Transforming Your Agency with Effective Communication

Here’s a hard truth: Many agency CEOs hold the top seat not because they’re natural leaders but because they founded the company. 

For some reason, this is often overlooked. 

You might have been excellent at providing a specific service or driven by a desire to be your own boss, but these strengths don’t necessarily translate into effective leadership.

It’s like the myth of the top salesperson being the best fit to manage the sales team, too. 

This isn’t to say some aren’t amazing leaders. But it does mean you should pay close attention to your leadership and management skills, otherwise, your agency is destined to hit a low ceiling. 

And if you want to avoid that, you should start with how you communicate. 

In this article, I want to give you a simple model for categorizing your communication. This way, you extend that ceiling and focus on other challenges within your agency. 

Bridge Talk and Tunnel Talk

The two types of communication are Bridge Talk and Tunnel Talk. 

There’s a time and a place for each, and understanding when to use them can help with streamlining your communication. 

It also ensures you’re approaching conversations with the right perspective. 

Here’s the key difference. 

People will travel across the country to see the Golden Gate Bridge. 

Bridges can be works of art. 

They accomplish the task of getting people from point A to point B, but there’s flourish that’s added, making them tourist destinations. 

On the other hand, tunnels are designed to get through terrain without impacting the landscape. 

They also get people from one point to another, but you can’t see them from the outside. 

This is how we get the metaphor of Bridge Talk and Tunnel Talk. 

Bridge Talk includes everything we want our team to know comes from the leader, Tunnel Talk is everything that should be kept behind closed doors. 

To make this easier, I’ve documented the main types of conversations below. 

Bridge Talk

Bridge Talk includes the 5 P’s: Principles (values), Processes (how we work as a team), Positioning (how we present ourselves), Policies (how we manage ourselves), Praise (our successes). 

Here’s a further breakdown: 

Principles

These should be somewhere everyone on your team can see them. And while everyone in the company may have a role in the upkeep and any recommendations for these values, they belong to the leader and overall organization. 

They’re what makes the culture and that’s something the leader owns completely. Strong principles help your team’s clarity and allows them to take initiative.

Processes

Processes can be developed by anyone, but if they’re going to be fully integrated by the company or team, approval comes from the leader. 

You can delegate authority, but you can’t delegate responsibility, so if a process is terrible, you’re the one responsible, and since this will guide your team moving forward, they should know it’s from you.

Positioning

How you're positioned in the market is important. Why you’re different than other teams/brands/companies is why you’re in business. 

Because this influences the entire direction of the company, it needs to come from the leader so everyone is on the same page.

Policies

Policies guide the way we do business. The reason we set policies is to create ground rules for what we’re willing to flex on and where we’ll remain rigid. 

People who break policies are often fired. 

Because there is an increased level of severity here, it’s the leaders responsibility to ensure his/her name is on each written policy and that they’ve communicated their intent for the policies to be followed.

Praise

As the leader, you’re responsible for everything the team does and fails to do. The egotistical side in all of us then wants to accept all the praise because we’re willing to accept the opposite.

The problem is that if you accept all the praise for your team’s hard work, they’re going to hate you. And it may feel challenging at first, but being humble and passing all praise for accomplishments to your team feels amazing.

You need to do this in public. Everyone should know when people succeed. Praising them behind closed doors is fine during a review, but you better find a way to let the team know they’re crushing it.

Hearing you’re doing awesome from your team is one thing, but hearing it from your leader in front of everyone is another.

Tunnel Talk

In opposition to Bridge Talk, we have Tunnel Talk. These include things like: 

Personal matters your team shares.

If someone trusts you enough to confide in you, do it behind closed doors where you’re not sharing their private matters.

While it may seem out of place in the workplace, knowing what your team is going through is part of interpersonal awareness and may influence how you utilize them within the company.

Punishment

Punishments should always be behind closed doors. There’s no reason to embarrass someone in front of the team.

Doing it in the open terrifies people and kills any positive culture you may have. It makes people not want to innovate for fear of screwing up or making a mistake.

There are two reasons you could do this in public, but a lot of thought should go into this approach first.

First, if someone does something so grievous that you want to ensure no one does anything similar, it should be brought up after consulting your HR team.

Second, if someone screws up, and you want the team to see that you’re not actually punishing them but treating it like a learning lesson for everyone to see. Be careful with this case because there’s still a good chance you will embarrass the individual. Use intuition to determine the right course of action.

Mentoring

Whenever you’re offering advice, do it behind closed doors. This saves the individual, again, from feeling awkward asking you for advice. But it also gives you a chance to form a stronger relationship and build trust.

For example, if you help them come to their own conclusion, doing it in private allows you to let them take credit. If you do it in public, everyone will believe it was your idea. Often, it’s better to give your team the win.

Bettering Communication

There are hundreds of communication courses and skills you can explore. This article is simply a way to think about categorizing your conversations. 

This should give you an initial edge by understanding the bigger picture of what should happen in each. 

Raise that ceiling.