future leaders or influencers in their home countries
If there is one thing about leadership that I have come to understand, it is that it is more of an attitude than a skill.
I manage a team of 8 designers that carry out the daily activities for the advertising firm where I work. It entails assisting them in comprehending design requirements, adhering to brand rules, and fulfilling deadlines. Last year, as the festive season in December approached and work reached its peak, we unfortunately lost our copywriter and 4 designers to other companies. We had over 42 companies to promote, all of which are equally demanding and dispersed among us. We were working around the clock and our workload included creating commercial videos for them as well as still and motion graphics, photography, and copywriting.
Our recruiting process often requires subsequent interviews with several stakeholders, which wasn't a possibility back then. Unfortunately, one of the designers also caused our primary lens to break during that time's studio sessions, and it could take an average of two months to replace it.
As team leader, I acted as a liaison between the team and our superiors to get briefs and guarantee design quality. But when I asked the team to temporarily take on new brands for the ones that were lacking designers and produce content for themselves, all hell broke out because they flatly refused, believing they were being misused and operating outside of their jurisdiction, which I understood and opted for my second choice.
The design team and I had a fruitful discussion, and they agreed to only accept work that was covered by their contracts unless they were paid for it. I addressed this concern my superiors but they didn't buy the idea as they had suggested all work had to be done by the team despite the relentless efforts of convincing them.
In order to accommodate everyone, I proposed that we temporarily hire a lens and 4 interns who were eager to gain experience and become familiar with modern equipment without payment but with small allowances like lunch and breakfast and acquire a certificate at the end of the 3 weeks that the board allowed to be directly supervised by me which was a viable idea.
We hired the required lens and quickly procured junior intern designers and a copywriter who pleasantly exceeded my expectations with their work, and since the other designers assisted them as well, it resulted in a fluid workflow and productive atmosphere. I also persuaded a friend who was out of work at the time but had excellent writing abilities that she could succeed as a copywriter if she tried and despite the copywriter after left for another career, she still does freelance copywriting to now. Am glad that during that period I came up with a viable solution that benefited both many without jeopardizing relations.
We later recruited 2 of the designers to the team after an impressive show of their capabilities and willingness to explore new challenges.
