The 20 minute course in... leadership - The Marketer magazine http://www.themarketer.co.uk/articles/professional-development/fast-la...

Fastlane
The 20 minute course in... leadership
This month’s continuing professional development focuses on leadership. Kate
Hilpern gathers expert advice for marketing leaders across disciplines

In the military, once you progress to a leadership position, you’re automatically Related Articles
removed from your existing colleagues and placed in a new unit. Marketers don’t
generally have this luxury, which means you might suddenly find yourself A 20 Minute Course in
expected to lead people who are not only your friends, but who may have Coaching
applied for the same leadership position. Theo Paphitis
Naomi Broad
Even if you’ve gone with the military philosophy, and are leading in a different
department or organisation than when you were a non-leader, you will be faced
with a raft of other challenges – not least the fact that UK employers are
notoriously bad at offering leadership training.

“I see a lot of marketers who don’t particularly cherish becoming leaders, but it’s
the next step on the career ladder so they’re stuck with it,” says Ron Mundy,
who trains leaders through his company First Touch Training. “Whether you’re
excited about being a leader or not, it’s essential to identify the change in your
role and make it your business to learn what it takes to lead well.”

Leading creatives

Words like target, strategy and deadline don’t sit too comfortably with creative
types, who like to have their own space and autonomy in, well, creating. This
may apply to you and it will certainly apply to some of the people you’re leading.

For you, the solution lies in – like it or not – accepting that these areas are now
your responsibility, although the extent to which each will affect you on a daily
basis will vary according to whether you are a “strategic” or top-level leader, an
“operational” or department-level leader, or a team leader.

People in creative roles, more than anyone, need the freedom to do their jobs in
the way they feel works best for them and the company. It’s your job to create
the structures and boundaries within which they feel they can do that, and within
which you can get the best results. Here’s an example: every leader should
create a clear and compelling vision and a strategy for achieving it. You can do
this sitting in your closed-door office, then tell them about it, using management
speak that will turn them off within seconds. Or you can involve your team
members in the vision’s development, which will tap into their creativity and get
their instant buy-in.
Dos and don'ts
The same goes for an individual brief. You can stick a document under their
noses, boring them senseless, or you can talk it through, making the objectives be approachable. Be
clear but giving them options and freedom to try things out and make mistakes seen to be part of the
within it. team.

“Creatives must be given absolute clarity of what they’re working towards, even allow for autonomy.
more so than non-creatives because they’re prone to go off on tangents,” Once you’ve set
confirms Stephen Archer, founder of Spring Partnerships, a management, objectives, give your
training and development consultancy. “But you don’t want them to feel as people the space to
though they’re in a straightjacket because that’s counter-intuitive to their achieve them.
creativity.”
constantly develop
yourself and ensure
leaders are responsible
If you think it’s hard leading creatives, take solace in the fact that at least you for developing other
probably understand them. Engaging and influencing people with unfamiliar leaders.

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backgrounds, who may not automatically be on the marketing wavelength, may

be even more challenging, says James Brook of Strengthscope, a psychometric use coaching so
tool that measures strengths and talents. people take
responsibility for their
“Sales people, for example, are often pragmatic and short term in their focus, own problems, freeing
while marketers tend to be strategic, conceptual thinkers. Such differences can up your time to lead.
cause distrust, unnecessary politicking, communication breakdowns and,
eventually, performance shortfalls,” says Brook. set the tone.
Attitudes are infectious.
He suggests a strengths-focused mindset as a different “lens” to understand and
lead employees, regardless of their discipline. Once you’ve identified each dither. The best
person’s strengths, he explains, you can identify tasks and activities that will leaders are decisive.
energise and motivate. “This approach helps leaders manage employees’
vulnerabilities and weaknesses more effectively, and with confidence, by helping forget to be
people understand the consequences of their strengths, or overused strengths.” adaptable. Being
decisive doesn’t mean
Birthe Mester, managing director at the Centre for High Performance you can’t react to new
Development, adds that assessing your own strengths and weaknesses as a challenges.
leader can only add to the picture. “Many marketers with a creative background
have a great ability to be intuitive, flexible and happy to take risks, for example. fail to stimulate
However, they can lack some focus on getting the job done. Conversely, many debate and new ideas.
market researchers are only comfortable dealing with hard facts and undertaking
detailed analysis of issues, which can leave some creatives cold.” forget that you can
delegate responsibility,
Meanwhile, John Fay, chief executive of leadership and change management but not overall
consultancy SLF, says: “It won’t hurt to find out more about disciplines that accountability.
you’re really unfamiliar with. I’m not talking in depth, but you can’t expect to
identify people’s strengths if you don’t have at least a basic understanding of be afraid to admit
what they do. They’ll respect you for it, too.” you don’t like leading.
Promoting bad leaders
can be disastrous for
business.
Not all managers are leaders, explains Fiona Elsa Dent, author of The
Leadership Pocketbook. “The single fact of being put in charge of others does
not immediately confer leadership status,” she says. Sometimes they are one
and the same, she admits. “However, many managers will never make the grade
as leader and many leaders are hopeless managers.”

Put simply, a manager carries out orders from above, while a leader creates his
or her own strategies. This is good news for leaders – you may have more
liberty within your role than you thought. But it also means you need to give
careful consideration to the bigger picture, to creating targets, to setting the
tone, to developing others and to setting a professional example. Do as I do, not
as I say, is the ultimate leader’s mantra. “It’s the only way you’ll ever gain the
trust of teams,” believes David Meliveo, head of marketing at Autoglass. “I think
a lot of people get it wrong and relationships break down and leadership fails.”

David Kesby, consultant for the learning solutions specialist Academee, adds
that we often get the impression that managers say things because they think
they are supposed to. A leader needs to believe in, and be seen to believe in,
the things they say – and above all stand for something. “In your day-to-day
leadership it is important to clarify and to keep clarifying what it is you are about;
what it is you stand for. This will inform your decisions, priorities, styles and
options. Only when you know yourself will you be able to accurately promise
Tips from the top
what you will be able to deliver. Without this your credibility as a leader is Bill Levell designs and
unsustainable.” presents training
programmes at WLM
Judith Germain, managing director of Dynamic Transactions, adds that leaders – Marketing Management
far more than managers – should feel comfortable about not treating all & Training and The
employees the same. “While a leader should not play favourites with the team, Chartered Institute of
he or she should recognise that the team consists of individuals with their own Marketing
needs and potential. This will mean that some employees will need more Inspire people.
attention than others.” Communicate a clear

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vision, strategy and

If you only learn one leadership model, make it SMART, says Ron Mundy. So values and regularly
you might say to a marketing manager: “I want your department to create a check understanding.
campaign (Specific) with these six objectives (Measurable), but let’s go through Sell and negotiate with
how you’ll achieve that (Agreed). We need to ensure your department has the the team to confirm
right skills (Relevant) and that you can do it by the end of next month (Time- acceptance.
bound).”
not
Mundy believes leaders need to use it all the time. “It frees you up from having reactive. Prepare
to lean over people’s shoulders because everyone is clear about what they’re detailed plans and
achieving and they feel empowered,” he explains. communicate them. Ask
for other people’s
Johanna Reynolds, a marketing director at ReynoldsBusbyLee, believes there opinions and be
are certain ground rules that make SMART more workable. “Set no more than prepared to change your
six objectives and make sure the objectives reflect the overall company strategy point of view.
– the individual must understand why they are important.”

Since motivation is the name of the game in leadership, and one of the best Quantify
motivators is to achieve, Reynolds adds that objectives should always be the meaning and value of
achievable. While they can be a stretch, they must be doable. It might sound excellence and create a
obvious, but too many leaders get carried away with extending them in an effort sound, well-reasoned
to push their team. Before you know it, the team members are throwing their strategy to achieve it
hands up and, if you’re unlucky, throwing in the towel. through a realistic action
plan.

One of the biggest challenges for a leader is leading people who don’t report
directly to you or who report to more than one person. The same goes for
leading people who aren’t in the same geographical location, perhaps even Never tell people what to
overseas. do, tell them what you
Communication is obviously hugely important. Helen Brown, global talent director want them to achieve.
for integrated marketing agency Iris, has a top tip for this – the use of vivid Motivate others by
stories. empowering them to
direct themselves.
“Stories are a great way of keeping everyone on the same track when it comes
to understanding the organisation’s beliefs, brand, expectations and so on. Plus,
people remember them,” she says. Ensure you thank and
encourage individuals
Keeping a consistent leadership style within an organisation can also be helpful, and teams. Reinforce
she says. “When we recruit people into leadership roles, we are definitely your appreciation with
looking for a certain kind of person. They need to be what we would call an ‘Iris tangible benefits such as
person’ – that is, their innate beliefs, skills and qualities need to match with our ad hoc rewards,
brand.” promotion, bonuses and
by publicising individual
When it comes to leading internationally, it’s essential to avoid cultural gaffes. achievements.
“The Japanese, for example, don’t usually attend meetings to debate as we
would in the UK,” says Mundy. “Their culture dictates that they’d see it as a
humiliation to have an idea rejected in public. So they’ll debate in someone’s Focus and motivate
office and ratify the decision in a meeting.” yourself in the same way
you aim to motivate
Another example of where you can trip up on foreign soil is with Arab business others.
people. “Arabs won’t respect you or do business with you until they understand Question
the kind of person you are,” he says. Not a bad theory, when you think about it. assumptions and be
  suspicious of tradition.
Kate Hilpern is a freelance journalist who writes for Coaching at Work and The
Guardian
Effectively train,
coach and develop
Are you ready to lead? individuals to take
responsibility for tasks
When describing the organisational vision you: that you will otherwise
Explain what it is and expect people to follow it. have to do. Use your
Try to make the vision sound compelling, but sometimes find yourself released time to refine
sounding like David Brent from The Office. and raise commitment to

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Invite others to help develop the vision and ensure it is reflected in every your vision.
target and objective. You may even create an organisational motto.

Don’t think about developing them. If they’ve got a strong leader like you,
that’s all they need.
Support them when they tell you they want to take up certain development
opportunities.
Are proactive, coaching them to tackle new challenges and showing you
believe they can do it. You also encourage them to train in new areas.

You expect people to follow rules that you have been known to slack on
yourself.
You have a clear set of goals and objectives, which you communicate to your
followers and motivate them to achieve the targets. You try to lead by example,
but you still sometimes feel more like a manager than a leader.
You inspire, compel, communicate and develop. You are a walking example
of your vision and you know people look up to you. But you’re aware that there’s
always room for improvement.

Let’s face it, you are either not cut out to lead or you need to sign up to
leadership skills training now. It’s sink or swim time.

You’re nearly there, but not quite. You probably know what you should be doing,
but you need a helping hand in getting there. A one-to-one training session with a
leadership expert might be the solution.

If your organisation isn’t ahead of the competition yet, it soon will be.

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