A while back, I hit a wall. Not a dramatic, crash and burn type of burnout. It was quieter, more deceptive. I was still delivering, still showing up, still checking the boxes, but I had completely lost my spark. The creative energy, the strategic edge, the little “oomph” in my day, the part of me that loved this work.

So, I stepped back. I said “no” more often. I deleted apps and silenced notifications. I started doing less.

If you missed Part 1 of this series, visit the SMPS Colorado Blog.

Fostering Team Buy-In, Maintaining Motivation, and Finishing Strong 

As marketers, we face lots of challenges: inefficient proposal processes, difficulties engaging leadership time and attention, and fighting for department budgets, to name a few. I bet each of you has at least one thing you’d like to change within your department or company. Throughout my career, I’ve encountered my share of resistance to change across a variety of industries, including digital printing, advertising, and engineering. To understand more about why change is so difficult, I completed the Coursera series Removing Barriers to Change by University of Pennsylvania Marketing Professor Jonah Berger. This free online course discusses the barriers to change and how to become more effective in inspiring change with others and your organization. 

Congratulations on becoming a supervisor for the first time in your career! Or, if you’re not a supervisor yet (and would like to be), congratulations on being proactive! In our haste to create a comprehensive onboarding experience for our new “direct reports” (who will be referred to as team members moving forward), there’s often something lacking—onboarding for the first-time supervisor.