My Top 5 Ways I Lead My Marketing Team Through Change.

TLDR

Few things sting more than watching months of creative work die in a single meeting.
The campaign was ready, the idea was bold, and your team believed in it—then the company pivoted, and it was gone.

I’ve been there.
And I’ve learned that how you lead your team in that moment defines your culture more than any win ever will.

Here are my top five ways I lead my marketing team through change—ways that turn frustration into focus and keep belief alive even when the plan gets rewritten.

The pain no one prepares you for.

If you’ve ever led a marketing team, you know the look.
That mix of exhaustion and disbelief when you tell them the campaign’s off.

They’ve worked nights, skipped weekends, stayed late for feedback loops that suddenly don’t matter.
And when leadership decides to change direction, it’s your job to deliver the news—and keep the team moving.

No one teaches you how to handle that moment.
I had to learn it the hard way.

1. I Don’t Pretend It Doesn’t Hurt.

When a campaign gets axed, everyone feels it. Including me. So I start by being real.

“Yeah, we were working hard on that project, and a lot of time was put in.”

I acknowledge it, but I don’t let the conversation live there. If you spend too long in the emotion, it starts to own the team.

And the next time something gets cut, they’ll fall right back into that same space.

I’ve learned that leadership isn’t about denying frustration—it’s about giving it a finish line.

2. I Show Them the Why Behind the What.

When a boardroom pivot happens, your team hears one thing: “Thanks for working so hard and believing in that project, but it was wrong. But I promise, this one is right. Oh, and it needs to be completed at the same time as the last one was to be.”

Translated: That idea we thought was the one that you all bought into was, we dont think will work. Do this instead and it’s still needed in two weeks.

That’s not the truth—but it’s what it feels like.

The only way to fix that is with transparency.

• I pull back the curtain.

• I walk them through the numbers, the market shifts, the data that drove the decision.

• I want them to see the business logic behind the change, not just the consequence of it.

When they understand the why, the what stops feeling like betrayal.

3. I Get in the Trenches.

One of the biggest mistakes I see leaders make is hiding after a hard pivot. They drop the news, delegate the fix, and disappear.

When that happens, your team feels abandoned.

I do the opposite.

• If they’re in late, I’m in late.

• If they’re sprinting, I’m running with them.

• I pick up tasks, clear roadblocks, and stay hyper-responsive—regardless of the hour or the day.

Because nothing builds buy-in faster than visible commitment.

If they see you grinding with them, frustration turns into respect.

4. I Let Them Have Honest Conflict.

Teams fall apart when people feel like they can’t speak up.

I live by something straight out of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: If they trust you, they’ll bring you conflict.

So when the change hits, I let them voice it. They can challenge the decision, question the logic, even vent if they need to.

• I don’t defend—I explain.

• Once they’ve weighed in, they’ll buy in.

That’s when accountability follows naturally.

5. I Connect the Change Back to the Win.

When the new direction starts producing results, I circle back.

I show them the numbers—the sales uptick, the demand lift, the traction. I connect the dots between the pivot and the payoff.

Because when they see that what replaced their original idea worked, they stop fearing change.

Do that enough times, and they’ll trust the process. They’ll believe that when something gets cut, it’s not chaos—it’s progress.

The truth about marketing leadership.

Marketing isn’t 9-to-5. It’s constant pressure to adapt, deliver, and adjust. And it’s rarely fair to the people doing the work.

That’s why leadership matters more in loss than in launch.

When your team sees that you’re honest about the pain, transparent about the reason, and right there beside them through it, they’ll follow you anywhere.

They won’t just work for you—they’ll believe in you.

Final Reflection.

I’ve had the honor of serving as CMO for an international, family-owned company for the past nine years. In that time, I’ve watched this approach work again and again.

When a company is full of ideas and unafraid to fail fast, the only way to keep momentum is through clear leadership—showing the why, leading through the what, and never losing sight of the who.

Every time I’ve followed these steps, marketing believed in the company’s why. They bought in, time after time. They put in the hours, they got the results, and together we built a department of winners.

And when the entire leadership team shares a clear vision, communicates it well, and stays thankful for the people helping them hit the company’s goals—that’s when the real magic happens.

If you want to see how I turn leadership logic into measurable business impact, read: Here’s What $1 in Marketing Did This Quarter