Growing in an inspiring workspace

Hi Kevin! Can you tell us about how you ended up in your current role?

I am currently a group account director here at Dentsu Creative, an advertising agency here in Manila, Philippines. I've been in the advertising industry for ten years.

I'm really happy about it. I started here when I was an account manager and then they promoted me to an account director. The year after, they promoted me to a group account director.

Why feedback is an opportunity for people around you to grow

What were the challenges you're facing before the sprint?

What I gathered from this sprint workshop was to delegate work. In delegation, you will get to understand the capabilities of the people you work with. It doesn't necessarily mean that you are giving a task to a certain person because you can't handle it, but more of helping them grow, helping them realize their capabilities.

As a leader, help them understand, help yourself understand what they need, what specific skill sets they need to improve on.

There is a sense of understanding, not just work-wise, but also personally, because you get to talk about certain stuff that is shared with you by the person that you're working with.

It really made me realize that it is important to give feedback, not just to the persons that you work with, but also to your supervisors because it will help the team grow. There is this level of understanding between you and your team. I would also have to give it back to the supervisor and tell the points of improvement, which ease up that conversation and veers away from the awkwardness between us.

Collaboration Based on Facts, Not Feelings

How do you manage to give negative feedback to your team?

I really tried to base everything on facts, which I've learned from New Campus as well, that you have to base everything on facts, not out of feelings. The facts really lay you out on what is the problem. It shows you that this happened, and then the thinking of how to work around it works right after you have already known the truth or what really happened.

After that, what is the next step? That's where the collaboration happens between me and also the people that I work with. It not only builds the working relationship but also the rapport between us and it improves the dynamic of us working together and collaborating together on how to solve it.

The successes or even the problem should be shared by everyone.

How Listening Helps Us Stay Grounded as Leaders

Anything that you want to share with others reading this before we go?

I really had fun with the NewCampus Management Essentials sprint. The one that really stood out to me was that being a leader is also being a great listener. When you listen to the people that you work with, when you listen to their problems or their concerns, it grounds you as a person, not just as a leader.

May it be emotionally, maybe mentally, but it gives them that opportunity to open up to you. And through listening, you also learn from what they have to say. It's also a way for them to be able to say what is needed for them to grow. I guess being a leader should also be a good friend.