Laying the Tracks: How Great Marketing Leaders Enable Their Teams
August 3, 2025
One of the most impactful leadership lessons I’ve learned—and continue to relearn—is this: as a marketing leader, your job isn’t just to execute. It’s to lay the tracks for your team to run.
That means setting the vision, clearing the path, and making sure your people aren’t waiting on you to move forward.
This post isn’t about theory. It’s about the practical, often overlooked work that separates overwhelmed managers from truly strategic marketing executives.
Years ago, at a $100M company growing at full speed, I was at a leadership offsite when our CEO shared something that’s stuck with me ever since.
"The company is a fast-moving train. My job as CEO is to lay the tracks ahead so you all can keep moving."
It was such a simple visual—but such a powerful call to action.
Whether you're a CMO or stepping into your first leadership role, your job is the same: make it easier for your team to win.
That includes your full-time team, your agencies, your interns—even your wedding planner, if you’re like me and juggling work and life leadership simultaneously.
(Related: Learn how fractional CMOs can scale marketing organizations with clarity and speed.)
Let’s talk about the four foundational areas that create clarity and momentum for any marketing team.
Define where you're going and why it matters.
Without a shared destination, your team is just executing tasks in a vacuum. Give them the bigger picture.
Your team can’t align to business goals they never hear about.
As a marketing executive, you're in rooms your team isn’t. Take the time to cascade that information. Connect the dots between their work and revenue, growth, and strategic priorities.
(Related: See how CMOs and product leaders align to drive strategy.)
Not everything matters equally. But without your guidance, your team will treat it like it does.
What matters most right now? What can wait? Are you regularly revisiting this with your team?
Marketing is famously overextended. Clear priorities help protect your team’s energy—and their impact.
Do your people know what "great" looks like to you?
Establish expectations for:
This reduces dependency and empowers faster execution. Clarity creates confidence.
(Related: Zoe Hawkins shared some brilliant insight on content strategy, marketing ROI, and clarity in execution.)
Even the most well-intentioned leaders can slow down their teams. Here are five practical strategies I use to keep things moving.
If your team is waiting on your approval, encourage them to get feedback from a trusted peer first. That can:
Too many meetings? Too few?
Find your rhythm. You may need working sessions, daily standups, or asynchronous updates depending on your team and season. Meetings should enable—not drain—your team.
Your team should know more than just their own lane. Cross-training builds:
And there’s no shortage of external learning tools. Encourage your team to seek out training that aligns with your marketing philosophy.
(Related: See how RevOps and marketing leaders align on enablement and ROI.)
Leadership isn’t about doing it all yourself. It’s about empowering others to do great work—even if it’s 80% as good as you’d do it.
Give people ownership over full channels or campaigns, not just tasks. Accountability drives growth.
(Related: Learn why empathetic leadership requires hard decisions—and how to balance autonomy and accountability.)
If you’re answering the same question more than twice, it’s time for a template, brief, or SOP.
Standardizing your work saves time and builds autonomy. It also reduces dependence on you for every step of the process.
(Related: Explore how CMOs and CTOs align through operational clarity.)
The best teams aren’t perfect—they’re empowered.
Your team is a reflection of your leadership. But that doesn’t mean you need to approve every deliverable or catch every typo.
Enable your people. Give them context, priorities, autonomy—and space to grow.
Because at the end of the day, your job isn’t to do the work. It’s to lay the tracks so your team can fly.
(Related: Check out our CMO playbook on marketing excellence.)
I built the CMO mentorship I wish I had—because too many marketing leaders are figuring it out alone. At Growth Activated, we help B2B marketers bridge the gap between execution and executive leadership, equipping you with the strategic mindset, frameworks, and hands-on guidance to drive impact at every stage of growth. From scaling multi-million-dollar organizations to leading SaaS startups, I’ve been in your shoes—and now, I’m here to help you step into the marketing leader you’re meant to be. Whether you need a strategic marketing plan, expert coaching, or team training, Growth Activated gives you the tools to lead with confidence and deliver measurable results.
