Sideminds helps marketing leaders excel
Sideminds helps marketing leaders excel
The marketing leadership role has become more complex and more challenging than ever.
It is a tough role, which is getting tougher and Sideminds helps marketers excel through coaching, in the moment advice, expert mentoring and key project delivery.
Our Services
Coaching
Mentoring
Advising
Delivering
Coaching
Sideminds are experienced board level marketing leaders, who are qualified in executive coaching from Ashridge-Hult Business School.
We have experienced the highs and lows of the role and understand the unique requirements for the marketing leader to inspire both the marketing and senior leadership team.
Exceptional marketing leaders are more than just great marketers, they are the ultimate bridge between the organisation and the customer, who provide ongoing counsel and guidance to others, find new growth opportunities whilst delivering results today, and constantly ensuring key decision makers are informed and aligned across all departments and channels.
Success in role is far less about functional capability, but the ability to lead, shape opinions, get collective buy-in and inspire key stakeholders.
Sideminds’ executive coaching approach helps the marketing leader find their way to be more effective, more quickly with key stakeholders.
Mentoring
Sideminds helps the next generation of marketing leaders achieve their full potential.
Marketing is a wide and diverse field of skills and as you navigate your way to the leadership role it is important to grow your skillset and understand the breadth of opportunities available. As you become more experienced in one area of marketing, it becomes increasingly difficult to switch into another. This is why when it comes to senior marketing recruitment candidates are often either predominately a brand or digital background and it’s a risk putting them into roles encompassing both.
At Sideminds we are all experienced marketing leaders and have navigated our own journey from junior executive to C-suite leader, as well as supported many members of our teams on their careers. We’ve made strategic moves upwards and sometimes sideways and developed the critical experience to succeed as a leader. This experience enables us to support marketers as they progress, helping them grow in new areas and make the right choices to progress faster.
Sideminds acts as the side mind, mentoring growth and development.
Advising
Sideminds works with business leaders around the world to accelerate the performance of marketing.
Over the last 10 years marketing has gone through a seismic shift, with responsibility changing by over 50%1 and expectations and demands skyrocketing. Marketing channels and customer journeys have expanded, data sources and technology advanced, and the need for innovation continuously grows. A dramatic changes which has created a plethora of new roles like Chief Digital Officer, Chief Customer Officer and Chief Growth Officer, a diversification you don’t see in any other leadership role.
Change at this level means the role can be less understood by the leadership team, creating confusion, frustration and delay. No wonder the marketing leader is the last trusted2 member of the executive team and the shortest tenure at just over 2 years3.
This is a terrible waste of time and effort for everyone involved. Sideminds understands the needs of the business and works with the leadership and marketing teams to optimise effectiveness. When needed, Sideminds can also introduce external advisers or NEDs from its unique membership of The Marketing Academy Fellowship.
1. PHD Contributors (2022). Shift. A Marketing Rethink. PHD Worldwide.
2. Whitler, K., and Morgan, N. (July- August, 2017). The trouble with CMOs. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2017/07/the-troublewith-cmos
3. Welch, G., and Sanderson, R. (April, 2022). CMO Tenure Study Spencer Stuart https://www.spencerstuart.com/research-and-insight/
Delivering
Sideminds has a trusted loyal networks of independent marketing specialists built up over years to tackle bespoke projects.
There couldn’t be a better time to be a marketing leader as focus increases on the customer, but as the role expands and the challenges grow, the marketing leader and their team can become over-stretched. Focus shifts to short-term delivery and projects that could open future growth are shelved because the leadership and resources aren’t available.
Sideminds are senior marketing leaders who can take on marketing briefs with an independent team of experts. The experts range from Creative Directors and insight specialists to SEO experts and organisational designers. Experts who are known and trusted by Sideminds to deliver.
Each brief is carefully crafted to ensure they standalone from wider coaching or mentoring contracts, with clear governance so the marketing leader retains as much control as they require.
Sideminds have the leadership and independent experts to ensure future projects don’t get side-lined.
Our Approach
Our Approach
Sideminds helps the marketing leaders excel through coaching, advising, mentoring and in some instances, delivery of key marketing projects.
Our approach is tailored to the marketer and the challenges they face. We understand their needs and apply our personal experience from being senior marketing leaders and business coaches. This typically involves unlocking their potential in key success areas we called ANCHOR Factors, where ANCHOR is an acronym for 6 pairs of essential marketing leadership capabilities and behaviours. The 6 areas were defined after studying the behaviours of senior marketers and understanding what made some successful and others not.
ANCHOR Factors underpin how the marketer performs and their sequence and overall strength gives each marketers their unique genre – connector, operator, disruptor and explorer or CODE for Short. This is a little like Myers-Briggs and explained in the book The Marketing Leader’s Code.
Click the side arrows on the ANCHOR Factor interactive table below to discovery more about each ANCHOR Factor and read case studies.
ANCHOR Factors
EXTERNALAUDIENCE INTERNALAUDIENCE
Change
Change
Embraces the CEO change agenda, finds ways to rapidly test new approaches and evolves the way of working. Encourages entrepreneurial thinking and break up siloed thinking. Adapts quickly, responds to change easily and copes with obscurity. Sensitive to the external market.
Consistency
Consistency
Establishes effective working practices, ensuring stakeholders and informed and individuals understands their operational freedom. Follows the business plan, monitoring progress and ruthlessly prioritises activity. Innovation is controlled and purposeful.
Ambition
Understands the natural homeostasis and works with the CEO to bring their business ambition to life and push the business forward. Tests new ideas and helps change areas which are sub-optimal and reinforces areas which need consistency.
Challenge
Challenge
Drives debate and discussion across the Leadership Team. Strong advocate for the customer and prepared to stick their neck out for what they believe. High resilience and persistence. Uses data smartly and in an unbiased way to make a point.
Unity
Unity
Builds trust and influence, establishing key relationship and alliances with the Leadership Team, so critical jobs get done. Constructively drives project prioritisation. Ensures discussions are brought to a conclusion, so clear unified messages are delivered to the wider business.
Network
Navigates the Leadership Team effectively and ensures the right discussions are held and the right activity gets done. Skilful at knowing when to challenge and when to create unity for the wider business benefit.
Assertive
Assertive
Sets exacting standards, builds a high performing team and holds people and agencies to account. Confidently makes organisational changes to deliver strategy. Clears the way in the wider business for the marketing team deliver their goals.
Supportive
Supportive
Builds team capability and creates a strong team culture with everyone having a clear role and responsibility. A good listener and role model. Creates a safe environment that encourages learning and growth. An authentic leader, with a clear sense of purpose for the team.
Capability
Creates and maintains a high performing marketing team. Makes assertive decisions about the team and agencies and is a skilful situational leader, who is supportive and helps talent feel valued and grow.
Creative
Creative
Turns business issues into creative opportunities. Uses data as a springboard for insight discovery, creativity and vision. Makes customer touchpoints high-quality customer experiences. Inquisitive and curious, interested in customers, the wider market and the headline opportunities new technology can bring.
Analytical
Analytical
Rigorously uses data and logic from multiple sources to inform decision making. Keeps the company honest with its data and ensures marketing metrics are tied to business metrics everyone understands. Finds ways to enrich data and scenario test. Detailed interest in the performance or revenue benefits new technology can bring.
Headspace
Moves comfortably from using their left brain, full of data and detail, to their right, full of images, concepts and connections. Combines analytical skills with creative aptitude and flair.
Connection
Connection
Creates long-term customer demand by developing a brand with a clear value proposition which is memorable, relevant and distinctive. Goes beyond the rational to build affinity and emotional connection. Develops compelling retention programmes for different audiences.
Conversion
Conversion
Uses direct response and optimisation techniques across multiple media channels to covert active audiences. Understands different customers’ buying journey and uses media throughout the funnel to enhance sales conversion. Carefully manages acquisition costs and maximises short-term return.
Output
Focuses on priority audiences and effectively manages the marketing activity throughout the marketing funnel. From building brand connection higher up the funnel, through to the conversion and retention lower down the funnel.
Long-Term
Long-term
Engages and aligns the Leadership Team in the development of a long-term plan with clearly defined goals and growth opportunities. Defines long-term ways to build value (innovation, M&A). Creates a compelling clarion call and storytelling for the business and investors.
Short-Term
Short-term
Gets to the root cause of performance and responds quickly. Accelerates activity to gap fill. Street fighter attitude who finds tactical growth opportunities. Focuses effort on highest returning activity to deliver the annual plan. Tests new channels and rapidly adjusts activity depending on performance.
Results
Vigilantly monitors performance in year and responds with short term initiatives to boost performance. Looks for future revenue opportunities and develops the long-term plan with key stakeholders.
Click a row for a description or click to see a case study
Discover your ANCHOR Factors and Marketing Leader’s CODE
What type of marketing leader are you and what does the business need?
Are you a Connector, who prioritises close relationships with the CEO, Leadership Team and wider business?
An Operator, who is into the detail, analysing data and maximising sales?
A Disruptor, who is opportunistic and thrives on change or an Explorer, who is strategic, insightful and
brand-centric.
Connector
High relationship orientation with the CEO, Leadership Team and marketing
Operator
Analytical and data led, with a strong skill set in driving conversion and short term sales
Disruptor
Entrepreneurial and opportunistic, externally focused and assertively drives change
Explorer
Strategic, insightful and looking at building the longer term business growth