Urban myths versus Authenticity
Life has its many urban myths, and this also includes a life in work and business. It can be time to sit back and dispel some of those business myths.
Thought I’d use the 2022 Korean film, actually series of films as to characters to highlight and think about people, their behaviours, and the masks they wear.
It’s funny now that I look at a career in advertising and can neatly divide people into two groups.
Non-Urban Myths. Real authentic people, with real words, actions and emotions. Those that get on with it, do a good job, are kind with people and bring out the best in them. And they don’t court promotion, or self promote.
The opposite of 1. naturally. Urban Myths. They create a persona at odds with the reality. They go back on words and actions. They don’t get “on with it” and normally throw sh*t at people to deal with. They stifle people to their own ends. The type that is an armchair general and does not roll sleeves up, delegates poorly, does not lead by example and spends an inordinate amount of time on self promotion ad nauseam in trade press and social media platforms like LinkedIn.
Tobermory yesterday afternoon.
Building on from my last post, here are some suggestions for how to deal with character 2. Who in layman’s language can be a right “royal pain in the arse”.
If a colleague is 2. it is advisable especially in the advertising game to keep an eye on them. Don’t avoid them as it is better to keep them close so you can watch in a passive way what they are up to. Being informed is necessary here as against being in the dark, which aids this type of character.
The cardinal rule here is: You won’t change such people. You have no control over them. But you do have control over yourself. All you can do is keep a clear head and behave ethically.
Over time (not always, sadly) character number 2’s behaviour is usually found out. And experience shows they normally dig themselves a hole and pull the kit pin on their own grenade.
Don’t fight fire with fire, e.g. grandstand, gossip etc. You only demean yourself and become spiritually poorer. You are likely to engender retaliation, so instead lead by example keeping “your side of the street clean”. People will respect you for that. And I must be clear - you cannot and will not be able to change a person who operates in a way counter to you value system.
Worse case scenario is where you have to escalate to management over a “painfu” colleague, but you’ll need to make a judgement call as to where management sits. And what is the company ethos? Conducive to growth and people or dog eat dog? Sadly a lot of advertising businesses are the latter.
It may even be the case that you have to move on to pastures new.
The same approach can also work with bosses, which is a similar situation but can be wildly different.
Here goes…. Some bosses are wonderful, caring ethical and embody character 1. But they are few and far between. A lot of bosses I found (but I must caveat this with my having worked in advertising, and advertising start ups) are usually driven and operate to behaviours that got them there in the first place. They are character 2. through and through.
Capable of shocking behaviour to preserve what is theirs, capable of creating and believing and promulgating a narrative that is of their creation and belief despite evidence to the contrary.
With a boss it can be a bit tricky in terms of what to do as there is a natural imbalance of power.
A nice photo to break the heavy prose of the MV Loch Frisha sailing into Craignuire, Isle of Mull yesterday morning.
So what do you do?
Don’t pander, brown nose, try to over perform, impress with a poor type 2. boss. You will be taken advantage of. They will take, take, take.
Don’t fight back whether directly or indirectly. You won’t win against a person who is hell bent on keeping what they have and living behaviourally to their narrative.
What you have to do is be good at what you do, but also have a Plan B.
Run your role, normally Director, diligently as this achieves two things. Firstly you build a support network, and secondly you become intertwined with your role. It is the hard for said asshole to remove you.
Plan B revolves around getting another role, waiting for the idiot to leave or be removed, or force majeur.
Patience, patience, patience is a requisite.
As an aside it is this that always piss*s me off to no end and here’s why.
It really sticks in my throat this type of individual posting on LinkedIn or using trade press to note achievements when all underneath their managerial role or product/service role is usually a shambles. It is no surprise they leave a role after around two years and I strongly believe this being due to jumping before being pushed or found out.
Anyway….
Peter Cobley esq.
I was guilty of making poor choices in terms of company and those running said companies, especially the start ups. And more worryingly I did not exit some companies when it was clear I could not fix a) poor management, b) poor service, c) clash of personality, d) poor ethics, e) just simply working with 2. type individuals as detailed above (assholes normally only out for self to put it less diplomatically.)
I think it common to accept and the Urban Myth mantra some companies, colleagues, or bosses peddle to your own demise; which seems to happen to good people who try to fix people, places, or things out of their control. Good people can end up destroying themselves at the cost of others, who will willingly let them do this.
Lastly a nice photo taken yesterday morning from the MV Loch Frisha as she sailed between Oban and Craignuire, Isle of Mull.
For example I have two experiences. One first hand, the other second hand.
Example one is first and hand and marks the time between 2008 and 2010 when persuaded to join a start up called I Spy Search that was to change it’s name to I Spy Marketing. Investors in the business and one of which joined the business as CEO called Jim Bridgen. Suffice to say we had a person wrapped in his own self belief, over ambitious, and set sales targets and requirements on the Manchester branch I’d set up that were both onerous, ill thought out, and impossible to deliver on.
In this situation I now realise with age I was on a hiding to nothing and ought to have left the business for a new role unable to overcome the ego of a man whose arrogance knew no bounds. But I did not and instead became a victim, thrown under a bus for his failure to support Manchester (another story.) I learnt that one at times has to make a hard choice. In retrospect I was forced into the hands of Dave Seward and Micky Ward of HOME (now IMA), and that was a good thing.
Example two, involves a business contact who was working in a director role at the well known Manchester social media agency, and at the time her MD was a media type from another big agency full of ego and name and brand, but in my honest opinion crap at his job.
In this situation my friend worked her nuts off to support and stabilise a social media agency that had grown very fast but lacks coherence and structure and was all over the show; she’s an ace ops’ and account management person.
Suffice to say after wittering how well he was doing via various pronouncements on LinkedIn, he proverbially fucked off with his ego to THG before he was pushed or found out, not having achieved much (as per his previous agency) and left people like my business contact to pick up the pieces with management and investors, which ultimately led to her being laid off as a “cost”. Said ex-MD then proceeded to ghost her and colleagues. Class, just pure class.
In this situation she ought to have seen the writing on the wall and left, she’s much better than how she was treated. But she did not being a natural fighter and trying to sort problems out. In the end it has spurred her to set up her own business and good for her! She’ll do well.
In both examples you can note that when up against ego driven and frankly useless individuals where they have the power balance one sided, myself and my business contact were in situations where our focus was on fire fighting to our detriment, whilst the direct boss took no blame, parcelled and posted blame to us, and then fucked off - in example 1 selling a turd of a business to an unwitting agency group, and in example 2 disappearing for a new role that can be a PR exercise.
Anyway, hope you liked the article.