Don’t be blinded by visible demand. Preference is perishable. Keep selling the sold.
- Strategy is your job, not the ad agency. You agency’s job is to communicate it effectively.
- Find the best available marketing professionals and create jobs around them. You’ve got to have the best people, not the best organization chart.
- Make sure everyone in your organization understands the destination, the business objectives and the strategy. Then let them execute.