Accountability is a two-way street

A few months into my career, at Clarion-McCann in Mumbai, the agency was going through serious labour union trouble.

Everyone knew something was on, but the management said nothing, and the rest spoke of it only in whispers.

One evening about twenty-five of us were called into the conference room. Subroto Sen Gupta gave us an update, and said that if pushed to it the company would shut that office down overnight, and in its place a new agency would begin to function the following day. All clients had promised their support; all of us in the room had jobs in the new agency; and rooms were on standby at the Yacht Club.

Matters didn't come to a head, but what Sen Gupta underlined that day was that an advertising agency is nothing but a bunch of people. No building, no machinery, no technology, no proprietary knowledge or process separates one agency from another. It was the group of people in the room that made the agency what it was. The name on the door was only a label for a collection of people, and as long as they were there, there would be Clarion-McCann Mumbai.

The cynical may argue that in today's world of global oligopolies what matters is network clout. That's true up to a point. Network clout helps the agency get business: the work is still done by its people. But Advertising is not the talent magnet it once was. "No one wakes up in the morning and says, 'I want to be in advertising,'" said Michael Roth, CEO of the Interpublic Group, at the annual conference of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A's) in March.

So severe is the global talent crisis that the dominant motif at the 4A's was the lack of talent, not, as you would have expected, the lack of growth. On the agenda was the presentation of an Arnold Worldwide-4A's study among employees across communication disciplines.

· 30% of employees said they were likely to leave their current job within 12 months.

· They love what they do, but no one is managing their careers, so they have to help themselves.

· 96% are confident they will get a new job 'easily'

· Most are also looking for better compensation, but compensation is not necessarily the driver for change.

· The key driver is the lack of training, growth and a visible career path, even for those with the most potential. In the absence of guidance, they develop their own sense of what is important for them.

There is little there that's new, but that shouldn't be disappointing, for research that confirms what you think is no less useful than research that challenges it. What is disappointing is that there is nothing new in the 5-point prescription proposed:

- Go back to schools to recruit;

- Promote cross-discipline training;

- New incentives, including sabbaticals, education financing, and support for families;

- 'Fix performance management'; and

- Engage employees in the conversation.

There's nothing there a standard HR text couldn't have told you, and no questions seem to have been asked about where the money will come from for more training and new incentives. More important, the solutions are only institutional, passing everything off to 'Management'.

While quite a lot can be initiated only by those who make financial and policy decisions – CEOs and the like – in an industry that depends entirely on the talent of its people, the responsibility of maintaining and nurturing that talent cannot be limited to the C-suite.

Here is my five-point prescription for managing talent. Much of it can be administered by anyone who manages a team and, best of all, it costs nothing.

1. People work for people. Ask why they should work for you.

o Are you someone they can look up to? People want leaders who, above all, stand for something. Do you have a worldview, a belief system? Do you walk the talk?

One of the most eminent advertising leaders in India, under whose giant shadow I worked for several years, was utterly egoistic, temperamental and inconsiderate – but so incredibly inspiring that you ignored his trespasses.

o Know more. You can't know everyone's craft better than they do. But you do have to know more about consumers, markets, media, your business, and the world at large.

o Help them succeed. Don't compete with them. Let them enjoy their credit. They are in the game for the same reasons that you are.

2. Set standards.

o Demand work to be proud of. Everyone can't win awards, but everyone can do good work. Show your pride in the work that deserves it.

o Add value. People don't come to you simply because the process requires them to. They do so because they think you will help either improve their work or facilitate its progress. Do you?

3. Some are more equal than others

o Your people are not all equally valuable to your business. That's the hard truth. Focus on those who make a difference: across levels and functions. Give them opportunities; take risks with them.

o Equal opportunity, unequal reward. Don't be afraid of giving unequal reward: or else don't expect unequal performance. But you must be fair, and be seen to be.

4. There's more to it than training programmes

o The most valuable lessons are those your mother taught you. In school we acquired knowledge. At home we learnt the lessons that made us who we are, developed our value systems, and shaped our ambition. The same is true at work. Classroom teaching is no substitute for good parenting.

o Invest in those who invest in themselves. Skill development is critical, but people must help themselves first. Self-development must be on everyone's agenda, and they must be accountable for it.

o Advertising is about life. The best advertising people have well-furnished minds. Books, movies, music, art, theatre, wild life, photography, travel, sport... everything is grist to the advertising mill. If resources don't permit you to do something about it, at least let it be known that you expect people to have and pursue interests outside work.

o Be demanding of your best people. Don't accept second best from your best. The whole team will run faster, climb higher, when the ones in the front do, not the ones in the back.

5. Talk to them

o It's not about Facebook and Twitter. They will find their own friends. What they need from you is someone who can give them the answers, to whom they can express their concerns. If you don't give them that, the grapevine will: and what it says will probably not be what you would have wished.

o Accountability is a two-way street. Your people are accountable to you, and you are to them. "Every man's first duty is to help the men under his direction," said Thomas Watson Sr, founder of IBM. Don't blame 'management': to your people you are management. If you don't want to be, get out of the way.