Round 2, 3 Key Learnings from meeting Ita Murphy

Meeting Ita Murphy, Managing Director, MindShare

My session with Ita was very structured and she struck me as a formidable person. I could see why she had risen to be the Managing Director of Mindshare. She is extremely driven and came across as having a great grasp for the bigger picture and what is needed alongside what has made Mindshare one of the best companies to work for as part of the Times 100.

My 3 key learnings and take aways included:

1. Network now for the job you want in 5 years time.

2. Get clients to love you think from their perspective.

3. Have a cup of tea and listen to people – it is often through the listening that the real difference can be made.

We spoke about a wide range of topics but 2 key stories that stayed with me included one around Transactional Analysis where often in work and in our lives we fall into the trap of I’m Okay – You’re not Okay where we play into Parent / Adult Child relationships when we are more often in an Adult / Adult relationship and the best place to be is I’m okay and your okay.

See here for more information about the model:

http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/ok_not-ok.htm

The other story that was shared included a situation relating to how people feel and how we often have a habit of believing things are worse than they are. A useful question that can be asked is on a scale of 1 to 10 how bad is it? Often on reflection a situation can be built up to be something that it isn’t and the question helps provide a bit of perspective. Is it really that bad?

Conversely using the same metrics and powerful and useful question what 3 things can I do today to make my day a 10/10 great day? Focusing on these things that can really make a difference can provide the clarity as to what’s needed to be successful whatever it is we do or want.

As part of the role of the Marketing Academy to help create leaders it was Ita’s words that reflected that it isn’t necessarily what she does as a leader but really the importance is how many leaders she helps create. The Marketing Academy is really leadership in action. A big thank you to Ita for helping me on my leadership journey.