Dabbling with purpose

In 2006, after receiving the biggest promotion of my career two year prior at Time Warner, I was named a Crains 40 Under 40, and the headline read: “Dabbler Finds Her Footing on Web.” The honor was profound, but I was troubled by the headline – was it a compliment or a veiled insult?  I was dubbed a “dabbler” based on my varied background and experiences – from classical flute to hip hop, from biochemistry to journalism, from investment banking to internet startups, from editorial to business, and finally to the world of digital media.

Reflecting on my dabbling, I now consider it to be among my biggest advantages. As I shared with a group of women in marketing, media and communications at this week’s Stages Summit in Chicago, I now believe in “purposeful dabbling.”

Purposeful dabbling

There is great value in people who have had the opportunity to meander, graze, experiment – and ultimately focus – in their careers. This approach lets people get stronger, build more self-awareness and gain new skills. It also gives us a common language with people from varied backgrounds and allows us to relate to diverse experiences. Most importantly, trying different things gets us out of our comfort zone, a necessary element of innovation -- we have to be uncomfortable to innovate.

Innovation in the media and advertising industry has never been more critical.

Today’s advertising, media and marketing ecosystem draws on a broad range of skills to ask the right questions and contemplate the right issues. The intense level of disruption in the industry calls for a blend of creative and data-driven approaches. It begs for a balance between humans and automation. It’s a time for humility, recognizing that consumers lead and business models follow - we must recognize the changing demands of our audiences and put them at the heart of our strategies.  And we must contemplate when and how to move the business from where we are today to where we want to be.

This is not the time to be a pure play thinker.

Successful leaders in our industry draw on a range of experiences. And those who have zigged and zagged in experiences that made them comfortable and uncomfortable are more likely to have the intellectual curiosity required to solve the current challenges and capitalize on the opportunities. In fact, we should consider embracing dabblers as we build and grow our teams at all levels.   Careers are no longer about climbing a mountain to the top, and we can no longer look at career decisions as a linear progression. Purposeful dabbling offers a wider range of skills from which to draw, a common language across disciplines, fresh perspective, and, perhaps most importantly, powerful relationships with a broad network of people.

The value I bring to my clients today comes from the people I know and what we teach – and learn from – each other. I create value for others, not because of classic business acumen, but because of the investment I have made in my teams, my clients and my professional and personal network – my most valuable asset. Purposeful dabbling in my career has made that network diverse and interesting, from CEOs to start-up entrepreneurs, creative to sales, packaged goods to automotive, editorial to business, and content to technology.

Diversity enables innovation.

In the world of media and technology, if everyone in leadership positions looks the same or has shared the exact same experiences, we devalue ourselves as individuals, our companies, and our industry.   So we must take meaningful actions that help us diversify the leadership and influence across the landscape. 

Collaborating for action

Later this year, Advertising Women of NY (AWNY) will release a study powered by collaboration with EY and LinkedIn that looks at the journeys women and men take across the advertising and marketing ecosystem. This is not about the gender gap in the C-Suite or on boards. We need to move past admiring the problem – to meaningful action.

Our goal is to look at the patterns in the powerful data that LinkedIn understands about its members – to help people think about how to “dabble” with purpose and create more value for our industry, while understanding the specific choices we can make, as individuals and as companies, to put women in more positions of leadership and influence at all levels.

If we want to inform and improve the way our industry leads with purpose and diversity of ideas, we must ask:

• What roles in the industry comprise those of influence?
• What do we all believe our own personal journey can and should be?
• How can we change the culture of the full ecosystem with meaningful actions?
• What can we do as companies and as individuals to embrace the power of connections and connected thinking that women uniquely bring?

I look forward to taking that purposeful journey as we dabble with purpose and learn together as an industry.

 The views reflected in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the global EY organization or its member firms.