Why Do Agenies Need Leaders? (John Gage)

Participants will understand what leadership is, why it is important and explore challenges that agencies are facing and how leadership can help to address them.

They will start to form ideas of areas where they can apply what they have learnt in their agency, to be followed up in the later session on The Agency of the Future.

Content

• Programme overview
• Putting this programme into practice
• What is management and what is leadership?
• What do leaders do?
• Some books you might enjoy
• Leading with different behavioural styles
• How do agencies work? (exercise)
• Why do agencies need leadership?
• Why is leadership hard?
• What are the problems/opportunities that leaders address?
• Your action plan

About the Trainer

John Gage is a consultant and trainer who has worked with agencies for 25 years. He is interested in how to increase agency profitability through client retention and talent strategies.

Developing Your Own Authentic Leadership Style (Abigail Dixon)

Many of us arriving in leadership roles having only experienced those that have led or managed us. We therefore often find ourselves leading or managing in a way that we have previously experienced, or in a way that we believe is expected of those of those around us. However, this can over time cause inner conflict, as we are not being authentically ourselves. I believe ‘We can only help others in the extent to which we know ourselves’ and therefore we need to build a level of self-awareness that will allow to define a leadership style that is authentic to us. This seminar focuses on how you build a leadership style authentic to you that combines our personal understanding of what we value, the type of leader you want to be, combined with looking at the leader your team need you to be. We will also look at how you can look too embed and bring this leadership style to life through key work streams and initiative’s.

Content 

Pre work to reflect to define your values.

• The role of marketing Leadership today- to inspire, motivate and deliver
• Activity- The Legacy you want to leave behind?
• Inspiration on leadership styles and defining the type of leader you want to be
• Defining the type of leader your team or business needs you to be
• How to bring to life your authentic leadership style in development work-streams and culture.

Benefits

• Deepen personal understanding and define values
• Develop a leadership style that feels authentic to you
• Gain ideas and inspiration on how you will bring this leadership style to life through

About the Trainer

Abigail Dixon is an award-winning marketer and consultant, course director and capability consultant, Chartered Marketer, and fellow of the CIM. Founder and Director of award-winning marketing and capability consultancy Labyrinth Marketing that exists to step change the growth of brands, agencies and people. She is author and podcast host of The Whole Marketer, which aims to empower marketers to not only have a successful but fulfilled career in marketing and their lives as a whole. Abigail is passionate about supporting and empowering the marketers behind the brands and business; her purpose is to help others to grow. Abigail draws on her 20 + years’ experience as an award-winning marketer, working on and consulting for many household brands and their agency partners to step change the brands’ growth. She utilises her unique position to draw on her wealth of experience from having coached, mentored and trained 1000s of marketers across multiple sectors, industries and brands to define what skills marketers need to possess to not only be successful at what they do but also understand how and why. In addition to Abigail’s marketing credentials, she is also an accredited ICF coach – a business and life coach empowering people and their businesses to define the clarity and motivation to pursue their goals.

How to Build an Agency New Business Culture (Camilla Honey)

The most successful New Business winning Agencies have a common trait: they’ve made new business everyone’s business, creating a culture where everyone is engaged in the pursuit of spotting and winning new clients as well as growing existing clients.

This module will empower Future Agency Leaders to instil a new business culture throughout their Agency, leading to a significantly fuller pipeline and additional revenue to the agency.

Content

• The evolving New Business Landscape
• Creating the right mindset for growth with your agency
• The Agency proposition and your Ideal Clients
• How to spot, create and nuture opportunities
• Instilling these skills throughout the agency
• Momentum & tracking of results including incentives

Benefits

• An entrepreneurial new business culture instilled within your agency
• A chance for the team to work on new and interesting projects
• New skills shared with all
• Increased revenue & profit

About the Trainer

Camilla’s specialism lies in agency business development. She spent 14 years working within agencies – spotting, creating and developing opportunities and briefs, writing and delivering marketing strategies whilst also ensuring a strong conversion rate through the process.

Identifying a need to support agencies with new business growth, she launched jfdi in 2004.  The company has now worked with over 800 agencies from the large to the small, across every discipline.

She is passionate about growing business, for both jfdi client agencies and jfdi itself – creating internal new business machines which overtime have a life of their own. Along with cultivating entrepreneurial cultures within agencies, where everyone needs to play their part in driving new business growth.

Building Fruitful Relationships with Senior Clients (Julian Saunders)

Day to day contact with clients can be different from more infrequent contact with senior managers on the client side. It can require a different mindset and ways of communicating.

As a senior manager you will also have deal with the inevitable problems that can arise – such as mistakes and relationship problems with the team. How you deal with these can be critical moments of truth. Solve them well and it can build trust and business.

Content

Exclusively for the Alliance Julian Saunders has conducted interviews with senior clients. The clues to success are empathy and understanding of the pressures that senior client face. We also cover the critical moments of truth in relationships and problem solving

The session will be highly interactive in which shared experiences are discussed and personal strategies developed

Benefit

Strategies and techniques for building fruitful relationships with senior clients

Identifying problems and problem-solving techniques

About the trainer

Julian Saunders was CEO of red cell advertising – a WPP agency- for four years. Key clients were Bank of Scotland, Alfa Romeo and Visit Wales

He was also Head of Strategy at McCann-Erickson at a time when it was the largest agency in the UK with clients such as Microsoft, Coca Cola, Nestle and Unilever

More recently he worked at Google where his job was to interact with client teams so that they could better understand and use Google owned platforms.

He has developed and run a number of training courses for the Alliance.

Recruiting High Performing Teams (Vonnie Alexander)

This session focuses on talent – how to recruit, motivate and retain the best teams to build a truly high performing team and how that can impact your own career progression.

Content

A whistle stop tour through the characteristics of high performing teams and what that means from a recruitment, retention, and motivation point of view. We will also look at how the team around influences your career progression and how to make that work to your advantage.

This session will be interactive, discursive, and hopefully instructive too! We will cover lots of ground in a fast-paced session that will take in:

• Why talent is so important in an agency.
• How to spot good people
• What it takes to motivate and retain your teams
• The characteristics of high performing teams
• Assessing your team against these criteria
• Your career to date – the highs and the lows
• What is the scale or your ambition?
• Developing a plan for how to get there.
• The impact of the team around you on your career progression

Benefits

Come out with an understanding of how to give yourself a competitive edge because you have the best people and teams.

Learn how to actively manage your own career to go where you want it to.

About the trainer

Vonnie Alexander has been an Executive Coach for the past 8 years working with agencies and client organisations in all sectors. She coaches leaders and their teams to success, is an NED of an independent agency, and sits on the Advisory Board of a VC Two Magnolias which invests predominantly in regions and demographics that are typically overlooked.

Prior to this, she worked in agencies for 25 years, most notably in her own agency, Kitcatt Nohr Alexander Shaw which was sold to Publicis in 2011.

Creativity as a Driver for Success (David Harris)

Leading Through Transformation (Abigail Dixon)

Many businesses go through periods of change and transformation. The need for transformation may happen as a result of a internal desire to step change the commercial

growth or may be required as a result of needing to protect your agencies or  brands position, in our ever changing competitive landscapes. However, the need for the required transformation has arisen, transformation is fuelled by need for significant changes. As a leader facing into change, we need to lead with clarity and inspiration of the benefits and goals of the change ahead but also reassure through defining key milestones and plans required to make this happen. In this seminar, we will also look at key steps to inspirationally and effectively lead through periods of transformation and to gain alignment and maintain motivation from those around you, to join you on the journey. We will also look to anticipate the possible personal impact that change and transformation will have on key stakeholders, individuals and you as a leader.

Content

• Importance of defining the vision of the transformational change ahead
• Importance of set goals that will determine success post transformation
• Facing into the changes that are needed to enable the transformation
• Change plan to provide reassurance of road map of the journey and defining key milestones
• Gaining alignment and motivation from stakeholders and employee through communicating inspirationally and openly, providing opportunity for dialogue
• Awareness of the impact that transformation and change can have on individuals and teams

Benefits

Empower leaders to lead their business, stakeholders, teams and individuals through periods of transformation and change

About the trainer

Abigail Dixon is an award-winning marketer and consultant, course director and capability consultant, Chartered Marketer, and fellow of the CIM. Founder and Director of award-winning marketing and capability consultancy Labyrinth Marketing that exists to step change the growth of brands, agencies and people. She is author and podcast host of The Whole Marketer, which aims to empower marketers to not only have a successful but fulfilled career in marketing and their lives as a whole. Abigail is passionate about supporting and empowering the marketers behind the brands and business; her purpose is to help others to grow. Abigail draws on her 20 + years’ experience as an award-winning marketer, working on and consulting for many household brands and their agency partners to step change the brands’ growth. She utilises her unique position to draw on her wealth of experience from having coached, mentored and trained 1000s of marketers across multiple sectors, industries and brands to define what skills marketers need to possess to not only be successful at what they do but also understand how and why. In addition to Abigail’s marketing credentials, she is also an accredited ICF coach – a business and life coach empowering people and their businesses to define the clarity and motivation to pursue their goals.

How to Excel at Public Speaking (Tessa Morton)

Mastering Presentation Skills for Effective Leadership

Welcome to the “Mastering Presentation Skills for Effective Leadership” module of our leadership program. In the dynamic landscape of leadership, the ability to communicate persuasively and captivate an audience is an indispensable skill. Whether you’re leading a team, pitching a new idea, or addressing a room full of stakeholders, your ability to present effectively can make a significant impact on your success as a leader.

Content

In this module, we will delve into the art and science of compelling presentations, focusing not just on the words you speak but on the way you connect with your audience. Effective leadership requires more than just expertise in your field; it demands the capability to inspire, influence, and leave a lasting impression.

Benefits

In this workshop we will explore the key components of impactful presentations, from crafting a compelling narrative to mastering non-verbal communication. We will also address techniques to manage nerves, engage diverse audiences, and adapt your style to different contexts. Whether you’re a seasoned executive or emerging leader, the skills you gain here will empower you to communicate with confidence, clarity, and charisma.

Great leaders are not just defined by their ideas but also by their ability to convey those ideas with passion and precision. Let’s sharpen those presentation skills and elevate your leadership impact.

This workshops is designed to help you  make every presentation an opportunity to inspire, inform, and ignite positive change.

About the Trainer

 The session provides a unique opportunity to reflect on the challenges you face as a leader and to equip you with the means to drive your own growth and the growth of those around you.

Content

The half day workshop will give you an understanding of growth mindset theory, its origins and foundational research and its application in the world of business.

You will learn and work through  a range of tools in order to apply the theory to yourself and the people you lead.  With insights from the world of neuro-psychology, linguistics, leadership coaching and sports psychology you will be better equipped to lead yourself and others.

This is for anyone who wants to understand how to grow and evolve as a leader and how to create a culture of growth within the teams they manage.

 Benefits

• Understand what Growth Mindset thinking is and how it can help leaders succeed in an uncertain business climate
• Better understand your own beliefs and behaviours in order to evolve as a leader
• Learn ways to develop a learning mindset and embed a learning culture in your team or agency
• Get practical tools to use as a leader to overcome adversity and create adaptable and resilient teams

About the Trainers

Marc Nohr and Sara Tate have between them founded and/or led some of the most recognised and awarded agencies in the market: Mother, TBWA, KitcattNohr, Digitas and several others. Marc now works as an agency Chairman and Executive Coach and serves on the board of Oxford Leadership a global leadership consultancy; and Sara operates as an organisational consultant and Executive Coach, as well as the author of the book Rebuilders: Going from setback to comeback in business and beyond.