How to Make Marketing Team Management Easy (Free Templates)

How to Make Marketing Team Management Easy (Free Templates) Managing a team can feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. You’re responsible not only for your own work, but for the output of all your direct reports, too. In fact, it has been said that the true measure of a manager’s productivity, is actually the measure of their team’s output as a whole. No pressure, right? Fortunately, learning how to effectively guide high-functioning marketing departments isn’t impossible. By investing in proper skill development and establishing solid processes, you can stop feeling like you’re herding cats and successfully lead your team to success. Free templates to help you effectively manage your marketing team.First, Snag Some Free Templates Before digging into the meat of this post, take a second to download these no-cost resources: Marketing Project Management Calendar Template (Excel): See everything your team is working on. Marketing Workflow Checklist Template (Excel): Help each team member execute projects correctly with clear checklists. Marketing Project Management Plan (Word): Map out a strategy for managing your team’s projects. Combined with the in-depth advice in this post, you’re well on your way to taking the pain out of corralling creative teams and managing marketers the best way.What is the Real Role of a Team Manager? Managing people is about much more than just being someone else’s boss. It means making your success be other’s success. Everything else about the role stems from this simple truth. When you’re in the lead, it isn’t all about you, even though you’re ultimately the one steering the ship. It’s about making sure everyone performs up to their potential. Achieving that aim is easier said than done though. Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline.Introducing the Team Management Dashboard in One way to give yourself the edge when it comes to team management is to use the Team Management Dashboard in (and if you’re new, it’s an industry-leading marketing management platform). It makes it easy to see your entire team’s workload and the progress they’re making in one place: Check it out. Then, schedule a demo to see how it can change the way you manage your team. What Are Some Common Team Management Roadblocks? Whether you’re new to management or you’ve been leading marketing teams for a while, you’re bound to face some barriers. Barrier #1: Siloed Teams The team you’re managing will likely need to collaborate with other teams, too. But, if those teams are siloed, that can make getting things done difficult. There are a few reasons for that: You can’t move faster than the other team is willing to go. They likely have other projects and their own priorities, beyond just the things you’re collaborating on. Getting teams on the same page can be tough. For the reasons listed above. Different processes can clash. They have their way of doing things, and you’ve got yours. If the two can’t be reconciled, work starts to break down. Barrier #2: Lack of Clear, Shared Goals Rallying your team to succeed requires having a shared goal. Otherwise, what are you actually working toward? Without some sort of objective, you’re liable to just do a lot of stuff, look busy, and accomplish nothing. That, in turn, leads to a burned out team that’s working hard but ends up with nothing to show for it. Rallying your team to succeed requires having a shared goal. Otherwise, what are you working toward?Barrier #3: Lack of Leadership If no one’s steering the ship, you’ll never end up where you want to go. And if you’re reading this, odds are leadership falls on your shoulders. Businesses, in general, are feeling a gap between leadership wants and reality, too. According to a study from Globoforce, a full 93% of managers need training on how to train their teams. If that sounds shocking, perhaps it shouldn’t. Management and leadership are skills that take years of experience to develop. Excelling at helping others excel takes years of intentional practice. Fortunately, you don’t have to depend completely on hard-fought lessons in the rough and tumble trenches of marketing and business. For one thing, you’re reading this blog post. That’s a point in your favor. And if you’re part of the 93% who need some help, at least you’re not alone (and odds are the other 7% are lying anyway).