Do you want to show up more creatively for your clients and your colleagues, your family, and your friends?
Do you want to default to thinking about opportunity versus focusing just on problems?
Discovering Hope is full of proactive steps you can take right now, to achieve a more positive mindset or to help maintain the positivity you already have
Getting Positive reveals that more optimism is close at hand
Holiday Reflection/Planning Ahead
n my last newsletter I wrote about the myriad career possiblities for strategic problem solvers.There are many ex-agency planners I could cite as examples who set up their own business, moved to a consultancy or have taken a dream job on the client-side. Trajectory and success varies, but you don’t ever fail by consciously assessing your circumstances and concluding that your effectivenss and sanity require you pursue not simply a job, but a reinvention or calling. This is a perfect time of the year to reflect and get inspired, with that in mind:
A shout out to those that seek to inspire others, both within and outside advertising, a few of them listed below.
Reading:
‘How not to plan.’ Les Binet
‘Strategy is your words.’ Mark Pollard
‘The art of inspiring anybody.’ Michael Fanuele –
‘The art and science of modern account planning.’ – Leslie Bielby
‘The creative curve.’ Allen Gannett –
‘The obstacle is the way.’ Ryan Holiday – I think is a great read for all problem-solvers.)
‘Discovering Hope’ Stuart Parkin – Yours truly, on positivity.
All the best,
Stuart
Job Opportunities: If you know anyone looking for full time work:
1.SF, director level, creative agency, BtoB, >180K
2.NY, director, research/innovation, product strategist,>200k
3.NY, director, pr/strategy focused, integrated, >200k
Past newsletters that got plenty of interest.
Links that may be of interest.
More Learning, Money, Opportunity, Fun – What is Key?
Personal and organisational success is directly related to the extent of training, formal employee reviews and on-going developmental feedback. The cold stark reality, there is very little formal training, performance reviews often delayed if they happen at all, which makes the manager we have and their desire and ability to develop others, key for our progression. Yet, as Brian Souza’s ‘The Weekly Coaching Conversation’ highlights, sub-par employee peformance is due primarily due to a lack of coaching/developmental feedback.. Categorizing managers: ‘Micromanager’, ‘Do-it-all’ manager (don’t trust team) ‘Nice guy/lady’ manager (care more about being liked than constructively directing) and Coach manager, (the one you might want to pursue) seek for personal and/or professional reasons, to develop others.
If you want to grow, if you want to be considered for the best opportunities, then when looking for an internal move or pursuing a new job, seek out the ‘Coach boss.’ I think this is particularly true for those starting out in the business, with relatively less experience and definitely, if you have to work from home.
The Future for Strategic Planning Careers is Positive
COVID-19 has brought to the fore an emphasis on cash flow and short term results. In such times, those that can sell and those that understand consumers, aka strategic planners, see their stock rise significantly and this will carry forward post COVID.
The crisis has accelerated the use by client and agency alike of digital tools. The great thing about digital initiatives is that they are easily trackable. The brilliant thing about this combined trackability with qualitative understanding, is that brands have a powerful ability to impact sales.
Post COVID-19 one lasting impact will be a continued realignment to short term sales initiatives. That said, the smart clients and brands will demand big picture/longer term creative thinking. They will insist that a strategic vision for building brands aligns with and optimises short term marketing efforts and that the team ‘thinks like a brand but act like a retailer.’
Career Options For Strategists Are Greater Than Ever
I’m often nervously asked by planners/strategists where else beyond the agency they could work. Fifteen years ago the options were much more limited primarily to research agency or freelance. Today after so many years of strategists being hired, the pathway to client-side is much smoother. Similarly the pathway to brand consultancies, PR, innovation, media and ‘big tech’ are well worn. There are also opportunities working with big consultancies although they have been heading to the agency world, so perhaps no move necessary! Not to overstate the obvious, any business that needs to understand it’s consumers can use a strategist. The one caveat to all this positivity, the more integrated (qual+quant’) the strategist, the greater the opportunties.
Happy to discuss,
Stuart
Some past newsletters that got plenty of interest.
Humor and Brand Building – bit.ly/3iNjNzK
Impostor Syndrome – bit.ly/3k6P1D2
- Future of Strategy 2020: Opportunities in a Post-Pandemic World
- From Surviving to Thriving: Reimagining The Post-COVID-19
- Business Strategic Planning During the Pandemic:What’s Changed
- Thinking Strategically About Your Career Development
- Transferrable Skills Analysis
- Strategic Planning and the Big Impact of SMALL Data
Where to Focus..
‘If you are depressed you are living in the past; If you’re anxious you’re living in the future; If you are at peace, you are living in the present.’ (Lao Tzu)
Or, there are times to reflect and to plan and the ‘present’ might not feel the best, but really, the present is the only time to live. #Live #Love #Inspire
Open Mind=Quantum Leap?
‘What we see depends mainly on what we look for.’ (Sir John Lubbock)
Or, this is a perfect time to clarify what you want and don’t want and to refocus. But, if you want to be informed and/or surprised, always have an open mind so that iterative progression may instead be a quantum leap.
Freelancing – Almost Fall, 2020
As we gallop toward the final third of 2020, there are more job opportunities for strategy planners but increasingly the work is freelance/flexi’/permalance. Where full time hiring is happening it’s more in healthcare, packaged goods, technology and online entertainment.
If you’ve lost your job, is immediately jumping in to freelance the right next step for you?
Freelance – Yes if:
Money – You need money to keep rolling in.
Sanity – You need to keep your mind engaged
Assessment – Because it provides the best way to assess your fit as part of a new potential full time employer.
Variety – You like a variety of work
Connections – You want to broaden industry exposure.
Flexibility – You want to work selectively.
Freelance – No if:
Security – Freelance work is by definition temporary and when an agency needs to cut back, freelancers lose out first.
Constant Hustle – Temporary work requires constant focus on ‘next.’
Loneliness – Freelance work is often in isolation.
Team Involvement – As a freelancer you don’t have the same level of team engagement.
Career Paralysis – Freelance can be a diversion from time needed to reflect or retool.
What To do Next ? –Â If you need cash you will default to freelance. If cash is not critical, take the time to reflect and evaluate how you want to grow/what you wish to experience next/whether your development best comes from paid work or non-vocational education. Happy to discuss with you.
Talk soon,Stuart
A few links of newsletters that your peers have enjoyed:
Career Adaptability – bit.ly/2QQGzLp
Impostor Syndrome – bit.ly/3k6P1D2
- A comprehensive guide to starting your freelance career
- Freelance v Permanent. What’s better for your career?
- Five things it pays to consider before going freelance.
- How to overcome the most common challengers as a freelancer.
- Nine work challenges only freelancers will understand.
- Pros and cons of working as a freelancer
- The ulimate guide to getting paid as a freelancer