1. Treating marketing as a science. All things being equal, consumers will go for the greatest value option - but all things are seldom equal. Most marketing activities entail some form of risk, because conditions that give rise to one result can seldom be replicated.
2. Not having a close friend at work. We are social animals and the workplace is a social institution. Furthermore, in marketing we are often dealing with output open to personal interpretation and bias. Having a close friend at work won't necessarily decrease stress, but it will let you deal with problems in a more productive manner. It will allow you to 'calibrate' your thinking, reducing the perceived (and actual) risk, which will lead to better ideas. The Gallup Q12 measure found that people with a close friend at work are also more engaged with their job.
3. Hitting the 'send' button when the emotions are high. Been there, done that, won't do it again.
4. Getting ahead by overcoming your weaknesses. No one has made it on a weakness they improved. Weaknesses need to be managed and strengths leveraged. Tiger Woods' bunker play was awful. He worked on this weakness just enough so that it did not undermine his game. But once his bunker play reached acceptable levels, he and his coach, Butch Harmon, turned their attention to their most important work: the refining and perfecting of Tiger's most dominant strength, his swing. Bill Gates teamed up with Steve Balmer, so he could focus on his strengths - software development - leaving the marketing to Steve.
Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who started with $100 in 1956, is an excellent example of playing to your strengths. He does NOT have the strengths we are told to expect from successful investors: a sense of urgency; a conceptual mind to identify patterns in a complex market; an innate skepticism about people's motives. He has none of these. He is patient, practical and trusting. He focuses on his strengths. His patience has resulted in the famous 'twenty-year perspective'. His practical mind has made him wary of the many investment 'theories', and his trusting nature has meant that he focuses on vetting senior managers of the companies he invests in, so that he can walk away and let them do their job. He has none of the qualities you need to be a successful investor - he leverages his strengths.
Read more in Now, discover your strengths.
5. Confusing feedback with fact. People are loathe to write - they see it as hard work - which it often is. So, when you present, clients are often seeing a logical strategic construct for the first time. Now that they see some structure to the problem, their comments can be a lot more 'incisive'. Don't see their feedback as the 'facts' that you missed, but as a crucial step towards providing a solution.
6. Ignoring feedback. Not the direct feedback that is clearly stated, but the hazy pointers that your colleagues will share with a great deal of tact, as a secondary and passing issue. Don't let this pass you by.
7. Surprising your client. Don't. The same goes for your team: make sure that you have maximum buy-in before the presentation - make as many people feel responsible for the solution as you can.
8. Not knowing. Find out what your expected (not inferred) role in the business is, and what your actual output needs to be (not the one in your job contract). Find out what your success would look like in the eyes of the people that matter in your business environment. You have numerous target markets, not least of which are your colleagues and your boss. We would never dream of putting out a campaign to our customers, if we did not at least have an idea of their needs and how they interpret things - yet we have no hesitation in going to work every day just doing what we think people want.
9. Not getting to an acceptable tablestake. If you have a planning role in your organisation, then any weakness along this three-step regimen is going to make your life a misery: extract-construct-communicate. Read more here.
10. Ignoring the service equation. The service equation states that service is the difference between what people experience and expect. If you're not going to make the deadline, reset expectations of those dependant on your delivery. Or ask for help. You can read more on the service equation here.
11. Not accepting the big 'R'. Not taking Responsibility can be a most enjoyable habit - you sleep better and can leave work early. However, the risk/return rule holds as much in your career as it does for financial investment: no risk, no return - a safe strategy is a low-growth path.
12. Believing that we should not settle for anything less than doing what we love. In the real world there are many factors which prevent us from having the perfect job. We may have significant responsibilities to our family, or never had the opportunity to find our true calling. The danger is that, if our quest for ideal work focuses on the future, we tend not to choose the best attitude for the day and miss that wonderful feeling that only becomes available when we're 100% present.
