5 Signs your Junior Account Handlers are Struggling – and What to do About it!

Account management in an advertising agency is a difficult role. As well as the usual agency hangups, the Client Services team members deal with demanding clients and are expected to switch hats daily.They’re problem solvers, creative thinkers, project managers and team motivators.

It’s not surprising then that so many junior account handlers struggle from time to time. But what are the tell-tale signs that your junior account handlers are struggling? And what can you do to help better support your employees' mental health?

Sally Stevens, from The Secret AD, shares 5 red flags that indicate your junior account handlers are struggling and what training or support you can give them to help.

Sally Stevens - Founder, CEO and Client Services Coach at The Secret AD

This could be innocent. One of the top account management skills is understanding when to include other members of the team in communications and that takes time to learn. But excluding you from emails can often be an indication that they're worried about getting things wrong. Sally Stevens, Founder of The Secret AD, admits that when she was a junior, she was "so scared of being found out or making a mistake" that she would often just remove everyone from copy and "hope for the best".

Ultimately, this behaviour stems from fear. Fear of the repercussions and what seniors might say or do when they discover the truth. It's not something that account management training will resolve, but instead requires a softer approach to build a strong relationship with them. Your juniors need to know that an Account Director is there to support them, not catch them out and that it's okay to make mistakes.

You've got a fair idea of what's on their (apparently manageable) to-do list and yet they're always working late! When this happens, it's tempting to minimise the time involved in their tasks, basing it instead on how long you would take to complete them. But if there are certain aspects of the role that they fundamentally don't understand, or if they haven't been given the tools to complete tasks more efficiently, then it's unlikely the situation will improve without intervention.

Work with them to better understand what's taking their time. If you're still unsure why they're having to pick up extra hours, consider shadowing them or asking someone to coach them. This could be a simple time management issue and teaching them how to time block and prioritise will help, however, they could also be overwhelmed and procrastinating as a result.

Don't take too long to address those late hours though, as studies have found that working long hours are not just bad for our physical health, but also impacts our mental health and mental health at work.

When juniors start to regularly miss deadlines for simple tasks, like compiling meeting notes, sending out contact reports or updating status sheets, it's a clear sign that they're struggling. It could mean that they're overloaded, need support with their time management skills or that they're simply unengaged in the work they've been given.

First, you need to discover the root cause. Overloaded or not managing their time efficiently? It's time to redistribute work across the team. Ensure they're comfortable with their workload, understand which tasks need to take priority and have the tools to better manage their time before re-introducing additional responsibilities.

If, however, it transpires that they're uninterested in the tasks, you'll need to reimpress upon them the importance of those 'boring' items and why they're needed, while also working to include more challenging responsibilities in their role moving forwards.

Sudden changes in communication style are a sign that something is amiss both in our personal and professional lives. Has a confident junior retreated, and become quieter? Or have they become louder, defensive even, as they try to deflect from their insecurities? If the answer is yes to either, it's probably time for a chat to understand what's happening.

An informal chat might be enough to get to the bottom of what's happening but, often, building resilient employees takes time and resilience to pressure should be a skill taught in all account management training courses. Try to understand, and help them to understand, what triggers them to panic so that you can better anticipate future problems, and catch any issues before they become overwhelming.

Knowing how to brief creative work is a crucial account management skill and one that, when not nurtured properly, can be costly for an agency. If work is consistently returned wrong from the studio (or worse, the client), it's likely that the briefs aren't right to begin with. That could be because they're rushing (are they managing their workload properly?) or because they don't understand the client brief or agency process.

Train your account managers and account executives to understand and improve their briefs, with targeted account management training. Review examples of great briefs together and discuss what makes them so good. Similarly, ensure you're setting aside suitable time to review and feedback on their briefs before they're shared with the studio. It might seem straightforward to you, but you've probably had a lot of practice by now.

Note, this could also be an issue with a member of the studio team if the same person has been working on all these projects. Be sure to flag if you think that's the case and help your juniors to understand where they can help that person instead.

At The Secret AD, we understand the pressures that are placed on senior Client Services' time. If you found this article helpful and want to know how else you can better support your junior account handlers, then get in touch to discuss how bespoke account management training can help your Client Services team excel.

Thank you, Sally! If you'd like to pursue a career in an Agency, then you can view our live agency roles here!

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