Being the leader of a marketing team can be a fun, exciting, and fulfilling experience. However, it’s not always a walk in the park. Management roles in any field can come with their fair share of stress and responsibilities.
For leaders in the marketing field, one of these responsibilities is building a positive and creative marketing team whose sense of motivation reflect in both their work ethic and level of output.
For leaders in marketing organizations looking to build a positive and motivated team, having some guidance around how to accomplish this can help make building the perfect marketing team a breeze.
Why Does Positivity Matter in Marketing Teams?
For some leaders, positivity amongst employees isn’t the number one priority — especially in some faster-paced marketing agency environments. Though one may not actually give it much thought, positivity can actually have a profound effect on one’s team. When employees are motivated and engaged, they don’t only produce better work, but also work more efficiently.
In addition to boosting engagement and productivity, fostering a positive attitude can help decrease turnover rates and attract high-quality employees. This is because when word gets out about the positive and engaging environment, more employees will seek out one’s company.
As such, fostering positivity amongst one’s employees has the power to benefit both a team and a company in a plethora of ways.
Taking Inspiration from Positive Psychology
Positive psychology is a fascinating field that looks deeper into the factors that allow humans to live happy, fulfilling, and content lives. By doing so, those in the field have been able to uncover powerful insights into how to promote happiness and a positive attitude.
Utilizing lessons from this field can help transform one’s work environment from a lackluster place that’s treated as just a job to an exciting space where people enjoy working, engaging, and producing high-quality work. By taking some ideas from positive psychology, and in particular, the PERMA model, instilling employees with positive attitudes can become not only more accessible but easy.
Increases in Feelings of Gratitude Result in Increased Positivity
Studies in the field of positive psychology have found a correlation between feelings of gratitude and a more positive outlook on life. This insight can be powerful for those leading a marketing team as it provides a simple and effective way to boost positivity amongst one’s employees. Exactly how one implements this practice can be different for everyone, and figuring out the way one will do so can be half the fun.
One easy way to foster a practice of gratitude amongst employees is by asking people to share what they’re grateful for at meetings. Other fun ways to do so include creating games in which employees are encouraged to be grateful or an office eraser board where everyone can write down things that they’re grateful for. As a result of these practices, leaders are sure to see an uptick in positivity in their team.
Emphasize Employee Strengths, Not Weaknesses
Traditionally, many leaders in companies — including marketing agencies — have been heavy-handed with criticism and tight-lipped when it comes to praise. While one may have positive intentions, such as trying to stop employees from developing bad habits or practices, studies from the field of positive psychology have shown that this method isn’t very effective.
What analysis from positive psychology has uncovered is that employees become more engaged when they are praised for their strengths. This is because employees then feel more motivated to work on and refine their strengths even further.
As such, employees become more engaged in their work while also developing higher self-esteem and a more positive outlook on life. This being the case, leaders in all fields — especially those in marketing — can benefit enormously from lavishing praise more frequently and reprimanding employees only when absolutely necessary.
Fostering Better Relationships Boosts Positivity
As humans, everyone is wired to look for meaningful relationships. Without these, life can become toxic, stressful, and difficult. There’s a reason that the worst punishment in prisons is solitary confinement. When people are starved of meaningful relationships, it can feel akin to torture. Though one is probably not throwing anyone in solitary confinement in the workplace, there may still be more than one can do to foster meaningful relationships amongst employees.
When employees feel more connected with their leaders and coworkers, they’ll have a more positive attitude. In addition, they’ll feel a greater sense of responsibility to deliver high-quality results and look out for their teammates. This being the case, implementing weekly dinners or other team-building exercises can have a tremendous impact on one’s workplace environment by making the general attitude amongst one’s team more positive.
Employees Are Happier When They Accomplish Goals
When people accomplish goals, they experience feelings of elation and boosted self-esteem. This is especially true in the workplace, and making sure that one’s team is accomplishing goals can be a great way to increase positivity in one’s marketing team. Typically, companies can have large goals that are (hopefully) met every couple of months. While this is good, it can be even better to have smaller more manageable goals for each employee. This is because accomplishing these goals can increase feelings of accomplishment and improve the mood in work environments.
Not everyone has to share the same goals in the workplace. People’s roles require different things and each person is unique. Encouraging one’s marketing team to create small goals for themselves can help inspire one’s team and foster a sense of positivity.
In addition, it can always help to lead by example. Leaders should make it a point to have a visible poster of some kind in which they write their goals and check them off when they are accomplished. This will encourage more people to engage in the practice and help make it a normal part of one’s work environment.
Making Positive Normal
Building a positive and creative marketing team becomes far easier when one takes inspiration from the field of positive psychology. By utilizing insights uncovered in this field, one can boost positivity in their team with just a few easy steps. Rather than allow positivity to be dependent on outside forces, every leader should take matters into their own hands and implement practices to boost productivity in the workplace.
About the Author
Ryan Ayers is a researcher and consultant within multiple industries including information technology, blockchain and business development. Always up for a challenge, Ayers enjoys working with startups as well as Fortune 500 companies. When not at work, Ayers loves reading science fiction novels and watching the LA Clippers.
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