Reading Time: ~4 Mins | Co-authored by: Danielle Windecker, Slava Kaganov, Kolbie Pomeroy, Andrew Delbaere and Anabel Blesch.
As Account Managers, Project Managers, and Marketing Managers, our teams are key to our success. Great managers know that you work for your team, not the other way around. There are a number of ways to ensure your team is engaged in the projects you are working on together to drive that success. Read along for top tips from the Account Managers at Jelly Digital Marketing and PR!
Anticipate What Your Team Needs
This definitely becomes easier with experience. The first step to trying to anticipate the needs and questions your team might have related to a project is putting yourself in their shoes. Think, for example, “if I was the social media lead on this project, what would I need to do my job to the best of my ability?” Making this effort before meeting with your team to debrief about a project shows that you are thinking about them, and you are putting in the effort to make their jobs easier.
Get Team Input
This is arguably one of the most important, yet overlooked tactics to increasing employee and team engagement. Tying back into our first point, put yourself in their shoes. If you are constantly working on projects with a manager that never seeks your input, would you feel engaged? Would you feel that your opinions and expertise are valued? Probably not.
In fact “A study finds that employees who feel ‘heard and valued’ have better morale and performance.” While some managers may avoid seeking employee feedback as a result of ‘losing control’, they are in fact being counter productive. This shows that you want everyone on a given project to work collaboratively from the outset.
Celebrate the Successes
Wins have to be celebrated, especially when they are tied to input from your team. As Account Managers at an agency, we are often the middle-person between our team and our clients. This means that the team will not hear direct feedback from the client. At Jelly Marketing we make a very conscious effort to let our teams know when that positive feedback comes in from clients. In addition, try to tie specific actions your team took to the positive feedback and results. This makes it clear to them that their work is driving great results, and increases their motivation.
Don’t Micro-manage
Put trust in your team! More often than not, they are on your team to perform a particular role because of their expertise and experience. They know what they’re doing! This includes not doing the work for them. Let’s look at an example. Say one of your team members put together a PPC strategy for a client and they have missed the mark entirely in aligning the campaign to the client’s goals. Don’t go into the strategy document and adjust the work yourself. Have a chat with that team member. Clarify with them where they missed the mark, provide specific examples of how their strategy doesn’t align with the client’s goals, and let them take it from there. This way the work is still theirs and helps them better understand the client’s objectives.
Be Human!
Show your human-side to your team. Being human means we have humility. None of us are perfect, we all make mistakes, and conversely, we all learn from our mistakes. Admit to your team if you’ve missed the mark on helping them prep for a particular task, but share the solution.
Beyond action items, bring humor into your conversations. We can get so caught up in being serious about the work we’re doing, but it is important to try and keep things light hearted.
