Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “leadership”
August 13, 2020 “Haven’t I seen you before?” It’s a cheesy pickup line that’s been around for ages. And while it makes people roll their eyes, there’s something to the familiarity quotient. Studies show that we’re attracted to what we find familiar. The more we’re exposed to certain people, the more familiar they become and the more we like them. …
April 19, 2018 by Michelle M. Smith The shift has been palpable. I noticed it first during the Great Recession. After years (decades!) trying to convince senior executives their employees were invaluable assets – and often the most direct route to successfully achieving organizational goals – the lightbulbs began to go off over the heads of many leaders. Those leaders …
April 3, 2018 by Michelle Smith If only there were a silver bullet for leaders…. Most leaders are constantly seeking the ultimate solution to build strong cultures, raise performance levels and operate at maximum efficiency and effectiveness. And there are many options from which to select your course of action, but in all the research I read, three factors consistently …
January 16, 2018 by Carlos Hidalgo Some businesses make it hard to work with them. It seems at times that many B2B organizations have made it so complex and uncomfortable to work with that customers are forced to find an alternative even if their current provider offers a better product or solution. As connected consumers, we want ease, we want a …
June 14, 2016 I was catching up with a fellow marketer the other day. One of the things that we both hear over and over is that marketing’s tired of not having credibility. Marketers want more responsibility, more influence and more respect. They want a seat at the infamous table. Both of us have been in marketing for a long …
April 12, 2016 There’s a lot of change happening in marketing, and it’s not going to slow down. Ever. I talk to many marketing leaders who realize that just keeping all the balls in the air isn’t enough anymore. They know they have to be more effective, but they can’t pinpoint the problem. Usually it’s not a single thing that’s …
March 15, 2016 Last week, Spencer Stuart released the results from its most recent study on CMO tenure. In looking at the profiles of chief marketers from 100 of the top U.S. advertised brands they found that, for the first time in a decade, CMO tenure is on the decline. The average tenure for chief marketing officers dropped almost 10 …
November 24, 2015 A few years ago I wrote a book on the history of B2B marketing. It was a fascinating journey for me – as a marketer, a writer and a historian (I’m a history major). We’ve come a long way, baby, as the old saying goes. Sometimes it’s hard to remember how far we’ve come when we’re in …
September 29, 2015 Ambitious CMOs focus on building credibility for their team. Is that enough? Some wonder if CMOs have what it takes to become the next CEO. Are we setting our sight too high? Actually, I read a report this week that points out that even these ambitions are too low. The Report – When and How Does Board-Level …
September 15, 2015 Marketing executives must walk a fine line between building pipeline, meeting revenue expectations, managing customer experience, delivering new prospects and building and maintaining a productive team with the proper skill set. What does it take to make it all happen? That was the question at hand for a panel that Carlos Hidalgo, president of ANNUITAS hosted last …
April 28, 2015 I read an article the other day that said that people are hired for hard skills and fired for a lack of soft skills. I’ve found this to be true, and even more so for marketers as our pace of change keeps picking up speed. I listen to marketers talk about the struggles they have in their …
January 6, 2015 One of the things I love about looking at the clean slate of a new year is 365 days of possibilities. Part of what gets me excited is taking one idea, focusing on it, and then putting it into practice little by little. Huge change all at once can be hugely overwhelming. But what I find is …
December 9, 2014 by Carla Johnson In the late 1990s, Philip Kotler wrote a book called Kotler on Marketing. In it, he said that “marketing will be re-engineered from A to Z. Marketing will need to rethink fundamentally the processes by which they identify, communicate and deliver customer value.” For the last decade, people have talked about changing buyer behavior. …
October 14,2014 The Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs released their annual research on the state of content marketing. B2B Content Marketing 2015 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America highlights how far we’ve come in the last 12 months as it relates to the adoption and sophistication of practice in content marketing. I won’t go into details about the research …
September 30, 2014 For all the change that’s taken place in how buyers buy, it’s no wonder that marketers feel uncertain. It’s not just about learning new skillsets and making sure teams are staffed and equipped with enough resources. It’s about realizing, understanding and then doing something about the new roles that we need to have as marketers and marketing …
February 17, 2014 As a small-business owner who’s successfully grown my clientele during some of the toughest economic times (I launched my agency in June, 2001), people often ask me how I’ve done it. I tell them it’s about learning the art of asking. I came across this blog post from Jack Canfield, one of America’s top success coaches, who …
“Great stories happen to those who can tell them.” – Ira Glass Last week Colorado Biz Magazine published an article I wrote about storytelling and why it always needs to start on the inside of a company, rather than through marketing to the outside audiences. I think as a writer, it’s conversations like the one that his article prompted, and others …
