The challenge leaders face
Hiring is underway. The org chart looks fuller. Yet something still feels off. Projects stall. Priorities compete. The same issues resurface. Often, this happens because the team was built before the problem was clearly defined. Leaders respond to pressure by adding roles. They react to workload instead of diagnosing root causes. They replicate structures from previous organizations without confirming those models fit the current business.

Growth continues. Frustration remains.

Where team buildouts fail
Most team failures are not talent failures. They are design failures. Common mistakes include:

• Hiring before defining the business problem
• Replicating past structures without adaptation
• Valuing impressive resumes over contextual fit
• Confusing activity with outcomes

When leaders build teams reactively, they optimize for speed rather than alignment. The result is a group of capable people working hard on the wrong priorities.

A better way to design teams
Strong leaders start somewhere different. Before writing job descriptions, they ask:

• What problem does this team exist to solve
• What outcomes define success
• What capabilities are truly missing today
• How will this team need to evolve in the next two years

This shifts hiring from role-filling to problem-solving. Team design becomes strategic infrastructure rather than a staffing exercise.

Effective team building starts with defining the business problems the team must solve before hiring talent.

Why process matters as much as talent
Even strong hires struggle inside unclear systems. Without defined decision rights, performance metrics and communication norms, talent becomes constrained. High performers may compensate temporarily. They cannot sustain it.

Talent performs best inside structure that supports it. The most effective leaders understand that team design includes:

• Clear accountability
• Defined decision ownership
• Aligned processes
• Coaching and leadership development

The leadership shift
Building the right team requires leaders to slow down and think of a few key areas before jumping in such as:

1. It requires resisting pressure to “just hire someone.”
2. It requires alignment with HR and executive peers.
3. It requires courage to define what success truly looks like.

When done intentionally, team design creates durable advantage. When done reactively, it creates turnover and frustration.

Practical takeaway
If hiring feels urgent, pause long enough to clarify outcomes. The strongest teams are built intentionally, with clarity about what they exist to deliver and how they will evolve.

The post Building Teams That Solve the Right Problems appeared first on UpSource.

The challenge leaders face
Marketing teams are often busy yet still perceived as misaligned. Leaders feel pressure from above while teams feel overwhelmed below. This disconnect erodes confidence on both sides.

Why alignment breaks down
When priorities are unclear, teams default to activity (busy work). Misalignment usually happens when:

• Business priorities are unclear or shifting
• Marketing is expected to support everything
• Success metrics are vague or conflicting

Misaligned teams are often a signal of unclear priorities, not poor performance.

What alignment actually requires
Alignment is not created through more meetings. It comes from leaders translating business objectives into clear focus and next steps. Goals need to be set and expectations need to be understood to see positive change. Far too often you see strategic goals created and not shared with the organization. It takes a village to create change, therefore goals must be shared and well known from the top down. Aligned leaders:

• Define what matters most
• Set boundaries around what does not
• Connect goals directly to outcomes

The leadership responsibility
Alignment is a leadership responsibility, not a marketing failure. When leaders provide clarity, teams gain confidence and burnout decreases. Marketing alignment happens when leaders clearly connect business objectives to marketing priorities and protect teams from unnecessary work.

The post Aligning Marketing Goals with Business Strategy appeared first on UpSource.

The challenge leaders face

Many leaders are told they need to be more strategic right after a promotion. What they are not given is a clear explanation of what strategic thinking actually looks like in practice. The result is frustration, self-doubt and reactive decision making disguised as leadership.

What strategic thinking really is

Strategic thinking is not about being visionary or charismatic. It is the discipline of slowing down decisions to assess impact, risk and long-term consequences.

This skill can be learned, practiced and strengthened. Strategic leaders consistently:

• Pause before reacting
• Separate urgency from importance
• Consider second-order impact
• Make decisions that hold up over time

“Strategic thinking is a leadership skill that helps leaders assess impact, prioritize long-term outcomes and make better decisions under pressure.”

Why capable leaders struggle with it

Most leaders are promoted for execution. Speed, responsiveness and problem-solving are rewarded early in a career. As responsibility grows, those same habits can become liabilities.

Common patterns include:

• Jumping to solutions before defining the problem
• Treating decisiveness as a substitute for clarity
• Confusing activity with progress

How strategic leaders operate differently

Strategic leaders do not make more decisions. They make fewer better ones. They ask sharper questions, invite perspective and create clarity that reduces confusion downstream.

The post Strategic Thinking is a Leadership Skill appeared first on UpSource.

Ah, the excitement of starting a new job! After months of applications and many rounds of interviews, the offer to build, lead and grow a new team finally comes through. You are excited to be moving upward in your career, or maybe just on to a new challenge where all of your best talents and experiences can be put to use every day. 

During your first few days on the job, you spend plenty of time learning. Learning about the business of your new employers, meeting lots of new people, and diving into how things get done currently in your new department. And that’s when you start to learn about how things were before… 

Scenario A: The “what was” problem

At some point within your first two weeks, you start to hear the stories of how things were before you got there. Some of these stories will be positive, even funny, about how great things are due to a team that meshes well. You will hear about happy clients, award-winning work, and the hard road it took to get there. Some of these stories will be less positive. Stories about a team that was not motivated, not collaborative, and not responsive to the needs of internal clients. You might even hear about how high of a turnover there has been in the department. All of these things, both good and bad, happened because of your predecessor. 

Scenario B: You’ve got big shoes to fill

Let’s say your predecessor was the kind of leader who just killed it. He did a great job keeping the team engaged, the work enjoyable, and the clients happy. 

As the new (replacement) leader coming on board, you have big shoes to fill. Chances are your predecessor was not only good at his job, but he was well-liked to boot (pun intended). In this case, you’re coming into a group that – while perhaps excited to see you – might be a bit suspicious of what you’re going to bring to the table. After all, how can things really get any better for this team when It’s already pretty grea?

In other words, once the new guy shine wears off on week 4, everyone will be looking at you like, “so, what can you offer us that the old guy we loved so much didn’t already do?” 

Scenario C: You’ve walked into a minefield

On the other hand, let’s say things were not so great when your predecessor left. Maybe that’s the reason they are no longer here in the first place. 

The team could be any one – or more – of the following: unhappy, unmotivated, uninspired, unruly, uncreative, insubordinate, disorganized, and/or overworked. 

And the clients? They don’t like working with your department because of all these reasons I just listed. 

The team might still be excited to have you come on board, but because of the change, you represent they might be a bit suspicious of what you’re going to bring to the table. After all, how can things get any better for this team?

They can’t see the forest for the trees. In other words, once the new guy shine wears off on week 4, everyone will be looking at you like, “so, how are you going to fix this?. 

You have a long road ahead of you, but you can get to the summit; it’s just going to be a long road to get there, and it will take a lot of hard work. 

What’s a new leader to do?

Of course, you could also be lucky enough to be asked to start an in-house creative team, too, in which case you don’t have any of the histories of a predecessor to worry about. But you still need to take into consideration how the business operated before you came on board. 

No matter what the scenario is for you, below are five suggestions I have for consideration when starting your new leadership gig:

Number 1: Don’t change anything. Things may or may not be working as well as you hoped when you walk in the door on your first day. For better or for worse, your team is still operating like a machine. Throwing a wrench into the works early on could do more harm than you expect. 

Number 2: Be observant, and listen as much as you talk. You’re a leader, so you might be tempted to take charge of the situation to make your mark. Don’t. Instead, learn as much as you can about the business and current state of affairs before discussing potential changes with your boss. 

Number 3: Be patient, and have a plan. Unless extreme circumstances require an immediate change, develop a plan for improving your operations and get buy-in on it from above and below.

Number 4: Stop interviewing for the job. Resist the urge to remind everyone how much you know or what you’ve done before to handle a similar situation. The person who hired you knows that, and they probably told your team and peers already. You don’t have as much to prove as you think you do. Just do what you’ve been hired to do. 

Number 5: Build relationships. A big part of leading a team, and its clients, is knowing who you’re working with. Take time to get to know people and learn what drives them. It will not only help you be successful, but it will help you get buy-in on your improvement plans later on.

Final thought: Let hindsight truly be 20/20. After taking the leadership reins several times in my career, I have some perspective on this, so my last piece of advice is: Don’t get bogged down by “what was”. 

You have to respect the history of how things were B.Y. (before you), but you can’t let history bog you down. Learn from it, but don’t let anyone dwell on the past. Build your own history and make your own mark.

The post Is Your Predecessor Preventing Your Success? 5 Tips For Leaders Starting A New Job. appeared first on UpSource.

Meetings are a necessary evil in our business. Between staff meetings, project planning and review meetings, vendor meetings, and of course client meetings, its any wonder we get real work done at all.
But one thing I have learned in almost 25 years in the creative business is that people don’t like going to meetings. Meetings take time away from doing actual work, and seldom have real purpose or outcome: unless they are planned well and have an actionable outcome.
As a leader, one of your roles is to make sure things are running efficiently and effectively. This short list will help you plan and run better meetings.
#1: Do you really need to have a meeting?
Before you do anything, think hard about this. Could you accomplish what you need to do with an email or a phone call? Don’t waste people’s valuable time if organizing a meeting isn’t necessary.
#2: Prepare ahead of time.
A little prep work ahead of time will make you look like a real pro. Create an agenda that you can follow during the meeting, to keep things on track. Double-check conference room reservations and print out meeting materials. Send a calendar invitation with the time and location of the meeting and include valid dial-in, or video conferencing log in details. Also, pre-write a post-meeting thank-you email to send out when you get back to your desk.
#3: Take notes.
Using the agenda, write notes about each topic to guide conversations or what actions items are afterward. Each person in the meeting should have an action to follow-up on after the meeting. If you are not great at taking notes, assign someone to do it for you. The minutes will remind people what happened at the meeting and will allow you to share with anyone who was not available to attend the meeting.
#4: Follow up
After the meeting, when you get to your desk, send the post-meeting thank-you email. Leave room for the action items from your notes. Let everyone know when the meeting minutes will be available, and how they can access them. Schedule a follow-up meeting, if necessary.
#5: See number one.

The post Plan and run better meetings appeared first on UpSource.

By the end of 2015, after being an in-house creative director for nearly 8 years and working in this field for over 20 years, I found myself self-employed for the second time in my career. Now, as I enter my fourth year as a brand and creative strategy consultant, I attribute some of my success as a business owner to my experiences and the lessons I learned by working in-house. Reflecting on that time being in-house, I can also say that my consulting mindset, and teaching instincts, also attributed to my success leading in-house creative teams.
Whichever side of the fence you find yourself on, leading an in-house team or managing your own business, here are some things that have strikingly similar importance to how successful you will be.

Remember, you are running a business.
As much as being a creative leader is about the creative output of your designers, writers, photographers, videographers, and so on, it’s also about understanding how to run a business. As an in-house leader, you must come to grips that you are running a business unit within a corporation that needs to have procedures, processes, and policies to operate smoothly. Some corporations event document this information to ensure continuity of business. Your job, as the business unit leader, is to continually reassess, reevaluate, and redesign how your business runs to make it the most effective it can be.
This operational rigor comes in handy when you are self-employed so that your own business runs smoothly, plans for the future, and adapts to marketing changes. If you take the time to document how you run everything about your business – from marketing to working on projects, and billing clients – you will absolutely be more mindful about how things get done and where you can make adjustments to be more efficient and profitable.

Your relationships with other people are really, really, important.
I have believed in the power of networking since I was a teenager. I got my first freelance job because of it, got my first job out of college because of it, got my first corporate job at Banana Republic because of it, and quickly transitioned to a position at Gap when Banana Republic decided they were no longer going to be doing graphic tees because of it. I built my freelance business from 1999 to 2007 through networking, and my current consulting firm would not have ramped up so quickly since 2015 if not for my network of professionals that I could reach out to during that time.
So many people get the idea of “networking” wrong. If you’re networking, thinking that good things will come of casting a wide net, you are wasting your time. The key to strategic networking isn’t spending MORE time networking, it’s less time – but with more of the right people. There are two things that I have come to believe are more accurate than anything in business:

1. It’s not what you know, but who you know
2. Building strong relationships is more important than having a big network

Any self-employed creative professional, agency owner or consultant knows the power of networking. It’s how you grow awareness about your business, build a reliable source of referrals, and find strategic partners you can do business with. But for the corporate leader, this is even more so important. You can’t operate in a bubble within the corporate environment. You need to get out there and meet your internal clients, peers, and the (appropriate) higher-ups in the business. Having good relationships with all of these people will make it easier to sell creative ideas, educate them on how your department does things, and frankly make it easier to ask for more resources. Additionally, it’s one of the ways you will build credibility within the company because – if you do it right – your network will be advocates of your department and of you.
Manage your time like it is a precious, rare, commodity. Because it is.
I’ll be blunt here  and tell you the one skill you need to master no matter whether you are in-house or on your own: Say “no” to meetings or anything that is not worth your time, as much as possible.
There are two reasons for this, and they should be kind of obvious – but the more I talk to other creative leaders, the more I realize it is not as apparent as I thought it was.

1. You have too much work to do to spend so much time in unnecessary meetings.
2. Being too available sends the wrong message to everyone.

Creative leaders get invited to a lot of meetings about projects. We also get invited to business meetings related to the company, as befitting our roles in the corporate structure. Those of us who have worked corporate jobs know how many companies have developed a “meeting culture” (I actually attended a meeting where we planned other meetings) that becomes detrimental to both productivity and morale. What’s more, the nature of our role invites people to drop by our offices for an impromptu brainstorming session, status update, or worse to complain about a new corporate policy that will inevitably create more work for everyone. These interruptions not only break your concentration and the flow of creative ideas, but they suck up your time that you will need to earn back by staying late at the office or working over the weekend.
Guess what? Most meetings are unnecessary. Much of what someone called a meeting for could be achieved on a quick phone call or email. And if a meeting is essential, you need to ask yourself: Do I need to be there? Maybe this is an opportunity to delegate a direct report to go to the meeting and report back to you with a brief email.

As a consultant, you need to be discerning about how you spend your time. Not only do you need to leave time to do the work clients hired you to do, but you need to give yourself time for business development, marketing, finance, etc. Yes, networking is vital to growing your business, but you don’t need to do more of it. Be strategic about who you meet with and how. Can it be done with a phone call? Is this networking meeting or event going to result in a referral, business partner, or client? If it’s not a “heck yes,” then it’s a “heck no”!

The post Lessons learned working in-house that helped me be a better consultant appeared first on UpSource.

I am often surprised to hear that many in-house creative leaders are not running their own budgets for their departments. And because they are not the budget owner, they have very little say into what and how much goes into the budgeting process.
We all know running an in-house creative team is similar to running your own design studio. You have staff costs, hardware and software costs, paper, toner and professional development costs, just to name a few common line items.
Even for small teams under five people, this is a lot to track and manage properly, so why would you want a non-creative leader managing the creative budget for you? Well you don’t, so speak up.
If the creative budget in your organization cannot be broken out separately from the marketing budget, then at least get involved. Let your boss know that you would like to review a line-itemed budget for the following year that you can assist in controlling throughout the year.
For those of you who have trouble getting approval for conferences, membership fees and professional development initiatives, here’s your chance to plan for it, get it in the budget up front and let your boss know what it’s all about way in advance.
Robin Colangelo
I AM IN-HOUSE : White & Case
VP, Board of Directors, InSource
@RobinColangelo4

The post 2-Minute Tip: Budgeting appeared first on UpSource.

I can’t see straight when clutter begins to take over. I can’t think clearly and lose focus. I’m sure I’m not the only one but I may be more sensitive to recognizing this issue within myself.
Even though I’m a constant purger/straightener/cleaner, my work space still becomes cluttered with assets from multiple projects happening simultaneously.
At the beginning of each year I like to do an extra purge to clear the decks and take a moment to think about what’s been bugging me that I can address at my in-house job. Tackle it now before the year takes off faster than you can say Happy New Year!

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There has been a shift of power – creatively speaking – regarding to who “owns” brand and creative in corporate America. There was a time when anyone but the internal creative teams did new creative work or managed the outside creative agencies. However, for many years now some of the best creative work has come from in-house creative teams. And over the last 20 years or so, we have seen our creative industry disrupted by the growth of both in-house teams and the “gig” economy. The truth is, that whether you work in-house, for an outside agency, or as a freelancer this is a great time to be in the creative field.
It wasn’t too long ago that being an in-house creative meant you were considered a second-class citizen. Most “real creative pros” aspired to work for (or own) agencies, or so we assumed. Then a few years ago AIGA produced a report from a survey that showed 60% of designers in the U.S. actually considered themselves to be in-house. If this was true, then it demonstrated that the shift in our field had tipped the balance in favor of working in-house. At the same time, we’ve seen the so-called “gig” economy emerge with a growth of freelance, consulting and the re-emergence of practice specialization in smaller agencies.
So, with some of the best creative work in design, advertising, photography, and video coming from in-house teams the shift to corporations leveraging their in-house talent is happening more than ever. Since InSource was founded in 2003 we’ve been watching the trends and seeing how in-house has been growing. When we say “in-house is growing”, we don’t just mean that in-house teams are growing per-se. In fact, many teams are about the same size now as they have been for the last few years. No, when we say in-house is growing we mean to say that our accountability to the companies we work for, and the responsibility to the brands we serve, is greater now – and increasing – more than ever before.
From my perspective, in-house is really just coming of age. We’re finding our stride, and the rest of the industry is settling into a new operating model. With more accountability naturally means more projects of all kinds are coming our way, but without increased headcount how is it going to get done? We’re going to have to send it out.
That’s not really new information. Work has been sent out for ages in our field. However outside agencies were once managed without the involvement of in-house creative counterparts. Now in-house creative groups are tasked with managing those same outside agency relationships. The very same agencies we used to view as our competitors are now under our management and oversight. In this new era we see the in-house creative leader partnering with the outside agency creative leader more often than we ever did in the past.
This shift in accountability to in-house teams also brings a shift in the division of labor too. As more in-house teams increase their creative operations – capabilities, they find that if is often more effective (and less costly) to assign work out to smaller, specialized, and more nimble studios and freelance resources. As such, large agencies are finding the need to change their models too, in order to better support and partner with their in-house counterpart/clients. Any agency – in-house or outside – that isn’t adapting to the new model our industry appears to be settling into is going to find themselves facing greater challenges. It’s no longer us vs. them, in-house vs. outside agencies. The brands that win will have strong partnerships between in-house and outside creative teams.
So look at your model and ask yourself, is this working? Are we partnering with outside the right resources – creative or production – effectively to do the best work possible on behalf of the business? Is our operating model right? Are we managing the relationship to our best advantage?

The post The Changing Relationship Between In-House and Outside Agencies appeared first on UpSource.

From messaging to visual identity
Design is a unifying factor to support marketing and business development efforts. The best way to demonstrate how design drives value for a brand is to point out how creative work touches virtually every aspect of your organization.

In years past, I’ve worked for businesses with inconsistent branding. There were the obvious things –different logos or a wide variation in the look and feel across offices and collateral. However, there was a larger problem: The brand inconsistency confused employees, clients, and prospects.

Employees who don’t understand their brand or value proposition can’t sell it to anyone else. Business development becomes more challenging when your messages are conflicting, you have a different logo on your collateral versus your website, and you’re not even prepared for your elevator pitch on who you are and why anyone should care.

Recruiting
Another area in which your business can fall short from inconsistent branding and loose messaging is recruiting. The top talent will always choose the company that comes across as buttoned-up.

Use examples
When speaking with peers from other departments about marketing and design, I often rely on the Coca-Cola brand as an example. Everything about that brand is consistent: The logo usage, color pallet, and messages are the same so the customer always knows what to expect.

Making an impact
It’s tricky to measure the success of great design. But I can tell you that design professionals can help you brainstorm ways to improve all of the above on top of creating design guidelines to train your staff, so your employees have clarity in how to speak and represent the organization.

Clients value a fresh perspective which is hard to see when your visuals are sloppy, your content isn’t proofread, and your messages are different every time they meet you. Clients gravitate toward modern messaging and branding that speaks to their needs and business objectives.

Design professionals want to make an impact with their work, so collaborate with them on all of your brand touchpoints and you’ll see how employees and business development will flourish.

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