always learning

What’s the best part of the digital marketing career path? You never stop learning! Each and every day, there are new lessons to learn. I’m always picking up new insights from blogs, first-hand campaign management, conferences, friends, and most importantly from my team and colleagues. As a people manager, I always try to hire the best of the best. When you recruit those “A Players” you as a manager should be learning from your team and you should observe your team teaching and training others. You get a true network effect in this case, a team of teachers and educators within your organization.

Learn Lead Earn

Today, I wanted to share a really cool tip I picked up from one of my team members recently. This is more of a people/communication tip, and is definitely relevant for anyone in the digital marketing career path, especially considering how quickly we move. In our discipline, things move fast. We’re like traders on Wall Street, except there is no opening nor closing bell! The trading never stops. As such, this career is well suited for those who truly embrace what they do and have a high-energy personality.

No matter how good you are dealing with intensity, we all get a little stressed out once in a while. Or, we just get so caught up in our work that we are not thinking about everything we say. It’s at that precise moment that, despite having the best intentions, we may say something to a colleague that just does not come across as hoped! We say something that makes us think twice, and regret the delivery of the communication. Sometimes you know you made a mistake right away, however most of the time it will hit you a few days later.

We all get into these types of situations from time-to-time. My team member has a simple solution! This smart professional makes a point of circling back with others and apologizing for poor delivery/communication. The idea here: Truly care about the well-being of others. Relationships are everything in business and you don’t want to make others unhappy (or upset) with you. It’s all about taking responsibility for our actions/communications and owning up if they may have come out in a sub-optimal manner. Oftentimes, it’s a two-way street and when you open up, the other party will open up to their communication mistakes too!

While seemingly simplistic and obvious, I can tell you from first-hand experience that people dislike admitting they are wrong. They don’t always want to revisit an awkward situation. Moreover, they get super busy and may not “have the time” to circle back on a prior incident. Long story short, most people do not follow this tip! And, if you do, you will truly set yourself apart as a leader.

A few lessons from this post:

Hire smart, “A Players”. You will learn so much from them! Not only did my team member share this tip with me, but this smart professional also explained how they had to drive back to the office to apologize to somebody even though we were offsite coming home from an event. Now, that’s character – someone who is not afraid to admit their mistakes/lessons (even to their manager) and someone who is putting the feelings of others above their own pride and potential awkwardness of an apology situation. I could not be more proud and honored to work with such a leader.
Always listen to others. You can learn from your boss, peers, partners, and those that work for you. Those that work for you should actually teach you more than anyone else.
Be cognizant of your communications with others, especially during fast-moving times. If you said something that may have come out wrong, take the time to circle back and apologize. This is the hallmark of a true leader!