Marketers: Are You Victims Of Your Environment?

Stakeholder management is one of the most challenging aspects of running a marketing operation - in fact, I strongly believe your ability to influence and 'manage up' is the NUMBER ONE predictor of success in a marketing role, particularly at a senior level. 

It doesn't matter if you're the most talented, creative marketer in the world, with impeccable people management skills. If you can't get the key decision makers on board with your plans, you're going to struggle. 

It's so easy for us to become frustrated and overwhelmed with the culture we find ourselves in, if it's not perfectly aligned with how you want to work. 

And unfortunately it is endemic in business that marketing isn't taken seriously enough, isn't a big enough priority, or is simply a CEO's plaything. It's generally not given the respect it deserves.

But if you find yourself working in a less-than-optimal conditions for a marketer (most marketers!), what can YOU do that's within your control to make things better?

How can you:

• Better appreciate the role, challenges and priorities of your managers so you can empathise and accept the conditions in the business?
  

• Better align your work with your managers' priorities so it cuts through the noise and gets dealt with more quickly?
  

• Adapt the way you work to increase the chances of success, with the acceptance that you're unlikely to be able to make wholesale changes to the culture - at least, not immediately?
  

Yes, it's really challenging. But let's lead, rather than be victims.