At a recent event in New York (The CMO Pathway: Inside the leap to the top marketing role) the conversations between Sharon Peters, CMO, Spectrum and Bené Eaton, CMO, FIGS expertly moderated by Wendy Kula, CMO, Saucony, kept coming back to one key theme which ran through almost every part of the discussion: trust. Trust in your relationships, trust in the team you build around you, and trust from the wider business that marketing is creating value.
Relationships are a leadership advantage
Sharon and Bené both stated the importance of relationships. Whether it was peers, CEOs, CFOs or former colleagues, the emphasis wasn't on networking but on building genuine relationships. Understanding what motivates people, earning trust and investing in those connections over time. As your responsibilities grow, strong relationships become increasingly important in helping you navigate complexity, align stakeholders and drive change across the business.
You don't have to know all the answers
One of the more refreshing parts of the discussion was the acknowledgement that, at the CMO level, nobody expects you to have all the answers. If anything, pretending you do can hold you back.
The role becomes less about having the deepest expertise and more about building great teams around you, trusting specialists, and bringing together different perspectives to make better decisions. As responsibilities grow, judgment becomes far more valuable than having all the answers yourself.
Understand the business, not just the marketing
Conversations about CFOs, CEOs and commercial impact came up repeatedly. The most effective CMOs aren't simply advocates for bigger budgets; they understand how the business creates value and where marketing can have the greatest impact. They are able to balance short-term pressures with long-term brand building, connect marketing activity to business outcomes, and have conversations that extend well beyond campaigns and communications.
Member Perspective
Ed Rogers, Been There Done That also enjoyed the evening - "A very insightful evening at the Marketing Society’s CMO Pathway event in NYC last week"
"Fascinating to hear from three talented leaders at different stages of their CMO journey. Thank you, Sharon Peters, Bene Eaton and Wendy Kula. Regardless of the size of the business or category in which it operates, a common theme that arose is that no one person can be the 'expert' in all the areas that influence a modern business and brand. The role of the CMO is about about editing, owning their taste, trusting their teams and being decisive behind the 'bifocals' of consumer and commercially driven thinking. Truly, partnership is the new leadership - finding ways to build accountability and belief within your teams, the broader organization and outside agencies is the only way to move at the speed required to succeed in the current landscape."
