This blog is the fifth in a series about leadership, gender gap, diversity and work-life balance in the tech world.
I am a digital marketer with nearly 15 years’ experience in the technology and pharmaceutical industries. Through all these years of my working life and training, I have transitioned from one industry to another and crossed borders. Even though I have gone through this journey, I am still afraid of change sometimes and get anxious when a marketing team is restructured or a new system or tool is being rolled out, especially if I am expected to be the first to implement it in my marketing campaigns.
Even though change is scary, it’s inevitable in any organisation. From my experience, change is the best thing that could have happened for my growth — both professionally and personally. For me and I am sure for many others like me, there’s no better feeling than learning an innovative marketing concept and succeeding at it. You never know that you might end up becoming a subject matter expert at a new thing in your own organisation.
I started my career as a product manager in a pharmaceutical company in India. After three years of working in that industry, I moved to the U.K. and found a job in the IT industry. In a new country, it took me a good few years to learn about marketing tactics in the technology sector, the landscape of customers and prospects, and more importantly social media marketing and other newer concepts of digital marketing that work better in European countries.
So, here’s a few ideas based on my personal experience on how I coached myself to love change and started to embed it into my thought process and everyday life:
- I love asking questions! Asking lots of questions is the key ingredient of this recipe to love change and go with the flow. Asking questions opens your thinking and encourages you to look at both the positives and negatives of a new initiative. It might also accelerate learning in some cases. You must question the worth of taking up something new and at the same time think about how you will use a new piece of technology. Digital marketing is an evolving field and marketers need to learn new concepts and implement them on an ongoing basis. So, don’t shy away from asking questions.
- Is there an opportunity to work with multiple teams in different countries? From the start of my career I was fortunate enough to work closely with very senior colleagues in other country offices of the organisations I worked for. This not only gave me international experience but also subliminally trained me to adapt to changing cultures and concepts that worked in different countries. So, unknowingly, on a day-to-day basis, I was embracing change and continue to do so.
- I always ask myself “what can I do better in my current job?” My guiding thought behind this is how can I help sales do their job better. Marketing is never a standalone department in any organisation and its sole purpose is to generate leads and help with building the sales pipeline or enabling sales teams to sell better. So, with any new system or tools I implement I always question if this is going to help my sales colleagues and make their life easier in selling our products and services to prospects.
- Can I attend an industry conference or get trained on new marketing concepts? I love taking every opportunity to attend an industry conference and attend sessions from other vendors. There couldn’t be a better place than an industry conference to gather so much useful information about innovative marketing tools, novel ways to do your current job better or simply network with peers. In recent years, I have attended a few live/digital training sessions that have helped me improve the marketing processes in my organisation or adopt new marketing tools for account-based marketing, video marketing and social media management, and hence challenge the status quo.
- I try to learn something new in my personal time. A few years back, I couldn’t play any sports, but then I learnt to play tennis and now I regularly play with my family and socially at tennis clubs. This new challenge and taking up a new hobby in my personal time has helped tune my mind and body to accept change and even be OK at it! If you don’t have the time or the will for this, why not try and change the way you organise your home/work life? Maybe set new tasks for yourself, such as changing the way you organise your day, or spend time with your kids and family or get up earlier to make the most of the day. This can make you naturally positive about change and instil confidence that you are good at managing change. Such confidence will help you excel at adapting to change at work too.
Kanupriya is the EMEA marketing manager for IDC. With nearly 15 years’ experience as a B2B digital marketer, her expertise is in content marketing, integrated marketing campaign development and management, lead generation, marketing communications, and events marketing.
Want to learn more about how to Empower Women in Tech? Follow and join the conversation on social media – #IDCIWD19 and share your thoughts about this topic.
Series of posts:
Innovate, Educate and Build the Next Generation of Women in Tech
How to Build a Successful Career in Tech
Personal Rules are Essential for Your Work-Life Balance
How Can the Tech Industry Provide You with an Exciting Career?