Five ways to frame our thoughts and actions as leaders
As marketers, there will inevitably come a point in many of our careers when we’ll be asked to step up from operating as individuals focused on specific tasks (e.g. SEO specialists, digital analysts, web developers) to managers responsible for a group of specialists (e.g. digital marketing manager).
Whether you make the move into management depends entirely on you and your personal drivers (and whether it’s right to promote people based on their technical skills is a debate for another day). But if you do decide to take the route into management, it's important to consider the implications.
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Upskilling has become a vital part of keeping your team productive
With the elimination of some jobs and the rapid changes happening in others, upskilling has become a vital part of keeping your team productive. It helps to keep your team members engaged, improve their skills and serve customers better.
Having said that, it’s easy to go wrong while planning to upskill your team. There’s so much information out there that it can get confusing really fast.
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So, how do you upskill your team to ensure you get the huge benefits and positive returns on your investments?
In this blog post, I’m going to share 6 important tips you need…
79% of CEOs said lack of key skills was one of their top three concerns and 46% see upskilling as their favourite solution.
With the improvements in technology, jobs are changing. Some jobs are being eliminated or revolutionized to bring them up-to-date.
Likewise, some jobs are being created to meet up with the demands created by technology. New technologies like the internet, artificial intelligence, software development, have made upskilling necessary in the new economy.
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In a PwC survey, 79% of CEOs said lack of key skills was one of their top three concerns and 46% see upskilling as their favourite solution.
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Three ways to drive better collaboration within the workplace
As the modern workplace has become increasingly dynamic, digital and cross-functional, effective collaboration across individuals, teams, and companies has become increasingly important.
A Stanford research study from 2017 found that collaboration can improve workplace performance. Participants in the research who were primed to act collaboratively persevered at their task 64% longer than those working alone, whilst also reporting higher levels of engagement, lower fatigue levels, and a higher success rate.
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However, collaboration can also present challenges. A 2016 research paper from Harvard Business Review indicated that the amount of time managers and employees spend on collaborative work has ballooned. At many companies, people now spend…
Kate Burnett, MD of DMA Talent, discusses the growing need for neurodiversity awareness in the professional world with the chief marketing officer of Direct Line Group, Mark Evans
An underutilized talent pool – neurodiversity awareness
There is an increasing demand within the data and marketing industry for analytical, data-minded individuals, which will inevitably lead to the talent pool becoming stretched. The Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing’s (IDM) 'Professional Skills Census 2018' report highlights 'data-related skills' as a key area with skills gaps that need to be addressed. There are a number of areas within 'data-related skills' that marketers identified as growing in importance in the future, including 'Analyzing customer data/insight', 'Data analysis & reporting', and 'Data & database management'.
There is a huge opportunity for data and marketing teams across the UK. As summarized by Robin Huggins, Head of MBN Academy/Data Lab MSc. Placement Programme at MBN Solutions.
"Embracing Diversity…
Present with confidence and clarity, no matter your audience
Our role as marketers working across disciplines, departments and media means that we’re often required to present our plans to a range of different stakeholders. On most occasions, these may be simple status updates and email correspondence with direct colleagues or line managers.
However, there are also times when we may need to present to senior managers and leaders in order to obtain buy-in or support for a concept or big idea.
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Whilst it’s important to acknowledge that every senior stakeholder is different, there are some common characteristics to bear in mind:
Highly-focused – their attention will be concentrated on a specific number of objectives and projects.
Action-orientated – they’ll often have a clear ‘bias for action’, prioritizing the tasks…
Standing out from the crowd is a challenge and therefore conceiving, creating and maintaining a personal ‘brand’ gives us the opportunity to get noticed and remembered by our managers, peers and customers
For some people, the concept of ‘personal branding’ does not sit well. The idea that we are all walking, talking commodities to be packaged up and sold contradicts the notion of being independent, free and unique individuals. I believe the reality is somewhere in between.
Whilst we are absolutely independent, free and unique, within the working world we are operating in a very noisy, competitive environment. Standing out from the crowd is a challenge and therefore conceiving, creating and maintaining a personal ‘brand’ gives us the opportunity to get noticed and remembered by our managers, peers and customers.
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Chart of the Day: Which are the most important skills for you to develop for your future career
In a previous article, I reviewed the most important marketing skills based on the recently published research from The IDM and Smart Insights. In this follow-up I'll drill down to look at specific skills gaps.
This first chart is helpful since it highlights the main categories of transferable generic skills which are most important to career progression. This is based on marketers who rated these as very or extremely important. You can see that these include many of the skills topics that we focus on at Smart Insights include strategy and planning, data and insight and, of course, digital marketing. As we say, we look to help our members 'Plan, Manage and Optimize' their digital marketing.
The second chart drills down to show more specific skills. You…
Chart of the day: New research highlights the top marketing skills for career progression
This research is from a report which is a collaboration between Smart Insights and The IDM. Its goal was to help marketers understand the skills needed to improve in their careers and to help employers understand the range of skills they need to develop. Respondents include Smart Insights members, thanks if you took part!
This first chart shows the importance based on time spent on current activities by marketers. It shows the wide range of skills needed and highlights the need for marketers looking for new jobs to demonstrate planning, data analysis and project management skills.
The second chart is more useful since it highlights the skills gap, comparing the skills that marketers have now against those they aspire to develop in the future.
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Improve your skills to become a 'T-shaped Marketer' via these free online courses and tutorials
When we look at where to focus our free blog content at Smart Insights, our main aim or filter we use is that the content must help digital marketers plan, manage and optimize their business results or improve their digital skills. This is also what our member content, in our guides focuses on too - starting with digital strategies and planning templates then more specialized marketing tactics like email marketing, social media, SEO, video and many more digital skills.
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Of course, there is a lot of great free, structured online courses around developing digital skills, so we thought it would help to share our thoughts…
