Event
Agency Leadership Programme: Growth Day
Event details
Meet other rising stars in the agency world, and share how you’re navigating your leadership journey.
Hear from inspirational speakers, who have been on the journey themselves, and take the chance to talk to your peers about how you’re coping with your step up to leadership.
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Event Manifesto
Agency Leadership Programme Growth Day
Event curated by:
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Kirstie Sutherland
Agency Hackers
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Anne Harlow
Agency Hackers
When it comes to agency leadership, there is no ‘how to’ guide to follow.
Every agency is different. And every leader is different. People step into leadership roles in different ways and at different times. Some are promoted quickly, while others grow into it gradually. Some arrive with a plan, others find themselves figuring things out as they go.
But what most agency leaders have in common is the reality of the role once they’re in it.
There’s the responsibility. The emotional load. The pressure of making decisions that affect other people, not just yourself and your own position. The challenge of supporting teams while still delivering great work, often at pace.
Leadership can be rewarding, but it can also be isolating. And too often, the learning happens quietly, through trial and error, when there’s little time or space to step back.
The leadership programme, and this Growth Day in particular, exists to change that.
This is a dedicated day for those rising stars within agencies, who are progressing on their own leadership journey, to step out of day-to-day delivery and talk honestly about leadership as it really shows up in agency life – the pressure, the pace, and the need to lead in a way that’s sustainable over time.
You’ll hear real stories from peers, share experiences with people who understand the context you’re in, and leave with perspectives you can take back into your role straight away.
Because leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about learning how to carry responsibility well – for yourself, your team, and the business.
SPEAKERS
You will hear from…
How Can You Lead a More
Commercially-Minded Team?
Being brilliant at the work is only half the job once you’re managing people. The other half is commercial: understanding how the decisions your team makes actually affect the P&L, and teaching them to think that way too.
From previously running her own agency, and working with agency leaders as part of Agency Adventure, Claire Hutchings sees this same problem time and again: teams who deliver great work, but never connect it to the numbers, or the wider impact on the business.
A big part in solving that problem is closing that gap at leadership level.
At our upcoming Growth Day, Claire will cover:
- Recognising when someone on your team is coasting on their craft, not their commercial thinking.
- Coaching a team to spot opportunities and act on them, rather than waiting to be told.
- Moving your team from “here’s a problem” to “here’s what I’d do”.
- Helping people understand how their decisions ripple through client and agency P&L.
If you’re managing a team but still doing all the commercial thinking yourself, this session will help you understand how to build that mindset into the people around you.
What’s It Like When You’re
Suddenly the One in Charge?
Most people in agencies don’t apply to be a manager or leader, let alone MD. One day you’re just really good at the job, and the next you’re the one everyone looks to when a decision needs making.
Sarah Levett knows that shift better than most.
Two and a half years ago, Sarah walked into Salo Creative to a founder who wanted her to “just run the business”, with no job description, no handover, and barely a roadmap. She’s spent the time since working out, in real time, what running it actually means: earning authority nobody formally gave her, managing upwards without losing her nerve, and building the scaffolding that lets a business, and its founder, function properly.
In this session, Sarah will cover:
- What it actually feels like to be handed leadership with minimal instructions.
- Building credibility and authority when you’re new to leadership.
- The upward-management conversations nobody prepares you for.
- What she’d tell her earlier self, if she could.
If you’ve ended up leading without ever really being told how, this session will help you make sense of it – and hear how someone else is doing the same thing.
FAQ
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