Imagine this: You’re in the middle of building a groundbreaking multichannel marketing campaign for a new product launch. Suddenly, your phone buzzes with an urgent message. One of your flagship events in California is going to be cancelled due to severe weather and you need to draft an email and social media post immediately to update participants. Welcome to the world of a marketing leader, where strategic vision often collides with the daily fire drills.
Marketing leaders navigate a unique work environment. We have to be experts at balancing high-low work. We need to be both strategic architects, crafting long-term plans and innovative campaigns (working high), and also hands-on executors, managing teams, editing copy and tackling daily tasks (working low).
Here’s the tl;dr about this concept:
Some people lean toward working low. They are the doers you can rely on to get work done. The downside is they might not spend enough time thinking about the future and placing bets on new ideas. Some people lean toward working high. They often have big ideas and vision, but they might not get to execution. Someone who can combine the styles to be a high-low leader is most valuable — but it makes their job tough due to bandwidth and context switching.
In marketing, leaders must excel at working high-low. In a single workweek, you may need to develop a social media strategy for the coming fiscal year, compile a slide deck to update the team on a new initiative that has been in the works for a few months, edit Facebook ad copy and proofread an email.
It’s easy to fall into the weeds, solely focusing on the individual tasks in front of you. It’s also possible to spend too much time up high — bringing big, overwhelming ideas to the team and creating plans for new initiatives.
As a marketing leader, you need to find the right balance for high-low work. Here are five questions for every marketing leader to ask themselves:
- How can you better reserve time for high work if you find yourself constantly focused on low work? Consider blocking dedicated time in your calendar for uninterrupted high-level thinking. For me, this time is usually between the hours of 7-10 a.m.
- What work isn’t a good use of your time right now? Become comfortable politely declining requests that pull you away from strategic priorities. If you get pushback, communicate how prioritizing a project or task that is unlikely to make a strong, long-term impact will take time and energy away from more critical initiatives.
- How you can delegate some of your low work to your team to ensure you have time and space for high work? Consider delegating tasks that are well-defined and can be completed by your team members. With clear instructions, you can equip them with the information and resources they need to succeed.
- How can you coach up the emerging leaders on your team to begin to think about the high-work perspective to help ensure they’re making the best decisions for long-term impact? Schedule regular team meetings to discuss long-term plans and the “why” behind your marketing initiatives. This will help them make stronger decisions and produce better work — allowing you to spend less time working low while building the skills they need to lead initiatives in the future.
If you are struggling to balance high-low work, consider working with Venturesome Strategies for team and one-on-one coaching.