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There are a lot of words marketers cant seem to quit. Unique. Authentic. Real. But these are threadbare clichés, which have all but become nullified due to the erosion of their meaning, a dilution fueled by the desire for brands to be generally, yet specifically, for everyone. But everyone is not a target audience. Its a comfortable void. What brands really need right now isnt another lap around the buzzword block. Its courage. Courage to lean into the one trait that could cut through in a world of algorithms, sameness, and mediocrity. Marketers need to be weirder. If you want a sociological anecdote of how weird wins, look no further than online dating. Dating apps have shown us that people dont actually want the most normal partner. They want quirks that stand out. Hinge data shows that profiles mentioning a niche interestlike a specific video game or obscure hobbyare more likely to get matches than generic I like to travel statements. Marketing works the same way. Generic quality service or trusted partner claims are the equivalent of I love long walks on the beach. Tepid is a turnoff. While being good-looking can get you plenty far, to really connect, you need quirks. Mass marketing, like mass dating, creates fatigue. Precision, passion, and personalizationthe pillars of weirdcreate chemistry. When a brand flies its freak flag high, it shows the right customers: Yes, were your people. The Crocs case Take Crocs. Once the fashion worlds punchline, they leaned into their weirdness with bold collabsfrom KFC bucket Crocs to Balenciaga platform Crocs. Instead of pretending to be a lifestyle brand, they became a cameo brand: something you add to your life in a flash of bold comfort. Their revenue hit $3.96 billion in 2023, up nearly 12% from the year before. Thats what I call laughing all the way to the bank. Weird is always the evolutionary advantage, the bright feather on a dull bird. Yes, it may feel like a risk to shake off the camouflage, but if your biggest problem becomes being too visible, wouldnt that be a happy day. Weve all heard the phrase unprecedented times so much its basically become elevator music, but unprecedented times are exactly when evolution has the most fun. Charles Darwin called it adaptive radiationspecies diversifying into weird little niches that thrive when old systems collapse. Marketing is in its own adaptive radiation moment. Large language models (LLMs) and Generative AI are both collapsing the funnel and flooding the market with mediocrity and brand doppelgängers. Now more than ever, the average of averages is going to fail to thrive. Grow a horn So, whats a brand to do in this mush of mid? Grow a horn. Sprout a freaky little tail. If everyone else is cranking out the same optimized content marketing thought leadership, weird is the mutation that keeps you from extinction. Just ask Duolingo. Their TikTok presenceanchored by a giant green owl who is somehow equal parts threatening and adorablehas over 10 million followers. Its unhinged, its absurd, and its working. Weird didnt just help them survive. It helped them dominate the landscape and now anyone who tries to emulate that success is just doing a bad Duolingo impression. Now, absurdism isnt newits just having another renaissance. Whenever people face the unknown or the unbearable, weirdness bubbles up as both coping mechanism and cultural shorthand. Marketers should look to what is breaking though the anxieties of the moment and connecting and why. A giant owl twerking on TikTok, a water brand calling itself Liquid Death, a fast-food chain tweeting in all caps about sauce shortages. These are signals that brands are fluent in the absurdist yet timely language their audiences are already speaking. In an era where sameness is free, weird is priceless. Weird is precision. Weird is passion. Weird is personal. Some call it cringe. I call it survival. And if you want your brand to not just survive but thrive in 2025 and beyond, its time to get a little freaky.
Category:
E-Commerce
Twenty years ago, getting promoted to manager was a major milestone. Today its a punishment. Thats according to recent research from LinkedIn. In a survey of more than 10,000 LinkedIn users, nearly 7 in 10 said they would leave their job if they had a bad manager. But only 30% said they want to become a people manager within the next few years. So, why the change? Why doesnt anyone want to be the boss anymore? We could sum up the answer in seven words: Nobody showed them how to lead effectively. The data backs this up. Global consulting firm West Monroe surveyed 500 managers and found that 66% of those received eight hours or less of manager training. Of those who had been managers for less than a year, a stunning 43% had received no training at all. Why is this lack of training so problematic? And, more importantly, how can you inspire and prepare the next generation of leaders at your organization? Sign up here for my free email course on emotionally intelligent leadership. The leadership training gap The problem is the skills that get people promoted arent the ones that help them excel at the next level. Management experts Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, and James Noel explore this concept in their book The Leadership Pipeline. They describe five different leadership roles: Leading self Leading others Leading leaders Functional leaders Business leaders The passage from one role to another requires new learning and new behavior, assert the authors. Whats more, they say, the leader who transitions from one role to the next has to acquire a new way of leading and leave the old ways behind. This calls for a fundamental adjustment in skills and in the way you use your time. The challenge here is that many of the things leaders need to stop doing are things they enjoy doing and which have brought them success. For example, a sales manager may be great at closing deals. But once he or she is promoted, closing deals on their own should no longer be the most important thing. Rather, they should be concerned with helping their reports to excelfor example, clarifying target setting, giving emotionally intelligent feedback, and coaching and development. This change in perspective will affect everything from what they believe is important to how they define success and how they allocate their time. It will also impact the effect they have on their people and the organization as a whole. The change in perspective should continue as a leader continues to transition across roles. A leader of leaders must recruit the right leaders and hold them accountable for their role in developing their people. A functional leader has to not only lead but also build competitive advantages and agendas that enable the company to do things better than competitors. A business leaders focus is long term, but he or she must also stay in touch with the short-term picture. Business leaders must develop strategy and build teams down the chain that assist in executing that strategy. One thing that all of these roles hold in common? They each demand emotional intelligence, skills and abilities like listening, empathy, effective processing, and delivering of feedback. How to fix your leadership problem How do you make sure your organization is preparing your leaders and managers for success? Here are some tips. Map leadership passages: Define the transitions in your organization (individual contributor, manager one, manager two, etc.). Specify what emotional skills are needed at each stage. Develop training: Whether designed in-house, with help from a leadership consultancy, or both, tailor management and leadership training to your organization. Schedule time: Each time a person is promoted, schedule the training and make sure you provide the time and resources they need to complete it. Provide a mentor: A mentor can guide the persons development, answer questions, and support them emotionally. Where possible, allow the person to choose their own mentor. Support mentors, too: Outline guidelines for how mentors can help, and a program for them to meet regularly (in addition to impromptu meetings when needed). Measure outcomes: Track metrics and results, but also look beneath the surface. Pay special attention to retention/turnover, team engagement, conflict rates. Remember, metrics are important but interviews with direct reports and team members can reveal much. Lead by example: Senior leaders must practice developing their emotional intelligence, share their mistakes and learnings, and ask for help. In doing so, they set the founation for the culture. Dont just dump a person into a new role and expect them to figure it out. Some will. Many wont. In contrast, if you prioritize leadership development, youll strengthen your teams and the organization as a wholenot just today but into the future. By Justin Bariso This article originally appeared in Fast Companys sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
Category:
E-Commerce
In September, my mom died after a short battle with colon cancer. She was 83 and lived a full life in which she had a fulfilling career in education, traveled the world visiting 100-plus countries, and was married to my father for more than 60 years. Its hard to lose a parent, and my workplace (like many) allowed me time off to be with family for the days before and after the funeral. But no matter how generous the policy at your workplace is, youre going to have to come back to work before youre done grieving. Grief happens following any significant event that creates a tear in the fabric of your life story. The death of a loved one is an obvious source of grief, but many kinds of events can trigger the grief process, including a fire at your home, or the loss of a job. Indeed, you may have heard of the five stages of grief. Those were originally described by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, who studied patients who had received a terminal diagnosis. The problem with Kubler-Rosss stages of grief (denial, bargaining, anger, depression, and acceptance) is that theyre purely descriptive. You need not go through these stages when grieving. They also dont form a linear path. You may bounce around among these emotions or actionsor experience only a few of them. You may be fine for long periods of time and then find yourself sobbing uncontrollably at a comment someone makes or a scene in a movie. Its a messy process thats different for every person (and different within a person for each thing you grieve). So, how do you deal with that messiness at work? Cut yourself some slack First things first, dont try to be a superhero. You dont have to have it all together immediately upon returning to work. If youre still feeling fuzzy and foggy a month or two after a significant loss, dont beat yourself up. Dont assume you should be over it already. By allowing yourself to feel what youre feeling, you can avoid the common trap of amplifying the difficulties of grief by feeling guilt over your grieving process. Instead, accept the process. You may not yet be at the point where you can accept your loss, but you can accept that grief itself is complex. In addition, you need to recognize that for some period after a loss, your work products may not be as sharp as they were before. That doesnt mean youll never recover. It just means that it takes time. Grieving can be a lot of mental work, and you need to let the process unfold. Let others know When you experience a loss, your work colleagues may or may not be aware. Even when you have a death in the family, there are likely to be some people around you who have not heard. Its okay to let your colleagues, clients, and other people in your work community know whats going on. There are several ways that letting other people know can benefit you. For one thing, people are often willing to give you some grace when you make mistakes when they know youre going through a difficult time. In addition, people may be willing to take on a little extra work on your behalf as you recover from a loss. It is not a sign of weakness to rely on others during a difficult period. Measure twice, cut once No matter how careful you are when youre working at your peak, you need to be extra careful in the stressful times that accompany grief. Slow down a lot of your work to minimize the number of mistakes you make. Reread emails and reports before sending them off. Take extra time when making important decisions to ensure that you havent missed anything important. Ask other people to look over key documents before sending them off. In addition, there are many decisions you make at work that have an emotional component. You may use the way you feel about an option to elect to go forward with it. The more anxiety youre experiencing, the harder it can be to separate that from the way you feel about a particular option. As a result, you may feel paralyzed when trying to make a difficult work decision. At times like that, bring in a decision partner to help you. That will help you to avoid significant delays in key projects. Dont go it alone Even people who have been psychologically healthy for most of their lives may struggle when grieving a significant loss. If you have never engaged with a mental health professional before, you may feel that theres a stigma associated with needing therapy. Theres no reason to avoid working with someone if you find the emotions and thoughts youre having in grief to be overwhelming. You would not stay away from a doctor if your foot was hurting significantly enough that you couldnt walk. Dont use fear of engaging with a therapist as an excuse to suffer without help. Instead, reach out to your community to get recommendations for a therapist who has experience working with grief. The resilience skills you learn are likely to benefit you beyond the situation youre dealing with now. In addition, there are many great resources out there that can give you suggestions for how to move forward. I was fortunate enough to interview Lisa Keefauver recently, and her book on grieving (while irreverent) is an excellent guide to dealing with loss. In addition, there are many great blogs that people have written with helpful tips that may get you through your worst days. Remember that when you walk down the street and see people walking with friends laughing and talking, that many of those people have suffered significant losses in their lives and have eventually emerged from grief. It may take time, but youll learn to integrate significant losses into your life.
Category:
E-Commerce
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