Coaching
The Multiplier Effect: Why Coaching Your Managers Is the Smartest Investment Your Brand Will Make
By Barbra Kingori
Think about the last major marketing initiative your company launched. A rebrand, a new go-to-market strategy, a campaign designed to shift perception. Now ask yourself honestly, where did it gain momentum, stall, or quietly die? In most marketing organisations, the answer points to the same place: the middle.
Brand and Marketing managers sit at one of the most complex and consequential intersections in any organisation. They translate brand strategy into campaign execution. They hold creative and cross-functional teams together during tight deadlines, manage agency relationships, navigate stakeholder feedback, and carry the pressure of delivering measurable results and often with very little leadership support.
And yet, when it comes to development investment, they are routinely overlooked in favour of senior marketing executives or high-potential programmes. It’ s time to change that.
The Pressure on Marketing’ s Middle Layer
Brand and Marketing managers are, in many ways, the engine room of every brand. They manage up to CMOs and leadership, across to sales, product, and finance, and down into creative, content, and digital teams, all at the same time. In the African business context, where marketing teams are often navigating rapid digital transformation, lean budgets, and audiences with fast-evolving expectations, this group is under enormous pressure to deliver ROI while keeping teams creative, motivated, and aligned.
Yet many marketing managers were promoted into their roles because they were brilliant strategists, outstanding copywriters, or exceptional campaign executors not because they were equipped to lead people. They received a new title, a bigger scope,
52 MAL71 / 26 ISSUE and very little guidance on how to navigate the human side of the work. The result? Burnout, creative stagnation, and teams that underperform not because of a lack of talent, but a lack of real leadership.
The data confirms this. The 2024 Mentally Healthy Survey found that 70 % of professionals in media, marketing, and creative industries experienced burnout in the past twelve months significantly higher than the 53 % reported among the general workforce. Marketing Week’ s 2025 Career and Salary Survey echoes the pattern: 58 % of marketers feel overwhelmed, and more than half report emotional exhaustion. Middle managers bear the heaviest burden of all. A Capterra study found that 71 % of middle managers feel overwhelmed and chronically stressed, the highest of any employee group. Fortune warned of an impending“ manager crash,” driven by years of accumulated burnout and inadequate support systems. In marketing, where the pace is relentless and the pressure to prove ROI is constant, this crisis is not coming, it is already here.
Why Coaching Changes Everything
Coaching is not a remedial tool. It is a transformative one. When marketing managers receive coaching, something powerful happens, they shift from“ doing the work” to“ leading the people who do the work.” They stop being the bottleneck on every brief and start building the strategic capability of those around them.
As John C. Maxwell puts it:“ Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others.” This is exactly the shift that coaching enables. It moves a marketing manager from being the person who has all the answers to the person who asks the right questions- and in doing so, elevates the of a direct manager is one of the strongest predictors of employee engagement and retention. entire team.
Here’ s what coaching unlocks in a middle manager:
Enhances Self-awareness: Coaching creates space for reflection that the pace of campaign cycles rarely allows. Marketing managers begin to understand their triggers under pressure, their blind spots in stakeholder management, and the impact of their leadership style on team creativity and output.
Builds Confidence and clarity: Many marketing managers operate in a constant state of ambiguity caught between shifting brand priorities, evolving consumer insights, and competing stakeholder demands. Coaching builds the confidence to champion bold creative ideas, push back on briefs that lack strategic clarity, and lead with conviction even when the data is inconclusive.
Better Communication and influence: Through coaching, marketing managers develop the language and emotional intelligence to navigate complex conversations. Whether it’ s giving honest creative feedback without killing morale, aligning sales and marketing around a shared narrative, or making a compelling case for budget to the C-suite.
Develop a coaching mindset: Perhaps most powerfully, marketing managers who are coached begin to coach their own teams. They stop micromanaging every deliverable and start developing the strategic thinking of junior marketers. This creates a ripple effect that goes beyond the individual. It builds a culture of ownership, experimentation, and continuous growth across the entire marketing function.
The Business Case Is Undeniable
Investing in marketing manager coaching is not just a people decision, it is a strategic investment in your brand’ s performance. According to ICF, 86 % of companies who