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3 Signs Your Advertising Agency Culture Is Starting to Stink

If your advertising agency culture sits on either end of two extremes, you don’t need an engagement survey or a high-priced consultant to confirm your reality. You can feel the energy when things are amazing, and you can smell the stench when things are rotting away in your business. But what if things are somewhere in between? What if you’re unsure if things are heading in the right direction? Or what if you’re confident they’re really good, but you want a heads-up before you suddenly realize you’re whiffing six-day old cod? You might need that engagement survey, and you may need that consultant. In the meantime, here are three danger signs that will tell you if your advertising agency culture is in trouble: YOU’RE EXPERIENCING "MEGO" A journalist friend once had an editor who routinely rejected poorly written copy because it produced what he called MEGO – My Eyes Glaze Over. In other words, it was boring. Are your organization’s vision, mission, and values creating MEGO? When you read the statements to employees, do they say, “Yes! That describes us so well!”? Or do they roll their eyes and say, “Yeah, right. That’d be nice.”? It’s great to have statements that set the bar high, but most employees have a pretty sophisticated BS meter. If you acknowledge the gaps between where your advertising agency culture is and where you and others want to take it, most employees will help you make it happen. If you’re trying to prop up your culture with $10 words, however, you’ll lose respect and trust. YOU’RE BEGGING FOR RECRUITS When your culture is strong, healthy, and vibrant, your employees become your best recruiters. They sing the company’s praises every chance [...]

Hey agency owner — your agency’s morale begins with you

If you're frustrated with the attitude permeating your agency, I'd like to remind you that your agency's morale begins with you. You must improve your own attitude before you begin to improve employee morale. I get it.  I've owned my agency for almost 20 years and I'd had more than my share of sleepless nights. The truth is, even when things are going better than anticipated, there are still those nagging concerns. There's always a shoe just waiting to drop. But as agency owners we need to remember that we're the barometer our employees use to take the agency's temperature. If you're uptight, they're uptight.  If you're frustrated with a certain employee, pretty soon they'll be frustrated with that person too.  If you talk about clients like they're a pain -- your employees will treat them that way. Be honest -- when you have the opportunity to chase a big new account, are you excited or do you dread the effort?  Guess what -- your employees take your lead and feel the same way. It's time to take a good look at your agency's culture and do an honest assessment. Is it the kind of culture that you're proud of and would want to work in day, after day?  Is it snarky?  Does everyone help each other or is there a parade out the door at 5 pm? Before you improve employee morale, your agency's morale begins with you. Every single time. You are the agency's visionary and it's your job to wave the company flag, not burn it. So what do you do if you're feeling worn out, frustrated, under appreciated or worried?  You fake it. You don't burden your employees with agency owner worries. [...]

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