It's a Test

Back to training.

Last year I got a call from a client who invited us to pitch for a new product. I sent an email out to our agency team that would fly there for the presentation and copied my new trainee.

In the email I told everyone about the opportunity and ordered my new assistant to make bologna and cheese sandwiches for the team to take with them on their trip.

About a week later, I walked into the agency and there was my assistant, wrapping up individual bags of bologna and cheese sandwiches for the team. “What are you doing”, I asked? “I’m making the sandwiches for the team to take on their pitch”. There must have been twenty bologna and cheese sandwiches on the table. “I was kidding,” I said.
She looked me in the eye and said, “Everything is a test”.

She’s right. She passed that test. The way a person goes about their job, says a lot about what that person is like. If they complain about making a bologna sandwich, someday they will be complaining about writing a marketing plan.
I once told a trainee to go make a pot of coffee and got the, “I’m not here to make pots of coffee,” look.
I replied with one of my “I’m smarter than you”, looks and said, “If you’re not capable of making a pot of coffee, you’re certainly not capable of managing a client’s advertising.”

When I hire a trainee, they get a textbook on direct marketing. Inside the flap I write a message.

Welcome to Roska Direct. Read one chapter a week and be prepared to discuss intelligently. Everything is a test. Knowledge equals confidence.

The focus of training during the first three months is not on advertising or marketing, it’s on self-management, communication and leadership skills. They are the key to a successful career and need to be taught. Things like:
-How to communicate clearly
-How to prioritize and delegate
-Managing pressure
-Speaking up in meetings
-Anticipatory management
(We’ll address all of the above points at another time)

Once the trainee has grasped these basics on how to work in an agency environment, you move to the next level:
You intentionally overload them with work to a point where they start to freak-out.
You then use the freak-out as an opportunity to review the skills they have been taught.
As they gain control over their work, they become more confident.

I tell every trainee, “When you wake from a sound sleep, sit up in your bed, your heart racing because you forgot to do something at work that day that had to be done.
That’s when you know you’ve arrived.”

And it has happened to every one of them.

Jon