Feel less pressured in 2024 with a 12-point check list to take control of agency management stress factors!

‘2023 has been tough’, ‘a challenge’, ‘a rollercoaster’, ‘thank goodness it’s nearly over’ … these are all descriptors and exclamations I’ve heard from comms people in recent weeks.

Management in agencies requires skilled balancing of the needs of clients, staff, and shareholders – it’s always a dynamic challenge, but undoubtedly has been exceptionally difficult this year.

From clients, there’s been pressure on budgets and extended pitching processes. With staff, there’s been continued post pandemic churn, and the requirement to upskill teams rapidly as AI embeds. And with shareholders, there has been unrelentingly upward targets for growth as margin has been squeezed by cost inflation.

For anyone running a team, practice or firm in communications and juggling all of this, it’s a firestorm. It’s not surprising that burnout and stress is endemic.

But will 2024 be any easier? Is there anything you can do to ensure that it does not just bring more of the same multiple pressures?

The answer is yes, you can take action to feel more in control in your role despite difficult circumstances.

The first step is to be clear about the number of objectives that you focus on and for most people this means reducing them.

Identify the deliverables from you that matter most to each of your stakeholders (I recommend no more than 3 for each group) and create markers of what you need to achieve for each. Including 3 priorities for yourself, this will add up to a 12-point plan.

This will enable you to prioritise and use your energy constructively, and by taking control, reduce the sense of being surrounded by challenges.

Your circumstances will be unique, and your priorities list will be individual to reflect that, however here is an illustration of what a checklist could look like.

Start with the key goal for each of your stakeholders.

Stakeholder group 1: People

Goal: motivation

It’s a people business, and without motivated, happy employees you have little to offer your clients. Yet often firms can be very short-sighted by not focusing enough on prioritising strategies to retain valuable staff including flexibility about incentives such as bonuses and pay.

Sample objectives:

1.      Resourcing level – focus on achieving the right blend for the client base and balancing the workload on each person in the team – especially important in Matrix structures - stress from feeling overworked and underpaid is a key trigger for moving on.

2.      Skill sets/ training – provide your team with the tools to do their job and demonstrate your commitment to having leading edge skillsets - this year it is likely to be all about AI

3.      Incentives – be clear about how you are motivating your team to deliver exceptional service. Be transparent about their individual development path at your firm and how and when they will be rewarded for delivering brilliantly.

Stakeholder group 2: Clients

Goal: high satisfaction

Keeping close to clients is fundamental to managing a great agency. They don’t have to spend their money with you and prioritising understanding their evolving needs and how well you are delivering demonstrates respect for their custom.

Sample objectives:

1.      Your offer – what are you doing this year to ensure it is relevant and exciting and is it clearly articulated and promoted?

2.      Nurturing relationships – don’t ignore clients because you are prioritising new business, ensure as a manager that you have strong personal connection to your clients through leading work deliverables and spending time with them.

3.      Fair business standards - dealing with pressure from clients on fees (such as wanting more from you for less) can be handled more easily as a result of successfully deploying strategies such as 1 and 2 and having highly satisfied clients – better enabling you to attain fees that reflect servicing levels and take account of inflation

Stakeholder group 3: Shareholders

Goal: investment return

Whether you have public or private investors, their focus is that the business is profitable which means that it is growing. While these may seem tough demands in a challenging economic environment, to reduce the pressure on you it’s best to respect the investor point of view and focus on ways to keep your relationship harmonious – and clear communication is a good starting point.

Sample objectives:

1.      Budget control – the worst kind of budget is one that is imposed without relation to reality – for example assumption of 20% growth with no underpinning agreed strategy. Take ownership of the budget by understanding fully the dynamics of the business you are responsible for and setting out a realistic growth strategy which includes any additional investment and resources required.

2.      KPIs – know what markers your shareholders are focusing on and focus on them too, always ensuring that you understand your business performance against them and the reasons for any variations.

3.      Growth plan options – it’s inevitable that year will bring fresh challenges and new opportunities that weren’t apparent when you sat down to write your growth plan, so anticipate this and have options for variations occurring – for example, if performance is not meeting budget or a new opportunity is presented that requires investment – demonstrate your ability to be commercially astute and flexible

Finally: You

Goal: feel in control

As well as delivering for your three stakeholder groups, to feel more in control of your role it is equally important to know what you want to achieve personally during the year. Having a personal development plan and being disciplined about pursuing it will ensure you get the most from the year.

Sample objectives:

1.      Time management – most people seem to be working harder and harder in agency, if this is you, set yourself a challenge to improve how you plan and use your time – being disciplined about blocks of time assigned to specific tasks for example.

2.      Personal goals – write them down and check in with them monthly to ensure that you have a personal journey through the year.

3.      Mentors – it is hard for anyone to succeed fully without any guidance, sounding board advice or encouragement – set yourself up for more success by finding a mentor or coach who you can communicate well with and who can add real value to your thinking and performance.

With a personally tailored ‘12-point checklist’ such as the above, you will have a clear framework for managing your year and knowing that you are keeping the important things on track. Hopefully, this will bring a much greater sense of balance and less pressure. Good Luck!