How to find an emotionally intelligent Mentor

Useful piece on Fast Company… Everyone wants a good mentor. They can help you get ahead at work, and provide an important sounding board when you’re trying to make a tough decision or deal with a tricky coworker. But finding the right person can be easier said than done. A 2019 study found that while 76% of people believe that mentoring is important, only 37% say they have such a relationship….more.

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The serious business of your VALUE PROPOSITION

Let’s be clear, identifying and articulating a compelling Value Proposition (VP) can be challenging work.  The ‘gold’ in your firm that defines what makes you special can be buried quite deep or in unexpected places. It may be found in your process, your behaviours or somewhere else, and demands a keen eye to know where to look and how far to dig to potentially unearth the treasure that those working in the business either simply don’t manage to find, or see clearly for themselves. VP know-how Many of you will know that a true VP will succinctly define ‘what you...

Supporting future growth at UNLTD_XYZ

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Now 12-months in, and having a great time working again with the very talented Jason Smith of UNLTD_XYZ. Having worked together previously between 2008-09, I was delighted to be invited to work with Jason again in a part-time consultative role across his business to further enhance best practices and help shape and implement a plan for growth. Working closely with Jason since August 2018, I focused initially with Jason on defining the business goals and objectives and necessary resources to help shape a strategy and implement a tactical plan for developing the business in specific areas of interest that also represent tangible...

Allowing imagery to speak for UNLTD_XYZ

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Recent work with my client UNLTD_XYZ identifying and planning a forward strategy for the business. First phase, develop the proposition and website… Key objectives: heighten perceptions of the business, and allow UNLTD_XYZ’s impressive work to speak for itself to the target audiences identified in our forward plan. Full screen imagery was a given to maximise visual impact. Light touch project statements say enough for most first time visitors who are typically gathering information and looking for inspiration. See what you think… https://www.unltd.xyz Now the real work begins!

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Testimonial from Bharat Bhargava, Business Director at Bharat&Jean

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“I had the opportunity of getting to know Simon over the past year during the DBA Twenty/Twenty mentoring programme through 2018.  We started our design practice 4 years ago. It has very much been a process of learning how to run your own business as we went along, wearing different hats on different days. The sessions with Simon were insightful and helpful especially to benchmark against other agencies through Simon’s eyes, experience and network. He helped us with a measuring tool for annual growth and shared various example models for the same. Through the course of the programme, we moved...

Straw poll: Your experiences of Recruitment Agencies

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I took this screenshot on my laptop of what appeared as I typed the words ‘recruitment agencies are’… I’m particularly interested to hear from owner-founders and leaders of Design Agencies on how you feel about the typical experience of working with a recruitment agent to help you find new talent for your agency. So this might include your overall experience of the typical process, service quality, value v fees, results, terms, etc.  1 = Very dissatisfied 2 = Dissatisfied 3 = Generally needs to evolve   4 = Satisfied 5 = Very satisfied Please either comment or email [email protected] if...

Articulating where and how we add value

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Value creation is the primary aim of any business entity and arguably the single most important communication of ourselves. Yet many creative firms struggle with understanding for themselves and clearly defining the value of what they do for clients. Akin to my piece on Positioning oneself as an Expert, in which I question whether being an ‘expert’ is something that one should declare of oneself, should we be defining our own value? Obvious maybe, but our true value is often revealed and most truthfully told by our clients and customers through authentic testimonials and reviews. After all, they have the experiences...

What inspired you to start your firm?

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My reason and purpose (the ‘why’) for starting teer was this… I’ve worked with some great designers since the mid 80s, yet I experienced many to be somewhat ‘reactive’ in their work-behaviours outside of fee-paying client projects. I saw this as an opportunity to help them change. It gave me a reason and a purpose for starting teer – to understand their challenges and to help shape and influence behaviours that drive designers to lead a more ‘proactive’ work life. Having proactivity as the driving behavioural characteristic at the core of your agency can enable greater control of your future, and allow designers...

Stretch your thinking

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Owner-founders and leaders of design agencies: For those that may be falling into the trap of narrowing your field of exploration to mostly sharing stories, thoughts and latest project news across Linkedin, Twitter, etc, in the hope a prospective new client will get in touch… Having clearly defined client- and project-fit profiles will give you clarity, foundations, a benchmark and fresh impetus for understanding and then shaping your outbound communications, marketing collateral, talks, thought pieces, presentations, etc. Think carefully about what the criteria for your perfect client- and project-fit profiles look like….we can help here. Shaping these profiles for your agency...

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