Relationship building

Grant Leboff: So Thomas, one of the things that you talk about in the book, which I think might surprise some people, is you talk about this idea of a marketing leader being an inspiration to others around them, and I’m not sure, certainly the marketing people that I work with how many of them think of themselves as being inspiring in that way, so why is that important?

Thomas Barta: To answer your question, 52% of marketing leaders believe they are an inspiration to others, they are role models and now why it’s important. Think about this. As a marketing leader, you work in a position where your boss can very easily say no, your colleagues, that don’t work in marketing can very easily say no, and typically even your teams can say no. It’s very hard to get people to follow you or your ideas, if you are not inspiring, if people don’t see the flicker of inspiration in your eyes, the power, the passion for an idea. It’s a huge weapon you have as a marketer is your inspiration. That’s why it’s so essential, you find out what makes you inspiring and really, really bring this out.

Grant Leboff: How does a marketing person start? I think often people think of being inspirational as being, OK, passionate, but also having some charisma and those kinds of things. How does a marketing leader, if they think like I need to be more inspirational, it’s key. How do they go about approaching that?

Thomas Barta: The first thing to remember is there’s one very big condition for being inspirational, which is, you’ve got to be inspired first. Right? You can’t fake inspiration, you can’t be excited about something you’re not excited about. The first question is, what are your sources of inspiration? What inspires you? Stand in front of a mirror and talk about something really dull, like a tax return, or something that you don’t like right? Then pause and do the same again, and talk about a topic you really like. You will see that difference in the mirror. Now everybody is inspired about something, some marketers are inspired about their products, some are about working with their teams, some love the city they work in, others want to change the industry. There are many, many ways and many things people find inspiring. You ought to figure this out, and if you have absolutely no clue, well give 10 people a blank sheet of paper and ask them to write down “How do I inspire you.”

Do it confidentially, so they feel free to write, and have a look at what they do. We’re doing this in leadership workshops it’s very powerful. It’s the small things, you’re smiling, you’ve got humour. Once you know what that is, double up on it.

Grant Leboff: It’s interesting, when you’re looking at the V Zone, this overlap between customer needs and company needs, does a marketer really have to say to themselves, what really gets me excited within that zone, if they want to be truly effective?

Thomas Barta: Yeah, you need to connect your excitement of course to what you’re trying to do as a marketing leader, and as a great marketing leader you’re helping the company and customers. You’ve got to of course find an inspiration in that. Some people say, how would I ever get inspired about selling more orange juice to people? Well, that’s one way of thinking about it, you can also say, what does your product do well for customers? What does it do well for your company? What does it do well for your team? There is always energy in creating goals or maybe helping people do something different, but you’ve got to be very clear what that is.

You’ve got to find this out and I’d say most marketers I work with if they really thought hard, they actually like their job, right? So we just need to find out why that is and bring that out.

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