Coaching
Scientific Societies
From Doer to Discerner: How Coaching Helped Transform a Marketing Leader and a Culture
Scientific Societies (SciSoc)
A collaborative team supporting scientific associations through publishing, events, education, and member engagement services.
Engagement Length: 8 months
Weekly coaching sessions for 6 months, followed by biweekly check-ins for the final 2 months. Regular progress updates with the VP of Operations ensured cross-functional alignment and accountability for cultural transformation.
The Challenge
After partnering with Mercury Creative Group on a comprehensive brand strategy engagement, where we helped define the primary members, value propositions, and key messaging for each association under the SciSoc umbrella, this scientific services organization knew it was time to bring that clarity inside.
Enter a newly promoted Director of Marketing.
The transition happened at a critical moment. Budget reductions, staffing shifts, and legacy habits of marketing as reactive vs. proactive, made it difficult to turn strategic insights into real change. Leadership saw the opportunity: with the right support, this new Director could help bring about a culture shift, elevating marketing from execution to influence.
The challenge wasn’t just about role clarity. It was about elevating the role of marketing altogether.
The Approach
Mercury extended the engagement, shifting from brand strategy work to one-on-one leadership coaching with the new Director of Marketing.
Coaching focused on:
- Developing strategic leadership habits
- Shifting from doer to discerner—leading with intention rather than inbox volume
- Building cross-departmental alignment rooted in member experience
- Creating a feedback-informed team culture
- Elevating marketing’s role as a strategic partner to the organization
We started with weekly sessions to build momentum. As confidence and clarity grew, we transitioned to biweekly meetings for reflection, reinforcement, and systems building.
All along the way, we partnered with the VP of Operations to make sure this individual growth was translating into organizational change, and that the department had support from above to lead differently.
Wins
- Created strategic annual marketing plans for every client organization under SciSoc’s umbrella
- Launched a quarterly review system to tie marketing metrics to department-level and organizational goals
- Defined and drafted new roles (Senior Marketing Specialist and Integrated Marketing Manager) for future team development
- Established boundaries and successfully declined out-of-scope work, without guilt
- Implemented opt-out preferences to reduce email fatigue and improve the member experience
- Piloted AI tools for content creation and reporting efficiency
- Built new team feedback systems to support collaboration and morale
- Shifted from reactive requests to proactive partnerships with internal stakeholders
In Their Words
“This coaching experience helped me grow into the leader I wanted to be. I’ve learned how to prioritize what matters most, lead with intention, and build stronger partnerships across the organization.”
— Director of Marketing
“We’ve seen a visible shift in how marketing collaborates across departments. The Director has stepped into their role with clarity, confidence, and strategic focus, exactly what we hoped this investment would do.”
— VP of Operations
From Our Coach
“This engagement built on our earlier brand clarity work. Helping define what matters to members was only the beginning, it was even sweeter helping an internal leader drive that clarity forward.
Watching this Director move from task management to strategic discernment was incredibly rewarding. It wasn’t about changing everything at once. It was about building a way of working that empowers the team, protects capacity, and keeps the member experience at the center.”
— Cheri Quinn, Brand & Marketing Strategist, Mercury Creative Group
Looking Ahead
The Director is no longer managing a marketing team, they’re leading it. With a clear strategic plan, defined roles, and a quarterly rhythm of review, the department now has the templates and tools to be a consistent, measurable contributor to business goals.
And because this work was rooted in earlier brand strategy efforts, the impact is aligned inside and out. Messaging, roles, and metrics all bring the team back to the same goal: delivering the best possible experience for members.
This is what happens when clarity meets leadership. It creates lift.
