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
The Silver Bullet – Career Planning Advice From Strategists Globally
‘One key piece of advice for your career’ the question I asked leading planners and planning leaders around the globe.
For many fantastic thoughts, read below in the italics.
One key piece of advice I’d add, a drum I constantly come back to, given the constant change in the world and I’m talking pre-‘AI,’ so more true than ever, prepare yourself to be able to adapt.
How/What are the best ways to do this? The subject of the September edition of Narrate.
In the meantime, enjoy the sunshine, get some quality timeout, which by the way, is one way to help fortify yourself against inexorable change.
My best,
Stuart
‘Have a broader sense of market dynamics/the economy etc, which will inform your decision making.’
‘Take a job above and beyond your comfort zone.’
”Follow your heart.’
‘Be present now. Excel in the moment and the future takes care of itself.’
‘Don’t join an agency for a sexy client or because the agency is cool, join because the people are awesome.’The people you are shoulder to shoulder with, your department and your creative colleagues.’
‘People are key. ‘Ask to meet as many of them during the interview process.’
‘Observe the roles of your supervisors and decide what is the way you want to go.’
‘Don’t blindly copy what other planners say or do to feel you’re a real planner. Do things you find interesting rather than just say interesting things you read elsewhere.’
‘Put yourself in the shoes of your boss and your bosses’ boss and ask yourself what you want to do five years from now.’
‘Own both your strengths and your weaknesses. Don’t suppress your vulnerabilities as they will help inform the way you work,’
‘Force yourself to interact with people beyond your own environment and industry.’
‘You’ll never have perfect information so be prepared to take risks.’
‘Create your own kingdom! Infuse your passions and dreams into your future roles or better, create the roles. JD’s are for the sandbox.’
‘Know that there is no one planning style.’
‘Write a 200 word biography of where you intend to be in the future and use it to structure and evaluate all the choices you will make.’
‘Obsess less about the agencies and companies you want to work with and instead focus more about the people you want to work with and learn from.’
‘Find the best practitioners that believe in mentoring and hang on to their coat tails.’
‘Focus more on the journey than the destination. It’s not simply about results.’
‘Be honest with yourself about what brings you joy. When you have joy you will thrive.’
‘Find the part of the job you enjoy most and create a job doing that.’
‘Don’t get caught in the weeds, think what really matters for the business.’
‘You’ll never have perfect information, so be prepared to take risks.’
What else might you add?
All the best,
Stuart
Career Planning for Strategists – The Long Game
I was asked to write about long term career goals and to discuss the options. Truth is there are so many possibilities, there really are! Based on which direction you go, there are certain experiences you need to be getting to make specific options easier to smoothly navigate. We can discuss this.
For instance, if you see yourself eventually moving into general management, getting exposure to operations, finance and team/people management would be key experiences you need to have.
Know Thyself – A big clue to where you ought to end up comes down to understanding what you have enjoyed. Using which skills make you happy? What environments do you thrive in? Ask yourself what outputs have meaning for you.
Where do I want to be in the long term? If you know where you want to be, then you and I can talk about how to get there.
If you have a good sense of self but are unsure about the long term, we can discuss one-to-one; But to maximise the options you can pursue, be it a start-up, platform, publisher, brand, strategic consultancy, strategically focused or otherwise, note key considerations below. But first,
Avoiding Burnout – As much as anything else, the purpose of setting exciting goals is as much to keep you energized in the short and medium term as it is to reaching your nirvana. We all know that a career is a marathon so the question becomes one of ‘pacing.’ You have to sustain your energy, mental/physical/emotional. If you are learning new things and so feel a sense of progression, the hard work is less draining!
Key considerations: (For keeping all options open)
What do I want to experience? If you’re unclear about specific goals, focus at the very least on how you want to feel as a result of your work – The goals often emerge from this understanding.
Differentiate – What do we tell brands to do? To thrive now and in the future, think/reinforce/promote what distinguishable skills you have.
Prioritise Value Creation – Develop expertise that presents a clear path to value creation. (This is ‘not’ simply about ST profit)
Career Variety – Where possible, work in different settings: Agency, client, consultancy, own business/freelance – This enhances your ability to understand and help others.
Business Growth/Consultative Skillset – Develop a prowess with new business and/or organic growth.
Mind of a specialist/heart of a generalist – Our business is reintegrating – Be a polymath of sorts. Think big and detailed.
People – Ours is a business all about people. Help build those around you.
Reputation – Know that it’s all you’ve got.
Profile – Being brilliant but invisible won’t help you.
Results – Applied creativity is key. Be a brilliant strategist but understand a client’s nightmares. Be known for solving problems.
What else might you add?
All the best,
Stuart
The biggest Threat to Agencies and Your Jobs
Planners and strategists, “Agencies are scrambling to attract talent amid shortage.” The article summarizes that talent shortages exist because: https://bit.ly/37gVRkn
– Skills shortage – A lack of the right skills,
– Greater flexibility/virtual – ‘Talent’ wanting greater flexibility
– Burn out – employees wanting to get out of the business.
What the article doesn’t mention is the core reason for this talent shortage, a breakdown of the psychological contract,
a phrase coined decades past highlighting, ‘to maintain a positive employee-employer relationship employers pay particular attention to the ‘human side’ of a working relationship, rather than the purely commercial or transactional side.’
Yes, the problem for the business is short termism, which is why agencies increasingly use freelancers, treating people like commodities; Even when they are full time, (again due to short termism) there has been a chronic lack of willingness to train/invest in the next generation of strategists.
The good news – For any planner seeking their next career challenge, there are many great people in this business and some basic rules for identifying a great next career move for you, beyond that is, simply looking at the obvious names, this I’ll cover in my next newsletter.
$64,000 dollar question ‘You Need’ to be able to answer
Your daily sanity depends on it. Your reputation will be maintained and enhanced by it. And without it, you will surely fall behind your peers. What am I referring to? Your continued GROWTH.
Your growth/your progression, can take you in many different directions. It can be a different type of strategic approach. It can be more quantitative understanding or more focused on engagement versus big picture brand development. It can be to experience more of a business environment, to scale what you’ve already been doing or simply but critically, to work with a great manager/mentor or team. Whatever growth is for you, knowing what it looks like for you reveals a few things:
– An understanding of where you are and where you want to be in your career as well as having a sense of what is needed to get you there.
– A conscious focused desire to develop your ability versus being fatalistic/simply open to anything without focus?’
– An appreciation of which environments and career opportunities might deliver for you. This will allow anyone tryng to help you to better identify a great career move, tailored to your growth.
Looking forward to talking.
Cheers, Stuart
Articles
- Managing yourself
- Do you have a career growth strategy?
- Taking charge of your career growth
- Career development 101
- Career growth v career development
Job Opportunities 05/21
If you know of anyone looking for full time or part time work, some of the below opportunities are full time and some temp to perm.
1. NY/Associate Director Strategy – >130k – creative
2. San Francisco – Head Strategy – >250k – creative
3. London – Head Strategy – >170k(stg) – creative
4. NY EVP Strategy – >250-300k – pr
Past Newsletters
On Getting Your Ideal Next Job
– You can never outrun the frying pan! If things don’t work out where you are, stop, reflect, conceive a plan and then have a concrete reasoning for the next job you accept.
– If you don’t know with some confidence why you should better still will succeed, don’t pursue the job.
– Perhaps the culture gives you pause for thought or your potential new boss? Key is to have mandatory things aspects of the job you’re considering , such as an employer that values the role of strategy! Or perhaps a client known for buying great work, or a place with high quality creative output. Know what’s key for you and where the trade-offs are.
– Meet those people the interviewing agency/consultancy want you to meet ; Also, ask to meet anyone else you feel that our key to your success and know having met them you are making a truly informed decision.
– The clients you will be working with, the personalities of all key stakeholders, the hidden skeletons relating to the relationship with the client. You can never ask enough questions, so ask away. And even when you ask all the questions, you will never have perfect information as things constantly change, but you should still ask away!
Accept change as an inevitable factor and that it is your choice to accept and embrace it or to try and obstruct it. If the latter approach, ensure your stance is on the side of current if not future revenue.
Bespoke Career Choices
When looking for a job most strategy planners ask ‘what’s on the shelf? (well not literally) but as if going in to a store, they ask ‘what have I got.?’ You all have much more power than you could ever know and a more bespoke role is within reach. The key to bespoke is knowing what you want and having the confidence to pursue it. (This doesn’t mean your feet are not on the ground and pragmatism goes out of the window.) This is why I ‘always’ ask, ‘moving forward, what is your ideal next career challenge/what is progression for you?’
