Riding High in Business: The Secrets to Forming-High Impact Marketing Teams

As a horse owner, trainer, and rider since childhood, I marvel at the profound connections that form over time between a horse and its rider. 

Just like in the business world, horsemanship requires building a trusting relationship by investing in training, and bonding time to ultimately form a powerful partnership. Each horse and rider team has a unique set of strengths, a respect for each other's abilities and a sense of caring for one another. 

The same is true for when forming high performance Marketing and Creative Agency teams. 

High impact marketing and creative organizations are a result of a respectful, psychologically safe work culture. 

A culture of trust. 

A culture that embraces and is receptive to new testing ideas, celebrating failures as much as success. 

A culture that is passionate about harnessing the unique strengths, talents and passion within every team member.

The bonds I’ve built with my horses comes from understanding that successful partnerships are about the skills we each bring to the relationship. 

Success is a result of authentic, meaningful connections between every team member or a marketing and agency leader and his or her team members.

What I’ve Discovered

High impact teams result from purposefully focused time spent to gain a deeper understanding about the personal motivations and needs of each team member. 

That means time specifically spent in a work session, together, more than just time at a dinner or sitting in a “talking head” meeting. When a leader creates a connected culture within a workplace that inspires collaboration and meets the universal needs of each team member (respect, recognition, belonging, work autonomy, personal growth, meaningful work and positive progress) success becomes unbounded.

So why don’t more companies and agencies passionately prioritize investing in developing connected leaders, strength-centric leadership, or even teaching new managers how to have a 15 minute, meaningful meeting with their team members? 

That’s a question we’ll explore with this article.

Indisputable Data vs. Tyranny of the Urgent

A recent study by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) highlighted that 83% of HR managers find training crucial to attracting talent, while 86% believe it's essential for retention. 

Equally telling, nearly half of the employees surveyed emphasized training opportunities as pivotal in their decision to join their current company.

However, training isn't just about onboarding, upskilling, or day-to-day job delivery anymore. 

Today, high performing organizations, i.e. the “best places to work” organizations, consistently invest time and resources towards improving communications, collaboration, adaptability, and leveraging employee strengths.

However, too many leaders talk a good game about investing in the  development of a team, but don’t put their money where their mouth is –  especially in uncertain times, which is when they need to make this investment the most!

Why might this be?

I have two theories. 

One, CEO’s forget the foundational principles used by every winning coach in every sport.

I’m talking about perfecting your skills through practice.

Think about it: 70% of a sports team’s time is spent in practice, with only about 10% of their time spent in delivering exceptionally high performances on the field or court. 

However, many business CEO’s assume their workforce brings their best talent to the workplace day in and day out, and those CEOs expect consistently high performance from its workforce, without honoring what sports performance experts have proven. 

Perfect practice delivers perfect performance.

Top performing athletes, be they horses or sports professionals, always work with a coach and trainer during their practice sessions.  

So why do CEOs give less support to their leaders and managers who are responsible for harnessing the revenue and profit-generating capacity from the organization's most important asset (its people)?

Further, every top team and performer spends countless hours practicing and knows the value of recovery as part of their routine. So why do leaders overlook the importance of rejuvenation in support of peak individual and team  performance? 

This could be a key reason: A study by Emerald Works revealed a concerning trend - less than 10% of organizations actively measure the ROI of their learning programs. 

This oversight often pushes the investment of time and money of talent development to the back burner, especially when “time is money” or unknown shifts are ahead.

However, multiple studies elucidate the undeniable financial ROI of investing in talent development. 

From enhancing team dynamics, coaching and leadership skills to fostering psychological safety, creativity and team member well-being, the positive impact on businesses, such as increases in talent retention, customer satisfaction, revenue growth, profit growth and value increases are  tangible.

Consider:

• The Blanchard Organization reports that for every $1 invested in L&D, a company generates an incremental $8 to $15 in return.   

• LinkedIn’s Workforce Learning Report found that 9% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their careers, avoiding the cost of 6 to 9 months of lost employees salary as reported by SHRM. 

• The MIT Sloan School of Management found that an employer’s year-long soft skills training program led to a roughly 250% return on investment within eight months. 

These statistics illustrate the value of investing in developing high-impact teams of passionate individuals, by revealing the natural gifts and  leveraging their unique strengths together. 

Strength-Based Coaching = The Most Proven High ROI Development Program 

Strength-based coaching plays a unique and critical role both in developing strong teams and improving organizational financial performance. It enables each team member to learn what their greatest strengths are. 

In doing so, individuals are able to grow more in their careers by being encouraged to apply their natural abilities to their daily work. 

This develops a feeling of being respected and recognized for who they are and the importance of their unique contributions to the team. This further helps to increase their sense of belonging and shows support for their personal and career growth, which directly impacts their engagement at work and their team’s performance. 

In a study spanning 45 countries and 49,495 business units, Gallup found that strength-based workgroups saw increases in both sales and profits.

And on average, these workgroups also saw:

• 3% to 7% higher customer engagement

• 6% to 16% lower turnover (in low-turnover organizations)

• 26% to 72% lower turnover (in high-turnover organizations)

• 9% to 15% increase in engaged employees

• 22% to 59% fewer safety incidents

Furthermore, Gallup also found that teams that focused on developing their strengths had 12.5% greater productivity and 8.9% greater profitability than teams that did not.

Other studies have shown that when using a strength-based leadership and coaching approach, employees are 6x as likely to be engaged at work, 3x as likely to have an excellent quality of life and nearly 8x more productive in their role.

The Need for Adaptability in Today’s Business Climate

The business landscape is in a state of flux. Fortune 500 marketing departments and large creative agencies are grappling with the rise of remote and hybrid work models, technological advances like generative artificial intelligence, and generational shifts in the workforce. 

To flourish tomorrow, It's imperative for leaders to foster a culture that recognizes and nurtures employee strengths and how the organization is meeting their basic human needs from their time at work. 

Final Thoughts

The lessons from the saddle applied to the boardroom aren't that different.

Just as trust and training are foundational to equestrian success, they're pivotal for workforce bonding and business growth. 

As 2024 approaches, investing in talent development isn't just advisable - it's imperative. 

Ready To Talk?

Our mission at Kern & Partners is to help organizations flourish, by revealing and appreciating the natural gifts, talents, and passions within every team member.

We do so by providing the highest quality, team and leadership development programs to senior executives, leaders, managers and supervisors proven to elevate employee engagement, inspire new levels of productivity, collaboration and creativity.

If you’d like to learn more, visit us online or connect with me here on LinkedIn to get the conversation started!