I talk a lot about the need for agency owners to use their businesses to support their own needs and goals.
But you also need to care about your employees’ goals.
Not just what they can achieve for your business, but what they want to achieve for themselves.
I’ll explore this more later in this week’s newsletter, but first let’s take a look at what Jen has rounded up for us this week.
— Chip Griffin, SAGA Founder
Weekly Roundup
Below are some articles, blog posts, podcasts, and videos that we came across during the past week or so that provide useful perspective and information for PR and marketing agency owners. While we don’t necessarily endorse all of the views expressed in these links, we think they are worth your time.
— Jen Griffin, SAGA Community Manager
Latest from SAGA
- Can agency team members be more strategic? (Agency Leadership Podcast)
- Embracing change as an agency owner (featuring Tim Kilroy) (Chats with Chip)
Articles & Blog Posts
- How to Win New Business in Uncertain Times (The Sutter Company)
- How to spot lead-gen opportunities before your competitors (Sakas and Company)
- Should Your Marketing Follow a Playbook? (Punctuation)
- Everything’s amazing; I’m worried about tomorrow. (Anchor Advisors)
- Let’s Get Our Swagger Back! (Bureau of Digital)
Podcast Episodes
- The Can Do Spirit of PR Practitioners Crosses Generations (That Solo Life)
- How to Build an Agency Sales System That Won’t Break Your Soul (or Inbox) (The Digital Agency Growth Podcast)
- A Modern Guide to Measurement in the PESO Model© (Spin Sucks)
- Purpose Over Panic, with Lindsey DeWitte (The Innovative Agency)
- James Barnard, Barnard Co – Going Viral: The TikTok Breakthrough (Agency Bytes)
- Driving Agency Profitability Through Smarter Contracting, with Tiffany Kemp (The Agency Profit Podcast)
AI in focus
- Leveraging AI to Supercharge Crisis Communications Planning (Spin Sucks)
- How Walrus is using AI Image Generation (Walrus)
- Research Finds Disclosing Use of AI Erodes Trust (For Immediate Release)
Are you helping your employees achieve their goals?
I regularly advocate a healthy dose of selfishness on the part of agency owners. After all, why take on all the risk and stress of running your own business if you can’t reap the rewards you want?
But you need to match that selfishness with generosity toward your employees.
I don’t mean that you need to overpay them (though you shouldn’t skimp). I mean that you should be actively helping them to achieve their goals.
That means that you need to understand what each individual team member wants to achieve, both professionally and personally.
Managers have an obligation to help their employees advance in their careers — both for the benefit of the organization and the employee.
Sometimes we hesitate to help employees grow because we fear that they might outgrow our business. If they do, so be it.
We should never be in the position of actively holding back an individual just because it might create a challenge for our own business.
We need to know what skills an employee wants to develop and where they would like to take their careers in the future.
Some want to be managers, while others loathe the idea. Others might want to continuously test their limits, while others prefer to refine their known skills.
Once we know what they want, we can help to mentor and coach them. We can arrange for training or external support. We can adjust their roles and help them to climb the ladder within our own organization.
And, for some team members, at some point we need to help them leave the nest. If you recognize that the best thing for an individual’s career is to grow elsewhere, help them to do so. They could be a great contact or resource for you wherever they land.
But it’s not just about the professional side of things.
Now more than ever employees believe that they should work to live rather than the other way around.
While many of us grew up seeing work as a focal point (and might still), our team members increasingly see work as a means to an end.
And there’s nothing wrong with that.
So we need to understand how we can help them leverage their work to meet those personal goals.
Find out what your employees want. Are they looking to increase their flexibility or income? Do they dream of retiring young? Do they want to buy a house or start a family or have some other near-term life goal?
If we know what they desire, we can help structure their roles to support it. We can offer tailored compensation that recognizes their personal aims — often for less than signing a big bonus check or trying to swing a big raise.
By helping our employees to achieve their goals, we make it more likely that we can reach our own.
So balance selfishness with generosity to get the best results for your agency business.
