Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Lighten up.

I've always broken agency people down into three groups.
1. Finders. These are the people who, by dint of their creativity and salesmanship, "find" new assignments and revenue from clients.
2. Minders. These are the people who keep an account running smoothly. They guide, gently, and hold hands.
3. Grinders. These are the people who do the hard work of an account. The assignments or gnarly tasks that no one wants.

It takes all three sorts to make an account and an agency run. And ideally, all people should have a portion of each in their cosmology.
They should be able to find opportunities, execute against those projects and keep their heads down and grind things out when needed.

Lately, however, I've come to the realization that most client organizations--it pains me to say this--are made up only of grinders. They view work with such excruciating over-thought rigor that they squeeze the life out of it. They suck the emotion and life out of things by grinding away at them. They turn everything into a long, slow slog through hip-deep muck.

I'm pissed at a particular client right now.

They're making me grind away at something that was 99% there when we presented it to them the first time two weeks ago.

Lighten up, ok.

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