Effective leadership is the key to success when working in a B2B industry. Folks who feel supported at work are far more likely to champion the brand when working with clients and will go above and beyond their normal duties if they feel supported by the leadership team.
Leading your team with collaboration in mind is particularly important for your marketing team. Marketing, which draws insights from every other department, is highly collaborative and relies on effective teamwork to ensure that products and services are properly advertised.
As a leader, you can drive marketing success by investing in tech and tools that empower your team and improve collaboration. This will allow folks to work from home and use flexi-hours to set their own schedule. These changes can be deeply empowering and will help you get more from your most talented employees.
Empowering Leadership
Your B2B clients can tell when they’re working with employees who believe in the brand. Conversely, folks in your industry will recognize the signs of ineffective leadership and will quickly pivot away from your firm if they are working with marketing and sales reps with low engagement. This means you must become the type of leader who empowers people if you want to thrive in the B2B world.
You can empower your employees and become a superhero leader for your firm by utilizing tools that help your people become more productive. Today, there are plenty of digital programs that can help you track project progress and improve collaboration. For example, if you’re working on a few larger projects that have lots of individual sub-tasks, consider utilizing workflow management software like Asana or Trello to track progress.
If your team takes to these tools, consider offering remote and hybrid work. This allows folks to adopt a more flexible work schedule and will save them time that would have been spent commuting. When going remote, you may need to brush up on your hybrid leadership skills to ensure that folks are still collaborating when away from the office. You can do this by investing in skillsets like:
Organization: Revising the way you store files and tag projects can make a world of difference to busy employees. Proper organization can reduce stress and help you reach your goals as a B2B firm.
Coaching: As a leader, you’re expected to help employees grow in their roles. This means you must become a coach to the people who work for you. Actively coaching folks who work remotely can improve engagement and help employees feel recognized for their hard work.
Delegation: Proper leadership is about understanding what your team can or cannot handle. By delegating tasks correctly, you put remote workers in a position to succeed in their roles and ensure that every employee has enough work to keep them satisfied.
Developing these skills is crucial when working remotely. Learning how to coach folks who do not come into the office will ensure that employees have the opportunity to work from home if they need to. This is crucial, as many modern workers expect flexible working hours as standard and are more likely to be engaged at work if they are able to fit their contracted hours around their responsibilities.
Hybrid Teamwork
Going hybrid is great for morale and can help you find new ways to collaborate effectively. However, if you do go to a remote/hybrid setup, you need to take actionable steps to ensure that your team feels empowered and engaged at work. You can promote effective teamwork while working remotely by:
- Using tools that are connected to the cloud so folks can work from anywhere;
- Centralizing your communication in one platform to ensure messages aren’t missed;
- Establishing a few core hours so folks can synchronize efforts.
Taking these steps will put folks in a position to succeed and will ensure they don’t feel left out when working from home. This will improve your B2B company culture and will empower employees to take action when working away from the office. You can further improve your remote teamwork by giving folks the power to make decisions while working from home. This is crucial, as folks who work flexible hours may have their productivity derailed if they are forced to wait for a coworker who works different hours to green-light their project.
Leveraging your leadership skills effectively can empower your B2B marketing team and help you connect with prospective clients. Even simple changes, like centralizing your communications or updating your file storage, can have a profound impact on productivity and morale.
This can be transformative if you’re planning to unveil a creative marketing campaign strategy that relies on effective communication and collaboration. If you find that your team works well with these tech-based changes, consider offering flexible hours and hybrid working to further improve engagement and motivation at work.
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