Marketing Lessons From HBR’s Top 10 Leadership Reads

Photo by Su puloo on Unsplash

Photo by Su puloo on Unsplash

I’ve only visited Harvard University once. I spent an afternoon on the infamous campus, and over the course of those few hours, I learned how to smoke a pipe, row crew, and developed a soft but endearing English accent that on rare occassion dropped some of that Bostonian profanity, or as the locals call it, poetry.

I took a picture in front of one of Harvard’s education buildings and shared it on my social media. I started getting texts from friends and distant family members congratulating me for getting into Harvard. They were emotional, long, well thought out texts, some from people I hadn’t talked to in months and years. I didn’t know whether I should feel grateful for their optimistic view of me or peeved for how out of touch they were with my life.

I corrected most of them, apologizing for the confusion and explaining the situation. For a select few though, I just let it ride. I humbly accepted their congratulations and told them to keep their eye on the horizon for the next big Silicon Valley star. It’s kind of fun knowing that someone out there thinks that I went to Harvard.

That story is mostly true (alright, you got me, I didn’t correct anyone). For the record, I did not go to Harvard, and all jokes aside, there is a lot of power in the name and recognition of Harvard University. The school’s prestige draws some of the best and sharpest minds from all over the world to study and research all aspects of humanity — like medicine, law, business, and leadership.

I recently read the Harvard Business Review (HBR)’s book On Leadership. As I was reading this collection of the ten top articles on leadership, I began to realize that this wasn’t just a book about leadership. It was a book about marketing as well. Woven into the words of every article was marketing advice just waiting to be uncovered.

So I started taking notes, and what resulted is this article on how to market like the best Harvard leader.


Article 1 — What Makes a Leader, by Daniel Goleman

Article summary: In today’s professional landscape, high IQ or good technical skills may make you a good leader, but are no longer enough to qualify you as a “great” leader. What truly sets great leaders apart in today’s workplace is emotional intelligence. When a leader starts to practice emotional intelligence, they are able to lead both themselves and their followers with excellence.

According to Daniel Goleman, the five skills central to emotional intelligence are self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.

Marketing takeaway: Emotional intelligence is a personal skill. But it can also translate into your marketing. Often, great marketing is motivating, empathetic, and relevant. When building out your marketing plan, aim for emotional intelligence.

Article 2 — What Makes an Effective Executive, by Peter F. Drucker

Article summary: So many people believe that leadership is a skill that you are born with. If you have it, that’s great, but if you don’t, you’re done. Peter Drucker argues that leadership isn’t actually about talent or personality. Great leaders have all sorts of different backgrounds, values, and strengths. But that doesn’t negate the fact that great leaders still have some things in common. Drucker found that most effective leaders he studied had eight things in common — including asking what needs to be done, asking what’s right, developing action plans, and taking responsibility for decisions and communication. Most importantly, they get the right things done in the right way.

Marketing takeaway: More often than not, great marketers aren’t born with their skills. They develop them over time. If you want to see your marketing skills transform, focus on the right content and the right execution. One well-placed ad can do more than 20 mediocre ads with bad placement.

Article 3 — What Leaders Really Do, by John P. Kotter

Article summary: Though many believe that leadership is innate, John P. Kotter believes that isn’t true. In fact, he is confident that your leadership skills can be acquired and then further honed. But in order to do that, you must understand that leadership skills are vastly different from management skills.

Management involves taking what is in front of you and making the best of it. Using technical skills to bring order to a complex situation. Leadership is rooted in adapting to change, and in today’s world, that means adapting to rapid change. Management might involve planning, organization, and problem-solving. But leadership is more about vision, alignment, and motivating those you’re leading.

Marketing takeaway: When it comes to marketing, it’s helpful to remember that management is not the same as leadership. For new marketing ideas for that upcoming campaign or account, remind yourself that management is staying with the status quo, while leadership is creating vision and motivation towards your new ideas.

Article 4 — The Work of Leadership, by Ronald A. Heifetz and Donald L Laurie

Article summary: Leadership is hard work because so many situations and circumstances are changing every day. Markets shift, competition changes, technologies emerge. Great leaders are beginning to learn that the solutions to these changes are not fully found within the C-Suite, but instead, are coming from men and women at all levels of the organization. This is the work of adaptive leadership.

Rather than providing all the solutions, leaders need to learn how to ask tough questions and create the opportunity for employees to carry the weight, feel the tension, and challenge the norms.

Marketing takeaway: Marketing is a team sport. The best idea doesn’t always come from the top and it doesn’t always come from what is right in front of you. Instead, learn to leverage the people around you to help you come up with and execute the best marketing concepts.

Article 5 — Why Should Anyone Be Led By You?, by Robert Goffee and Gareth Jones

Article summary: This is the million-dollar question in leadership. Robert Goffee and Gareth Jones understand that every leader needs followers, but they challenge the common notion that great leaders are just naturally those with the biggest platform. Instead, in today’s business world, great leaders are those who truly excel at capturing people’s hearts and minds.

In order to do this, leaders need the basics: vision, energy, authority, and strategy. But for most great leaders, this is no longer enough. You also need to be relatable, be emotionally intelligent, practice tough empathy, and capitalize on your uniqueness.

Marketing takeaway: It’s no longer enough to assume an audience; you have to earn your audience on every post, every commercial, and every ad. When you are creating a brand or promoting a campaign, you certainly have to capture people’s hearts and minds, but you also have to lead them towards where they don’t even know they need to go.

Article 6 — Crucibles of Leadership, by Warren G Bennis and Robert J. Thomas

Article summary: All leaders make mistakes. That is not unique. What sets great leaders apart isn’t their ability to avoid conflict, but their ability to deal with adversity. No matter how negative an event, the best leaders not only learn from these hardships but grow from them. They often emerge stronger, more confident, and more committed.

Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas define these adversity moments as crucibles. They come in all shapes and sizes, and how leaders respond in the face of these crucibles often end up defining their legacy.

Marketing takeaway: Most marketing strategies will experience setbacks. It’s almost impossible to hit the nail on the head 100/100 times. If you do that, you might not be stretching yourself or your company enough. Marketing is not about your failures, but your ability to get back up and keep on with your next idea.

Article 7 — Level 5 Leadership: The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve, by Jim Collins

Article summary: Jim Collins is one of the greatest leadership researchers of the last century. He studied over 1,400 Fortune 500 companies to discover that there have only been eleven companies that have exceeded expectations and sustained greatness. What sets them apart is that each of the eleven companies has had what Collins calls a “Level 5 Leader” at the helm. Level 5 Leaders are known for many skills, but chief among them is the ability to mix a great practice of humility with an insatiable and undeterred will.

Marketing takeaway: Humility and undeterred will are two of the most undervalued skills that can immediately set you apart. Great marketing requires staying humble — it’s never assuming that your audience already “knows” your message. But at the same time, it consists of that never-faltering spirit. Humility partnered with undeterred will is a marketing home run.

Article 8 — Seven Transformations of Leadership, by David Rooke and William R. Torbert

Article summary: In such a rapidly-shifting world for leaders, it is becoming more and more important for companies to be lead by what Rooke and Torbert call “transformational” leaders. Change is a necessary aspect of leadership, but how can leaders become great change agents? By their action logic — aka how they interpret behavior and protect others against danger. Some examples of action logic is that opportunists are self-seeking, only looking out for the good of the leader. But if a leader can become a strategist, spurring on healthy discussion and transformation, then they can create compelling directions for their teams and companies to move in.

Marketing takeaway: Marketing that is self-seeking is doomed to fail. People want to be a part of a story bigger than one person. So be a strategist that helps connect the dots for people!

Article 9 — Discovering Your Authentic Leadership, by Bill George, Peter Sims, Andrew N. McLean, and Diana Mayer

Article summary: This team of researchers has honed in on the element of leadership that is becoming more and more pressing in today’s culture and climate: authenticity. If you want to be an authentic leader who knows who they are, and if you want to lead your team to authenticity as well, a great place to start is by asking key, practical questions to get good conversation and action started. Some of those questions could include: “What are your most deeply-held values?” “What motivates you extrinsically?” or “What steps can you take today, tomorrow, and over the next year to develop your authentic leadership?”

Marketing takeaway: The best marketing is that which is true to yourself. Marketing that is authentic resonates with people on an emotional and intellectual level. Great marketing doesn’t copy someone else’s work, but it also doesn’t deny the influence of other people and projects on your own work. Being authentic doesn’t mean you always have to be original. It just means that you are true to yourself, your influences, and your creative side!

Article 10 — In Praise of the Incomplete Leader, by Deborah Ancona, Thomas W. Malone, Wanda J. Orlikowski, and Peter M. Senge

Article summary: Have you ever felt like in order to be a leader you have to be perfect? This team of researchers set out to prove that the idea of a complete leader is a myth and that it needs to change. They found that in a world of increasingly complex problems, thinking that only one person has the ability and power to solve such problems is actually one of the most dangerous things we can do. Instead of the perfect way to lead, we need to focus on the right way — which means admitting our weaknesses and capitalizing on our strengths. With this in mind, great leaders can practice the necessary skills of sense-making, relating, visioning, and inventing new solutions in accordance with the help of those around you.

Marketing takeaway: No project is every perfect. There is no such thing as a perfect pitch. So work as hard as you can for the time that you have, and then let your work go into the world. I know it feels scary, but feeling scared about doing something is almost always better than feeling regret for never knowing what may have been.


Aim High and Let Them Believe It

Why not you? Why couldn’t you be the Harvard Business Leader of marketing? Sure, you have some growing to do and some areas to improve, but give it your all and give it a shot. I bet you surprise yourself how well you do.

Go to Harvard. Be inspired. Learn to row crew — it’s actually a lot of fun. Row all the way down to the harba and give a wave to ol’ Johnny and the boys in Fenway as they take down those no good, Bronx bombas like the Boston boys once took down those redcoats.

Who knows what might happen? When it comes to marketing, have fun with it and be the best you can be.

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