• Prove Your Value—Promote Your Team

    December 08, 2014

    Happy holidays! The IHAF community is busy making the mad, final sprint to the 2014 finish line. And while this time of year can be crazy—finalizing budgets, writing performance reviews, strat-planning for 2015—it also allows us a chance to look back, take stock and think about how we can do things …

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  • Keeping It Light

    December 01, 2014

    At a time of year when pressure is mounting for our teams and our clients are pushing to get projects done by year-end, it’s important to encourage employees to maintain work/life balance and to let them know that they are valued. How many of us have said to ourselves, “we aren’t solving world …

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  • Building Your Bench

    November 24, 2014

    In the sports world, there are injuries in almost every game. When those injuries are substantial enough for a player to miss time from the game, the best teams have another player who is prepared to step in and fill the role. Every Sunday, NFL coaches talk about the next man up being ready and how …

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  • The Most Effective Leaders Know It’s All About The Team

    November 19, 2014

    An effective leader is often defined by his or her professional accomplishments, corporate values and management style. However, the most effective leaders I’ve worked with recognize that they are only as good as the teams they are leading. In a world of globalization, innovation, technology and …

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  • How To Build A Duck, And More!

    November 17, 2014

    • by IHAF Staff

    Did you know that these six LEGO bricks can be configured into 950,000 different combinations? Neither did we—until last week’s IHAF Conference, that is. In fact, we learned a lot over the course of the two-day event from leadership challenges to organizational strategies to techniques for rapid- …

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  • Exploring Organizational Strategy

    November 11, 2014

    You wouldn’t think of embarking on a new ad campaign or product launch without the benefit of a well-crafted strategy. Yet many internal agencies think nothing of continuing to grow without the benefit of a purpose-driven organizational strategy. The reality is that a lot of in-house teams have …

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  • Valuing Your Agency’s Performance

    October 28, 2014

    One of, if not the hottest topic within in-house agency management circles today is the question: to charge or not to charge?

    This month at IHAF, we’ve been focusing on in-house agency performance. And while the measures of performance are many, for in-house agencies in particular, cost savings is …

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  • Managing Performance Through Seasons of Change

    October 15, 2014

    You’ve probably heard the expression “change or die.” One of the reasons change can be scary is because performance can suffer during the transition. So how can you maintain high standards of performance during times of corporate uncertainty?

    At American Bible Society, we have been engaged in a …

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  • Culture: The Ultimate Interior

    July 02, 2014

    • by IHAF Staff

    When we think of the stereotypical agency environment, images of Ping-Pong tables, lava lamps and overstuffed fluorescent chairs come to mind. Sure, outside agencies may have more freedom when it comes to furniture choices and paint colors, but that shouldn’t condemn in-house interiors to be …

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  • Are You Stuck in 51/49 Thinking?

    May 19, 2014

    A number of years ago, when I was at Bose, we embarked on a transformative journey—a journey to eradicate 51/49 thinking. What is 51/49? It’s a term we used to characterize the balance of power between the in-house agency and its clients. On one hand when you’re in house, you all work for the same …

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