Last night Elizabeth and I attended a leadership seminar. The premise of the presentation, and the book authored by the presenter, was that leadership cannot be taught but it can be learned. The speaker went on to explain that the the premise is not a contradiction because while schools cannot teach the curriculum that prepares one to be a leader, the hard knock, real world survival lessons of life can prepare an individual to lead.

Here is my hard learned lessons of leadership.

I think of all the staff at DDA as leaders. The programmers, copy writers, graphic designers, illustrators, SEO specialists, artists, video production crews, and photographers are leaders within their industry niche, within their department, and within themselves. They are offered responsibility and authority and challenges. They rise to accept and meet them or they shrink from the opportunity. If they rise and fail, they are hopefully corrected and thanked for trying and asked to try again next time.

Most importantly, it is in the trying that they grow and learn and become wiser and more sure of themselves and more able to lead. The concept that to be a leader, you must have followers is way too limiting. Leadership is about the willingness to have, express, and follow a point of view.

As management, Elizabeth and I know that we cannot run the business from above. There is a sign in my office for the last fourteen years that reads: You do not build a business, you build an organization, and the organization builds the business. I should probably update it to say: You do not build a business or an organization, you help grow leaders that build an organization that builds a business. Thank you DDA leaders, one and all.

Some days the thought of facing that yellow pad with a long to do list is mentally unacceptable. You would rather do something fun and distracting, something mindless, but you are at work, so you shift gears, and…in my case, revert to my student days when one of my most admired teachers instilled in her class the concept of discipline. As a child, I thought that meant staying out of trouble so you would not get your behind walloped. Fast forward to senior year in high school, and I slowly started to understand from daily contact with my special teachers that discipline REALLY means being self aware, studying hard, finishing voluminous homework without excuse, not feigning a stomachache to skip class, trying hard every day to be better. Believe me there were rebellious periods my senior year, but the persistent example from dedicated teachers who believed in me obviously worked.

Entering the work force in college was not traumatic because I did not feel entitled but rather privileged to participate and learn from more experienced coworkers as I completed my studies.  My career development finally led to what I have done for over a decade, helping to run an advertising company. Today, Dynamic Digital Advertising is not a dream on paper, but a thriving, growing entity pushing the envelope of digital technologies in unique ways. We are where we are because of the determination to go on, to build from two people to a cohesive group of graphic designers, writers, videographers, programmers, seo specialists, and production support staff all based in house. We stress that everything we do is done here, our vendors are local, we do not outsource creative work, we are 100% made in the USA. 

Companies who come to us for any of our digital services realize after the initial conference call they are hiring an advertising agency with real depth… an agency they can rely on for all their marketing and promotional needs… an agency where, though often unspoken, the work force is imbued with passion and self-discipline… an agency that delivers what it promises, and never promises something it cannot deliver. My teacher was right when she said, “The more you discipline yourself, the less you’ll be disciplined by others.” Being hands on managers, working closely with clients and staff, David and I know we are truly part of a unique company, a place where you look forward to coming to work because everyone is focused on getting things done. And I promise, as we grow things will only get more exciting! 

I bought my house four months ago knowing that there were plans for a new house to be built on the empty lot next door. I never thought they would start so soon, but they have.

The past two days they have been starting up their machines at 6:30 a.m. and waking up the neighborhood. This is not a nice way to start the day. And forget any chance of a peaceful morning once they actually start working at 7 a.m. The machines are getting so close to my house that it feels like there is an earthquake with the way everything shakes.

I find it very rude that the developer, who happens to live on the other side of this empty lot, never made any kind gestures to inform the neighborhood of what was coming. It would have been as simple as knocking on a few doors and telling us what his plans were.

We all take pride in knowing that DDA would never treat anyone in this manner. We all make sure that our clients are satisfied with our services. We will not take any step with a project without the clients knowledge and approval. Our programmers, designers, SEO Specialists, and everyone else always take the time to contact a client before proceeding with a project.

The great poet, T.S. Eliot, declared “April is the cruelest month” and I am adding but in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, April is  breathtakingly beautiful. Anyone who enjoys the outdoors relishes the rich yellows and pinks and snow white blooms from daffodils, tulips, azaleas bushes, crabapple and dogwood trees, and the way sunlight plays with grass in the late afternoon. So as stewards, we should also be cognizant of our responsibility to protect our earth.

At Dynamic Digital Advertising (DDA), we have a good start. We work a four-day week, so we use less gas and less electricity. We recycle glass and plastic, and when it is time for lunch, we try to have one person order for others or at least drive together to pick up. Those who bring lunch and snacks carry their food in reusable containers.  We have the copiers set to draft to use less toner. We save boxes and reuse them to ship.  We turn off unnecessary lights. Good start but we can do more.

With Earth Day right around the corner, I hope each of us will look for one more thing we can do to walk lightly on our earth. Being socially conscious should be a habit. As a forward thinking and very creative group of writers, graphic designers, videographers, programmers and search engine optimization (SEO) specialists, being green should be DDA’s watchword.      

When DDA was in its infancy, the staff consisted of a few dedicated individuals. Today, the business consists of 20 plus employees and a dog to boot. With this growth in staff and growth in clients comes a new and improved building, and most importantly, a reinvigorated approach to how the business operates.

The continued growth of DDA stands as a testament to the solid foundations laid well over a decade ago and the willingness of the team to adapt to continual change and expansion. Though my tenure at DDA has been brief, it is obvious to me that this dedication to improvement has been, and is, crucial to the success of DDA. As a full-service advertising agency that offers an abundance of services under one roof, including creative print and online copywriting, custom programming, video production, graphic design, and much more, a solid operating structure is paramount for the smooth and efficient completion of tasks.

Our system works, and it works well, but that does not mean efforts towards improving the efficiency and methodologies of our positions and tasks have stagnated. The DDA team of Project Coordinators, Programmers,   Graphic Designers, SEO specialists, and more has recently set out to explore new and improved ways of carrying out our jobs. Our objective—improving what already works to make way for a brighter future.