By Mario Van Hamersveld and Willem Brethouwer
Global Insight Leaders Will Be In Demand
The marketing intelligence industry needs insight leaders who are committed to high performance and excellence. They need to be confident and assertive, yet sensitive in the way of they handle their team. They will need to be able to blend classic with more emotional intelligence. They should be charismatic and engender in their team a curiosity that encourages everyone to constantly ask questions to drive the business forward. In addition, insight leaders need to show maximum integrity to their team, company and competitors.
Let’s look at some of the traits of the insight leader.
Big Picture Visionaries
Leaders also need to be able to have a helicopter view. They need to be outside-in thinkers who can look in on an issue from the third corner to see what needs to be done to make sure the insight team, and the organisation, do not flounder because they are working in the minutiae of the issue, rather than on the big drivers of success.
Top Motivators
Insight teams need to be motivated if they are to work under continual pressure to challenging deadlines, tight budgets and to high quality expectations. We need leaders who are motivators who can accommodate and respect the demands of millennials and post-millennials working in our industry – each with a different set of employee expectations.
Conceptualisers Who Can Handle Complexity and Shades of Grey
A key trait of most leaders is their ability to know what are the critical complexities that need to be addressed, and to differentiate these from confusing/irrelevant issues that are not critical to a solution. This is all about the ability to identify the key concepts in play. We all feel reassured when we see this in our political leaders but become increasingly nervous then this fundamental conceptual understanding is missing.
Whole Brain Thinkers
Customer insight leaders need to feel comfortable with left and right brain thinking in solving a particular problem. They need to be at ease when deductively working out quite tight puzzles, and at the same time, excel in solving complex problems with possible more inductive reasoning. They need to know when to go for intuitive System 1 thinking, and when to favour more System 2 rational thinking.
Influencers and Persuaders
Our customer insight leaders need to excel at influence and persuasion. They need to at every touch point – at every dialogue with senior stakeholders – be convincing and plausible around what it is they are saying and the judgements they are offering. They must not hide behind their data in the hope that the senior stakeholders will understand. They need to be constantly seen as influential and persuasive.
Entrepreneurial
There are many definitions of what constitutes the entrepreneurial mindset, but essentially this centres on having the ability to constantly take action to solve problems. It is about taking personal responsibility for making things happen. It is about getting the balance right between knowing when some risk is required, as opposed to playing a safer game. So our insight leaders need to have the entrepreneurial gene.
Self-awareness
Good leaders will have a full understanding of who they are as individuals in terms of their overall capability skillset. In addition, they will be able to see how their own personal leadership traits and skills fit with other individuals. They will then be able to adapt the relationship between their own style and others depending on different business scenarios and contexts. In the workshop, we will provide a model to help individuals understand who they are and how they think, and what this means in terms of how they should best interact with others to achieve outcomes that are to the mutual advantage of all parties.
Inspirational
Customer insight leaders will be constantly asking these questions: How do I strengthen my impact? How do I make sure I am inspiring all those around me? How do I maximise the potential of my team? How do I make sure that every member of the team is a problem simplifier who radiates energy, rather than a problem confuser who drains the energy from the team?
The ESOMAR Workshop is 12-13 November
The Workshop can help people transform and develop their leadership style. It is not about improving research skills. It also goes beyond sharpening up overall business consultancy skills. It can foster personal growth and leadership skills.
The Workshop is aimed at creating leaders who are the go-to people for the organisation when it wants an informed opinion of what is happening in a particular market or sector. It creates individuals who will be seen as the insight entrepreneurs, who are driving the change agenda for the organisation. But, most importantly, it creates inspiring insight team leaders.
If you want to know more about the workshop, check out the website and register now.
By Mario Van Hamersveld and Willem Brethouwer
