7 things I learnt from the best boss I ever had in marketing about being successful.

Recently, I have been thinking about the very best boss I ever had in my marketing career to date and what I had learnt from him.

I realised that a lot of what I try and do (not always successfully) has been heavily influenced by him over the years. So here is my attempt to identify what I learnt and what makes a great marketing leader (and as he now runs one of the biggest and most admired companies for marketing I suspect that he was very right).

(1) Make people feel they are part of something big, special and incredibly exciting. Set a clear vision. Make it exciting and a bit thrilling. Abd a little bit scary even!

Sales, share and profit are not exciting. They are the results and outcomes. Ensure your teams feel they are part of something that will make a difference. Set an inspiring vision about why people should follow you and what you are trying to achieve.

(2) Encourage diversity. Actively work to get as much differences as you can across your team

Make it alright to be different. People that challenge the status quo are the winners. All to often the middle round and common denominator succeed and survive in large organizations. But across very successful organizations it is the ones that challenge the status quo that are the winners.

(3) Only ever recruit and have people on your team that you not only would like to work for one day – but really expect to.

You must find people who you know are smarter, faster and more creative than you. Remember you win by your people winning!

One day they will be very nice to you when you work for them!

(4) Delegate. Properly. You do not know all the answers. Ever.

Set a clear vision, set a clear way you will assess successful outcomes and then let people get on with it. Be a mentor, a sounding board and a guiding hand. Let go by letting people know the boundaries they can operate in. Do not confuse delegation with abdicating...!

Never assume you know the best and right answer. You don’t, but you have people who probably do and will.

By letting people who work for you make decisions, you increase the chances of success. They have to make things work, they can’t syndicate the risk or blame you. If you trust their judgement they will go the extra mile to make it work.

Nothing makes people work harder and be more loyal when they know you are taking a risk on their decisions and judgement.

(5) Celebrate success, and also openly celebrate failures.

There is no gain without pain. If you never have failures you probably will never win big time as you are not pushing boundaries.

(6) Remember that the good guys always win – in the end. Take the moral high ground. Have principles and encourage and reward honesty.

Create a culture where there is no fear, so people tell you early when things are going wrong or may be an issue.

Know that you have always done and made your team what is right, even if it means less sales or profit. The good guys always win in the end. In the short term cutting corners or taking risks on quality, environment and so on may give a short term boost – but it is wrong finally. Know you are doing the right thing. Always.


(7) Move fast and decisively when people are not delivering.

Everyone knows who they are. Hoping they get better and stalling. Everyone respects decisive and clear action on people. Just do it with honour and openness. Everyone has a strength. Help them find it and embrace it and then help them pursue it. Within or outside the company. They will one day come back and thank you for it.


I need to make sure I remember all of these and although I try and work to them, it is easy to drift!

Thoughts?



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