Perspectives for theTALENT PLAYBOOK

Developing Great Marketing Teams

Image from blog.frankdamazio.com © 2014 Tilly Pick

The heart of great brand marketing is passionate,

creative, hard-working people. If you feel the

same way, these perspectives about supporting,

coaching and developing your team will add

immediate, practical value to your playbook.

Gifts

I recently participated in a conference facilitated by Peter Block, a

highly regarded Organizational Development visionary and expert

on community-building and civic engagement. He let us know that

he is working on the same deficiencies today that he did 60 years

ago, observing that our society is too focused on shortcomings

and blind to our gifts. He cited an example of that blindness as

the Vatican’s attempt to take over the organization that oversees

the majority of America’s 56,000 nuns. Your company’s marketing

activities are an outcome of the unique gifts of your people.

Acknowledging their gifts will mean a lot. Leverage their gifts, and

it will mean even more.

PermissionMarketing 2.0

Think about permission marketing, but with an internal orientation

versus the original idea of two-way dialogue with consumers that

was coined and popularized by Seth Godin. Marketing people have

a fire burning in their belly. To truly unleash that potential and the

value your team can create, they need to know that you have their

back. Beyond promising empowerment, they need to know that

you are overtly and actively giving them permission to be passionate

zealots, conceive crazy new ideas, contest the status quo, and

connect dots in totally new ways. Watch what happens when you

communicate that. You can count on it being better than the best

motivational speaker.

A Leadership Dial

The special stuff which powers every one of our people is what

yields the best ideas. Some time ago Mike Buchner, now CEO

of Fallon, introduced me to Situational Leadership to harness

both the uniqueness of the individuals and the collective power

of my group. (Formal credit belongs to Dr. Paul Hersey at The

Center for Leadership Studies.) The core premise is simple:

adjust your approach to an individual’s willingness and skill

based on different degrees of influencing or directing his or her

behavior. I bet you’ll see the quality of your team’s work increase

dramatically when you adjust your leadership to their need.

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to discover

WHY?

Expeditions

The more you get your team fired up about data possibilities, create

curiosity and foster exploration, the better. But, be sure to balance

the “what” with the “why”. This HBR blog post is a good reminder

of why it is important to know and relate both hard and soft data

about customers and prospects. What especially resonated is the

perspective that “companies feel they ‘know’ their consumers, but

that knowing about someone is not the same as knowing them.”

Ask your team to think about what the data is telling them and

what it is NOT telling them. More than likely, completing the story

will be an interesting adventure for them. And, it could yield new

and powerful insights to fuel growth.

The shadowsof CREATIVITY

Some time ago Alex Bogusky commented that creativity happens

when you put two things together that don’t belong together.

It may seem like a tangible, easy recipe for inspiring your team to

do great work, until you consider all that might be attached to

the things that are being mashed together. It says to me that

conflict and tension may be living in the shadows of creativity,

which is opposite the perception that creativity comes from laid

back, wacky, artistic types. You most likely have the best vantage

point from which to spot that dynamic and provide unwavering

support as your team continues to mash things together.

rightleft

The Brand Gap, by Marty Neumeier, is refreshingly honest

about how we work as individuals, teams and companies.

It touches on some fundamental truths in an engaging way,

making for a tangible, timeless and fast-moving narrative

about marketing. I especially agree with Marty about the

dynamics between the left brains and the right brains you

likely have on your team. That tension is both critical and

healthy, but it also has to lead to positive results. Sharing

The Brand Gap with your team and talking with them about

this important dynamic offers nothing but upside.

m o re t h i n k i n g

ro o m

By Tom Fishburne

As we run fast and furiously to chase the latest technologies,

are we still thinking enough about our customers?

In a keynote speech at a 2012 Google event, Tom Fishburne, a

talented marketing cartoonist, suggested that we need to “create

marketing that doesn’t feel like marketing and stories that are

inherently worth sharing.” While today’s marketing landscape

demands speed and agility to succeed, I enjoyed his speech

as a wonderful and fresh reminder of the importance – and

the power – of creative thought.

Leader as Teacher

As leader of your team, consider the two traits that St. Augustine

believes make a good teacher. The importance of knowing your

subject matter thoroughly, and being passionate about it, is one

trait. Loving your students is the other. And, if you have to prioritize,

focus on the latter. More than likely, you are the passionate subject

matter expert in spades. But, when was the last time you met with

your team and didn’t work? Perhaps this small example offers some

inspiration. A few years ago, I gave a group of junior account people

Dr. Seuss’ Oh, The Places You’ll Go! as a holiday gift. A very kind and

thoughtful creative director at the agency, Steve Mietelski, read it to

them. He may not be John Lithgow, but Steve came very close.

creative experience + organizational insight

BETTER OUTCOMES

Great teams leverage creativity to solve problems and conquer new

opportunities. Increasing scrutiny of marketing, a crazy long list of

possibilities thanks to social technology and media trends, and the

customer experience contributing more to brand differentiation

than ever before, tells me that complementing your team’s creative

experience with a better understanding of organizations could

yield significant returns. Take a listen to this podcast interview as

one example about better seeing and understanding conflict.

With additional knowledge like that, your team will be much better

equipped to bring people together around ideas that fuel success.

tell me NOW

Fallon McElligott’s “on-the-level” feedback philosophy left a

lasting impression with me. Better than traditional performance

reviews, OTL is about learning and growing in the moment.

This white paper on mentoring frames OTL as an inclusive,

reciprocal and upfront approach that can improve the growth

and development of your team. Since it is not a stretch to say

that the downturn has gained some permanence, OTL may be

a worthwhile approach to explore with your marketing team

especially right now. It could help them rise to the occasion.

“My” Charity

We have all participated in charitable activities through work. Some

great, some falling short perhaps because they didn’t feel all that

relevant. When that happens, you are missing an upside — teams

better getting to know each other, pulling together around a shared

goal, and returning with a high level of energy and motivation. You

could change that and instead nurture your team’s values by gaining

them permission to explore charities separate from the company

agenda. Here is one potential approach and how it lives and breathes

on Facebook. Notice the 9 million “likes”. Aside from the inherent

team-building benefit, just imagine the incremental positive brand

awareness that could travel across the social net.

We are definitely in an exciting time for marketing. Through our work

we contribute to business and organizational activities in ways we

never have before. You can click on this paragraph to explore a dozen

or so viewpoints by a diverse group of leaders about the future of

marketing that tell a very similar story.

Tilly Pick

tpick@tillypick.com

www.tillypick.com