We’re a little late to the party this month but it’s never too late to celebrate our culture heroes!
Each month we celebrate our culture heroes. Culture heroes are awarded by their peers during our fortnightly team meeting.
Today we are celebrating Kirsty and Justine for their ability to work ‘independently together’ and for their ‘dependability’, two of our core values.
Our Values
Each month we survey the winners to get their take on working for In Marketing We Trust, how to best work remotely and their role and responsibilities.
Kirsty
Today we’re celebrating Kirsty for her ability to work ‘independently together’ one of our core values. Kirsty was nominated for the ethos award “for her ability to work independently yet also as a part of a team, e.g., pulling together case studies, award entries, online company events – and always in a friendly, helpful manner.”
What is your best advice for working ‘independently together’ in the workplace (to the point of being recognised for this superpower)?
My best advice for working ‘independently together’ is to:
- Do work you enjoy whenever possible so that when your team asks for help, it’s not a chore.
- Consider your colleague’s tasks as high-priority, always.
- ‘Work out loud’ as we say at In Marketing We Trust. Share what you’re working on with your team so they always know what you’re up to, this helps them to know WHEN it’s appropriate to ask for your help and more generally, keeps everyone up to date on your independent projects.
Any tips for keeping yourself focused and delivering great results while working from home?
My best tips for keeping focused while working from home would be the classic ‘have a routine’ but also don’t be afraid to mix it up.
Most days I will stick to my scheduled routine and not move away from my office space. BUT some days when I’m extra tired or unfocused, I can regain my usual focus by mixing it up and switching to a new work area in the house (the lounge, dining table, outside, etc.).
I know everyone recommends taking a break but I personally find regaining focus after is often more difficult, so just do whatever works for you. There’s no need to follow the popular WFH advice if you don’t want to. Give it a go and if it doesn’t work, figure out your own style.
Could you briefly describe your main tasks and responsibilities?
My main tasks and responsibilities are managing the marketing of In Marketing We Trust. As the Editor in Chief, I am responsible for all the content on our website, email marketing, social media management, etc. I will also occasionally jump into client work as the head of content.
How do you manage to juggle so many responsibilities and deadlines?
As the Marketing Manager, there are always too many tasks to handle. As an agency our team have tremendous ideas for our own marketing, however, we don’t have the time or headspace to implement them all.
I handle this by strictly prioritising my responsibilities, usually by way of the PIE framework (Potential, Importance, Ease). Potential and importance get top billing for a reason. I also keep a backlog of all our ideas so that they’re not lost and if ever my schedule clears up (this almost never happens) I get to choose a cool new project.
Justine
We are also celebrating Justine today for her dependability. Justine was nominated for the ethos award because she “is an absolute solid rock of dependability, day in and day out. Justine brings value to everything she does and she does it to such a high degree of excellence.”
What is your best advice for being dependable in the workplace (to the point of being recognised for this superpower)?
My best advice for being dependable in the workplace is to stay accountable to your teammates and clients. To me, this means following through with everything you say that you will do without being reminded or chased.
Of course, there will be times when priorities shift or you’re not able to finish something within the deadline that you set out. In those cases, being dependable means communicating those shifts to ensure the client’s expectations are always met or asking help from your team so that it still may be achieved in time and on quality.
Any tips for keeping yourself focused and delivering great results while working from home?
My first tip for keeping yourself focused and delivering great results whilst working from home is to have a designated workspace. Secondly, I would recommend supplying that workspace with all the equipment you would normally need to feel productive in an office environment. Having a separate place that you associate only with working with an environment that is conducive to efficiently getting work done, should not be underestimated as to its effect on productivity.
Lastly, I would highly recommend setting boundaries to work time vs personal time. It’s easy to overwork if you know it’s so accessible 24/7, but doing so will ultimately lead to burnout and loss of motivation. Personally, I like to schedule exercise time either before the workday or right at the end, similarly to if I were working in an office. This helps me not only switch gears from the workday but also gives me the physical movement needed after many hours of sedentary sitting.
Could you briefly describe your main tasks and responsibilities?
My main tasks and responsibilities include overseeing some of our key accounts. Externally facing, this includes holding the client relationship and ensuring performance objectives and delivery schedules are met. Internally, that includes managing the project from start to finish, ensuring the delivery teams have what they need to do their work, keeping on top of budgets and deadlines, and guiding the direction and strategic efforts of our accounts.
How do you manage to juggle so many responsibilities and deadlines?
Working in an agency, one of the key requirements is being able to manage juggling various responsibilities and deadlines. It is more often than not that despite having a set to-do list, only half may get done due to the unforeseen requests and urgent responses required in any given day.
The key for me is to know how to prioritize the urgent and most important tasks at hand whilst not letting the smaller tasks inundate my backlog and cause stress or lose foresight of what’s important. It means pushing through those smaller tasks each day that I know will increase headspace which creates time to work on a few larger ticket items.
