Learning and development can sometimes fall into the “nice to have” bucket – but John McNerney, managing director AUSEA at Yahoo, makes the case that in a tech-driven age marketing leaders should prioritise their employees’ development if they want to get a leg up on competitors.
Good businesses are like ships. They’re places where everyone has a defined role, where there is little room for error, and everyone has to work together. When the seas are calm, it’s smooth sailing. And when they’re not, the captain needs to rely on their team to perform at their best so everyone can make their way through.
This may sound a bit dramatic, and it certainly is – but it’s something we should be thinking about as our industry whips itself up into even more of a frenzy of tech-enabled change. If we look back 20 years ago, it used to be that technology was a differentiator for a business – access to the latest and greatest tech tools would make a company stand out from the rest. But now, pretty much every business of scale has a firm grasp on technology as the barriers to access technology have progressively lowered.
This democratisation of technology means the pendulum has swung back the other way – with your people now the difference-makers for your business.
If everyone has the same, or similar, tech, then it’s how you deploy it and the structures you put around it that are the things that are going to give you the edge over your competition. So now the budget to ensure their development and growth needs to sit alongside the research and development budget as something to be safeguarded and treasured in your business.
However, training and development needs to go beyond simply training employees to use today’s tools. Instead, we need to give them the ability to critically assess emerging technologies to understand if they can play a role in helping our business stay a step ahead of the pack.
If you don’t you’ll be doomed to always play catch up – the shoe will always be on the wrong foot. That’s why we’ve continued to evolve Yahoo Academy – to help marketers get a lead on the biggest industry trends.
There are a few key skills that I think businesses should be looking to instil in their employees.
Critical thinking
Critical thinking is the cornerstone of effective decision-making. Being able to analyse complex situations, evaluate information and identify solutions are not only the marks of a great employee, they are the foundation of what it means to be a great leader down the track. It’s increasingly important to teach employees this skill to help empower them to make decisions themselves – freeing up managers to focus on other work.
Strategic thinking
This is all about the bigger picture, and teaching your employees on how to work towards it. Strategic thinking means assessing long-term goals, anticipating industry trends, and formulating strategies that drive sustainable growth. By fostering a strategic mindset among employees, organisations can better anticipate challenges and capitalise on upcoming opportunities – all essential in navigating an increasingly competitive landscape. It’s also about giving your employees the ability to evaluate business challenges independently – thereby granting them the licence to create effective solutions for clients.
Marketing fundamentals
No matter how much technology continues to evolve, the fundamental concepts of marketing hold true – the essentials such as the four Ps, and all the various channels marketers need to work across. However, the pace of innovation sometimes means that we underestimate these fundamentals and can get carried away on a wave of shiny new promises. This is why they need to be re-taught to employees clearly, and in the context of the current business landscape. Market segmentation, positioning, and messaging are all essentials of marketing that transcend tech advancements and industry trends, and should always be prioritised. Think ‘the long and short of it’. The psychology behind understanding the basic fundamentals of a person’s needs and pain points will always hold true.
Communication
Communication is one of the most important skills you can develop in a team. It’s also important to develop from the ground up – think about former Prime Minister Tony Abbot’s infamous bungle, “sh*t happens” as an example of the danger of bad communication in a leader.
But good communication can help foster self-acceptance, self-awareness and accountability, arming teams to make better decisions. It can also help team members build their own confidence in themselves and their skills, allowing them to work more closely and effectively with each other. Good communication can make a team feel like just that – a team. Employees will be less likely to have defensive mindsets, and empathy and compassion will be more likely to arise.
Financial literacy
No-one (well, no-one I’ve yet met) gets into marketing to spend time poring over budget spreadsheets, but financial and budget management is a reality of the work we do. Sound financial literacy is essential for effective decision-making, resource allocation, and business sustainability. Now, I don’t think any manager can expect an employee to become a financial guru like Mark Bouris or Alan Kohler, but we should still work towards a certain level of competency. Marketers and agency folk alike need to be strong at budgeting, financial analysis, and performance evaluation. The current economic climate means we all need to pay better attention to these budgets.
Change is not on the horizon – it’s in everything we do. Leaders need to foster a culture of continuous learning and development to be more competitive and gain the edge on competitors. If you want smooth sailing, invest in your people – and know that you’re really investing in the future of your business.
