• Three Keys to Leading Strong Teams

    April 06, 2015

    On paper, leading a strong in-house team is easy. All you have to do is: 1) hire the right people, 2) establish processes that enable them to work efficiently and productively, and 3) keep everyone (your team and your clients) happy. Unfortunately, doing all three is difficult.

    What’s more, even …

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  • Professional Development—Let’s Talk About It

    March 23, 2015

    Not long ago, I joined other members of our agency’s leadership team to celebrate the 30th work anniversary of one of our tenured art directors. We talked over lunch about how her career had evolved—from a call center position straight out of school to the agency’s secretarial staff and ultimately …

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  • Hiring the Right Person(ality)

    March 16, 2015

    I was once interviewed by a Japanese magazine on the topic of managing creative personalities. Apparently the personal, emotional side of assessing unique personality traits, beyond the basics like trust and tangible skills, was a foreign concept in their business culture.

    For me, it’s the first …

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  • Looking to Hire? Know Your Audience.

    March 06, 2015

    Know your audience. Every good marketer understands this. And it’s a principle that directly applies to hiring and retaining talent, as well. Every day, I speak with candidates looking for jobs and considering job offers. And I can attest that if you want to attract the best and brightest at all …

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  • Three Cheers (and Chances) for Professional Development

    March 02, 2015

    • by Emily Foster, IHAF

    Professional development is an important part of increasing the contribution of your in-house team. That’s why IHAF’s online seminar series is focused on programming that can boost your effectiveness by teaching new skills. Over the next few months, IHAF is offering three professional development …

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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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  • 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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  • Jump Start Your Creative-Development Process

    June 11, 2014

    As an in-house agency, you have a choice. You can have a closed ideation ecosystem or one that pushes the boundaries and opens up the ideation process to a broader team. IHAF Member, Vistaprint, recently proved that the latter choice can jump start the creative process. 

    Vistaprint's in-house …

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