A lot of people in business seem to be interested in becoming a manager or a leader of sort. People prefer to be Marketing Managers instead of Marketers.
I personally think this is sort of a status game, which is being gamed. People want the title and the status that comes with it. I also feel the urge for it, even though I would like to stay out of that game.
I still like to take pride in actually doing things, not just managing stuff. But I have to say that the fancy titles look better in my CV. I would also like to say that I don’t really care about my CV, but that would be a lie.
I try to focus on other things than build my CV, but I still care about my CV, it seems rational to care about it.
But I still feel like there is some problems with building my CV and playing the status game with the titles. It is easy to get pulled to chasing something that is not really useful in the long term.
I personally believe that even if my goal would be to be a great leader, manager, director, entrepreneur or what ever. I should first become good at doing something. Let me explain why…
The thing related to business I understand at least something about and have some skills in is marketing. Or maybe it would be better defined as digital sales. Anyways, when I look at marketers, marketing managers, marketing directors, etc. Almost always people who are great at their job no matter if it is a management position or actually doing stuff, have first became good at doing the thing.
By doing and making mistakes I actually have learned what works and what doesn’t. And how context dependant things are.
The trouble is, most content or educational material about marketing at least is very low quality. And to really see what material is good and what is not, I have to be good at it to begin with.
A common mistake I make is to think that I can differentiate good stuff from bad stuff, even though I am bad at something. At least in marketing, most information is wrong or at least misleading.
And the only way to start to understand what actually works is by doing, at least that is the only way I have found. Obviously it helps to read things and have someoneto help me do stuff, but by reading without doing I most likely just become incompetent person that thinks that I am competent.
Obviously even learning by doing will have it’s limits. There will always be blind spots. I have had some huge blind spots, when it comes to marketing and sales. The easiest way to find them have been to go work with some people that get results by completely different process I am used to.
Usually the best place to start learning is a place where I get instant feedback. If I want to learn about marketing, I shouldn’t start with brand building, I should start with direct response marketing.
I shouldn’t go to established company which already has success, but it is hard to make sense what is actually driving the success. I should go to a small startup that doesn’t have any traction yet, if I succeed I at least have some sort of ideas on why something might have happened.
Obviously the world is always messy and the causal links are very rarely super clear, but I can choose positions early on so, that at least they are as clear as they ever can be.
At least from my experience if as a marketer I succeed in a small startup, I am quite well of on a big company. But if I am successful in marketing position in a big company, it very rarely translates to startups.
First I should become a great doer, later I will be a better manager or a leader if that is what I desire.