The Strategy Missing in Your Account Management
When you work in advertising and marketing, you get really good at labeling yourself. It’s how you survive and navigate the agency hierarchy. “I’m a Creative.” or “I’m a Strategist.” Having an Account Management and Business Development (new biz) label a majority of my career, I’ve recently silenced (one of) my imposter monsters and stepped into my strategic superpower – People Strategy.
Strategy at the highest level is acting with intention. There’s a lot to unpack in what we’ve previously learned about “being a strategist,” and then re-learn how we want to define the beautiful, complex, yet simple skillset for ourselves as individuals. My hope for People Strategy is we start to recognize it, reward it, and continue practicing it within our work, and world.
Reminder - “We are what we practice, and we become what we intentionally practice with our whole selves.” -Adrienne Maree Brown, Pleasure Activism
What is People Strategy?
People Strategy is understanding the motivations, energy, processes, and needs of people involved in the work, to achieve a collective goal.
You might be a People Strategist if...
You are able to simplify and break down complex concepts for the masses.
You empower and motivate those around you to do their best work.
Your energy is contagious and you’re incredible at finding ways to make sure others catch and ride that wave. Practiced with intention, this can eventually lead to truly getting the best out of the people you work with.
You’re comfortable holding multiple truths in order to be a productive liaison and facilitator for various stakeholders to achieve what they need in any given scenario.
You naturally flex between leading, participating, and drawing out engagement from others in real time. This is actively strategizing people dynamics, and you likely do it multiple times within the same meeting.
You operate with a keen sense of power maps and dynamics, which helps the work be more successful up and down the leadership chain.
Three ways you can start to practice People Strategy:
Learn how to listen. You cannot fully tap into your People Strategy superpowers until you have quieted the noise enough to hear what’s actually being said. Listening is a critical human skill everyone should be learning and practicing on a daily basis.
Get to know yourself, first. You need to be incredibly self-aware of your intentions so your people strategy power is used for good, not evil. And when I say evil, I really mean it. People Strategy at its worst can take the form of manipulation, and even abuse. Getting to know your own motivations, fears, desires, and needs will help you start to understand and tap into those same elements in those around you.
Ask for feedback. Share your truths. People Strategy is inherently interconnected, and an ongoing feedback loop is mandatory for success. Ask people for feedback about how they felt in your meeting. Start practicing sharing how you feel more often at work. When you share your own truths, vulnerabilities, confusions and learning moments you give others permission to step into that too.