Earlier this year at the AdForum Worldwide Summit in New York City, one of the topics of conversation among my fellow pitch consultants was the apparent relentless change at C-suite level among agencies. Here in South Africa, the same is happening and, in the last few weeks in particular, there have been changes at top level in both agencies and among brands.

Global agency leaders have been moving on at a rapid pace — not necessarily to new agencies but often on to the marketing side of the industry or out of the industry altogether. We’ve also noticed many changes among the leadership within global brands and business, and there appears to be little succession planning.

To add to that, an early trend that’s emerging from local research currently in the field is the indication that senior media agency staff are moving across to brands to take up newly created media leadership positions there. What will be the impact of all of these senior level changes and how do we mitigate this?

Leadership development gap

In a 2023 Global Leadership study conducted by the Development Dimensions International (DDI), only 40% of people reported that their company had high quality leaders. In the same study, nearly 80% of companies believe that there’s a leadership development gap. In my work with clients and agencies, when I talk to brands and to agencies, I hear how they’re struggling to find time to train and develop new leaders. I’ve also often been asked about leadership development — and especially more so recently.

Leaders aren’t only in the C-suite, too.

In reality, a leader is anyone with influence, responsible for guiding people and projects from point A to point B. It’s more important to understand this than ever before. I see this firsthand as clients are always asking to see the day-to-day leaders, as opposed to the C-suite leaders, from agencies during pitch processes. It’s the day-to-day leaders who’ll have the most impact on the clients’ businesses.

No longer top-down

Leadership is no longer top-down, so much leadership needs to come from the middle.

Digital transformation and covid have completely redefined the way we work and people now are required to master an ever-expanding set of core skills. The demands of business means that people are being promoted faster but they may not necessarily have the experience to navigate at the new level.

We need to start talking about leadership coming from the middle. In short — and to quote from No Bullsh*t Leadership: Why the World Needs More Everyday Leaders and Why That Leader Is You, a bestselling book by Chris Hirst, former Havas Creative global CEO and Grey London CEO — which, by the way, he openly encourages:

Anyone who has people who depend on them is a leader
Our societies, businesses and communities need more and better leaders from all walks of life
Top-down hierarchical leadership doesn’t work anymore: we need a new way for new people
The bullshit that surrounds the subject of leadership both inhibits people from fulfilling their potential and excludes people from believing they too could lead
No-one is born a leader — there’s no leadership type.
We can all lead if we choose to — and we need practical help so that we know how.