Risin' to the TOP

How do executives judge marketing leaders?

Ian Truscott
February 11, 2025

Welcome to The Beat by Rockstar CMO. I’m Ian Truscott, a CMO, trusted advisor, strategy consultant, and Chief Bottle Washer at Rockstar CMO. In this newsletter, I’d like to share a mix of what’s caught my eye, topics from our podcast, and our street knowledge blog.

Hi there!

It’s not often I write about career stuff or hustle porn, but I came across something on LinkedIn from a discussion about how CxOs should measure senior executives, and it kinda resonated with my experience and career, and I thought I’d share.

It’s an acronym, TOP, which describes what we bring to a senior role and how senior people judge us.

Talent - This isn’t just about your talent, but what talent you personally brought into the business, who you hired, and how did you nurture the talent already there.
Outcomes - What impact did you and the team have, not just the things you and the team did, but what those things achieved?
Perception - What did people think you did? For us, marketers, that’s often called “marketing the marketing” and is really about communication. Basically, perception is based on how well we communicated the first two, the talent of the team, and what we achieved.

Communication is a common theme on the podcast when we discuss marketing leadership success. The problem with perception is that it’s an opinion, and once someone has a position on something, they are emotionally vested, and it’s hard to argue against it - so make it good!

What do you think of TOP?

I like its simplicity, and it would be a good model if you were, say, writing about your experience in your LinkedIn profile or CV/resume - but maybe lacking something specifically measurable to become a set of goals or objectives.

And, of course, I couldn’t resist the soul/funk 80’s classic “Risin’ to the Top” by Keni Burke, for the email subject line, especially as last week’s Act Like You Know resonated with at least one of you!

BTW _ I’ve tried to find where this TOP acronym might come from, to add more research to support this - and while in HR performance circles, there is a discussion about “top talent” - that’s not this acronym, so I guess the chap who authored this LinkedIn article invented it - Chandar Pattabhiram - so check out that discussion.

Cheers!

Ian

Ian Truscott | Chief Bottle Washer Rockstar CMO

Say hello, reply to this email or find me on LinkedIn or my personal website.

The week’s street knowledge….

Chandar Pattabhiram on LinkedIn:

The TOP model, created over a cocktail and shared on LinkedIn - How do you measure the success of a senior/C-level leader?

www.linkedin.com/posts/chandarp_leadership-gtm-cxos-activity-7291516756202860544-xF5f

The FOG of Anecdata

The other day, listening to a podcast, I heard a word that has been rattling around in my head: “anecdata” which was used to refer to the anecdotal feedback you get to your marketing activities. Clearly, it’s not actual data, although it is sometimes treated as such - but it resonated with me…

www.linkedin.com/pulse/fog-anecdata-ian-truscott-631oe

Boosting Your Influence Through Personal Brand

I discovered this podcast this week from Gartner, and this episode coincidently fits the theme this week - I know “personal brand” is a bit ikky, but it touches on the idea of positioning yourself in the business.

open.spotify.com/episode/51oYJmhcHIJivxEY9dnxuv?si=ab243157b346412d

B2B Marketing Community | Exit Five

I’ve just joined Exit Five - having been a subscriber to their newsletter for a bit; it’s quite a small fee to join the paid community, and it has a private forum. It looks interesting; let me know if you are also a member.

www.exitfive.com