I’ve seen a lot of new leaders and these two stand out

This month, I had a new of VP of Marketing and a new Senior Marketing Ops manager join the marketing team at one of my start-up clients.

As a consultant with 5+ years under my belt, I've witnessed many leadership transitions. Smooth and seamless ones. Confrontational, territorial ones, etc.

So far, I've been really impressed with how these two new team members have tackled their first 30 days so let's discuss what they are doing right.

They made their priorities crystal clear from Day 1

I care about digging into our data to understand the business priorities.

I care about making sure our fundamentals are rock solid.

Leadership changes are always tumultuous. New people, new initiatives, new goals, and it can take time for a team to find its new equilibrium.

But with these two new leaders, what has been very helpful is that both of them stated their priorities up front.

And in doing so, they have made it so much easier for the existing team to orient themselves around the new team members and the new direction of the team.

There's a lot less confusion and anxiety and many more productive conversations.

They were not afraid of asking "dumb" questions

Both of these new team members have stopped multiple meetings to ask for definitions.

When you [fill in the blank], what exactly does that mean here?

And what I've loved about these detours is that it is forcing the marketing team to first lay out the definition and then start evaluating whether we have the right definitions in the first place.

Change can be a force for good and revitalization and asking these "dumb" questions puts everyone on the same page and the right track for future progress.

They are learning and making changes simultaneously

Both of these folks are finding a really nice balance between their listening tours and making an immediate impact.

They are prioritizing low-hanging fruit and getting in the weeds of active projects while also drafting H2 roadmaps based on their conversations with the team.

The combo of action and planning is helping immediately justify their hires and also energizing the overall marketing team. A rising tide lifts all ships.

After having front row seats to some really disastrous staffing changes (think ripping out Marketo for Pardot in the first 6 months), I genuinely can't wait to see what these two accomplish during their tenures.

See you next week,

🫶🏽 Alysha