Through Others We Become Ourselves

Having recently published The Agency Within Us, a book designed to help agencies refocus the work of account groups towards a proactive, business-minded leadership model, I’m grateful to have received a considerable amount of positive feedback. But I was particularly struck by the honest takeaway of two readers from different agencies on different coasts: reading my book made them feel seen and less alone. Let that sink in for a bit.

 

 

It’s been two years since I officially began transitioning into a role I envisioned as a champion and advocate for elevating and empowering the account discipline. I spend a lot of time – most of it in fact – focused on helping teams become better equipped to deliver real and perceived value in three key areas: growth, collaboration and creativity.

 

What’s clear to me now is that I do not spend nearly enough time thinking about and actioning against the emotional benefits of achievement and feeling valued as a group and as individuals.

 

One answer to the question ‘What’s next in 2025?’ is to amplify more stories and voices from within the discipline itself, extending the vital benefits of feeling valued, seen, and connected to even more individuals and teams.

I stumbled onto this quote a few years ago and was immediately drawn to learn more. Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist and child development expert who died in 1934, but is highly regarded for his ‘sociocultural theory,’ believing that social interaction, culture and community had significant impact in children’s learning. While he was focused on child development, his insights clearly resonate in a broader context—like our industry!

Through others we become ourselves. Lev S. Vygotsky

His work is now almost a century old, but the message we can take away is timeless: growth is almost always a shared journey. And that’s the idea behind my new substack newsletter, Agency Made Me Do It, to build community and be inspired by others within the discipline, helping us all to become and strengthen the leader within ourselves.

 

My plan is to connect and talk one-on-one with account and client leaders from agencies of all sizes and specializations, exploring their thoughts on what fuels their ability to be proactive, growth-oriented and forward thinking. Each of those conversations will be turned into a newsletter post that quickly drills down into the most meaningful takeaways. Some of the topics we might delve into include:

– What it takes to lead with intention and what forward-thinking looks like

– The importance of a business focused approach

– Client dynamics and strengthening relationships

– Driving value through growth, collaboration and creativity

– Innovation: keeping up with it and driving it

– Ongoing learning and growth and/or lessons from failure

– Empowering others to lead boldly and creatively

– Finding grace under pressure

And of course, we will want to hear the candid, humorous or heartfelt takes on what makes it all worthwhile, and how or why they keep showing up with resilience and drive.

 

By tuning into discussions with others who understand the challenges, and by engaging with shared insights and experiences that can inspire growth and leadership, we can encourage and lift each other up while expanding our collective understanding of the habits and practices of forward-thinking leaders.

 

 

 


 

For those of you who haven’t yet read my book, the main idea is the concept of (human) agency within an agency. High agency is strongly correlated with proactivity and with a number of qualities associated with leadership such as accountability, confidence and creativity. Here is an excerpt from The Agency Within Us where I used a Wheaties analogy to explain the idea further.

 

“Going way back with a classic advertising reference, some of us will remember being encouraged to ‘eat your Wheaties.’ I played a lot of sports and ate a lot of Wheaties as a kid. Beyond the obvious promotion of the iconic breakfast cereal, my (consumer) understanding of the idea was a metaphor for trying your best and making an active choice to fuel and prepare yourself for the challenge ahead. Using your agency is a similar thought – helping client leaders to envision and believe that with intentionality, hard work, the right environment, tools and training, heightened performance is achievable.”

 

I shared a number of anecdotes in the book (what I called Agency in Action), but here’s another oldie but goodie that I probably should have included. I’m proud to say I had the fun of leading the California State Fair business for many years. Success or failure in growing attendance hinged on our ability to get the fence sitters to come out and enjoy some good old fashioned fun, which required us to get much more creative with our programming and our marketing. For example, in celebration of California’s diversity, the theme one year was Carnival. There was no way we could fake that kind of an experience for campaign production – so we pitched to our clients that the better idea was to take our mascot (the golden bear, of course) to Brazil during the actual Carnival celebration and film him dancing on the floats and on stage with their amazing entertainers. That this idea actually got approved, shot, produced and became an instant hit with audiences is a testament to our relationship.

 

Our clients were fully bought into a strategic approach that differed from traditional fair marketing, but this did not please the Board of Directors, a group of political appointees that was highly opinionated and outspoken about everything. At one particular Board meeting, I was presenting some research findings, and someone mumbled something that I hadn’t clearly heard. So, like a good account person who wants to ensure that key stakeholders feel heard, I looked around and said, “I’m sorry…I didn’t quite hear you. Can you repeat that?” And from the back of the room, one of the many outspoken men bellowed in his outside voice, “I said, what a bunch of bullshit!”

 

I would love to think this put a smile on my face. Not because it was funny (which it was), but because we were prepared. We came to the meeting fully expecting someone to challenge our thinking, and we had proactively readied ourselves in advance. (I’m sure I wasn’t expecting cuss words, but that didn’t bother me. I cuss a lot too.) My colleague calmly pointed out that the sample size for this research was at least twice that of most political polls, which was a familiar and trusted reference for them. After a conversation about sample sizes and probably some other tangent or two, we were able to move on. And who was the big winner? The client. They didn’t want to be caught in the middle between the Board and the agency, so being able to stand on our own and get through difficult conversations without a lot of Staff intervention was of real value to the relationship.

 

Forethought is a key element of agency, and when combined with diligent preparedness, it can help us to push through or get around all kinds of obstacles. But that’s just the start. Continuing to develop and flex that muscle can enhance our strategic contribution, increase client confidence and strengthen team alignment. Agency also helps us to see the humor in tough circumstances, which has gotten me through some very challenging times.

 

What fuels and keeps you coming back? Sharing stories will help us all to feel less alone…and if we can find some meaning in them, we can also learn a little something together. If you or someone you know would be interested in chatting with me, please reach out directly. I’m not hard to find via DM in Substack and Linkedin, or through the contact page on the website.

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