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It’s a never-ending battle for agency managers to keep their teams on track. With the volume and pace of work that everyone is trying to get done, it can sometimes be frustrating to figure out what needs to be done next.

This is a topic that came up in a recent conversation in r/agency on Reddit. Chip and Gini found some of the responses to be just a bit off the mark, so they highlight some bad advice that they saw — then offer up their own take on the challenge.

Spoiler alert: secret lists are never the answer.

QUOTES

• Chip: “Keeping secret lists really is never a good management tactic. No, I can’t think of an occasion where there is a good secret list to be kept. So let’s just start with that concept that if you’re hiding something, or being secretive about something that probably suggests there’s something amiss.”
• Gini: “Tell them what the priorities are, have monthly company wide meetings to say, hey, these are the priorities for next month. Let’s talk through who needs to do what and what we’re going to be focused on.”
• Chip: “And like so many things, it almost doesn’t matter which tool you’re using, as long as you’re using it consistently. Because the reason why most project management tools fail is not because there’s something inherently wrong with the tool, it’s because the team isn’t using it. They’re not updating on a regular basis.”
• Gini: “Please do not keep secrets from the team.”

RESOURCES

• Reddit post with original question
• Ken Jacobs episode
• Karl Sakas episode
• Trello
• Asana
• CoSchedule
• Basecamp
• 60+ project management tools for agencies (by Karl Sakas)

[read the transcript]

About Chip Griffin

Chip Griffin is the Founder & CEO of the Small Agency Growth Alliance (SAGA) and a longtime agency owner and executive. He helps PR and marketing communications agencies build better businesses. Full bio