In this issue: Answers to last week’s Self-reflection. Why we feel safe – but stagnant – in the Comfort Zone. Why there’s no way into the Growth Zone without some fear. And why we should all embrace change if we truly want to move up faster.

Recap of last week’s post:

Before I delve deeper and share my personal perspective on the questions I shared in last week’s post, here is a ‘bottom line’ on the framework we discussed there.  

Getting out of our Comfort Zone is a multi-step process. Based on my personal experience, and on so much research from many others:

1. The Comfort Zone. Here we find a sense of control, but it can also be filled with boredom and stagnation.

2. The Fear Zone. This is a place that we enter when we get out of our Comfort Zone, and lean into new experiences. We are probably going to ‘suck a little’ at first at those new experiences (like when learning how to create an annual marketing plan, or creating a presentation for an important meeting for the first time).

3. The Learning Zone. When you break through the Fear Zone (which is not a given, btw), you’ve now started to face the challenge, problem solve, and ultimately, you are acquiring a new skill.

4. The Growth Zone. Here is where you really start to Believe. In. Yourself. You see first hand that you can break through your fear. You start to believe that you can do now (and keep on doing) what previously appeared to be scary:

What framework am I using to structure my ‘personal 5 cents’, when considering last week’s questions?

Please note: I repeat this framework again and again, in every other episode of this newsletter. The idea of using Return on Marketing Career (RoMC) as a framework for career development is explained in great detail in the first newsletter in this series.

Why do I repeat this framework? Because this framework has served me well over the 25 years of my career, and because I find that we are all so distracted today (myself included) that unless we see something multiple times, we forget about it.

If you’re already familiar with this way of thinking, please skip this section and go straight to the next one.

My fundamental belief is that marketers who want to move up faster should treat their marketing career just as we would a marketing campaign. Instead of Return on Advertising Spend (RoAS) we can measure our career success with Return on Marketing Career (RoMC).

There are four steps to increasing your RoMC:

Step 1. Get out of your Comfort Zone as much as possible, even if that scares you because it’s new.

Step 2. Doing new things will increase your professional skill-set. That’s the only way to learn.

Step 3. A broader or deeper skill-set will increase your Value to your colleagues, your team, your firm and your clients.

Step 4. The higher Value you deliver in your role – now that you have a bigger skill-set – the faster you should move up in your career.

Now that we’ve reminded ourselves about the RoMC framework – here are my ‘personal 5 cents’ on last week’s post.

LEADER (managing Managers)

Step 1, Get out of your Comfort Zone: What if you reminded yourself that ‘fear’ of new experiences is literally just a chemically induced emotion that affects our ‘lizard brain’? Over the years, I’ve tried to remember that whenever I sense an unreasonable fear of doing something new (like public speaking, or a career development newsletter), nothing that I do as a Marketer … is going to actually kill me! That fear is literally in my head! You and I don’t need to fear for our lives if we experiment.

Step 2, Develop a New Skill: Learn how to see big changes or disruption, as big opportunities. Is developing brand recall a priority – because of lower market awareness? Is there a need to create a strong customer data foundation – to know who are your most or least valuable customers? Is the marketing organization in need of a revamp – and do you need new people to take the work to the next level? Or is there a need to lean into AI and personalization – because over 70% of consumers demand personalization in messaging? Lean into the change, own it, make it yours, give it gravity.

Step 3, Create More New Value in your Role: Create Value by reminding your ‘primate brain’ to always evolve, move forward, and to lean into change. The moment you feel comfortable, take a deep breath, enjoy the cushy comfort (for a moment) but then … push yourself out into the Fear Zone once again, to acquire more new skills.

Step 4, Set Yourself Up for a Bigger Future Role or a Promotion: Leaders who can lean into change while keeping the ship running move up faster. Most of your week should be spent on doing business as usual – these are probably parts of your week that you are already great at. A smaller part of your week should be spent on tasks that you are new to.

MANAGER (managing Talent on the Rise)

Step 1, Get out of your Comfort Zone: What if you decided to give 50% of what you do today, to your junior team members? And, what type of training and coaching would you need to first develop, and then provide to your individual contributors, for them to take on more high level tasks? 

Step 2, Develop a New Skill: Learn how to leverage yourself, by changing how you spend your week, with a larger share of your time allocated to training your team on doing tasks that you have already mastered.

Step 3, Create More New Value in your Role: Create value by upskilling your team, one by one. Help them develop skills that will change their role and make your team function better and create more impact. (btw, that way you’ll be changing your role too.)

Step 4, Set Yourself Up for a Bigger Future Role or a Promotion: Managers who are willing to seemingly put themselves out of work, by delegating more to their juniors, create room in their schedule to take on more strategic, higher-level projects – while giving their juniors a chance to take on more responsibilities.

TALENT ON THE RISE

Step 1, Get out of your Comfort Zone: What if you accepted that it’s going to be years before you are going to be an elite professional within your area of expertise? What if you embraced Socrates’ statement that “the more I learn, the less I realize I know”?

Step 2, Develop a New Skill: Learn how to never stop learning. But learn how to see your lack of specialist knowledge – which is normal for junior team members – as an exciting and never-ending opportunity to always get better.

Step 3, Create More New Value in your Role: Create Value by becoming a top 1% expert at the tools that you use, or marketing process that you are accountable for, at your brand or agency.

Step 4, Set Yourself Up for a Bigger Future Role or a Promotion: Team members who are seen internally as the ‘expert’ at the AdTech/MarTech tools they use, move up faster.

If you’d like to discuss your career journey with me one-to-one, please feel free to email me at Greg@moveupfaster.me or message me on LinkedIn.

Thank you for reading.

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