A common frustration I hear from agency owners is that their managers are struggling to lead their teams effectively.
But the reality is that most managers — especially at small agencies — have never led a team or even managed a single employee.
And they haven’t had any formal managerial training, either.
That means that owners need to be doing more to support and mentor their managers if they want to see good results.
Later in this week’s newsletter, I’ll explore this a bit more and offer some suggestions on how to get the most out of your managers.
In the meantime, let’s take a look at what Jen has rounded up for us this week.
— Chip Griffin, SAGA Founder
Upcoming Events
- Webinar: How to accelerate your agency’s growth in the year ahead (October 9)
- Roundtable: Agency website reviews (October 23)
Latest podcasts from SAGA
- Balancing booze and your agency business (Agency Leadership Podcast)
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
Articles & Blog Posts
- Marketing is Essentially about Fame (Punctuation)
- The Three Steps to Creating Your Own Successful Podcast (Spin Sucks)
- A Guide to Leadership Succession Planning for Agency Owners (AgencyAnalytics)
- Performance is potential minus interference. (Anchor Advisors)
Podcast Episodes
- How Positioning & Go To Market Impacts Agency Valuation, with Shiv Narayanan (The Agency Profit Podcast)
- Beyond the Pretty: Understanding the True Value of PR (That Solo Life)
- How Growth Hacks Drive Quick Wins and Brand Visibility (Spin Sucks)
- To Sell or Not Sell? What Makes and Breaks an Agency Sale with Jonathan Baker (Smart Agency Master Class)
- How Account Managers Deliver Strategy (2Bobs)
- Beyond Lead Magnets: High-Value Strategies (The Digital Agency Show)
- Empowering Women Agency Owners, with Christy Hiler and Jean Freeman (The Innovative Agency)
Videos
- The Approach You Need To Break Through To Prospects (RSW/US)
- Should we do a competitive analysis as part of our agency’s repositioning? (The Sutter Company)
- An Expensive Delta (Agency Management Institute)
AI in Focus
- Which AI Tool Is Best For What? (For Immediate Release)
Supporting your agency’s managers
A lot of new managers get thrown into the deep end of the pool with the expectation that they will figure out how to swim.
For many owners, it seems like a reasonable expectation because there’s a good chance that it is how they learned to manage themselves.
But if you want to see your managers perform well and lead productive teams, you need to do more than that.
At a minimum, you need to toss them a life preserver by keeping an open line of communication to them so that you can mentor, coach, and advise them effectively.
Of course, you will get even better results if you teach them how to actually swim — er, manage.
This starts with discussing your expectations, not just for results but also for their managerial approach.
How you manage them sends the strongest message, so look in the mirror before you start critiquing how they do things. Chances are pretty good that they are mimicking the behavior that they have seen from you and other previous managers.
So demonstrate good managerial hygiene with weekly 1:1 sessions with all of your managers and show them how to do them effectively. Let them know that you expect the same from them and with their own reports.
Help them to understand that just as you are mentoring and coaching them, they need to do the same for everyone on their own team.
Ultimately, managing isn’t about assigning tasks and holding people accountable, but rather about deploying resources to get results while removing obstacles.
If you clear obstacles for your managers — whether they are on the client side, internal processes, appropriate training, or something else — and encourage them to do the same, you will see a marked improvement over command-and-control management.
For those of you who are unsure of your own management skills — or your ability to educate your own managers effectively — turn to some of the great resources available, including articles, videos, HR advisors, peers, or other experts. The SAGA website itself has numerous free resources to help you manage effectively and assist your team in doing the same.
But the most important thing is to realize that good managers do not create themselves. They need advice, training, and mentorship from you and others to become the leaders you want.
Webinar: How to accelerate your agency’s growth in the year ahead
As agency leaders start to think about annual planning, most will be looking toward accelerating their growth rates – especially if the past 12 months haven’t been as robust as hoped.
In this webinar, Chip Griffin will provide attendees with simple steps to take to get started on mapping out a plan that maximizes the chances for faster growth in the year ahead.
He will identify approaches that he has seen work well – in addition to potential pitfalls – based on his own experience as an owner coupled with many years of advising agencies of all sizes.
To register for the webinar at 1 PM ET on Wednesday, October 9, click here.
