In our business, being irrelevant happens quickly. If we are not constantly learning, constantly stretching ourselves, exploring, and experimenting, it’s easy to lose our edge and the ability to lead clients.

This is why we are such big proponents of a) one-on-one meetings with your employees and b) inside those one-on-one meetings, making sure that the very first topic of conversation every time you meet with them is their quarterly growth goals. And they should have 3 different types of growth goals per quarter.

Hey, everybody. Drew McLellan here from Agency Management Institute this week coming to you from Tampa, Florida.

You know, in our business, being irrelevant happens in a snap. If we are not constantly learning, if we are not constantly stretching ourselves, if we're not exploring and experimenting, it's easy in our space to lose our edge, to lose the ability to lead clients. Which is why we are such big proponents of a) one-on-one meetings with your employees and 2) inside those one-on-one meetings, making sure that the very first topic of conversation every time you meet with them are their quarterly growth goals. And your employees should have three quarterly growth goals. One is how am I getting better at my job this quarter? Two, how am I get smarter? How am I getting smarter on behalf of the agency and our clients this quarter? And three, what am I learning or exploring personally? So the reason why we believe those three questions are so important is because, number one, everybody has to keep getting better at their job. We have to keep getting better at our job. And so does every employee in our shop.

Number two, it's important that our employees understand that part of their role and responsibility at the agency is not just about the tasks that they do every day, whether they're an account service person or an SEO technician or whatever their title is, but that there are things around marketing or our client’s industry or other bigger, broader topics that they also have a responsibility to keep getting better at, getting smarter at, to add value to the agency and to your clients.

And three, the reason why we ask about the personal growth goal is because, number one, our employees have told us over and over again,

they want us to see them holistically, that they want us to understand their life, their world, their influences that are broader and bigger than just the job. Number two, that's part of being a good mentor and a good boss is actually caring about the employees and caring about their whole life, not just the life that they have inside the agency. But number three, we want to foster and encourage curiosity and growth and continual learning. So whether they're taking a pottery class or they're learning how to shoot better photography on their iPhone or whatever it is a) we're helping them recognize that they don't want to be static in any aspect of their life, but b) it's a great way to connect with your employee and to look for ways for you to encourage them and support them, and maybe even help them. You might know someone who is a great photographer. You might know somebody who has a pottery kiln that they could use, or whatever it is. It's an opportunity for you to be a part of the bigger, broader sense of their life and also to support them in ways that are bigger than the agency or their work, so that they understand you really do care about them as a person, and that you would like to partake in a broader sense of their life, not just what they do for you at the agency 9 to 5.

So all right, so remember the three things every in every quarter, every one-on-one meeting, quarterly growth goal for your job, quarterly growth goal related to the agency or our clients, and quarterly growth goal for you personally. I think you're going to be surprised at a) how much you learn about the employee, b) how keeping a focus on that growth and learning actually elevates the volume of new ideas and new opportunities that your employees can bring to the agency and your clients and c) it is a way to stay relevant for all of us, for the agency and for every employee inside the agency. And by the way, who are you having that conversation with? How are you growing every quarter? It's not just them. All right.

I'll see you next week.

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Three kinds of growth goals

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