Eric Wanta

While companies have embraced contract and temporary talent for many Marketing roles, high level brand strategy work has traditionally been either kept in house or delegated to high-priced consulting firms. This is changing rapidly as more and more companies discover the benefits of using experienced fractional marketing executives who are capable of adding value from day one. These seasoned executives help firms quickly and cost effectively develop the brand strategies and positioning platforms that are fundamental for supporting everything else the Marketing team does. And because they are working independently, they reduce the overall cost while improving flexibility.

Reflecting on an individual project is great, but I've found that the real moments of discovery come from putting things in context. Marketers grow by connecting the dots between all their various experiences - both successes and failures - and recognizing common threads that can be applied to future challenges. Reflection is the only way to make the whole of your collective brand strategy and marketing experience greater than the sum of the parts.

For most people, completely eliminating distractions is a noble goal but unrealistic - especially when you're working remotely from a home office. Doing things like having a dedicated space, turning off notifications, etc. are great, the dog will eventually need to go out, packages will get delivered and the refrigerator will always be calling for you to check what's inside. I've found the best way to minimize distractions is to acknowledge they exist and plan for them. Batch them into planned breaks so you manage them in a proactive way instead of passively reacting to every potential interruption in real-time.

Temporary and contract workers should operate seamlessly as an integrated part of your team and be working towards achieving the same metrics as everyone else. The same is true for performance evaluations and feedback - both formally and informally. The big difference to keep an eye on is the value part of the equation. A big driver of using outside talent is either to quickly scale up capacity, expand capabilities or save money. So the big-picture metric of their impact should be viewed through the lens of whether, long-term, it makes sense from a cost point of view to continue to keep a role as a contractor versus adding someone to your team on a full-time basis.