The month of December offers marketing leaders an important opportunity to look back and reflect, even while we set our sights to the future with plans to do even better.
As you take stock over the next few weeks, make certain you add these three essential items to your To-Do list for the New Year:
1. Get rid of monkeys that aren't yours. As I have mentioned before, I keep a crystal bowl of plastic monkeys on my desk. They serve as a reminder of the valuable lesson I learned from the Harvard Business Review article "Who's Got the Monkey?" The take-home message was this: Marketing leaders need to understand when to be a linebacker and when to be a coach. We need to recognize the fine line between knocking down roadblocks and disempowering.
Take the time this month to clean house and reassess. Realize which problems are yours -and which ones aren't. Get rid of monkeys that aren't yours, and you'll be a more effective leader, while you build a more effective team.
2. Jettison one piece of old baggage. The industry is changing, however that doesn't mean change will come easily. The pace of change can seem overwhelming, so learn to take it one-step-at-a-time. Identify one initiative that underperformed significantly last year and scrap it. Replace a tired underperformer with an effort that's fresh and innovative. Resolve to start envisioning a different world, both internally and externally, for your teams and your customers.
For inspiration, let me share the encouraging words of Jeffrey Hayzlett, former CMO of Kodak and our AMS11 keynote speaker. You can't wait for conditions to be perfect, because "perfect" conditions will never exist, he told us. Instead, start taking risks now. "Will anyone die if you fail?" Jeff asked. If the answer is no, then embrace change and proceed ahead.
3.Call the CIO and set up a meeting for early 2012. Technology is critical to improve marketing performance, so start the New Year on the right foot. Schedule a meeting, or better yet, set up a time to take the CIO out to lunch. Launch a new collaborative relationship and resolve that you will update processes so you can deliver effective, more integrated campaigns with higher ROI. I guarantee that you will be pleasantly surprised about how much is now common ground. There's no question that once harnessed, Big Data can revolutionize the way we approach our campaigns. But at the same time, CIOs are looking to restructure their teams for success with marketing, too.
Have you thought ahead to what's mission-critical for 2012? What's on your To-Do short list for next year?