Remembering The Fundamentals Of Marketing In A Digital Age

In this digital age, where a single viral video on TikTok can seemingly spark a new trend within 24 hours, the change of pace that marketers must keep up with is immense and, understandably, daunting. As a result, we're becoming so caught up on what's shiny and new that we risk losing sight of the crux of successful marketing—our customers.

According to HubSpot's 2024 State of Marketing Report, 75% of marketers believe personalized experience drives sales and repeat business (pg. 7). This driver is why it's now more important than ever to remember the core fundamentals of your practice. Your building blocks should be the "four P's": product, price, place and promotion. The customer sits above all four as an ultimate goal; the rest stem from their needs and changing habits. What product does your customer want, what price do they want it at and where do they want it?

Developed in the 1960s by E. Jerome McCarthy, the four P's demonstrate the necessity for executives to mix different methods depending on variable market forces. Doing so helps marketers design plans that fit their time's dynamic social and political realities, specific to attracting a target market.

The three P's—process, physical evidence and people—introduced by Booms and Bitner in 1982—are necessary additions. This is ultimately the best recipe that caters to consumers today because the four P's help you position your product according to the customer brief, but the three P's then strengthen this by helping you understand where to position it, for whom and how.

A customer-centric focus outlasts any trend.

Amid the evolving landscape, AI and automation have transformed marketing more in the past three years than over the past 50, according to the HubSpot report, and keeping laser-focused on these principles remains core to meeting business objectives and satisfying audiences. Tech is an enabler; customers are the core focus.

We see many brands struggle because they have ignored these principles in favor of catering to the whims of a digital audience that's not necessarily their own. Time and effort are concentrated on making something go viral, with many forgetting to understand and meet customers' unique needs.

Despite the fundamental shifts in the tools we employ, the essence of marketing persists in businesses actively tuning in to their customers' needs and delivering solutions that resonate authentically with them. As Fairfax M. Cone said: "Good advertising is written from one person to another. When it is aimed at millions, it rarely moves anyone."

First, a marketing team needs to define the business brief through a diagnosis phase: "What problem are we solving for the customer? What are we doing to solve it? Is there a market opportunity?" Then the four P's can get underway and a misalignment between the campaign created and the customer brief is avoided.

These are not dusty old concepts but rather basic principles that are adaptable and able to work in synergy with the latest technological innovations. The parameters outline future successful campaigns and allow you to keep up and embrace new ideas simultaneously.

Before big data and generative AI revolutionized the way we work, the challenge was creating the right, tailored message for your audience. In the race to keep up, broader trends that become prevalent across multiple industries end up causing a disorientating effect because businesses lose sight of the needs and wants of their specific audience in a bid to cater to the masses.

With 64% of marketers already using AI and automation (pg. 31), it's clear that technology is propelling growth, but the challenge is harnessing this growth to meet your customers' needs. How do you use these tools to create personalized, targeted campaigns? The market we're operating in has changed, but when did it become outdated to understand the brief?

It's a simple formula, but it works, and the variable nature of each "P" avoids falling victim to a one-size-fits-all approach. Often, I witness these metrics being overcomplicated or overlooked by today's marketers, or many make the fatal error of trying to retrofit their campaign to the customer's brief at the end of the process rather than at the beginning.

Basic principles do not lead to basic campaigns.

As Pete Markey of Aviva said, the four P's "are essentially about understanding the wants and needs of customers and how to extract value from that." Why have such fundamentals become increasingly ignored in the digital age? One explanation may be that marketing teams hire purely based on a candidate's digital skills, rather than checking whether they fully grasp the basics of marketing, too. Digital literacy and strong analytical capabilities need to be interwoven with creativity.

The P's should be our backbone to creating a customer-centric approach. I anticipate brands blending agility with a steadfast commitment to marketing principles as they navigate the delicate balance between innovation, profitability and expansion in the future. Once you devise a plan that fulfills each parameter, execute your campaign through the right tech stack—this combination should lead you to success.

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Metadata: Originally published on Forbes.com on 04 April 2024.

The Art Of Collaboration: How CMOs Can Prioritize People, Purpose And Processes

Chief marketing officers (CMOs) are the ones responsible for understanding and representing the customer within the business, identifying new market opportunities and developing strategies that align with overall business goals. Our insights drive progress.

However, to truly play a transformative role, it’s important to acknowledge and harness our unique position that enables us to draw on the talent from departments across our organizations.

Swapping Isolation For Collaboration

CMOs can bind and unify an organization; to be successful, it is important to develop a core understanding of how data, money and resources flow around the company. By positioning yourself at the intersection of technology, strategy and communications, you can become the epicenter of broader business transformation. However, many struggle to fully utilize this opportunity to leverage talent across businesses.

As Gartner reported in December 2022, cross-functional collaboration is currently yielding unfavorable outcomes for businesses, with senior marketing executives who described their approach as “independent” outperforming self-described “collaborators” on annual revenue targets by almost a quarter when looking at customer acquisition goals. However, it’s important to note that it’s not the concept of cross-function collaboration that’s the problem, but the way it’s being executed.

The solution to the problem is to replace isolation between silos with collaboration and communication. As Aaron Dignan, founder of The Ready, said, “There’s no such thing as a big company … it’s 50 small companies that are just under the same banner with a set of shared principles in a marketplace with each other.”

A company’s size is irrelevant—it’s how effectively the divisions within it communicate with one another that determines whether it will function efficiently and successfully. CMOs are responsible for shaping a narrative that employees can unify behind. As such, it is critical to embed values and communicate a clear vision that everyone—no matter where in the company they work—believes in.

Indeed, the goal of a CMO is to effectively deliver values and brand promise across the customer journey—a journey that involves many (if not all) other functions, from supply chain to client handling. To forge a sense of collaboration while still preserving efficiency, agility and hitting targets, CMOs need to represent the voice of the customer when providing input and advice to other functions.

This is the case when helping the communications function with internal messaging. CMOs need to use persona-based, human-centered strategies so they can represent the customer as effectively internally as they do externally. The challenge is ensuring that this communication is both tailored to individual functions while retaining a joint underlying message. As experts in communications, we can collaborate with other executives in different business functions to provide guidance on what strategy and messaging will resonate most within their team to create a positive, long-term result.

The Right Tech, The Right Way

A study by EY and Oxford University’s Saïd Business School found that putting humans at the center of the drivers of business transformation can improve the odds of success by 2.6 times. This successful transformation relies on CMOs’ effectiveness to instill collaboration, care, inspiration and empowerment into the teams they build and lead.

The research found that 71% of workers agreed that for a corporate vision to become concrete, leaders must communicate clearly why the change is needed, not just what they want their employees to do. As such, it’s obvious that genuine belief can only be built from evidence. Members of the C-suite simply stating their business objectives will only result in a half-hearted effort to collaborate.

A key ingredient that will help CMOs spur cross-functional collaboration is the right technology. In EY’s research, nearly half (48%) of respondents said their organization invested in the right technologies to meet their needs, versus only 33% in companies who qualified as going through “low-performing transformations.”

However, it has to be the right technology and used correctly. Research from Howspace in January 2023 found that technology is currently reducing collaboration rather than improving it, with employees stating that it’s geared more toward independent work. This needs to change; part of our role as CMOs is to ensure that we are leveraging technology in a way that encourages, as Ilkka Mäkitalo, CEO of Howspace, states, “synchronous and asynchronous work to take place seamlessly in a fluid environment.”

Technology has long been a part of CMO efforts. Data is central to providing a more connected, intelligent and anticipatory customer experience. The intertwinement of data, creativity and innovation has meant CMOs have been increasingly partnering with CIOs and other executives to build technology and automation into their marketing and advertising.

This synergy has been amplified by the generative AI boom at the end of last year. Excitement about the potential impact has reverberated throughout our industry—like countless others—because it is, as you know, huge. Adding generative AI into current marketing strategies has the ability to transform any workflow and be an effective tool across the business.

This is an example of when cross-functional collaboration is necessary. We need to work with other executives to inform the functions of the business (whether that be supply chains, procurement or R&D) about generative AI’s transformative capabilities, remove any hesitations and agree upon a companywide strategy of how to best implement it.

Final Thoughts

Nurturing ecosystems and fostering partnerships is key for any CMO when dealing with change, complexity and disruptions. It’s a fundamental skill we need to possess if we are to be successful in communication and change management. Ultimately, employee satisfaction, drive and output increase when they’re embedded in collaborative teams—75% of employees rate it as necessary to their role. Remaining siloed will only hold us back.

Today, more than ever, it is important to empower employees, implement efficient processes, and demonstrate the importance and context of working in synergy with other business functions; that way, the corporate whole will be greater than the sum of its parts.

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Metadata: Originally published on Forbes.com on 14 December 2023.

The Art Of Collaboration: How CMOs Can Prioritize People, Purpose, and Processes

In my latest article on Forbes, The Art Of Collaboration: How CMOs Can Prioritize People, Purpose and Processes, I discuss how CMOs are in a unique position that enables us to draw on the talent from departments across our organizations.

Leadership collaboration

The goal of a CMO is to effectively deliver values and brand promise across the customer journey—a journey that involves many (if not all) other functions, from supply chain to client handling. To forge a sense of collaboration while still preserving efficiency, agility and hitting targets, CMOs need to represent the voice of the customer when providing input and advice to other functions.

Nurturing ecosystems and fostering partnerships is key for any CMO when dealing with change, complexity and disruptions. It's a fundamental skill we need to possess if we are to be successful in communication and change management.

You can read the article at Forbes here.

The vital role of team managers in harnessing the power of Microsoft 365

In today's fast-paced digital era, effective collaboration and streamlined workflows are vital to achieving success in any organisation.

As businesses increasingly rely on technology to drive productivity and innovation, team managers play a pivotal role in harnessing the power of software tools to foster a culture of excellence, support their team members, and deliver high-quality work.

Among the myriad productivity suites available, Microsoft 365, the default platform for Office applications for many organisations, is a comprehensive solution that empowers managers to lead their teams to new heights.

It has become even more important for team managers to know how to use the Microsoft 365 software suite well and execute work with the highest quality, with a focus on corporate culture and their team members.

Ensuring Quality Work Delivery

The pursuit of quality work should be a cornerstone of any successful organisation. Microsoft 365 provides an array of tools that can enhance the quality of deliverables. Previously this may have meant of focus on professional documents in Word or PowerPoint. However, today's tools like Power Automate, Flow, and Power BI can help make processes efficient and automated with transparent reporting to both leadership and teams. By mastering these tools, team managers can set high standards, guide their team members in producing polished outputs, and ensure the high quality of work delivered to clients, stakeholders, and colleagues.

Cultivating a Culture of Collaboration

Effective collaboration lies at the heart of a successful team. Microsoft 365 offers tools like Outlook, Teams, OneNote, SharePoint, and Yammer, enabling seamless communication, document sharing, and project management. By becoming proficient in these tools, team managers can create a collaborative culture where information flows freely, ideas are easy to share, and the team harnesses collective intelligence. This approach to collaboration fosters innovation, boosts creativity, and enhances problem-solving capabilities within the team.

Promoting Seamless Communication and Connectivity

Clear and effective communication is vital for a team's success. Microsoft 365 equips team managers with communication tools such as Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint. These tools enable real-time messaging, video conferencing, email integration, and the managed sharing of information, fostering seamless communication among team members, regardless of location. By leveraging these tools proficiently, managers can ensure everyone is on the same page, address concerns promptly, and build strong relationships within the team.

Streamlining Workflows for Efficiency

Delivering work efficiently and on time is a hallmark of successful teams. Microsoft 365 offers many tools that streamline workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and enhance productivity. For instance, traditional tools like Excel help managers analyse data, make informed decisions, and track progress. Other apps like Planner or Project enable efficient project planning and resource allocation. By mastering these tools, team managers can optimise processes, identify bottlenecks, and allocate resources effectively, improving work efficiency and timely deliverables.

Empowering and Supporting Team Members

A team manager's role extends beyond assigning tasks and monitoring progress. Ensuring your team members are trained and confident to use the powerful new parts of Microsoft 365 supports efficiency, process, reporting, and quality gains in day-to-day work. Powerful tools like Power Automate, Flow, Planner, Power BI, and Microsoft Forms can help to remove the drudgery of repeated manual process work. By utilising these tools effectively, managers can work with team members to provide personalised support, mentorship and identify growth opportunities. This approach to empowering and supporting your team members, in turn, enhances employee satisfaction, engagement, and retention.

Conclusion

As technology evolves, team managers must adapt and embrace the tools to drive collaboration, support their team members, and deliver high-quality work. Microsoft 365 offers an all-encompassing software suite that empowers managers to cultivate a culture of cooperation and partnership, execute work excellently, and respect and support team members.

By becoming proficient in the complete Microsoft 365 suite, team managers can unlock the full potential of their teams, foster innovation, and drive success in today's digital landscape.

Day two: Cannes Lions 2022

Day two at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity was the busiest plan of my week, with eight sessions across talent, change, ESG, and user experience.

LinkedIn and the fight for great talent

Ryan Roslansky, LinkedIn CEO, walked us through changes impacting the fight for great talent with a focus on the advertising industry. Based on LinkedIn's social graph knowledge from 830 million members and 57 million companies. Ryan said that Gen Z moves more frequently than other generations, followed by Millenials, Gen X, and Boomers. He also showed the change in roles within the Advertising industry now requiring tech skills, a 25% increase, and tech skills are becoming table stakes as part of the global arms race for tech talent.

He spoke about storytelling and the invention of the term horsepower by Scottish Engineer James Watt.

"Using a complicated mathematical equation, Watt deduced that a mill horse could push 32,572 pounds one foot in a minute, which he rounded to an even 33,000 pounds. 33,000 pounds pushed one foot in a minute. The power of one horse. One horsepower!" (The Chronicle of the Horse, https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/james-watt-and-revolution-horsepower)

Watt found a way to translate scientific measurements into a unit of measure that people could relate to - that of horsepower. Horsepower was a promise of what the steam engine could do. Ryan reinforced that we are in a promise-making business and must make promises, but promises we deliver. Apple did this with the 1,000 songs in your pocket slogan introduced by Steve Jobs 21 years ago in 2001.

Brand activism - Your power as marketers to make big change

A recent study of the top 50 brands approximated that they have 72 billion opportunities to influence consumers through the sales process for their products. This means that marketers have the opportunity to have a professional purpose with the chance of having a planetary impact.

In Diageo, at Guinness, they have adopted a three-pronged approach to sustainability around reinvention, restoration, and reduction.

• What can you do to reinvent how you operate?

• What can you do to restore the ecosystems in which you operate?

• What can you do to reduce the destructive impact across the supply chain?

How can we make a change to the way that we think and the decisions we make to fundamentally change how we approach and value the impact our actions have on the environment.

Leveraging machine learning and augmented reality for experiential digital commerce

Jeremi Gorman, Chief Business Officer at Snap Inc, showcased some of the most important features available in Snap that leverage machine learning and augmented reality for experiential digital commerce. Every day more than 250 million people engage with augmented reality in Snap. Snap view themselves as a camera company and they have used technology to extend the user experience. She said that 250 million people have already tried on 5 billion products digitally.

Robert Triefus from Gucci spoke about Gucci's deep belief in digital and he encourage everyone to lean into digital hard. Gucci have used digital to expand their community and to bring new kinds of experiences to their customers. Technology also enables Gucci to give their customers a unique experience across different channels, empowering their community to express creativity, and to provide insights to the business.

A camera is a catalyst to personal creation centering the world around the user authentically. This makes cameras and digital experience a part of the future of personal storytelling with the user an active participant in creating the future.

Break the standard leading business creation with unique experience

The design team from Minna Bank in Japan spoke about how they worked to change from business leading experience to experience leading business.

Taehan Yoo, Design Director, spoke about how many times we copy and paste a design, experience, or idea for safety. But once we have copied and pasted and made our expeirence the same as others the consumer then wants the cheapest experience and this takes us to a place we don't want to be.

At Minna, which means everyone in Japanese, they're focussed on delivering a new approach to digital banking, primarily for digital natives in the Generations Z, Y, and Millenials. Minna's users are 70% from these generations, vs traditional banks whose users are 70% from older generations. [There is a video showcasing Minna bank here](https://youtu.be/irKyj-EpTzQ).

The team of designers were very passionate about their approach to understanding their customers and delivering a frictionless experience. Many of the things they spoke about the experience of banking I could relate to from my own experiences with [N26 in Germany](https://youtu.be/IWwrfkkM4iI), and [Starling Bank](https://youtu.be/E7F7s7AOFNk) in the UK who both deliver a similar frictionless digital experience.

The most interesting thing I learned today was from Snap. When Snap added the weather feature to Snap to add the current weather in as the background to a photo people engage with it and activated the feature millions of times, but didn't save the photo. Snap discovered that people were using their camera as their weather app, and were inserting the weather to get the metrics. So Snap expanded the tool to include a multi-day forecast.

A full day with a lot of ideas around using creativity for growth, and for change.

#CannesLions2022 #IONatCannes

Day one: Cannes Lions 2022

My first day at Cannes Lions was action-packed, starting with Gary Kasparov and the Regain Ukraine brand using the power of creativity to support Ukraine in the war with Russia.

The next session was with award-winning CMOs from AB InBev and Microsoft. Marcel Marcondes, AB InBev Global CMO, spoke about building great brands and that 'without trust, there is no greatness'. Trust takes time to develop, and I believe that it must be a goal that is a foundation for what you do. Kathleen Hall from Microsoft, who won the Cannes Lions Creative Marketer of the Year in 2021, spoke about the creative work Microsoft has done on inclusion in Gaming with new devices and controllers for differently-abled people. It was inspiring to see people transform when they could play like their friends using these devices for gaming and learning.

I then worked in a group led by Cindy Gallop on rebuilding the Agency model. I admire Cindy as an intelligent and thoughtful leader who, in her own words, 'likes to blow shit up. Cindy broke us out into six teams to build our agency based on new rules without reference to out-of-date models. This session was with talented specialists making a case for what is needed to achieve these goals. There are lessons I will take back with me to use with my teams.

We were then introduced to four creative industry members from Ukraine whose worlds have been turned upside down since February 24, when Russia invaded Ukraine—hearing the stories of people who lived exactly as we do in a modern European nation now suffering a war in Europe and their experience of 'creativity under bombs'. We were fortunate to be surprised with a special guest, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine. Zelenskyy spoke about how this group of Marketing and Communications leadership could help Ukraine win the war by using branding as a tool and a weapon. Brave Ukraine is a brand to build, retain, and expand awareness of the atrocities being done daily in Europe.

The creative, brand, and marketing leadership of Nike then showcased three different approaches to working with your users to produce great results. The team from Nike spoke about how every one of us is an athlete. They did not talk about users or customers but athletes. The focus on the athlete is a vital part of the vision about who they serve and what they do for athletes. I learned about the goal of achieving the first sub-two-hour marathon and focusing on making products that deliver for athletes. Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya covered 26.2 miles in 2 hours 25 seconds - just 26 seconds short of the goal. The team then showcased the value of crazy dreams and checking if your goal isn't yet crazy enough to deliver the change you want. I have an action item to review my own goals. Finally, the team showcased the difference that can be achieved to normalise through cultural awareness and the introduction of clothing, and equipment to solve bespoke needs for groups such as pregnant women, Muslim women, and other athletes and the impact this can have on civil society.

Today I managed to make it to one of the secret speaker sessions. The speaker was AY Young, and I was introduced to him with a fist bump. AY sang, danced, spoke, and inspired a room full of creatives, communication, and marketing specialists through his work as a Young Ambassador Envoy for the United Nations and the 17 Development goals. It’s not easy to have a room full of grown adults singing, ‘we can change the world’. AY is an inspiring young performer focused on improving the world by delivering the 17 Development Goals of the United Nations. Do you know what? We can change the world, and we are the only people who will do it.

We organised the day's sessions with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Founded initially to monitor and rebalance gender and gender roles in the media, their research now examines the intersectional onscreen representation of six identities: gender, race, LGBTQIA+, disability, age 50+, and body type. In many areas, there has been significant improvement in the representation of these identities in essential roles, including speaking and being in leadership positions. I will take away ideas from this as a framework to better present all of us.

This was a huge day with a massive amount of discussion, learning, and reflection on the power of creativity to change the world. As a creative leader, I believe we can change the world.

#CannesLions2022 #IONatCannes

Big feelings ... and early signs of burnout

One of the best books I read during the pandemic is No hard feelings about emotions at work and how they help us succeed.

I read this book for perspective and tips to stop getting stuck in unhealthy patterns and build a successful team and culture. I highly recommend reading it to help improve your mindset and how you approach every day for yourself and your team.

A Swiss Army knife illustration showing different emotional tools. By Liz Fosslien.

The two authors, Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy, have a new book about to be published called Big Feelings: How to be okay when things are not okay.

The early signs of burnout

So what early signs should you look out for? Here are some of the subtle cues that you might need to reassess how much you’re taking on:

• Basic activities like going to the grocery store feel overwhelming

• Getting mildly sick and being forced to shut down for a bit actually sounds kind of nice

• You’re saying “yes” even though you’re already at capacity

• You find everyone and everything irritating

• You’re all too familiar with “revenge bedtime procrastination,” when you stubbornly stay up late because you didn't get any time to yourself during the day

We’re quick to ignore these signs because we can usually muscle through them. But they’re important alarm bells.

These are all issues that I have experienced myself, and seen in members of my team. I have pre-ordered my copy in hardback as I think it's a book I want to be able to share.

An illustration showing everything you can do, and what you can actually do. By Liz Fosslien.

There are also some great resources and helpful and inspiring images at fosslien.com. I think Liz and Molly are creating quality content that is incredibly useful for all of us, even more so for leaders. You can subscribe to Liz and Molly’s newsletter at lizandmollie.com.

Set smarter goals at work to better measure performance

With the end of the year approaching for many of us in jobs, annual review and appraisal season is almost upon us.

While this may be back to front, I want to talk about goals in the workplace in this post. Some refer to them as key performance indicators (KPIs), others as objective and key results (OKRs). Whether you use KPI or OKR, they both measure performance against a documented goal.

Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

I am certain that you’ve heard of SMART goals. Smart goals refer to goals that are:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Achievable

• Relevant

• Timed

An example SMART goal for a salesperson would look like this:

To achieve a 10% year-on-year increase in sales in 2021 on sales made in 2020 as measured by closed deals as of 31 December 2021. :

Specific: The goal is specific as it states time, performance metric, comparative results.

Measurable: The objective is measurable, as it documents a percentage improvement and specifies closed deals and a date.

Achievable: While each situation varies and there will, of course, be sales situations and markets where a 10% increase in sales is not achievable. The number used in this example may be achievable, particularly if you compared it to a goal to achieve a 300% increase in sales.

Relevant: The goal is relevant to a salesperson who would set and agree to such a goal.

Timed: The goal states both the end date and the comparative period in time.

While SMART goals add the relevant framework to performance management and goal setting, they exclude two crucial elements that make SMART goals smarter. From my experience, you should also ensure that in setting a SMART goal, you are equipped for the task and have the resources to achieve the task.

Equipped: If the salesperson does not have a source of leads, prospects, advertising, product or services to sell, they are not equipped to do the task.

Resourced: In addition, the goal is at risk if they do not have the available time or resources such as hardware, software, sales support, assistants, and whatever key resources are essential to achieving the goal.

Using the leads generated by marketing activity and networking, with sales and administrative support, in 2021, achieve a 10% year-on-year increase on sales made in 2020 as measured by closed deals as of 31 December 2021.

This revised goal is smarter than the original goal. In addition, this change puts some of the onus for achieving the goal on the organisation and the employee.

In 2022, I recommend you consider making SMARTER goals with your teams and for yourself.

Who works for who, and why it matters to you?

Erik Mclean on Unsplash.

In my career so far, I have managed hundreds of people. I've managed small teams and large teams. I've lead teams in multiple countries and industries, in one physical location, and virtual and remote teams across multiple offices and timezones.

The critical question is, who works for who?

Most people believe that the team I have work for me, and any org chart or hierarchy would support that. My employer or customer has hired me to do a job. That's true, just as I've hired my team members and contractors to do a job.

But my job, similar to yours, is to enable my team to do their job. We should resource our teams, equip them with software and hardware, tools and platforms, and training. In addition to this, we must shield them from pointless interruptions within the organisation, the demanding customers, and low-value work. We intercept, deflect, and handle the interruptions that they don't need to avoid slowing them down or distracting them.

By taking this approach, my team can get their job done and deliver on their goals and objectives and the work we have tasked them to do.

I believe that looking at this question in the inverse provides a different perspective. This approach focuses me on enabling my team to do their job. Meaning that team members can do the job I've hired them for, not fighting for scarce resources or drowning in politics, confrontation, and time-wasting.

It also positions each of us as leaders with a function or team performing and delivering a high-quality service. By enabling our teams to do their job correctly, they can also develop their skills, strengths, and careers and grow their sense of job satisfaction.

The combined effect of this also stacks the odds in our favour and enables us to work in roles that we enjoy — a win-win for everyone.

The importance of having an opportunity

“Ability is nothing without opportunity.”

Napoleon Bonaparte

The importance of creating opportunities for your team's talents to shine is critical for managers to understand.

In my work with my team members, I am constantly identifying, or learning about strengths, talents, ambitions, and abilities that my team members have. These spark ideas in me, and this is where my role as a manager and leader is to create the opportunity for my team to expose their talent or skill.

We then gather feedback and review the project results. Not every ability or talent is a natural fit. But the key is that we try it out. If it works, then everyone is pumped.

If it's not a natural fit or didn't find its place, then the team member will have learnt some lessons from it. This first opportunity and review allow them to tackle it again from another angle, or to tackle it in another environment.

Occasionally, they decide the reality was not as good as the idea, and they can add it to their list of experiences, proud that they gave it a go.

I’ve found this approach to working with my team members is a win for all stakeholders - my team member, myself as a manager who wants to grow the talent, skills, and abilities of my team, and the organisation from trying out new ideas and ways to present at our best.