Founder and CEO at Tribu, a digital marketing, branding and design studio.
I was 22 years old when I founded our advertising agency, Tribu. I was hiring before I knew how to lead. As a result, lessons from my trial by fire are burned into my brain. Thankfully, we landed in a good place and I enjoy working with insanely talented people.
I misunderstood concepts of company “culture” many times. There’s a lot to read on the subject, and at some point, it all sounds the same. Many concepts of culture are amorphous, but today I’m hoping to share the ways culture is practical.
Why Does Culture Matter?
Generally, your agency’s financial results will follow your culture’s health. Despite being nebulous, culture has a seismic impact on measurable outcomes.
Our highest turnover years were our fiscally poorest years. Coincidence? Not for us. When good talent leaves, a couple of good clients usually do too. As an industry, we have a talent retention problem. Our turnover rates are so high (at around 30%), we come in second only to one other industry: tourism.
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The solution is simple: People stay in great cultures. Culture might sound fluffy, but who can argue with financials? Good culture can both strengthen our fiscal outcomes and enable a deeply human approach that sets our people up to thrive. The simultaneous aspect makes culture a true value creator.
Your most loyal players are the best people to shape culture with you. These are people who put in late nights when the “great resignation” happens and everyone else is out the door. They have the answers you seek. Listen closely.
What Defining Culture Really Means
People say “define your culture,” and I used to interpret that to mean sharing sentiments like “we are fun!” Wrong. Defining your culture means explaining what you do (and don’t do) and how you measure success (clearly). When everyone’s in the same boat, they’ll row together. That’s when “fun” becomes authentic.
Despite the temptation to be everything to everyone, agencies must consistently articulate what we do and how it impacts people. Without definition, our people will play a chronic guessing game: What are we here to do? Why should we give the business our 110%?
We’re in a market full of freelancers and free-logo-makers. There’s a plethora of alternative choices, not just for your clients but your staff too.
Clearly stating your purpose particularly motivates Gen Z workers. Deloitte found that this group values a company’s ability to produce meaningful impact more than what they pay. This will only get more important as our younger workforce enters en masse.
The Importance Of Good Leaders
There are manufactured cool vibes, and then there are authentic vibes that are actually cool. Leaders establish the vibe more than perks do. Many agencies offer perks galore (i.e., bean bags, company swag, etc.), then expect too much ROI from them. I attempted to solve culture problems with clever perks until I learned that without strong leadership and honest feedback, perks don’t matter much.
People learn to give and receive feedback from their leaders. Here’s a simple truth we often forget: It’s not the sweetest boss (or lattes) that retains high-performers or grows the best talent. Good leaders share hard truths, sincerely and selflessly, because they want to help people grow. Good feedback—the ultimate perk—is the leader’s responsibility. Further, your feedback style will set an example that influences the entire agency’s collaboration habits.
Balancing Efficiency And Innovation
Efficiency and innovation aren’t a natural marriage, yet agencies need both. The best answer is balance. This affects culture and creates it.
We had years where we were hyper-focused on process and productivity metrics. We had years where we had no idea what any of that was and we just wanted to be creative and win awards. Neither of those years were as good as they could be.
Excessive focus on process and efficiency sucks away creativity, leaving work simply boring. Excessive focus on creativity and ideation can create chaos and scale issues and inconsistent quality.
Some of my favorite work came from a creator who was excited to goof off. If that isn’t supported, you won’t get ingenuity at frequency. At the same time, that can’t always be the job and people need to understand that. Deadlines have to be met, and you won’t understand the results unless you systemize their measurement. You can’t provide security and stable growth without processes. Ironically, people need to feel secure to risk a new idea. This is how balancing efficiency and innovation affects culture and creates it.
The Importance Of Good Clients
When you run an agency, a morsel of every client’s culture trickles into yours. Over time, those morsels add up, which can create a challenge for our industry because client-agency chemistry plays a big role in our talent’s experience. This is much more noticeable when we’re working with the rare toxic client that has everyone reeling, but otherwise, we don’t usually give it much thought.
What if we paid more attention?
Working with clients you love that are going to love you back will bring dividends to your team’s culture. Chase those “good fits.” Your talent will amaze you when they see their agency cares this way. It’s motivating.
I shunned this philosophy at first because I misinterpreted the practice as being picky. I had to learn, painfully, that prioritizing fit is acting in a way that promotes every stakeholder’s best interests.
In these last 10 years, I’ve changed my definition of prosperity for my agency. My agency culture’s health is now everything to me. I’ve learned how deeply it affects everything else: the experience, the work, the clients, the outcomes and the prosperity of every individual client and staff member. Our culture is what sets us up to win.
Happy agency culture-making. And remember: no one size fits all.
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Author: Sara Helmy, Forbes Councils Member