Leaders Who Sabotage Their Own Marketing

I just caught up with a colleague who recently jumped ship to a new marketing role / company after reaching his wit's end with his previous CEO. Hearing about what he endured in that previous role got me thinking about just how important a rational, intelligent leader is to the success of a company's marketing efforts in general (and how amazingly rare that type of leader seems to be).

Most vendors have all sorts of variables related to how they price / position / promote their product or service -- and every employee has a different take on what's best for the company, depending on their specific vantage point (whether in sales, marketing, engineering, etc.). In the companies where I've seen really effective marketing, the CEO was the real catalyst for driving consensus between all of these different parties. In the companies where I've seen marketing mayhem, the CEO played a central role in the lunacy. For the latter, these were the types of behaviors that I saw to be particularly destructive:

• The Idea Du Jour Wrecking Ball -- This is the CEO who's always floating into the marketing discussions with some idea out of left field ... and insisting that it be carried forth immediately, regardless of how it might impact more urgent priorities. Typically, the "idea" is described in a nebulous way, with no thought to the practicality of its execution. One marketing VP I know explains that his CEO frequently approaches him with the most harebrained ideas after he's been networking with CEOs from other companies in an effort to share 'best practices': "Really, this is an effort to get free ideas that may (or may not even) work well at other companies, then coming back and asking the marketing department if they have ever thought of 'the idea du jour' -- thereby putting the team on the spot to implement something that may or may not work in their specific environment. And not to be overlooked is the fact that the results from the 'best practice' that were shared were most likely overinflated in the first place as that is part of the CEO intermingling chest-thumping, it seems."
• The Irrational Narcissist -- Another common monkey wrench in the marketing machine is the CEO who believes that by merely describing the world they want to live in, it will magically materialize. This individual is prone to extreme exaggeration, outright lies ... and fairy tales that help them avoid confronting the difficult / practical company challenges and conversations that any rational leader in the same situation would feel compelled to address head-on. This individual continuously falls in love with new sets of blueprints for their houses of cards, and drags the marketing folks along for the ride (when you try to talk them down from their magical stardust high, they like to say things like "you're talking about tactics here, and I'm talking about strategy"). In the words of an in-house PR pro currently living in this nightmare: The CEO I work with is obsessed with making news, even 'shaky' news, 'larger than life' - and to add insult to injury, believes himself that the news is, in fact, newsworthy when it oftentimes is not. The CEO believes that spouting marketing speak to the media is actually going to lead to coverage. And, 'bigger than life' on-message marketing-speak will surely wow them into writing feature after feature. Of course, it doesn't. Proof point - after a diatribe of marketing speak on a recent call, the interviewer simply said, 'I don't believe you.' Something is broken to be sure."
• The Hyper-Sensitive Dictator -- This is a common one. Employees who ask valid questions about company challenges that need to be addressed are often ridiculed and dismissed. This type of CEO seems to interpret healthy dialogue as an affront to his / her authority. New marketing priorities and key strategic decisions are dictated, rather than discussed. As a result, critical marketing decisions are often haphazardly made, without the benefit of the collective eyes and ears of the company. Employees in this environment are often running scared, constantly in fear of drawing the scrutiny of this individual. The idea of creative thought is laughable in this type of environment.
• The Absentee Finger Pointer -- This type of CEO never offers any sort of meaningful opinions that could actually be useful to marketing ... but often likes to go 'on the record' about having concerns. In the event that something goes wrong, rest assured that he / she will have mitigated any sort of personal exposure, but they will personally lead the second-guessing about your involvement. The Absentee Finger Pointer continuously reminds employees how incredibly busy they are (i.e., the reason why they can't be bothered to offer opinions or participate in a meaningful way). The result is often a culture where employees shy away from taking risks, preferring vanilla approaches that will keep the finger from being pointed at them.