A top-down approach is required to create effective marketing teams and foster teamwork. Businesses must allow their executives to lead in order to generate long-term success and inspire them to re-imagine what is possible.
While there is no shortage of skilled marketers, they don’t always go above and beyond to help a company get to where it needs to be. Even the most savvy marketers might fall short if they don’t have the correct framework and communication in place.
A top-down approach is required to create strong marketing teams. Starting with the leadership team first allows all members of the team to share mutually agreed upon goals and best practises. Too many CMOs try to manage their teams on their own; instead, a framework should be in place to allow them to lead.
Leaders energise their people by sharing their vision, excitement, and passion. Good leaders set an example for their teams, showing them what is possible and encouraging them to step up and take ownership.
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CMOs can do a number of things to help their employees, both globally and locally, and to create the right type of support for long-term success.
The need for a flexible mindset
The most important thing for CMOs to have is a structure that can help their team Flexibility is essential, especially as many individuals return to work with new schedules as a result of the pandemic. Many employees are settling into a new routine, and as a leader, CMOs must have the right mind-set in order to comprehend their team’s needs and chart a clear path. At the same time, they should allow their team to improvise, run with the ball, and do what they believe is right – all while knowing they will be backed.
On a global scale, this entails establishing clear and consistent lines of communication as well as reaching common goals and milestones along the route. At the local level, this means allowing the team to paint the marketing canvas as they see fit, because if leaders don’t put the ball in their hands, they will lose motivation and direction. Because there is a fine line between total local empowerment and maintaining a consistent global brand, this should be viewed as a “work in progress.”
There need to be decision-making guidelines
Every decision must be made at the top if a company is to prosper. Once that is in place, the teams can work independently and together to implement plans and promote the brand vision, with no single person acting as a bottleneck.
Marketers need to decide which tasks to keep in-house, which to outsource and which to automate, in general. None of these decisions can be made only by marketing; they must be made in collaboration with other departments. When marketing collaborates closely with other departments to implement crucial choices, it can avoid organizational stumbling blocks and complete tasks significantly more swiftly and efficiently than before.
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A healthy set of brand guidelines is crucial
It should go without saying that a good set of brand guidelines must be established that everyone understands and agrees upon. That is an important aspect of cohesion. If there are no guidelines in place, it doesn’t matter how fast one goes because the brand will be all over the place.
The regions should also be set up. Teams must have a comprehensive grasp of how the budget is allocated, the tools at their disposal, and the relationships with partners, among other things. The marketing machine will grind to a standstill if this does not happen. Even if the rest of the foundation is in place, the brand strategy will be a series of haphazard stabs in the dark with no coherence or cogency.
This isn’t a “one-and-done” activity. CMOs must work together every day as leaders to get the global/local balance correct, continually readjusting and moving, and never forget that building excellent teams is a team sport.
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