By Mark Pollard, founder and CEO of Sweathead
When you sign up to work in the creative industries, you think you’ve been hired for your ideas. But why are only certain kinds of ideas okay, and not others? In an industry addicted to change and novelty, the Overton Window – that enables certain ideas to be supported – can be so small that only the senior management team can squeeze through it.
Running a company makes someone the author of the company. They’re its voice, sailing the ship, in between furious pitches and crisis management. But leaders often don’t acknowledge the topics that their people want and need to discuss, or create environments where talking openly is acceptable. If they did, then agencies would be happier, healthier places.
Here are eight taboo topics it’s hard to raise:
1. The direction of the agency
Step one – leaders can ask this question to their teams every quarter, “What’s one thing we can do better?”
2. Incentives and bonus pay
I worked in companies for fifteen years and received a few bonuses, including from a client, McDonald’s (this is the one I remember most because it was so unexpected, and my first). In this business, incentives and bonuses are challenging things to work out, especially during years that we’re holding our breath through, like these.
Advertising is becoming less attractive for people to enter, let alone stay in, so increasing transparency and giving people more say in the agency could well be the strategy to pursue. The challenge with transparency though, is that once that box is opened, you can’t close it. But in rocky times, perhaps it’s best to invite teams to speak up about their financial needs.
3. Training and why you need it
I’ve taught thousands of people about strategy and advertising and most didn’t arrive at my course through a training budget. A major reason is that agencies are full of experts. Experts know stuff hence, “Why would we bring in someone to train our people when we know this stuff?” The insight: there’s a gulf of difference between being an expert in your trade and being a good teacher, and everyone needs the latter to progress.
4. Why we’re pitching all the time
If you can run pitches with small, dedicated teams with good chemistry, and an understanding of how each pitch fits the ambition of the agency, then pitches are ace. This is responsible pitching.
Reckless pitching is messy with sprawling teams. It allows senior people to come in and out with “opinions” even though they aren’t doing the work. And it’s chasing clients that are obviously toxic and unsuitable.
Pitching better means slowing down, and identifying what’s working and what’s not. Leadership can give their teams a sense of agency by asking what they need to succeed, then helping them make it happen.
5. The work not being effective, whether it’s creative or not
There’s a gaping hole in the understanding and discussion around marketing effectiveness and lots of agencies are sticking their heads in the sand. Their clients buy what they make, maybe some of their thinking, but often not the results. Campaigns with a great idea, which are truly creative, are celebrated in a way that makes you realise doing this level of work is so rare. Agency leaders need to slow down and work out how to put effectiveness at the heart of their agencies, and give teams the remit to ask the right questions.
6. The CEO’s leadership style and how it impacts your team
The CEO role isn’t easy. They need to state a clear direction, make difficult decisions that will often prioritize the company over its people, while also telling people they matter. It helps to be charismatic yet uncaring.
The challenge with this, is that advertising is filled with emotional and sensitive people. Many are idealists in a way that can be annoying to someone who just wants people to keep quiet and do their work. Speaking up about the CEO’s style is a challenge for many.
7. Burnout and mental health
Last year, a C-suite level leader took me aside and said, “Burnout–is this even real?” I wasn’t shocked because many people who operate companies seem to have stable personalities. You find them running marathons or riding expensive bicycles. The world simply exists for them to operate. And so I appreciated this question. But senior leaders could do much more to help create healthier workplaces for people that struggle.
Starting with encouraging teams to begin each project with a discussion about how to work effectively together. A leading question is this: “How do we need to work on this project to do some of our best work ever, while also feeling healthy?” Easy. And the question a CEO can take responsibility for is, “How can we work better together–so that our people can do the best work of their lives while still actually having lives?”
8. Abusive client behavior
In our research at Sweathead, 80% of those we spoke to said a client had changed the goal posts of a project in a toxic way. We hear stories about abusive clients being fired by their agencies, but it’s rare. Many leaders won’t want to hear about it because money matters and there are more employees in the sea. When we’re young, we don’t know what’s normal, what’s allowable, and what the company’s stance is on abusive clients.
The thing is, abusive clients lead to unhappy agencies. So why not put together frequent sessions about how to have a healthy relationship with the agency, ensure all new clients attend a session, and run quarterly surveys about to make sure people feel supported and safe, instead of wasting their energy trying to work out how to survive a little longer before they quit.
It’s time to tackle taboo topics to create more open, dynamic agencies. Think of the ideas and talent that agencies squander when they insist that the amazing minds they hire are only allowed to have ideas about other businesses and not their own.
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Mark Pollard is the founder and CEO of Sweathead, a global strategy training company with a community of over 18,000 strategists worldwide and a podcast with over 1.3 million listens.
Pollard’s media career has seen him go from hip-hop journalist to radio host and now, a strategist. His career in strategy started in his native Australia before moving stateside, working for companies including Leo Burnett, Big Spaceship, and McCann. Pollard’s work with the global strategy training company has seen him consult for and train companies like Wall Street Journal, Twitter, The Economist, and agencies around the globe.
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Top image: Mark Pollard