Stepping up

We're all used to the idea that our agencies go through different phases of growth.

They pass key inflection points at 10ish, 30ish and 75ish people at which they need different types of people, different structures, different processes.

But as owners, we also need to change, along with our businesses.

A recent guest on our podcast, Paul Bellows, put it really well. He said that at the first inflection point you move from being one of the team to being the leader of the team. Then at the second inflection point you move to become the leader, of the leadership team.

At each of those points we, as leaders, need to adapt to 'work on the business rather than in it', but we also need to work on ourselves. Learning news skills and attitudes, taking on different responsibilities, and leaving some things behind.

Where an agency owner is frustrated or frazzled, it's often that they're not fully 'stepping up' into the new level of their role as their agency has grown — still trying to just be one of the team, or one of the leadership team.

How can you step up into your leadership role more this week? What will you work on? What, from the earlier days of your leadership role, will you try to leave behind?

This was a big week in Convivio towers. We began opening up our Agency Leaders Playbook, with more pages being released each day... and we launched our subscriptions for accessing all that we do, including key briefings for agency owners, and the Playbook. It's a vital part of any agency owner's toolkit.

We also sent out the first monthly survey to members of the Agency Senate. These are the wise minds of the agency world, and each month we'll be researching their experience and advice, and getting their votes, on key issues for agency owners. Watch out for the first report on the results in a couple of weeks.