Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Zoran Zdravevski, Account Director, Direct Media Macedonia & Albania
Creative thinking and great adaptability to technological changes which we witness every day are in great demand, and the number of very talented and intelligent young people whose potential is waiting to be released, is greater than ever.
However, today’s availability of sources of knowledge at every step can be a double-edged sword when it comes to talent and its development. Knowing that they have a lot of information at their disposal in the field of marketing and other more or less related fields, the young people – the Millennials and younger generation – tend to ignore the need to grow within the system. They often considered they are multidisciplinary, because they scratched the surface of every field by some surfing on the internet. They sometimes think that the work they do and the idea that they present is the best solution, so they are not open to other thoughts, advice, and even some small modifications to their original concept. In the worst case, they rely solely on their talent and intelligence, believing that this is enough to advance professionally and in a business hierarchy.
A leader is the one who creates new leaders. So believes most of the successful people, including our system, but I am sure that today the task of a leader in work with young people may be more difficult than ever. In front of us is a serious challenge – not to change the attitude of “I know everything”, but to shape it in a way that the proud owner of this attitude delivers their full potential.
Finding young people who are willing to work on themselves is neither quick nor easy. The job is only partially completed with their discovery, because then all eyes are on the system, which should enable them what was promised. Through mentoring, training, brainstorming and certainly providing a certain freedom, young talents in such a system are given a great opportunity. In an environment that stimulates, they can test their multidisciplinary skills, and most importantly to discover where they are “thin”, and where they’re doing better, so they could specialize, but first and foremost to feel that they are part of a team and that their ideas and development are very important, both for mentors and for the whole system.
And at the end of that job, as you rub your hands in satisfaction, a new challenge appears. Quality staff is always the target of poachers from competing companies, and of clients. This is a problem faced by all industries, but especially ours. Direct Media System is one of those where the percentage of retention of employees is quite high, and in some countries where we do business we are known as an agency with the staff turnover at the level of a statistical error. I do not have enough HR knowledge to argue why this is so, but witnessing the agency’s climate, I think it’s a product of good “people to people” mix. We probably know how to utilize our experienced staff to unleash the potential of the youth from the beginning of this story.
Every year I’m positively surprised at the Direct Media Academy when I see a lot of new young faces in our system. The entire network from eight countries gathers then in one place, in order to learn together. Both young people and veterans come together for the joint task of continuous development, the opportunity for personal and professional development. In general, learning in our system is a very interesting process – both when we learn from each other and when we release the potential of our young talents.
In both cases the common denominator is that the continuity of this action never stops.