Governed by your Inferiors
Governed by your Inferiors
The great unlock in Marketing
“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” Plato
Don’t worry this is not a political post.
This is a post about the importance of the softer skills in marketing. But first a story…
I was a few years into my marketing career at an early stage start-up. I had become really good at executing. I ran campaigns, sent emails, could write copy. I was able to drive meaningful results as an individual contributor.
Then one day my boss quit.
And something completely shocking to me happened.
They promoted the intern with an MBA above me. I was floored.
She didn’t understand how marketing automation worked, had barely ever run a campaign, and couldn’t navigate her way around any of our systems. So how in the world did she get go from intern to my boss?
Simple - she was 100 times better than me at navigating the room. I foolishly believed simply driving results was enough and should stand own it’s own.
But the hard truth is that it isn’t.
Managing up
Communicating out what you are working on.
Building excitement internally about what marketing is doing
Those are all the skills I lacked and she didn’t. The result was Leadership had better visibility, felt more confidence and excitement about the projects she was working on and ultimately her in that role.
It still remains the biggest thing I see holding most marketing teams and individuals back. The lack of focus on building with transparency, sharing results and getting internal buy-in and excitement. As a result:
Hiring plans and budgets are limited
Failure is tolerated less
Leadership micro-manages as a way to understand
Sales alignment is non-existent and results suffer
The great unlock for Marketing isn’t usually from mastering your craft any better than you have already, the great unlock comes from mastering the art of internal marketing.
Hope you enjoyed!
Adam
PS - She only lasted in the role for 5 months. Turns out you need to be good at both execution and internal marketing.
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