• by Lisa Seward , September 1, 2005

I almost didn't make it into media. Yep, I - who decided at age 16 that advertising was the career for me, who narrowed my pursuit of a personal calling to media planning during my sophomore year of college, and who subsequently did everything possible to learn about and get experience in the media industry - nearly didn't land in the sacred media waters at all. The reason? Those who recruited advertising people for a living didn't think I was right for a job in media.

Specifically, it was the Leo Burnett Company, by far my No. 1 choice due to their folksy charm, that turned me down when I first applied for a media position. Happily, I did ultimately manage to argue my way to an interview and then a media trainee job. But I've never quite forgotten their reticence to hire me, and especially their rationale. They thought I might be "too creative" for a job in media.

I admit I did my part to feed their perception - my cover letter was a study in overwrought, "look how creative I can be" braggadocio. It simply didn't cross my mind that agencies wouldn't seek creativity in all their recruits. Didn't all advertising people work together to come up with campaign ideas and then get those ideas out into the world in the most powerful way?

I was being naïve. Back then, media's role was primarily that of conservative ad-budget accountants. The job was more spreadsheet keeper than idea generator.

Today things are very different, thank goodness. In a time of unprecedented change, everyone recognizes the creative contributions media people can make.

So of course we've changed what we look for in prospective media people today, right? Um...nope. From my vantage point at least, this industry still primarily seeks, and attracts, the orderly mathematicians of the past, rather than the inventors of the future.

True, clients will always need accurate accountants. But amidst today's constant shifts in the communications world, true leadership roles are seized by those who can guide clients through the seemingly endless gray areas. If media people want such lead roles - and any attention to the actions of David Verklin or Renetta McCann suggests that they do - they're going to have to hire many more change agents than today's media rosters can boast.

To do this, we need to take on four important new tasks:

>>1. Hire people with broader skill sets. How about looking for tomorrow's media leaders in the philosophy or music departments? How about political science majors - talk about a field where people have to deal with uncertainty! Try gauging potential recruits on their passion for pop culture instead of their accounting grades.

>>2. Train media people to think differently. It's still important to teach media basics. But today's media professionals should also learn how to find true, actionable consumer insights; how to invent ideas out of thin air; how to poke holes in those ideas in order to separate the truly great from the merely new; how to execute the never-been-done; and how not to hyperventilate in the midst of the rampant uncertainty that is today's media world.

>>3. Reward based on different talents and accomplishments. If you are a manager in media and have not seriously overhauled your subordinates' performance criteria in the past two to three years, you're behind. Try assessing and promoting employees based on the power of their ideas, inventiveness, and ability to cut a new path for their clients, rather than simply on meeting clients' stated needs.

>>4. Make media an attractive career choice for brilliant, inventive thinkers. At a time when we boast that "media is the new creative," the truth is that we're not attracting enough creative types to our profession. We need to change perceptions of what media is, and what it can be. Let's set up highly buzzworthy media curricula at the best ad schools and overhaul university course work to reflect media's new promise. Whatever it takes, we must begin to attract big thinkers.

In the end, our success with attracting and keeping the right talent will dictate our success with leading clients through their trying times, both today and tomorrow. For our sake, I hope we change our ways.