Digital Marketing - Study Notes:
Managing and leading are similar. After all, they have the same purpose! In real terms they are actually different roles in the same play. Metaphorically, a leader is like an explorer who leads a fleet of ships to discover new lands. And managers are the various ships’ captains who follow the explorer’s directions and get the ships safely to their destinations.
So how does this apply to organizations?
The manager
A manager is an executive who gets things done.
Managers are concerned with making things work through planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, controlling, and problem solving. They focus on organizing information, people, and resources. And they make sure the work gets done and that products and services get out the door on time.
Although we may use extensively the term ‘team leader’, such leaders are really managers. They are involved in all the managerial tasks of organizing other people to execute the work. In fact, they often do much of this work as individual contributors themselves. This role, and even those of most senior executives, is really another level of managing.
The act of managing is attractive to many, because it allows for measurement and control. These certainties are difficult for managers to give up in exchange for the uncertainties and greater risks inherent in leadership.
The leader
A leader is someone who inspires others and guides people to get things done.
Leadership is about getting up front and driving the bus. It is focused on making things happen, but not on making them work. (That’s the manager’s job!)
Leaders scan the environment, see possibilities, and create a vision of the future. And from this they create a strategy for achieving it. They communicate that strategy to other people, and inspire them to buy-in and make it happen. Leaders either create the structures or systems that managers manage, or they mold existing systems, or organizations, into something new that better fits the demands of a changing environment.
Leadership becomes more essential in times of rapid change where new thinking and direction are needed.
By starting new enterprises, inventing new concepts, and driving new and innovative projects, leaders explore the territory of the unknown. This is not what managers do. So switching roles from manager to leader demands letting go of the certainties of managing and embracing the uncertainties of creating a future.
It is not unusual for business ‘leaders’ with a managerial mindset to find it difficult to change what they have been doing, because they know what works. In other words, they are unable to flip into a leadership mindset and they continue to relate to people, work, and challenges as a manager would. But as Marshall Goldsmith, the famous coaching thought leader, says to executives, “What got you here won’t get you there!”
Leading requires a different set of skills to those of managing. It involves committing to further personal development and to learning those skills. This is both a challenge and a prime objective for anyone aspiring to become a leader.
Leadership in action
Following a re-structuring of a multimedia organization, an experienced marketing manager was appointed to lead a newly established social media division. His assignment was to study the role and commercial potential of social media in achieving the organization’s objectives. He was asked to create and lead a vision for the organization’s social media strategy.
His first action was to meet with all of his staff and establish a relationship with them all as their new boss. He knew how to work with people in a highly creative environment. The staff loved him. He managed the division effectively and quickly introduced many brainstorming initiatives that enhanced the creativity of the whole team. Six months later, other directors and heads of divisions in the company had still not met him. It appeared not to occur to him to look at the entire organization and its business as a whole, and to focus on a vision for development. He was an effective and competent manager, but he lacked any understanding of being a leader. A year later, he left the job.
Back to TopOlivia Kearney
Olivia is CMO of Microsoft Ireland she is responsible for developing the longer term strategy for the Irish business and leads the marketing strategy across B2B and B2C.
A passionate marketing leader who cultivates big ideas to drive growth and brand distinction and brings her international experience in the Tech and FMCG industry.
Cathal Melinn
Cathal Melinn is a well-known Digital Marketing Director, commercial analyst, and eommerce specialist with over 15 years’ experience.
Cathal is a respected international conference speaker, course lecturer, and digital trainer. He specializes in driving complete understanding from students across a number of digital marketing disciplines including: paid and organic search (PPC and SEO), analytics, strategy and planning, social media, reporting, and optimization. Cathal works with digital professionals in over 80 countries and teaches at all levels of experience from beginner to advanced.
Alongside his training and course work, Cathal runs his own digital marketing agency and is considered an analytics and revenue-generating guru - at enterprise level. He has extensive local and international experience working with top B2B and B2C brands across multiple industries.
Over his career, Cathal has worked client-side too, with digital marketing agencies and media owners, for brands including HSBC, Amazon, Apple, Red Bull, Dell, Vodafone, Compare the Market, Aer Lingus, and Expedia.
He can be reached on LinkedIn here.
Kevin Reid
Kevin is a Senior Training Consultant and the Owner of Personal Skills Training and the Owner and Lead Coach of Kevin J Reid Communications Coaching and the Communications Director of The Counsel.
With over twenty years of experience in Irish and International business with an emphasis on business communications training and coaching, he is a much in demand trainer and clients include CEO’s, general managers, sales teams, individuals and entire organisations.
With deep expertise in interpersonal communication through training and coaching and in a nurturing yet challenging environment, Kevin supports teams and individuals through facilitation and theory instruction to empower themselves to achieve their communication objectives. This empowerment results in creativity, confidence building and the generation of a learning culture of continuous self-improvement.
Bill Phillips
Bill is an international facilitator, trainer, and team coach. He has successfully coached CEOs, board members, directors, executive teams, and team leaders in public and private companies, NGOs, and UN organizations in 15 countries across four continents. He is also the creator of Future-basing®, a highly potent process for building strategy, vision, and cooperation.
