Et Tu, CMO?

I was not the most popular student government President at DeKalb College. One of my Senators used to sit right across from me and make accusations; however, he would not direct them directly at me. He would use obscurities like, “Well, (snap) some people, blah, blah, blah random complaint blah, blah, blah.” I sort of feel bad about him not liking me, but he often wore fluorescent mesh tank tops and billowing workout pants to meetings, so I didn’t fully trust his judgment.



Being President had its perks, though. I got snubbed by Spike Lee when we picked him up at his mother’s house in a limo for him to speak at our MLK day celebration. I got to hang out with Zell Miller and discuss important things like cowboy boots and Georgia’s sodomy law. I hugged Maya Angelou and introduced her at an event where she sung and spoke for two mesmerizing hours. I saw and did a lot as President. But in that year, and without me knowing, my adviser Michelle taught me what it means to lead.



I’ve lead other things since being student government President at DeKalb. I was President of my local ad club and served as state director for the American Advertising Federation. I’ve led groups to study issues and solve problems. I lead Snowden Tatarski and it is not always easy, but I have to say if there is anything likable about my style of leadership it is owed to those mentors and friends who made it their cause to teach me.



My mentor Bob is the best mentor a leader can have. Bob teaches an inverted pyramid style of leadership where the leader helps facilitate the actions of the rest of the organization. Nowadays Bob teaches this leadership style to companies, organizations nonprofits and MBA students.



One of the things Bob has taught me in our work and friendship is the value of marketing leadership. A sales and marketing organization is an organism that has a stubborn, thick skin in some spots and a tender underbelly of vulnerability in other areas. Companies often seem to not know what to do with the marketing beast, so they feed it just enough to keep it from starving to death. This methodology leads to countless situations where a good product with sufficient opportunity in the market fails due to poor marketing leadership.



So what is marketing leadership? It is knowing that what you don’t know about the consumer or the product can hurt you, and then seeking clear answers in research. It’s the discipline to not screw up an otherwise good strategy with unneeded input. I am careful to distinguish between input which is helpful in the marketing process and input which simply exist to reinforce a power structure. Put simply, don’t be a bully just because you can.



Marketing departments often suffer from maladies and hexes that tax their own efforts. Whereas leadership could serve as an anchor and source of support, there is instead a black hole that that sucks in the energy and self esteem of the marketing team. To list all the sources of marketing leadership implosion would take volumes. Instead, here are a few of the greatest hits.



A fish stinks from the head.



Behind every dysfunctional marketing organization is a dysfunctional person. Good marketing leadership takes supportive and understanding leaders with the ability to cultivate the next line of marketing leadership. The stinking head of a stinking marketing department gets three words into the last sentence and decides its crap.



To be in the presence of one of these specimens is truly something. They are bullies. They like hunter green and royal red not because of any marketing purpose but because they like it and if you don’t like it you can shut up or quit. These fine individuals ask your opinion as they are walking out of your office. This embrace of command/control style of leadership can and does choke a marketing department down to a group of drones carrying out orders.



A better way to lead is to actually lead. If the team is too dumb to have a good idea, fire them and get a better team. Successful marketing managers hire intellectual equals, if not intellectual superiors. Bullies hire morons, bone heads and nincompoops to run around carrying faxes and press releases. Such makes bullies feel important but in the end the whole company suffers.



None of us is as dumb as all of us.



The opposite of the power bully (though they may coexist) is the kangaroo committee. The kangaroo committee is a group on non-marketers or pathetically skilled marketers who get in a room and try decide which photo to include on the thank you note. This gives an elaborate illusion of doing work. Truthfully, a single person could make all the decisions such a committee makes in a year in a single afternoon. Such committees seem to exist if only to waste time and give people the feeling that their input is wanted. In the end, the committee’s direction is always vague and so someone (often the bully) has to step in and make the decision.



Committees can be great for determining issues. It is worth while to ask the head of sales what they are learning about the customer and what implements would be helpful in closing sales. What you don’t need to know from sales is what color the background needs to be in the product shot. It is not that their opinion doesn’t count; it’s that the clock does. Time as a resource is finite. Unless your aim is waste time and money, find competent people and let them do their job.



The soup sandwich.



Occasionally marketing is seen as a place to resolve corporate conflict. Sometimes this is good and sometimes it is really good. Marketing is the perfect place to discuss the overall corporate strategy concerning customers, marketing, products and opportunities. When it comes to resolving such problems, marketing can really shine.



But the marketing department can also be a dumping ground. I have worked with teams that use the marketing department as a repository for non-marketing executives’ friends’ children in need of an internship, the boss’ spouse who really knows her way around Microsoft Publisher, and best of all, a giant slush fund to pay for undocumented expenses, country club dues and “leadership” trips to Vegas.



Again, strong leadership from a marketing department can snap the rest into focus. Organizations seem to lose focus on marketing because focus never really was the aim at all. Existence was. Instead, marketing pros should feel empowered and included in the crucial operations of the organization. Think deeply about it. Your next breakthrough, business changing concept - is it most likely to come from accounting, finance or marketing?



A modification of the soup sandwich is the invisible rope. The invisible rope ties up the hands of everyone in marketing and ties up nearly every project with only the top brass being able to untie the knot. There are companies where the CEO must see and comment on every ad before it goes out. Sure, quality control you say. No. The ads rarely make it out the door, and the only quality control is more like a limiter as the marketing department can only work at the speed of an eighty-year-old who works sparsely in between golf and naps.



Fire the guy in the poofy pants and pink tank top.



Had I known back at DeKalb College what I know now, I would have handled that Senator a little differently. While I’d be interested in his opinion of how a strategy or direction should be carried out, I would not try to brain (or blame) storm every aspect. I would take the officers who were most capable and give them every authority to solve the issue, but he would not be chosen. Am I being a tyrant or vindictive? I don’t think so. With the competitor, policies and sheer inertia of the masses against you, the least you can expect is honest loyalty and productive leadership within your organization.



I don’t have all the answers and I am not always right. But I know a few things quite certainly for my experience. Great leadership inspires great results. Beware of someone who attends an important meeting in a mesh tank top. And Maya Angelou is far more cordial than Spike Lee