How emotional intelligence moved to the top of adland’s talent agenda
With adland often citing retaining and nurturing the right talent, as one of its greatest challenges, developing the emotional intelligence of staff could be key to retaining and promoting a happier workforce. Mumbrella’s Abigail Dawson spoke to agency leaders across the board on how adland can balance the on-the-job capabilities and emotional intelligence of talent.
Agencies often lament the lack of talent and the issue of churn in agencies as a problem across the board. Yet managers favouring the intellectual preparedness of staff over their emotional capabilities is emerging as a key contributing problem to the wider talent problem.
Emotional intelligence is progressively becoming more important within agencies. And as the industry becomes more complex, simply having the intellectual skills and knowledge to complete job roles and responsibilities may no longer be enough.
Ignoring emotional intelligence isn’t just a problem confined to adland, says Fergus Watts, founder and executive chairman at creative agency Bastion Collective.
“This is not just a gap in the corporate market, it’s a gap in the world. What does not get taught now is the things that actually matter in the modern day.
Very good to hear this. Our collaboration with Jodie and the gang at ADMA has focused on valid measures of the marketing specific capabilities but we have also discussed how important the so called “soft skills” are to the industry. We call the soft skills “Professional Practice” and the “hard” or technical skills “Professional Expertise”.
To see leading lights in the industry identify that Professional Practice capabilities are critical to the success of their people is very heartening and it does reflect the findings of the majority of well founded research into the workplace of the future. We, and I’m speaking for us and ADMA here, would be interested in chatting with the industry as our Credential model provides a valid and independent measure of a person’s capability in areas such as emotional judgement, communication, global and cultural engagement, teamwork, collaboration and so on.
Really insightful article Abigail.
I’m a RMIT PR student graduating this year and this article provides insight into other key attributes which also need to be fostered throughout your career. Loved the self reflection tips from Fern Canning-Brook!!
Good article, I think there is a lot of talk about emotional intelligence these days and it’s great to see some statements about action being taken in these organisations. In my experience, management skills in media agencies suck and would be the biggest opportunity for improving long-term business health if focused on.
Also, ouch at this quote “For millennial John Dawson”.
Baby Boomers, Millennials, Gen’ Ys, Feminists, Women, Misogynists, White Men, Old White Men, Men in Suits, PC and non PC etc. Our world is so divided, our politics so severe and disconnected, it is a wonder that we are able to function at all in an industry that relies so heavily upon like minds, and common understanding, upon general and specific recognition, and upon a wide sympathetic appreciation.
Life is crammed with fallacies: The belief that knowing an important person therefore makes one more important than the average, that holding a degree from a recognised university makes one better equipped to make it in the world, that education and intelligence are concordant etc.
Social media has not caused, but it has contributed to, a set of factions and a general sense of black and white, of right and left, and of correct and incorrect thinking. In short, we need more reckless abandon, more dreamers, more poets and more comedians. Not more than anyone else, but more than the PC, bean counting, politically correct and educationally qualified world of today is allowing.