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Leadership

Letters page: How do I stop the CEO thinking AI can reduce my marketing headcount?

"Dear Rich,

I'm a marketing director at a B2B software company. My team is 11 people. Content, demand gen, ops, and a couple of SDRs on a dotted line.

Last month our CEO started talking about AI. He'd seen a demo at some PE portfolio day and a talk from someone who claimed they'd "cut their marketing team in half and 10x'd their output." He hasn't said it directly, but the direction of travel is obvious.

Since then our CFO has started asking about "marketing efficiency gains from AI." My CEO keeps forwarding me articles about companies replacing writers with AI tools. Last week in our exec meeting he asked, in that casual-but-not-casual way, "what does this person actually do?".

I'm not anti-AI. I've been experimenting like everybody else and some of it genuinely impresses me. I can see how it makes ideation faster.

But my team is already stretched. Sales are not doing great and they have open positions. We don't need fewer people. We need the same people moving faster so we can actually deliver what the business is asking for.

Every time I try to make this case I sound defensive. Like I'm just protecting headcount. But if I just nod along and start cutting, we'll be in serious trouble in six months when we can't execute on anything.

So, how do I play it? Without sounding like I'm resisting change?"

Jay, Ohio

Rich's reply

Thanks for your note Jay. My first response was an audible 'ergh'. But the good news is that I am certain so many marketers are facing exactly the same situation right now.

I remember when Marketing Automation was the latest buzzword and a Head of Region asked me how many marketers we could let go because we could automate things. I remember he brought it up again in a meeting with a CFO so I replied that he was completely right…we should be investing in MA but we'd need more people, not less, as we'd need to increase the volume of quality content to be able to build effective nurture tracks and we'd need a dedicated MA manager to build it out. The look on his face was enjoyable. There are some parallels to the situation you face Jay, life continues to be cyclical!

Let's try and take the sting out of things and spin the situation on its head.

First, your CEO has come back from a conference genuinely excited about the potential of your function. We might be able to use that. Most marketing directors would kill for a CEO who believes marketing can be dramatically more impactful. He's not trying to destroy your team. He's looking at it and thinking there's more in it. He's just landed on the wrong lever.

Second, he is talking to you about this. Not going behind your back. Not hiring a consultant. Not restructuring over your head. He's forwarding you articles and asking you questions. That's an invitation to lead the conversation, even if it doesn't feel like one. Even if it irritates you to the bone. He's interesting in the topic so, sorry, it's best to lean in.

Third, you said your team is already stretched and sales are behind. That could actually be your strongest card and you haven't played it yet.

And fourth, you are already experimenting with AI on your own time. Which means you know more about what it can and can't do than your CEO does. He has a conference demo and has heard someone jump up on stage trying to make themselves look like a messiah (Champagne CMO, per chance?). You have reality. That is an enormous advantage if you use it properly.

So let's reframe this.

Right now, in your CEO's head, the story is:

AI is powerful. Our marketing team is expensive. Therefore, AI should mean fewer people and less cost.

That logic feels clean, which is why it's dangerous. Your job is not to argue against it. Your job is to replace it with a better story.

And the better story is already sitting in your inbox. You just told me your team is stretched. That means the business is leaving growth on the table because your team doesn't have capacity. Your CEO cares about growth more than he cares about headcount. If the company is growing, headcount requests go through a lot easier.

In your next conversation with him, don't start with AI and don't start with your team. Start with the gap.

Ask him: Of all the things marketing should be doing for this business right now, what are we not getting to?

He might come up with a list, CEO's rarely have no viewpoint. Pipeline in a new segment. Board pressure to achieve an exit. A country or service line that is struggling. A margin target which looks like it won't be hit. Whatever it is, let him talk.

Then ask: If my team had 30% more capacity tomorrow, which of those would you want us to attack first?

He'll pick one. Maybe two.

Then you say: That's exactly what I want to use AI for.

Not to cut people. To close the gap between what marketing should be delivering and what we currently can. Right now we're spending too many hours on work that AI can accelerate, first drafts, lead research, reporting, content repurposing. If we free that time up, we redirect it straight into the growth areas you just described.

Notice what's happened. You haven't defended your team. You haven't argued about headcount. You haven't pushed back on AI. You've taken his enthusiasm for AI and pointed it at his enthusiasm for growth and connected them in a way that doesn't involve firing anyone. And you've bought yourself some time. And time always makes things a little easier.

He may have been dragged over to this event you mention by your PE investors and asked to take a serious look. Maybe it was another firm in the PE's portfolio singing nonsense up on stage and he feels obliged to take a look. He came away from that event thinking about cost. You've made it about revenue. CEOs prefer revenue.

Now, I do want to say something you might not want to hear.

Your CEO's instinct is not entirely wrong. It's just premature.

As AI matures and your team learns to work with it, the shape of your team will change. The person who currently spends most of their week writing first drafts might become someone who spends most of their week on something a little harder and more strategic, with AI handling the drafting. That's a different role. Some people will grow into it brilliantly. Some will struggle.

Your job as a leader isn't to freeze the team in place. It's to evolve it. Help your people build the skills that make them more valuable alongside AI, not in competition with it. If you do that well, nobody needs to be cut, because the team becomes capable of things it couldn't do before, and the business will want more of that, not less.

But if you just dig in and defend the current setup, your CEO will eventually go around you. He'll bring in someone who "gets it" (or make your report into someone who says they do) and you'll lose control of the conversation entirely.

So don't fight the energy. Redirect it in a way you're more comfortable.

Go into your next meeting with the aim of coming out of it with a joint experiment with AI to learn together what its true capabilities are and how it could work for the firm. Give me 60 days to show what that looks like with real numbers.

That's not defensive. That's leadership. And it's the kind of conversation that changes how your CEO sees you, not just your team. You also bring him along on the journey.

If the people standing up at events saying wildly sugar coated claims about their teams and AI are proven to be full of….you know what…(hint - the majority are)…then you'll come to that conclusion together. If you find a way of improving your capacity challenges, then that's great too?

Play this well and you won't just protect 11 jobs. You'll make the case for 13.

Onwards,

Rich

Feb 21, 2026

7 min read

Author: Rich Fitzmaurice

Career

Letters page: How do I stop my CEO embarrassing the company on LinkedIn?

"Dear Rich,

Our CEO is obsessed with social media. He posts constantly and, while he is not the worst on LinkedIn, it is… not good.

The bigger problem is that my manager, the Head of Comms, has now asked me to take ownership of his content going forward.

To give you a flavour of what I am dealing with:

He has asked what awards we can “win him” to give his profile more credibility.
He has suggested running around Central Park filming selfie videos because “everyone loves that format.”
He thinks we can use AI to automate his written posts so he can focus on video.
He does not seem bothered that the only people engaging are employees.

I have my first proper one on one planning session with him in two weeks and I am already dreading it. How do I handle this without either destroying my integrity or just becoming a pair of hands executing nonsense that quietly kills me inside?"

Marie, New York

Rich’s reply

Marie, I completely understand where you are coming from, but let’s reframe this straight away.

First, your manager has played a blinder. They have managed to pull your CEO’s social presence into the comms function. Whether that was by design or luck does not matter. It creates a real opportunity to raise the bar.

Second, your CEO clearly believes that being visible on social matters. That is not a bad instinct. He may be confused about what good looks like, but that is exactly where you come in.

Third, he is willing to put himself out there. Even the running videos tell you something. He is not hiding. Many CEOs are deeply uncomfortable being public. Yours is not. That is an asset if it is guided well.

Fourth, your manager trusts you to work directly with the most senior person in the business on one of his passion projects and one of the company’s most visible channels. That is not admin. That is endorsement.

And finally, he does not yet understand what good metrics or real impact look like. Which means you get to define them.

Seen through that lens, this is not a nightmare. It is a high stakes opportunity to influence up.

Your job is not to tell him his ideas are bad. That will get you nowhere. Your job is to reframe what “working” on social actually means.

Right now, in his head, working probably equals:

Posting a lot
Looking busy
Getting likes
Feeling visible

You need to gently shift that to:

Reputation
Authority
Trust with the right audience
Signal over noise

And you do that by talking outcomes, not formats.

In your one on one, do not start with Central Park or video or AI. Start with purpose.

Ask him:
What do you want your presence to actually do for the business?

Customers
Investors
Recruits
Partners
Future board members

Then ask the more powerful follow up:
If one of those people looked at your feed for five minutes, what would you want them to think about you?

Serious operator
Clear thinker
Trusted leader
Someone worth betting on

Then ask:
What are the subjects you feel you genuinely know more about than almost anyone else in the industry?

Once he answers those, his current instincts will quietly start to look misaligned without you ever having to say they are wrong.

Awards chasing becomes:
What actually builds credibility with the people you care about?

Running selfies becomes:
What formats signal authority rather than attention seeking?

AI mass production becomes:
What is worth saying even if it is less often?

Employee likes becomes:
Are the right people paying attention, not just the nearest ones?

At that point, you can start to bring in the real value of comms:

Working with PR to get him in the right publications, on the right topics, saying something that actually moves his reputation forward.
Shaping his thinking into sharp points of view rather than content volume.
Editing ruthlessly so everything sounds like him at his best, not him on a bad day with a prompt.

Play this well and you will have regular one on one access to the most powerful person in the company. You will be helping shape how the market sees him and, by extension, how it sees the business.

So what could have been a soul destroying experience, could actually become career making.

Onwards!

Jan 25, 2026

4 min read

Author: Rich Fitzmaurice

Career

Letters page: How do I deal with a micromanager?

"Hi Rich,

I’m 31 and less than a year into my first Head of Marketing role. It’s just me, an intern and a full-service agency.

I am really struggling with a manager who micromanages everything I do. Every decision, every slide, every email seems to need their input, and nothing I do is ever right.

He doesn’t let me have a budget let alone own it. Every spend has to go through him like I am Oliver Twist. It’s exhausting and it’s starting to knock my confidence. I think I am a good marketer. I’m trying to stay professional and deliver, but it’s driving me crazy and making me really anxious every time I go into the office. I think the chief commercial officer feels the same way I do but rather than us joining forces, he has adopted some of the CEO’s traits to carry favour.

How do I deal with a micromanager like this? Or should I just leave and take the blemish on my CV?"

Holly, East Kilbride, Scotland

Rich's Reply

Holly, I really feel for you.

Micromanagement is a super quick way to drain the energy, confidence and enjoyment from a role, and what you are describing is not light touch oversight. It is behaviour that needs to change.

The first thing to get straight in your head is this. This is almost certainly not about your competence. It is about anxiety, fear of failure, pressure from above, insecurity, and a need to retain control. When someone wants to approve every slide, every email and every pound spent, they are not trying to improve the work. They are trying to reduce their own sense of risk.

It also means that, in practice, you are not being allowed to do the job you were hired to do. A Head of Marketing role without budget ownership, decision authority and space to exercise judgement is not really a Head of Marketing role. It is a senior execution role with a bigger title. That distinction matters for your confidence and your future.

The second thing is that suffering in silence or quietly resenting it never fixes the problem. It just poisons the relationship and slowly chips away at your confidence, and, as you are already feeling, your sleep and mental health too. And absolutely nothing is worth the toll that those things take on your body.

The grown up, emotionally intelligent, move is to try and reset the working contract, calmly and professionally.

A one to one is the place to do it, and the framing matters. Not emotional. Not accusatory. Focus on outcomes and effectiveness, not on how controlling it feels.

Something like:
I want to do my best work here and take real ownership. At the moment I feel we are checking in so frequently that it slows things down and makes it harder for me to build confidence in my judgement. Could we be clearer on what you want visibility on, where you are happy for me to run independently, and what good looks like?

You are not saying stop micromanaging me. You are saying let’s agree trust, boundaries and expectations so I can do a better job for you.

Most micromanagers hover because they hate being surprised. The people I have seen successfully loosen that grip have removed the surprises. They over communicate. They flag risks early. They share progress before being asked. They close loops. They become predictable. Reliability is the fastest way to build trust with someone who is anxious.

Agree explicitly:

What decisions you own
What decisions they want sign off on
When they want updates
What success looks like

Then deliver against that relentlessly, even if it feels uncomfortable at first. You are playing the smarter game.

At the same time, protect your own headspace. Micromanagement has a nasty habit of making very capable people start doubting themselves. Keep evidence of your impact. Get perspective from peers or mentors. Remind yourself that one person’s need for control is not a verdict on your talent.

There is also a harder truth to acknowledge.

Some leaders do not change. Their need for control is part of who they are, not a phase. The fact that your Chief Commercial Officer has chosen to mirror the CEO rather than partner with you is a signal about the culture you are in. It is a culture that rewards appeasement upward more than trust sideways. That is not an easy place for a first time Head of Marketing to grow.

If you have the conversation, build trust, deliver consistently, and months later nothing has shifted, then this stops being a communication problem and becomes an environment problem.

At that point, the question is not how do I cope? but is this the place I want to become the leader I am trying to grow into. Is the toll it is taking worth it?

Leaving a toxic, controlling environment is not a blemish on a CV. Staying too long and letting it hollow out your confidence often is.

Start with clarity, not conflict. Build trust through predictability. Protect your confidence and your health.

And remember, being micromanaged says far more about the manager and the culture than it does about you. At least the experience will help shape which type of leader you do not want to become yourself.

Onwards.

Jan 18, 2026

4 min read

Author: Rich Fitzmaurice

Career

Letters page: How do I deal with my asshole colleague?

"Hi Rich,

There is ongoing tension between me and a colleague and it keeps spilling into meetings. I won’t overshare, but we have never really gotten along. I can’t point to one big moment that started it, more a slow build of him becoming increasingly hostile.

It is petty, childish stuff. Talking behind my back. Ignoring emails. Little digs in meetings. At one point he even threw my pens in the trash. Real middle school behaviour.

I am not someone who enjoys confrontation and, honestly, it is starting to get under my skin. It is affecting the atmosphere, my focus, and I have caught myself dreading Sunday evenings, which feels ridiculous to admit when I am almost 30. The only support I get from colleagues is the odd eye roll or quiet arm around the shoulder when he is within ear shot.

It has got to the point where I am genuinely wondering whether it is easier to leave than keep dealing with it."

Ade, Atlanta

Rich’s reply

I am irritated on your behalf, Ade.

You, quite rightly, thought you’d left this sort of thing behind you when you graduated from high school. But nope, the workplace has bullies too.

The danger with pathetic behaviour like this is not just the behaviour itself. It is what it turns you into. You start replaying conversations. You become guarded in meetings. You either avoid them, overcompensate, or find yourself biting your lip. None of which you should be made to do.

The fact you are dreading Sunday evenings is not trivial. That is your nervous system telling you something is wrong. Work should stretch you, challenge you, even frustrate you at times. It should not make you anxious before the week has even started.

An important caveat. I always give advice from the heart, as a real human being, based on my own experiences. I say it how I see it. Feel free to ignore it. I also know it can feel especially uncomfortable in corporate America to raise interpersonal issues without worrying you will be labelled “difficult”.

First, ground yourself. Your job is to stay professional, protect your performance, and not let one person derail your reputation or your enjoyment of the work.

Before you do anything else, keep your own house in order. Stay calm in meetings. Stick to facts. Do not get drawn into side battles or passive aggressive exchanges. If needed, quietly keep a record of incidents so you are clear on what is actually happening, not just how it feels. Dates, meetings, behaviour, impact. That may come in very handy later.

Then, rather than going straight to him, I would start with your line manager.

Not an emotional unloading. Not a therapy session. Calm, factual, and adult.

Frame it as a team issue, not a personality clash. Something along the lines of:

"I feel there is ongoing tension between me and X and I think it is starting to affect me and the team. There are side comments, being ignored on email, and behaviour that feels unprofessional. I am not trying to make this personal, but it is starting to impact the dynamic in the room. I would really value your help in looking out for it and shutting it down."

You are doing three important things there.
You are describing behaviour, not attacking character.
You are explaining impact on you AND the team.
You are asking for support, not permission to fight back.

Once you have raised it, it is no longer “your problem with him”. It becomes a leadership problem. And that is exactly where it belongs.

You are not there to fix someone else’s personality. You are there to do your job in an environment that is adult, respectful, and safe to operate in.

If your manager handles it well, great. If they minimise it or ignore it and the behaviour continues, that tells you something important about the culture you are in and what it tolerates.

And that, in the end, is what should inform whether you stay or look for something new.

Onwards.

Watch the full response to this interview on the B2B Marketing United YouTube channel

Jan 18, 2026

3 min read

Author: Rich Fitzmaurice

man seeking help navigating via a signpost

Letters page: How do I lead a team more AI savvy than me?

"Hi Rich,

I am in my 50’s managing a team where some of the younger members clearly know more about AI and new tools than I do. I feel behind the curve and, if I am honest, it is getting me down and thinking that I may ‘encouraged’ to retire early.

What do I do?"

Marie, Oshkosh, Wisconsin

Rich’s reply

Marie, what you are feeling is completely normal and far more common than people admit.

New technologies come into our world all the time and they can be intimidating, especially when something like AI arrives with so much noise, hype, and scaremongering attached to it.

But if you look back at your career, you have already lived through so many changes that genuinely transformed how marketing is done:

Email replacing fax and post
Websites replacing brochures
Search engines and SEO
CRM replacing spreadsheets and rolodexes
Marketing automation and nurture
Social media and personal brand
Programmatic and digital targeting
Analytics and live dashboards
Cloud collaboration tools
Mobile and always on internet
Online events and streaming

And each time, you adapted. You learned. You stayed relevant. You progressed. You are now leading a team because of the judgement, experience, and perspective you bring, not because you are the fastest on the latest tool.

At your level, you do not need to be the smartest technician in the room. Your value is in setting direction, making decisions, connecting dots, and creating the conditions for talented people to do their best work.

There is no need to hide gaps or bluff. In fact, the strongest leaders are comfortable hiring people who are better than them in specific areas and then giving them space to shine. That is not weakness. That is leadership.

Your role is to ask the right questions, challenge assumptions, link tools to outcomes, and decide what really matters for the business. Let your team be brilliant at the how. You stay accountable for the why and the so what.

At the same time, stay curious. You do not need to become an AI expert overnight, but you should show that you are learning, that you care, and that you are not switching off from the future. Ask your team to teach you. Create moments for show and tell. Make learning visible and normal. Consider an external coach.

When marketing automation started to become impossible to ignore and my own team were waving business cases under my nose, I realised I needed to upskill simply to do my job properly. I signed up for a two day course and learned a huge amount. It gave me the confidence to ask better questions and make better decisions. That is what matters.

Finally, park any thoughts about being nudged into early retirement. That decision will always be yours and yours alone. Experience, judgement, and calm under pressure do not suddenly lose their value because a new technology arrives.

You have adapted before. You will adapt again.

Head up. Stay curious. Lead with confidence.

Onwards.

Watch the full response to this interview on the B2B Marketing United YouTube channel

Jan 13, 2026

3 min read

Author: Rich Fitzmaurice

Career

Letters page: How do I deal with being blamed for missed revenue targets?

"Hi Rich,

I work in product marketing and everything is being judged through a 'revenue lens' by the new Head of Sales, but I do not even own the levers that directly drive revenue.

Sales controls sales. Product management controls pricing. The service line controls strategy. Yet it feels like product marketing is being asked to explain why the numbers are not being met.

It is exhausting trying to defend work that is only one part of a much bigger picture. I would really value your view on how I can navigate this and still have real influence instead of just being the messenger when targets are missed."

Sarah, Boston, USA

Rich’s reply

Sarah, your frustration is completely understandable. Let’s unpick what is really going on to help you find a way forward.

You say everything is being judged through a revenue lens. As B2B marketers, that is actually the right lens. We may not control every lever, but our work exists to support commercial outcomes. Marketing cannot declare success if the business has failed to hit its number.

I learned that lesson early in my career. I once watched a VP of Marketing celebrate a great year on stage while sales had missed target badly and the business was about to write down billions. It never sat right with me. From that moment on, I have believed that marketing only wins when sales wins.

Your Head of Sales is new. That matters. He will be under pressure to prove himself quickly, to deliver against the number he committed to when he took the role, and to identify where performance can be lifted. One of the first things most new sales leaders do is turn up the heat across the organisation. Marketing is just one of those places he will ask questions of.

You are also right that product marketing does not control pricing, strategy, or the final sales conversation. Most B2B marketers live with that tension. In time, I think our profession will need to be far more influential in those areas. But in the short term, the most productive response is not to defend your patch. It is to lean into the commercial agenda.

The best advice I can give you is to help your new Head of Sales be successful.

Recognise that he is now one of your most important stakeholders. He has momentum. He has board level support. And he has a very direct line of sight to the outcomes everyone ultimately cares about. Position yourself as an ally, not as someone explaining why things are complicated.

A few practical things you can do:

Spend time with customers alongside sales. Sit in on meetings. Listen to objections. Understand how deals really move or stall. Being able to reference real sales conversations will give you credibility and context in every discussion you have with him.

Build campaigns with sales, not for sales. That does not mean being dictated to, but it does mean involving them early. Let them shape messaging, proof points, and prioritisation. When they feel ownership, they use the work and they defend it.

Be forensic about your budget. He will look under the bonnet of every function. Make sure you can explain not just what you are spending, but why, and how each major investment is meant to support pipeline, win rates, or deal confidence.

Clarify your role and your impact. Put together a simple view of where product marketing sits across the sales cycle. Show how you influence awareness, consideration, validation, and conversion. Be explicit about what you own, what you support, and where your success is tied to sales success. I have often argued that marketing should share responsibility for won business targets, not just pipeline, to demonstrate true alignment.

Proactively bring ideas. What could improve pipeline quality. What could help sales win more often. What content, proof, or enablement is missing. What friction do you see in the buying journey. Do not wait to be asked.

And finally, build a relationship. He is new, probably still finding his feet, and likely under more pressure than he is letting on. A coffee, a lunch, an invitation to a team event, all help build trust and openness whilst you may benefit from an inside track into why he is asking certain questions and what he is trying to do.

You will always feel some heat when revenue is the ultimate measure. That is part of the job. You can fight it, but it is a losing battle. Or you can reframe your role as one that is inseparable from sales success.

When sales wins, marketing wins.
When sales struggles, marketing has work to do.

Position yourself as someone who understands that reality and is actively helping to change it, not just explain it.

Onwards!

Jan 12, 2026

4 min read

Author: Rich Fitzmaurice

Leadership

Letters page: How do I manage people who wanted my job?

“Dear Rich,

I have just been promoted from Marketing Manager to Head of Marketing. The team I now lead includes two people who went for the same role and did not get it. One has been supportive. The other has said they were happy for me but has been subtly undermining in meetings. Questioning decisions in a way they never used to. Going quiet and then raising doubts elsewhere. Nothing overt, but enough that other people have also picked up on it and let me know.

I am trying to be fair and professional, but I also do not want to look weak or let this dynamic damage the team. How exactly are you supposed to lead people who were your peers yesterday and might have an axe to grind?”

Alex, San Diego

Rich’s reply

Alex, congratulations on your promotion. Getting the role in a competitive situation is no small achievement, so well done.

You have not just stepped up in responsibility. You have stepped into a new power relationship in front of people who wanted the same seat.

Going from Marketing Manager to Head of Marketing is a fundamental shift. You are no longer just responsible for delivery. You are now responsible for strategy, direction, prioritisation, budget, performance, and ultimately for who succeeds and who does not. The social contract has changed, whether anyone says it out loud or not.

For the person who did not get the role, there is often a mix of disappointment, bruised ego, and quiet comparison. Sometimes that shows up as support. Sometimes it shows up as subtle resistance. Not because you are doing anything wrong, but because the situation is hard to process. It is only human to feel deflated.

The first mistake new Heads of Marketing make is trying to smooth it over by being overly accommodating. Trying to prove they are still one of the team. Avoiding difficult conversations. Hoping the tension will fade on its own. It rarely does.

The second mistake is swinging the other way and becoming overly formal or distant, as if authority alone will solve it. That can harden positions and make the relationship colder than it needs to be.

The third, and most damaging, is tolerating undermining behaviour in the name of empathy or hope.

Empathy is important. It is mature to consider how someone feels. But leadership is also about deciding what behaviour is acceptable. It is about being clear who is on the bus and who is not.

In your situation, I would acknowledge the dynamic directly and early. Let your own line manager know what you plan to do before you do it so they are aligned and can support you if needed.

Then have a private, calm conversation with the individual. Not confrontational. Not emotional. Just clear.

Something like:

I know we have a new dynamic to get used to and that is not always easy. You are a key part of this team and I want us to be able to challenge each other openly and have each other’s backs. I need concerns raised in the room, not around it, and once decisions are made, I need visible support.

You are not asking for agreement. You are setting expectations, offering a reset, and drawing a line.

From there, consistency is everything. Apply standards evenly. No favourites. No special treatment. No overcompensation. Praise in public. Challenge in private. Make it clear through your behaviour that the role, not the history, now defines the relationship.

Also accept a hard truth. Some people will struggle with your success because it reflects something they wanted and did not get. You cannot manage their disappointment for them. You can only manage how it shows up at work. Hopefully the reset works and everyone moves forward.

If the undermining continues, it stops being about emotion and becomes about performance and professionalism. And it must be managed as such. Quiet resistance and toxic behaviour corrode teams far faster than open disagreement. If you have kept your line manager in the loop, you then start the process of moving that person out. In my experience, nobody ever regrets taking that step when it is truly needed. They only regret waiting too long.

Give yourself permission to let some relationships change. You have moved from being a peer to being accountable for a function. That comes with distance as well as authority, and you will find your balance over time.

Being a Head of Marketing is not about being liked. It is about being trusted to set direction, make calls, and hold the line when it matters. Sometimes that means making decisions that are uncomfortable, even if they keep you up at night until that final day with HR.

Do that with fairness, clarity, and calm, and most of the team will come with you. The ones who cannot, will, in time, either adapt, move on, or be moved on.

Welcome to leadership.

Onwards.

Jan 11, 2026

4 min read

Author: Rich Fitzmaurice

two women leaning on eachother for comfort

Career

Letters page: How do I bounce back from failure?

"Hi Rich,

I led a product launch that failed very visibly. We launched late, our pipeline generated is still at zero, senior leadership has given my boss a hard time over it on all hands calls, and I know all the decision making sat with me. Nobody has said anything overly negative to me directly, but I definitely feel out in the cold and I am mature enough to realize that there were so many things I could, and should, have done better. I keep waking up in the early hours replaying it in my head and I worry that this will define me here. How do you actually recover after a failure people have seen and remember? Honestly, should I start looking for another job?”

Claire, Manchester, UK

Rich’s reply

Rich’s reply

Claire, first things first. The fact you are mature enough to take responsibility and reflect is a very good sign. It is exactly the sort of behaviour I would look for and respect if I were in your organisation.

Almost everyone who goes on to do anything meaningful in marketing will have at least one visible failure on their record. A launch that flops. A spreadsheet with the wrong numbers. A big bet that does not pay off. A moment where you were trusted, you made a call, and it did not work.

Look at it this way. Every time you are interviewed, you will be asked some version of “tell me about a time when things went wrong and what you did.” Congratulations, you now have a genuine answer, although you are still writing the second half of the story.

Your career is long. Every bump in the road becomes training. Right now you can only see the failure. In reality you have just been through a very intense learning experience.

What separates people who go on to bigger roles from those who stall is almost never the mistake itself. It is how they behave afterwards. I firmly believe you should never judge someone on a mistake, only on how they respond.

There is also something important to understand about how leaders think. They would rather work with someone who has been wrong, learned, and stayed brave, than someone who has never been tested. Failure handled well is often a quiet signal of future leadership. It shows resilience, perspective, and judgement under pressure.

Senior leaders rarely remember the detail of what went wrong for very long. They have a lot going on. What they do remember is your response. Your composure. Your ownership. Your emotional maturity. And whether you can clearly articulate what you would do differently next time.

That senior stakeholder who is challenging your boss in public. I would put good money on the fact they have many such exchanges with many people. Good leaders air their view and then move on. They also know that failures like this are rarely down to one person. They are usually systemic, and fixing systems sits squarely in their remit.

There are three common traps B2B marketers fall into after a visible failure.

The first is over explaining. Hoping that if people really understood every detail, every nuance, every constraint, they would judge you differently. In reality this often keeps the failure alive longer than it needs to be.

The second is blaming. Throwing people under the bus is never admired and never forgotten, even if it brings a brief moment of emotional relief. True leaders stand in front of the criticism, not behind their teams. Many people will be disappointed about this launch, not just you. How you show up for them now will be remembered.

The third is becoming too emotional. Taking everything personally. Reading meaning into every comment. Assuming trust is gone rather than temporarily dented.

The strongest recovery looks much simpler from the outside.

Own the disappointment. Acknowledge it. Diagnose it. Proactively talk it through with your line manager and then take their lead on how far and wide it needs to go. It will probably be the last conversation on it.

Own what happened calmly. No drama. No excuses. No self-punishment.

Then move forward. Keep contributing. Keep your hand going up. Bring a great attitude. Execute well. Show through behaviour, not speeches, or, god forbid, long winded emails, that you have learned and that you are still willing to make decisions.

Most reputations are not defined by the worst day. They are defined by the worst reaction.

Judging by the letter you sent me, you care, willing to seek counsel and learn.

Your career will benefit from this. Honest.

Onwards.

Jan 11, 2026

4 min read

Author: Rich Fitzmaurice

Graduate

Letters page: How do I decide my next marketing grad scheme rotation?

“Hi Rich,

I joined a marketing graduate scheme at a big IT firm about 4 months ago and they are asking me what area of marketing I want to specialise in, and it will affect my next placement. But I don’t really know. I am really ambitious so I want to avoid being a generalist nobody hires later. How do I decide? What would you do in my situation?

Amelia, London, UK

Rich’s reply

Amelia, it’s great that your employers are taking an interest in your long-term career prospects and that they are asking you to shape things.

I’m going to make some assumptions before I share my view. Being on a graduate scheme means you are likely in your early twenties. Discussing placements, indicates your scheme facilitate rotations. By stating that you are unsure what to do next and have dropped me a line indicates that you are still forming your view on how your career in b2b marketing may pan out. This is helpful context.

In your situation, I would take your time to discover what you want to specialize in. 4 months is no time at all given you will likely have a career of 40+ years. What I would expect to be most useful to you at this moment in time is exposure to as many elements of the marketing mix as possible, combined with different types of marketing scenarios, other departments, geographies and stakeholders.

You should be no rush to pigeonhole yourself. Unless you are absolutely certain that you've found your dream role.

If I were you, I would embrace the rotations and go and work with different teams, and people, and budgets, and remits and find what you excel at, and enjoy, most. There are so many different facets of marketing that you can still explore within confines that you set. For example, if you are analytical by nature consider exploring the world of marketing operations, data, analysis, performance marketing or planning? If you are creative, consider exploring the brand or campaigns teams. Love interacting with customers? Consider events or product marketing. Want to touch everything straight away? consider an industry marketing role. Your marketing function may even allow you to float around working on a variety of projects, helping out across an entire team, where your extra pair of hands are needed and desired.

Most marketing leaders are generalists or forced to become them. Having exposure across many areas cannot only help you understand where you want to spend time in your career but also really enhance your understanding of marketing as a whole. If you can have a view on what good looks like across many areas of marketing, that will really serve your career well.

Talk to your current line manager and graduate scheme leaders. Proactively contact other marketing leaders across your marketing function for a coffee to increase your understanding of what type of work they do and increase their awareness of you. I am willing to bet each and every one of them would love a hungry graduate to join their team and lighten their load, especially if your costs are covered centrally!

If you are lucky enough to know what you want to do with the next 40 years of your career by the time you start your last rotation, then I think you’d be in a fantastic place and far ahead of many others.

I wish you all the best in your marketing career. I’d love to be in your shoes again. How exciting!

Onwards!

Jan 3, 2026

3 min read

Author: Rich Fitzmaurice

Career

Letters page: How do I approach an exit interview after redundancy?

“Hi Rich,

What is your view on exit interviews? I worked for a large b2b SaaS company and they’ve just made over 1,000 of us redundant. They have ripped the heart out of my working life. I’m still really hurt they let me go but the severance could have been worse. What sort of answers should I give just to get it over with? Could it harm the reference they give me?”

Jonathan, Dublin, Ireland

Rich’s reply

Jonathan, I am sorry you were included in the headcount reductions.

Over the last few decades (ahem, cough – cough), I’ve been in a few organisations when employee numbers were forcibly trimmed. I remember one, quite brutal one, earlier in my career when the marketing department was cut from over 600 to under 200.

A week before Christmas in, I think, 2008 (two months after I’d bought my first apartment), I received a call from an ExCo member out of the blue telling me that I was part of the unlucky few. I was shocked to say the least, as I was doing extremely well managing Neil's, the CMO, pet project. She didn’t like my pushback and insisted that I would be receiving a letter from HR regarding my package. I ‘Instant Messaged’ (showing my age there!) the CMO asking if this was legit. He called me, assured me it was a mistake and went ballistic. There was a mix up in excel and I was just a number that got caught up in things.

But the lesson I learnt was how cold it could be. How easy it could be to be swept up into things. How, to the company, I was just an Employee Identification Number (EIN) and it didn’t matter what I’d done, what I was doing… these things can be arbitrary decisions without much thought.

Tech businesses in particular are very cyclical and when they make hiring pushes or downsizing…the volume involved tends to be at the more extreme ends of the scale. Lots of good people get swept up in it all and are more than likely to be people the company would actually rather have kept.

You should do what you are comfortable with in regard to the Exit Interview request, but I am quite blunt in my assessment of them in a redundancy scenario. I view them as offering very little upside but meaningful risk to the, departing, employee.

When I offer advice on this letter’s page, I do so under caveat but also with my intentions clear. I want to help you by giving you my view to consider. I have zero allegiance to your company.

So, my advice, assuming your exit package is finalised and secured, is to be very polite, say as little as possible and focus your energy on your next chapter. That’s if you do wish on taking part, as there is no obligation for you to do so and I would not feel that you owe them anything.

To borrow one of the British Royal Family's mantras, never complain and never explain.

Exit interviews exist to help companies feel better about their processes and protect themselves for the next time. If the company really cared what you thought, they would have asked you long before this point. If you have friends in HR (typically lovely humans when not having to represent the company in difficult situations) then you can share your comments to them in private and off the record.

I just do not see any upside for you in completing an exit interview. Some firms may even wave gift cards at you to do so but I still wouldn't budge.

As you mention, those in a redundancy situation are often still feeling raw and emotional. You may, accidentally, negatively alter the reference you receive. You may say something which harms you if you do have to take a legal route regarding your package. You may even impact some of the friends you are leaving behind.

You only live once Jonathan, so you do whatever you are most comfortable with doing. But you don’t owe a former employer anything. They got your hard work and you got paid. Put your future energy into you, and your career and your family.

I wish you all the luck in the world. This is just a bump in the road.

Onwards!

Jan 3, 2026

4 min read

Author: Rich Fitzmaurice

grafitti of two people facing each other with a loveheart balloon between them

Career

Letters page: How do I ask for a higher salary offer?

“Hi Rich,

I’ve received a job offer but how what is the best way to ask for a higher basic salary? I would be nervous doing it by phone call. Can I email it so everything is clear? Is it ok to direct my question straight to their HR person that I have dealt with so far? What is the best way to word it?”

Malia based in Austin, Texas

Rich’s reply

Firstly, congratulations on receiving a job offer. It’s very tough in the marketing sector right now, so well done for getting things to this point.

Everyone will have an opinion on topics like this, so you’re doing the right thing: asking others for their views. After that, it’s important you make the right decision for you, for the right reasons. Only you have all the context in terms of your personal situation and the seniority and environment you could be walking into.

I’ve had the privilege of leading very large marketing teams and I consider myself a bit of an outlier in always wanting to be fair and transparent when making hiring decisions. On more than one occasion I have given new hires more than they asked for because it was the right thing to do in relation to the role and location.

After hiring hundreds of marketers in my time, a lot of those asking for a higher salary offer than they received make a very similar mistake: they fail to sell it to the hiring manager in a compelling way.

So for me, if you genuinely feel you’re being undervalued, your aim should be to engage into a meaningful discussion direct with the hiring manager – after all, you should know them now, added them on LinkedIn and had a little civil follow up message back and forth. HR are the ones that lead you through the hoops but the buck stops with the hiring manager, it’s their budget you’ll be charged to and it’s their team you’ll be reporting into, and, crucially, either sitting within their salary structure or sticking out like a sore thumb.

HR are too busy and far too removed to have this discussion with you as they will not understand the ins and outs of the role, or the team, you may join. Get the hiring manager onsider and let them knock on HR’s door asking for a favour.

For me, I always, without fail, let the hiring manager make the call and I never said ‘haha, told you so”, if a hire went south at a later date. The only time I would ask them to hold on for a second would be if the compensation on offer was way out of whack, and even then, HR would normally be all over that and be the ones flagging it to me.

Malia, I strongly advise you try and get onto a call with the hiring manager. A possible approach would be:

“I want to say thank you for selecting me for the role. I am really happy and I can’t wait to work with you and the team”. I think this sets a good tone. You are making it loud and clear that you want the job, that’s a massive relief to a hiring manager. They selected you and you like them too!You are also subtly reinforcing that you and the team got on, another win! And you are separating your desire for the job with the compensation
“I just wanted to jump on a call with you and have an honest discussion around the compensation rather than sending emails that could be misunderstood or take too long to resolve. A salary of $X would be enough to get me over the line and start talking start dates. Are you open to discussing this with me?”. It’s mature to realise email tennis wouldn’t be optimal here. You are laying a carrot, if we can get to this number, we can finish this hiring process and I can join the team and get cracking.
“Are you open to discussing this with me?” Is a very direct, but fair, question to ask and it would be a strong character to respond with a hard no. It opens the door…

Now the hard part, you need to justify any higher compensation and show a high level of emotional intelligence. You could lose the entire job offer here if you lose control.

All hiring managers like to see that you have done extra homework, the work you had to initiate on your own. So this is an opportunity to show that you have really, really thought about the role, asked the right questions during the interview process and really understood the answers you received. And now you are ready to share how you will do the role even better than they would have hoped. You have started to develop on their thoughts in a compelling way, bringing more skills than they knew they needed, and with genuine passion to get going. You’re not trying to negotiate, you’re trying to achieve a fair offer.

After you have, succinctly, tried to get your point of view across, let the hiring manager respond. They may decline flat, insisting the offer is the offer or that the range is the range. So, before you even request the call, you must have already decided where your line is. If pushed, would you back off and take the offer or say thank you, let’s keep in touch in case the right role and package become available in the future.

I’ve experienced candidates get this scenario very wrong. Common mistakes include:

Making it personal rather than professional: I’ve had candidates tell they want to buy a house, go on holiday more, buy a new car – sorry, whilst I sympathise with this, this isn’t a reason for me to increase the offer.
Quoting salary benchmarks: I’ve had candidates mention salary surveys (or these days an Ai tool!) that says they should be earning X, but you should always assume the hiring team have already done their due diligence. HR typically has their own benchmarking tools that they have zero incentive to deviate from.
Reacting emotionally: I’ve seen candidates react really emotionally and showing frustration in a way that can shift the tone real fast. I can assure you that all such emails to HR do get forwarded to the hiring manager and usually with some commentary and judgement…
Focusing on one number: It sounds a bit cliché but salary is just one component. Bonus structure, benefits, equity and flexibility are well worthy of consideration. And as your career progresses, and the shape of your Homelife develops, your weighting to the individual elements will fluctuate.
Issuing ultimatums too early: Threats like “I cannot accept unless you hit X can shut down dialogue, fast. Only say it if you mean it as some hiring managers enjoying flexing their muscle and telling you where to go.
Apologising: People sometimes soften their request with apologies or disclaimers like ‘I might be wrong’ or ‘I know budgets are tight’. This could signal that you are a bit uncertain about your ask before you’ve even made it.
Not knowing their walkaway point: You need to be sure on what is acceptable to you and what is not. Without a clear floor, it is easy to accept something that you will resent later.

If you can convince the hiring manager you are worth it, I would expect an uplift in the offer, even if minor because they are working within constraints. Demonstrate the value, the passion, the desire to prove yourself whilst being mature and relatable…and well, you give yourself a good chance.

Malia, I hope that helps and I wish you all the best! Feel free to let us know how you get on!

Rich

Jan 31, 2026

7 min read

Author: Rich Fitzmaurice

Leadership

Letters page: How do I stop the CEO thinking AI can reduce my marketing headcount?

"Dear Rich,

I'm a marketing director at a B2B software company. My team is 11 people. Content, demand gen, ops, and a couple of SDRs on a dotted line.

I'm not anti-AI. I've been experimenting like everybody else and some of it genuinely impresses me. I can see how it makes ideation faster.

So, how do I play it? Without sounding like I'm resisting change?"

Jay, Ohio

Rich's reply

Thanks for your note Jay. My first response was an audible 'ergh'. But the good news is that I am certain so many marketers are facing exactly the same situation right now.

Let's try and take the sting out of things and spin the situation on its head.

Third, you said your team is already stretched and sales are behind. That could actually be your strongest card and you haven't played it yet.

So let's reframe this.

Right now, in your CEO's head, the story is:

AI is powerful. Our marketing team is expensive. Therefore, AI should mean fewer people and less cost.

That logic feels clean, which is why it's dangerous. Your job is not to argue against it. Your job is to replace it with a better story.

In your next conversation with him, don't start with AI and don't start with your team. Start with the gap.

Ask him: Of all the things marketing should be doing for this business right now, what are we not getting to?

Then ask: If my team had 30% more capacity tomorrow, which of those would you want us to attack first?

He'll pick one. Maybe two.

Then you say: That's exactly what I want to use AI for.

Now, I do want to say something you might not want to hear.

Your CEO's instinct is not entirely wrong. It's just premature.

So don't fight the energy. Redirect it in a way you're more comfortable.

That's not defensive. That's leadership. And it's the kind of conversation that changes how your CEO sees you, not just your team. You also bring him along on the journey.

Play this well and you won't just protect 11 jobs. You'll make the case for 13.

Onwards,

Rich

Career

Letters page: How do I stop my CEO embarrassing the company on LinkedIn?

"Dear Rich,

Our CEO is obsessed with social media. He posts constantly and, while he is not the worst on LinkedIn, it is… not good.

The bigger problem is that my manager, the Head of Comms, has now asked me to take ownership of his content going forward.

To give you a flavour of what I am dealing with:

He has asked what awards we can “win him” to give his profile more credibility.
He has suggested running around Central Park filming selfie videos because “everyone loves that format.”
He thinks we can use AI to automate his written posts so he can focus on video.
He does not seem bothered that the only people engaging are employees.

Marie, New York

Rich’s reply

Marie, I completely understand where you are coming from, but let’s reframe this straight away.

Second, your CEO clearly believes that being visible on social matters. That is not a bad instinct. He may be confused about what good looks like, but that is exactly where you come in.

And finally, he does not yet understand what good metrics or real impact look like. Which means you get to define them.

Seen through that lens, this is not a nightmare. It is a high stakes opportunity to influence up.

Your job is not to tell him his ideas are bad. That will get you nowhere. Your job is to reframe what “working” on social actually means.

Right now, in his head, working probably equals:

Posting a lot
Looking busy
Getting likes
Feeling visible

You need to gently shift that to:

Reputation
Authority
Trust with the right audience
Signal over noise

And you do that by talking outcomes, not formats.

In your one on one, do not start with Central Park or video or AI. Start with purpose.

Ask him:
What do you want your presence to actually do for the business?

Customers
Investors
Recruits
Partners
Future board members

Then ask the more powerful follow up:
If one of those people looked at your feed for five minutes, what would you want them to think about you?

Serious operator
Clear thinker
Trusted leader
Someone worth betting on

Then ask:
What are the subjects you feel you genuinely know more about than almost anyone else in the industry?

Once he answers those, his current instincts will quietly start to look misaligned without you ever having to say they are wrong.

Awards chasing becomes:
What actually builds credibility with the people you care about?

Running selfies becomes:
What formats signal authority rather than attention seeking?

AI mass production becomes:
What is worth saying even if it is less often?

Employee likes becomes:
Are the right people paying attention, not just the nearest ones?

At that point, you can start to bring in the real value of comms:

Working with PR to get him in the right publications, on the right topics, saying something that actually moves his reputation forward.
Shaping his thinking into sharp points of view rather than content volume.
Editing ruthlessly so everything sounds like him at his best, not him on a bad day with a prompt.

Play this well and you will have regular one on one access to the most powerful person in the company. You will be helping shape how the market sees him and, by extension, how it sees the business.

So what could have been a soul destroying experience, could actually become career making.

Onwards!

Career

Letters page: How do I deal with a micromanager?

"Hi Rich,

I’m 31 and less than a year into my first Head of Marketing role. It’s just me, an intern and a full-service agency.

I am really struggling with a manager who micromanages everything I do. Every decision, every slide, every email seems to need their input, and nothing I do is ever right.

How do I deal with a micromanager like this? Or should I just leave and take the blemish on my CV?"

Holly, East Kilbride, Scotland

Rich's Reply

Holly, I really feel for you.

Micromanagement is a super quick way to drain the energy, confidence and enjoyment from a role, and what you are describing is not light touch oversight. It is behaviour that needs to change.

The grown up, emotionally intelligent, move is to try and reset the working contract, calmly and professionally.

A one to one is the place to do it, and the framing matters. Not emotional. Not accusatory. Focus on outcomes and effectiveness, not on how controlling it feels.

You are not saying stop micromanaging me. You are saying let’s agree trust, boundaries and expectations so I can do a better job for you.

Agree explicitly:

What decisions you own
What decisions they want sign off on
When they want updates
What success looks like