Be The Steak, Never The Parsley …
February 2, 2024, 7:30 am
Filed under:
Advertising,
Agency Culture,
Attitude & Aptitude,
Authenticity,
Comment,
Complicity,
Confidence,
Contribution,
Creativity,
Culture,
Fake Attitude,
Management,
Marketing,
Marketing Fail,
Mediocrity,
Perspective,
Relationships,
Relevance,
Resonance 
When I first worked in Asia, I was struck by how many people attended meetings.
More than that, I was struck by how many people attended meetings and did/said nothing.
Now I am all for exposing young talent to stuff like this – it’s interesting and valuable and I realise how helpful and beneficial it was to me when I experienced it – however the longer I lived there, the more I realised it had nothing to do with ‘education’ and everything to do with ego and pandering.
Ego in the sense of ‘look how many people I’ve got working for me’.
Pandering in the sense of ‘look how important you are to us’.
And while you may think clients would look at this and question why they are paying for that many people – albeit at that time, talent was very cheap in comparison to other markets – the reality is they were also playing the game, so the inflation rate of ‘meeting attendance’ was worse than Russian currency circa 1984.
Over my time there, I managed to kill this attitude – at least with the meetings I had – reducing the numbers present to just the essential people and maybe one ‘observer’ for exposure and education … which is why you can imagine my surprise when I left Asia and found the West had now also adopted the ‘loads of people in attendance’ protocol for every internal/client meeting.
And for exactly the same reasons.
ARGHHHHHH.
While I appreciate every bit of work takes a village and clarity, communication and collaboration play a vital role in making great things happen … you don’t need everyone to be in every meeting. And yet some people find a way to always be there. To inject themselves into processes without ever actually doing anything … just seemingly looking like they are.
Which is why this piece by George Tannenbaum so good.
Tragic in it’s truth, but so good in its observation.
And while it is on companies for allowing this behaviour – which is madness, given how challenging times are for business right now, and how they could be better supporting/paying those people who are actively contributing to the work rather than hiding behind it – it is also indicative of how some organisations value complicity more than different opinions.
Now I appreciate there will be some people out there who will think the idea of being a piece of parsley sounds great.
You get paid.
You pretend to be important.
You attend the big meetings.
But the reality is – as George points out – everyone knows you’re pointless.
A bit of garnish always left to the side.
Nothing distinctive.
Completely replaceable.
Lacking any taste or value.
Or said another way, a life of complicity, not respectability.
And while George writes it as if parsley is still a necessity, I feel differently which is why I would say if you want a career … one of the best pieces of advice I could give is always look for ways to be the steak.
Doesn’t matter what job you do.
What level you’re at.
Add value, not just garnish.
It may be simply doing what is needed when it’s needed. It may be bringing new ideas to old problems. It may simply be being interested in what others are interested in.
Because while that might sound harder work than being parsley, it’s not as hard as the effort it takes to look busy while producing nothing. Let alone the strength of character it requires to ignore the fact you know your colleagues know exactly what you’re doing and they’re showing you the exact amount of respect that your attitude deserves.
And if you want proof, read Matt Beaumont’s brilliant book, E.
Specifically the actions, behaviour and response of the ‘head of account management’.
It’s supposed to be a comedy, but it’s really a documentary … and a reminder that people may absolutely detest assholes, but they detest imposter assholes most of all.
A Mini MBA In Brand And Business …
2nd month of 2024 already.
Sure, this blog only restarted a couple of weeks ago, but still …
So there is a lot written about brand. And marketing. And brand marketing.
And a bunch of it is written by people who haven’t done much of it.
Certainly not to the level their ‘expertise’ can legitimately claim.
I appreciate this makes me sound a bitter bastard … but it’s bothering me.
It’s bothering me because it undermines standards.
It bothers me because it undermines the people who are doing it, but not shouting about it.
It bothers me because it teaches the wrong lessons – and wrong approach – to people who want to enter the industry.
But most of all, it bothers me because it undermines everything we do.
Everything.
Our work.
Our approach.
Our value to business.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s absolutely fine to have ideas and theories. We need those. But that doesn’t mean you can suddenly claim to have the answers to situations you’ve never even dealt with. Or – for that matter – to suggest your credibility is in the fact you have worked with major clients on major projects when, at best, you were a bit part player in them.
I don’t understand our reluctance to challenge this because it’s affects us all.
Someone who has been in the industry a few years may – if lucky – have worked on some big name clients, but it is unlikely they have led those big name clients. And yet, look on Linkedin and you see that being pushed left, right and centre.
Look, I get the ‘fake it till you make it’ attitude, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of others in their quest to feed their ego and yet I am seeing so much of that.
I’m writing this because of something I recently read from Mike Cessario, founder of Liquid Death. This …
In just 3 short paragraphs, he explained the role, approach and importance of building a brand in ways that is far more articulate and valuable than so many of these Linkedin self-appointed gurus could do in 3 years of status updates.
Better yet, he’s actually done it.
At the highest level.
We’re falling into the trap that strategy is about soundbites and newsletters.
Updates and popularity.
Worse, too many think its about words, not change.
And while I’m here for the theories and the new ideas … if you don’t make something from it, you don’t have a right to claim to be an expert about it. Because strategy only counts if change and creation is born from it.
Anyone can judge. Anyone can criticise. But until you’ve actually led it or made it, then you’re not that far different from a used car salesperson.
This industry is capable of brilliant things.
It has some incredibly talented, brilliant people.
They come from all walks of life, work in all parts of the world, work on all sorts of work.
And most have a very small social presence.
But what connects them all is they’ve done stuff rather than just talk about stuff … so if we are to get back to where we need – and deserve – to be, then we need to value real life experience rather than ‘strategy rizz’ because otherwise, we’re part of the problem rather than helping lead the solution.
So if you’re looking for guidance and lessons, listen to people like Northern Planner rather than someone who talks about how many people read their newsletter.
Because – to paraphrase Lee Hill – popularity is vanity, experience is sanity.
Filed under: Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Comment, Complicity, Confidence, Contribution, Creativity, Culture, Fake Attitude, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Mediocrity, Perspective, Relationships, Relevance, Resonance
When I first worked in Asia, I was struck by how many people attended meetings.
More than that, I was struck by how many people attended meetings and did/said nothing.
Now I am all for exposing young talent to stuff like this – it’s interesting and valuable and I realise how helpful and beneficial it was to me when I experienced it – however the longer I lived there, the more I realised it had nothing to do with ‘education’ and everything to do with ego and pandering.
Ego in the sense of ‘look how many people I’ve got working for me’.
Pandering in the sense of ‘look how important you are to us’.
And while you may think clients would look at this and question why they are paying for that many people – albeit at that time, talent was very cheap in comparison to other markets – the reality is they were also playing the game, so the inflation rate of ‘meeting attendance’ was worse than Russian currency circa 1984.
Over my time there, I managed to kill this attitude – at least with the meetings I had – reducing the numbers present to just the essential people and maybe one ‘observer’ for exposure and education … which is why you can imagine my surprise when I left Asia and found the West had now also adopted the ‘loads of people in attendance’ protocol for every internal/client meeting.
And for exactly the same reasons.
ARGHHHHHH.
While I appreciate every bit of work takes a village and clarity, communication and collaboration play a vital role in making great things happen … you don’t need everyone to be in every meeting. And yet some people find a way to always be there. To inject themselves into processes without ever actually doing anything … just seemingly looking like they are.
Which is why this piece by George Tannenbaum so good.
Tragic in it’s truth, but so good in its observation.
And while it is on companies for allowing this behaviour – which is madness, given how challenging times are for business right now, and how they could be better supporting/paying those people who are actively contributing to the work rather than hiding behind it – it is also indicative of how some organisations value complicity more than different opinions.
Now I appreciate there will be some people out there who will think the idea of being a piece of parsley sounds great.
You get paid.
You pretend to be important.
You attend the big meetings.
But the reality is – as George points out – everyone knows you’re pointless.
A bit of garnish always left to the side.
Nothing distinctive.
Completely replaceable.
Lacking any taste or value.
Or said another way, a life of complicity, not respectability.
And while George writes it as if parsley is still a necessity, I feel differently which is why I would say if you want a career … one of the best pieces of advice I could give is always look for ways to be the steak.
Doesn’t matter what job you do.
What level you’re at.
Add value, not just garnish.
It may be simply doing what is needed when it’s needed. It may be bringing new ideas to old problems. It may simply be being interested in what others are interested in.
Because while that might sound harder work than being parsley, it’s not as hard as the effort it takes to look busy while producing nothing. Let alone the strength of character it requires to ignore the fact you know your colleagues know exactly what you’re doing and they’re showing you the exact amount of respect that your attitude deserves.
And if you want proof, read Matt Beaumont’s brilliant book, E.
Specifically the actions, behaviour and response of the ‘head of account management’.
It’s supposed to be a comedy, but it’s really a documentary … and a reminder that people may absolutely detest assholes, but they detest imposter assholes most of all.