It’s easy to point the finger when things don’t go as planned.
It takes a wise, non-ego driven leader to take accountability and understand their role in the outcomes being delivered.
After publishing my last article, How Not To Grow A Marketing Agency, where I shared the growth opportunities we missed and what I would have done differently, I sent it to Jack — my former Managing Director and good friend. I wanted to hear his perspective and see if he agreed with my take. His response surprised me:
“You were never going to succeed in that role. And I don’t mean that critically. I mean in the quintessential, literal way that it was intended “Growth Director” — the reality was we were still very busy running an agency. And on reflection, that set you up for failure, in that specific goal of creating a growth engine — because of the resistance I gave you and the circumstances we were in. You were running the media team, the ops team — every other team. If you hire a quarterback for an NFL team, but you have them playing more or less every position on the field, they’re never going to excel as a quarterback, to have the biggest influence on the team’s success. That was probably a joint oversight/my fault.”
Hearing that from Jack was both validating and eye-opening. He was right — I was set up in a way where success was nearly impossible, not because of effort or skill, but because of structure and leadership. And the more I’ve reflected on it, the more I’ve realized this isn’t just an agency problem. It’s a universal one.
Most of the “marketing problems” leaders complain about — lack of leads, poor creative, underperforming campaigns — are actually symptoms. The root cause is almost always leadership: unclear priorities, misaligned roles, underinvestment, or simply not giving people the space and support to do what they were hired to do.
1. Lack of Clear Priorities
One of the most common leadership failures I’ve seen is not setting clear priorities. Leaders say they want “growth,” but growth can mean a hundred different things: more leads, new channels, better creative, tighter funnels, bigger brand presence. Without focus, the team ends up trying to do all of it, and in reality, nothing gets done well.
That’s exactly what happened with us. Jack and I never fully aligned on what growth actually meant. Was it building a pipeline of new leads? Was it refining operations? Was it improving client delivery? In practice, I was responsible for all of it. One week I was building sales decks, the next I was fixing media buying processes, the next I was troubleshooting ops. Growth became an umbrella term that covered everything — which meant I never had the clarity or bandwidth to deliver on the one thing that would have mattered most: creating a scalable growth engine.
When priorities are unclear, marketing problems multiply. Campaigns feel unfocused. Resources get spread thin. Teams burn out. And leaders wonder why results don’t come through. The truth is simple: if leadership doesn’t define the goal, the team can’t hit it.
2. Tolerating Mediocrity in Management
Over the years I’ve probably made 30–40 hires. A handful were superstars, but most fell somewhere between good and mediocre. And as much as I would have loved a team full of superstars, it’s not like they were lined up outside my office, waiting to be picked. The reality is, for smaller organizations — especially ones without an HR function — finding qualified senior talent is tough. You make the best hires you can, and most of the time that means building on the backs of good-to-mediocre employees. And that’s usually fine… until mediocrity shows up in management. At that level, it doesn’t just limit one person’s output — it stalls growth across the company.
What I’ve learned is that “right hire, right seat” isn’t a fixed state. Someone who starts as the perfect fit can become the wrong hire over time. It’s a bit harsh, but this usually comes down to capability. I’ve had managers who were hardworking, loyal, and committed — but no amount of training or independence could compensate for poor attention to detail, weak critical thinking, or lack of problem-solving skills. Those gaps make it impossible to trust them in the driver’s seat, and eventually, the entire team feels the drag.
Misalignment in roles doesn’t always happen because you hired the wrong person. Sometimes it happens because the business outgrows the person — and leadership doesn’t make the tough call to recognize it.
Great leaders don’t just hire well — they continually evaluate fit. Because the wrong person in the wrong seat doesn’t just hold back a role. It holds back the whole company.
3. Underinvestment (Time, Money or People)
Time and time again, one of the biggest leadership failures is underinvestment in marketing. Not because leaders don’t care about growth, but because they underestimate what it actually takes to achieve it. They want predictable leads and compounding results, but try to get there with minimal budget, a skeleton team, or by giving marketing only part of their attention.
The problem with underinvestment is that it creates false negatives. Campaigns are killed too early because they didn’t “work.” Talent churns because they were spread too thin. Strategies stall because no one had the time to properly execute them. On paper it looks like marketing failed. In reality, it was never given the resources to succeed.
And here’s the irony: leaders tell themselves they’re being cautious or lean — but underinvestment is one of the most expensive decisions you can make. Every month you starve marketing, you’re not just saving money, you’re delaying growth you’ll never get back. Lost momentum doesn’t show up on a P&L, but it compounds silently.
Strong leaders understand that growth is an investment, not an expense. If you want marketing to perform like a growth engine, you have to fuel it — with budget, with talent, and with your own attention. Otherwise, you’re not testing strategy. You’re testing luck.
4. Ego over Accountability
Ego is one of the most insidious leadership failures because it’s hard to see in yourself. It’s easy to tell yourself the story: “I built this business. I know what works. If something’s off, it’s because the team isn’t executing.” That mindset protects the leader’s confidence — but it blinds them to the fact that their own decisions, habits, or resistance to change might be the real bottleneck.
In marketing, ego doesn’t always look like arrogance. Sometimes it looks like stubbornness — refusing to test brand campaigns because you “don’t believe in them.” Sometimes it looks like denial — blaming external factors instead of admitting the strategy is stale. And sometimes it looks like avoidance — staying out of the details so you don’t have to confront the fact that the plan isn’t working.
The problem is, when leaders don’t take accountability, teams stop learning. Failures get hidden. Risks aren’t discussed openly. The cycle repeats because no one at the top is willing to say, “This isn’t working — and I’m part of the reason why.”
The most effective leaders aren’t the ones who are always right. They’re the ones who are accountable enough to be wrong quickly, adapt, and create space for their teams to do the same. Ego slows growth. Accountability accelerates it.
5. Leading From An Echo Chamber
When leaders only listen to their own instincts, their inner circle, or the same recycled ideas, they cut themselves off from fresh perspectives. The team ends up optimizing yesterday’s playbook instead of adapting to today’s market.
In marketing, that’s deadly. Channels evolve, buyers change, creative fatigue sets in — but in the echo chamber, everything looks fine until results fall off a cliff. Instead of diagnosing the real issue, leaders double down on what’s familiar, often blaming the team or execution rather than questioning their own assumptions.The irony is that what looks like “stability” from inside the echo chamber is actually slow decline.
The real danger isn’t just missing short-term opportunities — it’s losing touch with reality altogether. By the time the market forces the truth on you, you’ve already fallen behind competitors who were willing to test, learn, and adapt.
Good leadership requires breaking out of the echo chamber. That means inviting outside perspective, testing new ideas, and being willing to hear uncomfortable truths before the market forces you to.
The Bottom Line
Step back and the pattern becomes obvious: most marketing problems don’t actually start in the marketing department. They start in leadership.
Unclear priorities. Mediocrity tolerated in management. Chronic underinvestment. Ego that gets in the way of accountability. Echo chambers that shut out fresh thinking. These aren’t tactical mistakes — they’re leadership failures. And when they go unaddressed, no amount of better tools, campaigns, or hires will fix them.
If your marketing isn’t working, don’t just look at the team or the tactics. Look at the conditions leadership has created. Because marketing can only be as focused, resourced, and adaptive as the environment it operates in.
Great marketing is the byproduct of great leadership. Fix the root, and the results will follow.
