Savage counsel – stepping down gracefully
Dear Chris,
Our agency recently lost a client or two and I was given the difficult choice of taking a demotion or leaving the agency. I opted for the former but am struggling to adjust to my lesser position. Any tips on how to take the step down gracefully?
You always have the choice to move on. So the power is with you. They say there is a war on talent. Not true. The war is over. Talent won. So go get a new role if you are unhappy.
However, there is another way. Sometimes you need to slow down to speed up. Maybe this ‘demotion’ is a great opportunity to recharge, recalibrate and accelerate forward. Use the opportunity to revisit your ‘brand’ and offer. Use my ‘Brand You’ test, which I stole from Tom Peters. There are four pillars to our personal brands at work. Here they are. Score yourself out of 10 on how you reckon your colleagues perceive you in each. Ten out of 10 means you’re seen as brilliant, awesome, OMG. One out of 10 means you’re perceived as an unmitigated disaster in this.
that’s excellent advice Chris
There’s no shame in a demotion on the agency side Chris.
Titles are freely given to pad agency structures to impress clients or push internal agendas.
Easy come easy go.
Take this as an opportunity to recalibrate your options and reinvent yourself.
Try the Client-side.
The titles sound less impressive there but the money is a great deal better.
I should know.
Thanks for taking the time to share your experience Chris. These really are useful columns for a lot of people.
Put in the effort, make yourself indispensible – then in a few months, tell them you’re not adapting well to the demotion and that you’re thinking of moving. If they don’t upgrade you in some way at that point, then that’s the time to leave.