Tuesday Thought: Shadowing

How’s everyone doing?

I’m doing great. Baby and mom are well.

Although a little tired, I’m happy to report that being a dad is so far, so good.

Today’s newsletter is something I was struck by when I was in the hospital, right after my daughter Lenny was born.

Let’s go…

Tuesday Thought

I was a horrible assistant media planner.

Like, really bad.

I just didn’t get it.

Couldn’t understand what a GRP was.

Had a tough time reconciling reach vs. frequency.

Don’t even get me started on my anxiety filling out million dollar authorizations.

At the end of the day, I couldn’t pick things up fast enough.

My managers had little patience. They threw me into the fire, expecting I could do things after 1 or 2 explanations.

When I couldn’t, they got frustrated and stopped giving me work.

That was fine by me. I was fresh out of college, and not exactly looking to get ahead.

For months, I took whatever they gave me, and when they didn’t, I drew cartoons.

I drew so many cartoons.

Here are a few below - I posted them during the early days of Instgram:

While I’m thankful I drew such incredible creations, I felt worthless at work.

Because no one really showed me the way - they just expected it.

But that’s not what nurses do.

At the hospital where Lenny was born, nurses don’t just teach.

They shadow.

Almost every time a nurse came to see us, a student or trainee was with them.

Learning, observing, soaking in the fine details that can’t be taught.

Seeing how nurses interacted with patients, partners, babies.

Picking up on hard and soft skills simultaneously.

It made me envious of what doesn’t happen typically in our industry.

We drop people into situations, and expect them to sink or swim.

To grow quickly, or die trying.

And when they can’t hack it, we draw quick conclusions.

And stop trusting them, almost immediately.

Business, and marketing, can be fast-paced. I get it.

We need people to perform quickly, in a high volume of projects.

But health is pretty fast-paced too. It can also be life and death.

And yet there are still opportunities to show people the way.

Ultimately, I don’t think just teaching in marketing or advertising works.

Concepts can be foreign, or non-intuitive.

Media can be complicated, both by default and because of built-up jargon.

You can teach someone the same lesson, over and over, but they just won’t get it.

Which is why I like the concept of shadowing.

When I was an assistant planner, I was never allowed in the room for big meetings.

I never got to see how my boss interacted with tough situations, or the top clients.

But I would have liked to.

It probably would have made me, at the very least, draw less cartoons.

And appreciate the little things and the soft skills that made the top marketers on my team, successful.

So if you are managing a person or a team, don’t just teach them things.

Let them shadow you.

Let them join you on calls.

Let them see how you operate.

Let them walk around with you for a day, from meeting to meeting, just to soak it in.

It will likely be worth more to them than anything you could “teach” them in a conversation.

Let’s shadow more, because that teaches more.

And yes, the cartoons above are for sale.

Stay thinkin,

Danny