- Part sponge, part despot, part aggressive protector of team, part diplomat, part crafts-person, part researcher, mostly ideas fountain
- Never undermines their team, looks to build their confidence, leads by example and guides rather than tells
- Sometimes not a little bit frightening
- Excellent judge of strategy and ideas, even better at presenting them
- Never says 'No' to anyone without giving a good reason
- Draws out the best in people without doing their job for them
- Knows when to advise their team the creatives or the suits are right. But also knows when to defend their team when they are not
- Never throttles bad thinking without inspiring the thinker to think better
- Still trying to change things and learn, rather than boring everyone with the stuff they did ages ago
- Exists to help others shine: their team, creatives, suits, the clients, rather than existing to maje it work the other way around
- Is adept at politics, but doesn't believe the route to success is being political
- Believes great planners care less about planning and more about real people in the world, and looks to build a team of people who are experienced in life, rather than advertising
- Kicks their team out of the office to go look at real people living real lives
- Exists to liberate creativity that builds businesses, rather than exists to do (insert proprieratary process here)
- Encourages their team to understand their clients' business from end to end, not just the 'brand' bit
- Bans marketing speak, brand bollocks and general jargon
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One response to “What to look for in a great planning director”
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