Okay, celebrating is over and it’s your first day on the job as the new marketing director. The CEO said she chose you because of your servant leadership as well as your skills in strategic planning, communications and accountability. She also wanted to see a positive turnaround in revenues but also had confidence that you would encourage teamwork and collaboration and not simply issue mandates. What you inherited is a team of five Alpha and X generation marketers with less two years of experience.
Where To Start
After reviewing, revising the strategic marketing plan and getting it approved by your boss, a marketing staff meeting is in order. Next to communicating the overall goals and those of each team member, it’s critical to delve into the “whys.” It’s important because each team member must comprehend where the company’s going and his/her role in getting there. Their input is also vital to the process.
What’s also helpful is to present and reach consensus on measurable goals for each team member with timelines as well. This will keep everyone accountable. Your mission is to address all questions that arise and get everyone to sign off in writing on all of their goals and timelines at the meeting.
Succeeding Chapters
At subsequent team meetings, most discussion should be around the progress on each goal and timeline. Besides the customary celebrating for goals met and analysis on those not, one of the major questions that should be asked and explored is, “What was the lesson?” The answer(s) can be just as valuable as any of the achieved goals.
In a society where every type of communications app is available or accessible, it would be easy to fool oneself into thinking that there’s a free flow of communications in your department. Remind yourself that the demographic of your team likely means they’re more comfortable with a 280-character tweet than a prolonged face-to-face discussion.
Promote and encourage open communication and practice an open-door policy with your team members. Be their servant leader by making yourself available as a mentor, coach and friend.
Until recently, something often overlooked in management is emotional intelligence or EQ, your proficiency to understand and discern your and your team’s feeling in arriving at good decisions. EQ is important because the empathy, understanding and awareness lead to improved collaboration and teamwork.
How Do I Improve?
You can heighten your RQ by improving your self-awareness like eliminating some of your everyday distractions like your cellphone or TV or even the radio on your daily commute part of the time. Doing so will give you time to be more in tune with yourself so you might better tune in to your staff.
Be aware if your own emotions and why and how you reacted to certain things. Recognizing and understanding your own reactions will assist in sympathizing with your team members while fostering a wholesome relationship and successful team.
