I know this week comes fast and it can go just as fast. I know real work happens, but not that much. My hope is that you got everything last week because you’re going to notice your boss or subject matter experts bolting for the doors, faster than you think.
I always enjoyed this week. Here are the 10 things you can do to put the week to good use.
- Get all your finances in order. Most marketers are bad at managing the books. Use this week to do billing, expenses, accruals and budgeting for the year-end as well as for Q1 of next year. The more you do this week, the less you’ll need to do the week you get back. Take advantage of being close to the finance folks, just in case they need help with added spending at the last-minute.
- Do a thank you lunch with your agency key contact person or even the creative team on your brand. The agency party is done, maybe the last shoot happened last week. Now is not a bad time to get out and just thank your agency for all the work and talk about what you want to do next on the brand.
- Come up with a list of new years resolutions you want to do for next year. Try to frame it around developing one new skill, enhancing a leadership behaviour or gaining a new experience. Take a somewhat selfish approach to this resolution, thinking about your longer term career.
- Set personal development goals outside of your company’s highly constrained year end review. It depends on how good your review was. But many organizations have goals that focus just on the results and not enough on your development.
- Put your feet up for half a day and go through 5 very important strategic questions on your brand. 1) Where are you? 2) How did you get here? 3) Where could you be? 4) How can we get there? 5) Are we getting there? When I was a brand leader, I would go through these same questions every six months to keep us on track. I’d put 2-3 points for each question, and ensuring that it told the complete story on the brand. It’s a great tool to keep pushing beyond where you are now.
- Wander around and thank everyone who works on your business. Use this as a chance to connect by talking about what they are doing over the break. (not about what you are doing) You might be surprised to learn something you never knew: where is home, how many kids, names, ages, etc. As a leader, get a little bit personal.
- Create a twitter account and see what your consumers are doing. Not enough Brand Leaders actually have an active Twitter account. I think you have to force yourself to start tweeting. Take a walk in the shoes of your consumers. Go visit some of your favorite brands and see what they are doing so well, or not. Interact with a brand or two and see if you get a response. Twice now, McDonald’s has replied immediately saying someone would follow-up. That was amazing. But both times, no one followed up. That was bad.
- Order a marketing book on-line to read up on over the break. Most Brand Leaders get so busy, they don’t keep up with the trends in the market place.
- Have at least one heart-to-heart talk this week, whether that’s with a peer, your boss, your agency person or someone who calls you boss. What a great week to have one of those 2-3 hour talks. If you are lucky, you might hear some feedback on you. Say thank you.
- Clean up your office and your email. Block off an afternoon. Clear out emails, sort other emails into folders you never got around to doing. Throw out some files, clearing out some space for next year. If you’re disorganized, use this time to get yourself a system.
Happy Holidays from Beloved Brands. We’ve enjoyed having you read our work. Enjoy the break.
Do you want to be an amazing Brand Leader? We can help you.
Read more on how to utilize our Brand Leadership Learning Center where you will receive training in all aspects of marketing whether that’s strategic thinking, brand plans, creative briefs, brand positioning, analytical skills or how to judge advertising. We can customize a program that is right for you or your team. We can work in person, over the phone or through Skype. Ask us how we can help you.
ABOUT BELOVED BRANDS INC.: At Beloved Brands, we are only focused on making brands better and making brand leaders better.Our motivation is that we love knowing we were part of helping someone to unleash their full potential. We promise to challenge you to Think Different. 
We believe the thinking that got you here, will not get you where you want to go. Our President and Chief Marketing Officer, Graham Robertson is a brand leader at heart, who loves everything about brands. He comes with 20 years of experience at companies such as Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer Consumer, General Mills and Coke, where he was always able to find and drive growth. Graham has won numerous new product and advertising awards. Graham brings his experience to your table, strong on leadership and facilitation at very high levels and training of Brand Leaders around the world. To reach out directly, email me at graham.robertson@beloved-brands.com or follow on Twitter @grayrobertson1
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