Some time ago, a good friend of mine established a comprehensive set of leadership success guidelines that I subsequently modified, expanded, and then adopted as my personal platform in relation to the marketing discipline.
Although I’ve modified them over time to keep pace with the rapid changes in my profession, here are the 12 foundational principles that currently guide me on a daily basis and help keep me and my marketing team focused and aligned:
1. I am not here to maintain the status quo but to serve as an innovator and a leader of positive change for my organization.
2. I will bring focus where there is ambiguity and chaos, clarity where there is confusion, and inspiration and confidence where there is doubt.
3. My ears will be open, my hand extended, and my mind active. Trust will be built one relationship at a time. And we will succeed together.
4. The voice of the customer will be channeled through me, and market insights will help guide our most important decisions.
5. We can accomplish almost anything, but we can’t do everything and do it well, so we must be focused and intentional if we are to be great.
6. I will lead a high-performance team that will be professional, ethical, driven, accountable, agile, and aligned with the sales team and other customer-facing teams.
7. We will find the right balance between chaos and stifling bureaucracy, so that we can do remarkable things as efficiently as our business demands.
8. Our plan of action will have an emphasis on integration, action, analysis, and creating measurable, repeatable results.
9. We will embrace feedback, stay attuned to market dynamics, learn what works, and optimize accordingly.
10. The latest in technology will not intimidate me but will pique my curiosity and provoke me to find innovative tools to enable sustainable progress.
11. By remaining resilient, responsible, and relentless, we will execute flawlessly in spite of whatever challenges we may encounter.
12. Because of the courage of our conviction and the passion for our cause, we will make the future we envision.
You might consider developing your own personal leadership platform to give your superiors, subordinates, and colleagues further insight into how you think, how you view marketing’s role within the organization, and how you drive marketing success.
A final thought: “Leadership is not necessarily something you are born with, it needs to be nurtured and cultivated.” ~Kurt Rathmann