How to handle your team when they don’t love your clients
In this episode, Chip and Gini discuss the challenges of dealing with team members who may not be enthusiastic about the clients or the work your agency is doing. They cover whether agency owners should be concerned if their employees dislike the job, the consequences of ignoring such issues, and the importance of alignment between client work and employee satisfaction. They also emphasize the need for transparency in the hiring process and preparing employees for potential pivots or shifts in the agency’s focus. Gini shares her personal experience with pivoting towards the PESO model, and both hosts advise on involving team members early in the process to avoid misunderstandings and to gather valuable feedback. The episode underscores common themes such as the significance of communication, transparency, and knowing your financials in successful agency management. Key takeaways Chip Griffin: “When you are at the interview stage with a perspective hire, you need to be brutally honest with them. Because they’re going to find out the truth very quickly.” Gini Dietrich: “You have to be willing to say, this is where we’re going. Are you on board? And sometimes they’re going to say no.” Chip Griffin: “You want to be communicating to your team that it’s more of an evolution than a revolution in the business.” Gini Dietrich: “Bringing your team into those conversations earlier rather than later is really smart, because they may have some valuable feedback or insight that you didn’t think about.” Related Should your agency pivot to a new focus amid economic shifts? The value of getting satisfaction from client work How transparent should agency owners be? View Transcript The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy. Chip Griffin: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin. Gini Dietrich: And I’m Gini Dietrich. Chip Griffin: And Gini, I hate everything we talk about on this show. I hate recording it. I hate the subjects. I don’t hate the listeners. That would just be mean. So I won’t say that. And I won’t say that I hate you, but Gini Dietrich: Well, first you wanna quit, then you wanna be paid. Now you hate everything. Geez. Chip Griffin: I am just, I am full of gripes and complaints. Gini Dietrich: Sounds like an employee. Chip Griffin: Or a child or a toddler or whatever, but you know, the Gini Dietrich: both, Chip Griffin: it is what it is. No, but we are going to talk about what happens when you have clients that your team members aren’t in love with. They don’t necessarily like the work that you’re bringing in the door, whether that’s because they don’t like what the client stands for, they don’t like the kind of work that you’re doing for them. There’s lots of reasons that employees might not be thrilled with your client base. And so I guess we start with should we even be concerned about that? Gini Dietrich: Well, yes, because if you have employees who don’t like the work that you do, that’s a problem. Especially if it’s not gonna change and you’re gonna continue to do that kind of work. You need to have employees who enjoy the work that you do and enjoy the clients that you’re servicing. Now it’s a different story if the client’s, if one client’s a jerk. But if it’s, I don’t like the industry or I don’t like doing media relations, or I don’t like doing social media, or I am burnt out on doing community management, that’s a different story. Chip Griffin: But I think, I mean, I’m sure you’ve talked with agency owners as, as I have, who are of the mindset that, you know, I’m, I’m signing their paychecks and they just need to suck it up and, and do the work for whoever we’re able to, to get. I mean, particularly, you know, right now it’s, it’s tough times and, and so if, if I can win a client, I don’t particularly care if they enjoy it or not. It’s what pays them. So they, they need to do it. Gini Dietrich: Hmm. Well that’s, that’s an