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The difference between a supervisor and a leader
I’m this close to leaving my full-time marketing job.
The pay is lower than the market average, the hours are way too long and the lack of social interaction (due to working remotely) is driving me nuts.
But there’s something that’s keeping me from walking out. My manager is amazing.
In fact, because of the sheer amount of guidance and knowledge that she’s bestowed (and still is) onto me, I can safely say that my two years under her wing thus far has been nothing short of mind blowing in terms of personal growth and marketing skills development.
That’s Why I’m choosing to stay — simply because I am still learning a lot under her.
And I for one know that good marketing managers are hard to come by. After all, being in a few other marketing roles in the past, I’ve seen my fair share of impatient, hot-tempered and worst of all, uninformed superiors that think they know better.
So much so that many marketers that I personally know, who have had great remuneration and exciting brands to work for, have quit simply due to less-than-ideal management.
And according to a post by Hubspot, great leadership is one of the most crucial things that marketers look out for when choosing to stay or leave — so don’t rule it out, ever.
Now, if you’re a marketing manager looking for some tips on how to better yourself, or just checking to see what do people look for in one, I’ve compiled five of the biggest factors that makes up a great manager.
And these tips are confirmed by some of the world’s top global marketing experts too, so you can be sure you’re getting the best stuff.
Let’s dive right in.
“In order to be an expert in marketing, it is essential that everyone is learning at the same time. No one should be left behind.”
— Clodagh Higgins, Senior Coach at Growit Group AS.
We’ve all been there before — fresh-faced, wide-eyed and absolutely clueless on our first day of work. And in the months that follow, we’ll be going through many steep learning processes and confusing moments to boot.
That’s where a great marketing manager comes in: he or she should be the first contact point to helping the employees under them to navigate change smoothly.
Be in guiding them through a simple presentation slide, or giving them feedback about their job responsibilities, they should be there for them all the time. Bottom line, period.
If a marketing manager is unable to put aside time to guide those under them to be better, then they’re essentially missing out the one most important thing that their role requires them to do: manage.
On the flip side, great managers can expertly mitigate the negative emotions that arise from change.
This is especially important in marketing roles, where it often involves a higher level of creative input and thus emotional involvement (compared to say, a more straightforward engineering job).
To guide your employees well through change, Higgins recommend a routine check-in session with them (say once every week) so that you are involved in all that they do, but still giving them the space to work independently.
“Taking the time upfront to build a strong authentic relationship with my direct reports helps us tackle inevitable tough challenges down the line.”
— Jill Callan, VP of Marketing at Trusted Health
When was the last time you asked your employees about that dinner place that they visited over the weekend? Or even checked in how their weekend went?
Sure, these might sound like extremely basic questions, but you’d be surprised to know that most marketing managers do not bother to get personal with their employees.
And that’s a shame, because a strong working relationship has been proven time and time again to be extremely useful for productivity and employee advocacy.
Creating such an environment for your employees can pay off hugely in the long run, simply because they know that the relationship they have with you isn’t just transactional, but an actual two-way human-to-human bond.
Callan suggests that to encourage vulnerability, all managers really have to do is to start by being vulnerable themselves. Learn to be okay with sharing your troubles (of course, don’t complain too much) and talk about your own personal life.
That way, employees will know the extent to how much they can share.
“With digitization, employees now expect a more personalized experience at work, full of moments that matter to them and the brand.”
—Natal Dank, Co Founder at PXO Culture
Yes, it’s true: employees no longer just want a more customized learning experience to them, they’re demanding it.
And it’s only right to do so —after all, most companies are switching their focus to providing a more holistic learning experience for their employees.
What this means for you as a marketing manager is that you need to be able to identify your employee’s weaknesses, address them and if possible, find ways to work on or around them.
After all, every employee has their share of weak points, and while they would appreciate you being open with them about these points, they definitely would not like it if their weaknesses are constantly put in the spotlight.
That’s the mark of a great marketing manager: being able to accept and cover all weak spots in his or her team by supplementing or finding smart work-arounds.
“If you have ever wondered what sets the great marketers apart, the answer is simple: consistency and patience.”
— Phil Bray, Director at Yardstick Agency
Let’s not even talk about being a marketing manager, let’s just assume you’re simply a seasoned marketing professional.
Now, if you’re communicating with someone who’s new to marketing, there would be times where your patience would be tested. Either because their suggestions are woefully ignorant, or they just do not have the proper know-how to approaching the problems at hand.
All I can say is: be patient. With a capital P.
From my own personal experience, what helped me enormously through my learning journey was the amazing amount of patience that my manager deliberately exercised on me.
I’m what you call a slow learner, and so that definitely took a lot of effort out of her to guide me through without even showing an inkling of annoyance or frustration.
Listen, being patient is important to being a great manager simply because it displays the level of empathy that you have for your employees. After all, you’ve probably been in their exact same position before: clueless and uninformed.
And trust me: when your employee sees your patience toward them, they’ll work much harder to prove themselves to you.
I would know, because I did exactly that.
“Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.”
— Steve Jobs
There’s no better way to wrap up the last tip of this guide from the late Steve Jobs himself, who firmly believed in the importance of teamwork.
Often times when you’re a manager, you might run into situations where you feel you’re above them, and that your employees should be the one settling these issues.
That’s a terrible approach, because it only serves to give the impression that you’re someone who’s above getting their hands dirty.
Rather, a great marketing manager knows how to actively involve himself in the same activities as their employees and give suggestions on how to move forward together.
In fact, Steve Jobs himself was known to have heavily mixed around with his engineers and creative teams, just so he could clearly understand what went on at the ground level.
When you work with your employees instead of working above them, the message that you’re sending to your employees is: forget my title, we’re a team and we’re doing this together.
And that will inspire them for a long period to come.
Being a great marketing manager is no easy feat. On top of handing the many different aspects that marketing usually come in, you have to know how to manage the emotional portion that will inevitably come from those under you.
But follow these five tips, and you’d definitely be much closer to becoming a greater manager:
- Guide your employees through change
- Support vulnerability
- Accept weaknesses in your team and work around them
- Be patient
- Work with your employees, not above them
What other tips do you have that you think make a great marketing manager? Share them in the comments below, and drop a follow if you want to read more of such content!
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