Watch the recording here! 

CMOs have never had more pressure to develop their marketing organizational skills to compete in a totally new environment. In this members-only CMO Club roundtable, Julie Cary, Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer at Massage Envy, and Monica Pitzner, Chief Marketing Officer at Three Dog Bakery, led a group discussion on ideas and insights to set yourself up for success, shared resources to continue to develop your knowledge base, leadership skills, and prioritizing self-care.

Here are some highlights from the session:

How do you develop yourself as a leader while still developing yourself in your personal life?

• Julie, as well as a few other participants, recommended The Center for Creative Leadership course.
• As Alan Gellman said, this course “helps you locate your whole self.”
• Take care of yourself so that you can be a better leader.
• When working with your team, Monica uses the mantra “Touch a heart before you ask for a hand”.
• Lead with empathy, especially during the past year where many people’s lives have been turned upside down
• Think about what the “together” in “we’re in this together” really means to you.
• Connect with people - empathy and connections go a long way!

How do you manage your workload and prioritization of your day?

• First, don’t beat yourself up if you aren’t good at it yet!
• Be conscious of where you actually are spending your time. Stew Friedman’s worksheet from this roundtable is a great place to start!
• Set boundaries and a time to truly let yourself disconnect.
• Brandi Frye chimed in, saying that it is hard because there aren’t as many opportunities to distract yourself or use as a mean of getting away from work, but she encouraged everyone to get creative, both inside and outside of work!
• Nerissa Sardi had a great icebreaker idea to infuse a little fun into her work meetings to break up the autonomy: “We had a team icebreaker where we all put up the next place we would travel post-COVID where money was no issue. It was very cathartic for everyone who has been stuck at home.”
• Monica expressed the importance of saying no. If you try to do everything, you won’t be as efficient.
• The power of your work doesn't come from being everywhere, the value comes from adding actual value and that cannot happen if you are diluted.
• Gabi Zijderveld used the term “work/life flexibility” rather than work/life balance - lead your team with not only empathy, but flexibility, especially given all that has happened in the past year.

We had such a great conversation, we couldn’t even get to everything. We encourage you to continue the conversation in our virtual roundtable discussion group to share your tips, tricks or questions about staying sharp and developing yourself and your teams!