Investing in your talent
For junior talent to last long enough at an agency to make it to leadership levels, Johnson pointed out a few ways that agencies can take long, hard looks at themselves to ensure they are eliminating any biases. One of In for 13’s guest speakers, Joan Williams of Bias Interrupters, taught the group several exercises they should do to evaluate all kinds of representation. Johnson said the first is to make a list of the 10 most visible projects in your agency. If you have the same people doing them, then you have a bias.
“How do you farm out some of those where people have more visibility into things that are large and really be strategic about how you get people a part that?” Johnson said.
The second thing agencies should do is to evaluate their review process for promotions.
“Review who has not been promoted within the last two to three years and look at whether you are tight-roping them,” Johnson said, explaining, “tight-roping basically means that they have to keep showing receipts for a role they haven’t done yet.”
Johnson stressed that employees should not have to show that they’re capable of a role versus just allowing them the space to do it. “It’s like you have to do the job before you’ve done the job,” she said. “And then you would promote them.”
Over the past year, the study showed that agencies are increasingly investing in Black managers and associate directors in order to increase Black leadership at their agencies and spend less time and resources on various pipelines that take longer to pay dividends.
Advice for employees
When evaluating potential opportunities with a new agency, Johnson stressed one key red flag. Agencies should be evaluating how you would be additive to the organization and discovering how you “sparkle,” as Johnson described it. If the agency is trying to understand you from a very narrow meaning, then you run the risk of the agency looking to “check a box.”
She points to her experience joining Deutsch LA as an example. “They were trying to understand what are you really good at, and what do you want because we can pivot and make a role based on what you’re good at. That felt more authentic to me than someone just asking me like, ‘What big pitches have I won for the agency?’”
