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
Strategic Planning – Keeping Your Job (8/25) (5 min’ read)
Strategic Planning – Keeping Your Job (8/25) (5 min’ read)
After several months of net job losses last month we were back to net hiring of agency personnel. (AdAge). Finally!
Though from a strategic planning perspective, as many of you will corroborate, the jobs outlook remains very uncertain. This uncertainty stems as much from industry consolidation as it does from incorporation of new technologies notably AI, while the biggest drain on confidence relates to client uncertainty borne by uncertain macroeconomic factors.
Given the context of continued uncertainty, I asked strategists what they believed is critical to keeping their jobs. A big ‘thank you’ to all of you for generously finding the time to provide your perspective.
Ensure you are reading the room – Many strategists get fired because they fail to ‘read the room’/understand what the client ‘actually’ wants – Meaning, stress-testing your thinking before it hits the boardroom.
When to theorize and when to build – The strategists who survive – Aren’t necessarily the smartest ones in the room. They’re the ones who know when to sharpen their pencils and when to put them down and start building.
Be useful – Our job isn’t to be right. It’s to be useful. Recognize which situation you’re in. Is this a moment for strategic brilliance or strategic service?
Business objective focus – Double down on being the translator between business objectives and the potential of right brain creativity to achieve them.
Directly connect with the consumer – AI is great but simply sitting behind your laptop theorizing won’t cut it. Get out there. Talk to actual customers
Understanding your value (to the client particularly) and how you deliver it. There’s not enough honest assessment or understanding of what that value really is.
The goal is to create a robust strategy (not a perfect one) that can survive contact with reality.
Create space with clients for things to emerge that nobody is thinking about. That needs time and connection. Challenging but if done, makes the difference.
Be proactive! Get out of a transactional mindset. Too many strategists wait to be given a task, and then go back with an output
Stay curious and have a strong POV – Curiosity drives learning and allows for you to provide clarity and a direction.
Stay close to revenue – Insightful thinking should be enough, but thinking needs to be tied to revenue generation.
Be easy to work with – Heroes are great, but advertising and marketing requires a team effort. Ensure people genuinely enjoy working with you.
Be a more empathetic person/leader/client supporter. Too many people think they’re empathetic. Few really are.
Network internally – The quality of your work should shine through but don’t rely on it.
Get on the AI bandwagon – Or perhaps better put, get ahead of the bandwagon – Incorporate AI’s ability to speed up and optimize your ability to help creatives and clients.
After several months of net job losses last month we were back to net hiring of agency personnel. (AdAge). Finally!
Though from a strategic planning perspective, as many of you will corroborate, the jobs outlook remains very uncertain. This uncertainty stems as much from industry consolidation as it does from incorporation of new technologies notably AI, while the biggest drain on confidence relates to client uncertainty borne by uncertain macroeconomic factors.
Given the context of continued uncertainty, I asked strategists what they believed is critical to keeping their jobs. A big ‘thank you’ to all of you for generously finding the time to provide your perspective.
Ensure you are reading the room – Many strategists get fired because they fail to ‘read the room’/understand what the client ‘actually’ wants – Meaning, stress-testing your thinking before it hits the boardroom.
When to theorize and when to build – The strategists who survive – Aren’t necessarily the smartest ones in the room. They’re the ones who know when to sharpen their pencils and when to put them down and start building.
Be useful – Our job isn’t to be right. It’s to be useful. Recognize which situation you’re in. Is this a moment for strategic brilliance or strategic service?
Business objective focus – Double down on being the translator between business objectives and the potential of right brain creativity to achieve them.
Directly connect with the consumer – AI is great but simply sitting behind your laptop theorizing won’t cut it. Get out there. Talk to actual customers
Understanding your value (to the client particularly) and how you deliver it. There’s not enough honest assessment or understanding of what that value really is.
The goal is to create a robust strategy (not a perfect one) that can survive contact with reality.
Create space with clients for things to emerge that nobody is thinking about. That needs time and connection. Challenging but if done, makes the difference.
Be proactive! Get out of a transactional mindset. Too many strategists wait to be given a task, and then go back with an output
Stay curious and have a strong POV – Curiosity drives learning and allows for you to provide clarity and a direction.
Stay close to revenue – Insightful thinking should be enough, but thinking needs to be tied to revenue generation.
Be easy to work with – Heroes are great, but advertising and marketing requires a team effort. Ensure people genuinely enjoy working with you.
Be a more empathetic person/leader/client supporter. Too many people think they’re empathetic. Few really are.
Network internally – The quality of your work should shine through but don’t rely on it.
Get on the AI bandwagon – Or perhaps better put, get ahead of the bandwagon – Incorporate AI’s ability to speed up and optimize your ability to help creatives and clients.