Putting your job description in a box is the best way to kill creativity
After a trip to the Blue Mountains over the long weekend, Beyond Intent's Mike McGarry got to thinking about the boxes adlanders are overly keen to put themselves in.
I was staying in the Blue Mountains at an Airbnb over the weekend. Our host (let’s call her Helen to protect her identity) caught me off guard when on the way out the door on Saturday afternoon she turned around and asked: “Tell me, what is it that you do for work exactly?”.
Source: Wikipedia
After coming back with a somewhat vague answer about advertising, technology and sales, I tacked on: “Why do you ask?”. I’m not sure why I asked her that. Perhaps it was because I was in holiday mode and wasn’t expecting a professional question from someone that had taken a self-proclaimed “sea change” 18 years ago.
She replied: “I like to put people in boxes, I don’t know why, it’s just something that I like to do”. I didn’t realise it at the time, but looking back on it today I realised that this was quite a profound statement.
It got me thinking about why someone might like to put others in a box. Does it make her feel more comfortable giving shape and colour to her idea of who I am as a person? Perhaps she just wanted to get to know her guest better. But upon reflection I think it is something more than that.
I think it’s less about how she might have wanted to view me and more about how she viewed herself. Think, what do you say when people ask you:“What do you do?”
Perhaps you quote your line of work: “I work in advertising”, “I work for a tech company”, “I work for a publisher”.
Or even worse, perhaps you mention your job title: “I’m an account manager”, “I’m a marketer”, “I’m in sales”.
We wear our titles and our accolades with pride and honour. However, take a second to think about what happens when…
As a marketer you encounter a technical problem: “Oh, no I’m a marketer, this is a problem for digital to fix”.
As an account manager your client has an issue with one of their other vendors: “Oh, I’m an account manager for our business, their problems with their other vendor are for them to solve”.
As a salesperson you are having trouble finding good leads: “Oh I’m a salesperson, that’s marketing’s responsibility to generate leads”.
As a publisher you’re having trouble monetising your content: “Oh I’m in publishing, it’s because programmatic advertising has ruined our ability to sell ads”.
As a tech company you’re having a public relations scare: “Oh I’m in tech, our product is great, the customers will come, it’s silly they care about this issue”.
As an advertising agency with a client complaining about poor sales performance: “Oh I’m in advertising, it’s not my job to make sales for you, your brand awareness is through the roof”.
The truth is, we often don’t need people to put us in a box, we do it to ourselves. We become blinded by our sense of professional identity to the point that we don’t see the opportunities that are right in front of our eyes everyday. Think about the flip side of the examples above:
As an account manager your client has an issue with one of their other vendors: “Ok great, let me understand their issue so that I can help them and perhaps there is an up-sell opportunity for us here”.
As a salesperson you are having trouble finding good leads: “Ok great, looks like the game really has changed, this is a great opportunity to work on my personal brand so that I can more easily book meetings”.
As a publisher you’re having trouble monetising your content: “Ok great, this real time bidding technology is amazing, what a great opportunity to get a better insight into what content is appealing to advertisers and to create bespoke audiences for them to target”.
As a tech company you’re having a public relations scare: “Ok great, everyone thinks of us as just a tech company, this is the perfect opportunity to show that we care about more than just good technology and take our business to the next level”.
As an advertising agency with a client complaining about poor sales performance: “Ok great, let’s try and understand what impact our advertising is having on sales and see if we can find the missing link for this client so that they stay with us for many years to come”.
What box have you put yourself in?
Mike McGarry is a senior sales engineer at Beyond Intent. This post first appeared here.
Isn’t this going a bit too far? Almost Douglas Adams-ish in its thinking…
“What do you do for a crust”?
Thinks. Why does she want to know? Who will she tell? What does she want from me? It must be something… a complete stranger asks my occupation… hmmm…. odd…. is she recording this conversation.? Taking voice prints for later use .. somehow? Maybe she’ll mix the words up, accuse me of something and then blackmail me.
For Gawd’s sake. She was making CONVERSATION! Remember that thing? The one stuff that a smartphone doesn’t….
Talk about over thinking something ….
User ID not verified.
I think you are onto something here. The person who asked about your job description ( let’s not call her Helen – If you want to protect her identity let’s not call her anything) was doing what 99% of people do, she was trying to get hold of a comfortable personal reference point, or as you stated, put you in a box.
I have always thought that the best way to work in advertising, is to have a group of talented people assigned to each area of the profession, and to freely exchange ideas and work practices via workshopping, meetings and frequent exchange.
Creative people need to be free to grow, which means they must be free to share and to experiment, they must also be moderately reckless, and from time to time a little bit silly.
A wrong idea and a giant faux pas, are bad things in practice but wonderful things in rehearsal or experiment.
User ID not verified.
‘Senior Sales Engineer’ for a company that offers data and insights so that you can sell more stuff.
A GP would say: I make people healthy again
A social worker: I help people who often have not received much support.
SSE: Buy more, so you can sell more.
There is your answer isnt it?
(Not poking fun at what you do. I bet it is a very skillful and technical role, which enables corporates to sell more stuff.)
User ID not verified.