How Ambiguity Strangles Your Marketing Performance With Karen Martin

How Ambiguity Strangles Your Marketing Performance With Karen Martin What does â€Å"strategic ambiguity† mean? Marketers, politicians, and others use it all the time. It’s the art of making a claim using language that avoids specifics. So, you can be purposefully vague to derive personal and organizational benefit. On the other hand, it creates an environment at companies where employees try to avoid blame. Today, my guest is Karen Martin, president of TKMG and author of Clarity First. She describes how a pervasive lack of clarity strangles business performance and leadership on marketing teams. Definition of Clarity: State of something being easily and accurately understood; similar to transparency, but different from certainty Conveying and receiving information can cause ambiguity or clarity for employees and customers Primary reasons for lack of clarity all come down to fear Ramifications of lack of clarity: Takes time, builds frustration, and creates inefficiencies Five Ps for clarity: Purpose Priorities Process Performance Problem-solving Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Visual of the marketing team’s health Profit is not your purpose; profit is the outcome of delivering high value to customers, and purpose is to solve a customer’s problem Are you a clarity avoider, pursuer, or blind? Take Karen’s Clarity First Quiz Where to start to focus on clarity: What do you do? What do you really do? Why does that product, and not something else, to solve a problem? Fearless Workplace: Multiple perspectives, but not a single understanding; feel comfortable having difficult conversations Links: TKMG Clarity First by Karen Martin Clarity First Quiz Clarity Webinars presented by Karen Martin The Outstanding Organization Write a review on iTunes and send a screenshot of it to receive cool swag! If you liked today’s show, please subscribe on iTunes to The Actionable Content Marketing Podcast! The podcast is also available on SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Quotes by Karen Martin: â€Å"I discovered that there were several different primary reasons for the lack of clarity, but they all actually boil down to one thing, and that is fear.† â€Å"Limit how many things you’re working on at any given time. You’ll get more done per unit of time.† â€Å"Profit is an outcome. It’s an outcome of delivering high value to customers, and the purposeis to solve a customer’s problem.† â€Å"It’s more fun to come to work every day because you’re solving people’s problems in a profound way. It feels good.†