You don’t always need professional management training or structured graduate programs to progressively climb the career ladder.
But according to Georgina Armour and Sarah Willmott, who are both on the board of content marketing agency Edge, you do need a desire to work hard, and an ability to excel in a range of different roles within an organisation.
Armour and Willmott tell Women’s Agenda TV how their seven year journey from relatively junior level positions to key leadership roles at Edge was made possible due to sheer hard work and growing their own skills within the business, as the business grew itself.
Armour, 31, joined Edge originally as a sub editor. She was quickly promoted to editor, then editorial director. She is now the chief operating officer with responsibility for Edge’s day to day operations. “I just knew I had to make sure things were done right so I never stopped pushing until I was in a position to have the influence to ensure they were,” she tells Women’s Agenda.
Now 29, Willmott had a short-lived stint as a receptionist when she first joined Edge, before quickly taking on a production/account manager role, then account director, and now publisher of the commercial division.
“I never really thought of myself as ambitious, I just always wanted to be the best at anything I set my mind to,” she says.
Willmott and Armour share the five tips on management and career that they believe is important to success below.
Sarah Willmott’s five tips for managing staff
- Treat your staff as fellow colleagues not just employees
- Realise you can’t change a person – work and adapt your management style to each and every colleague
- Embrace, empower and engage each colleague by giving them a voice
- Have an open-door policy, always be approachable
- Don’t forget to have a laugh, if you are enjoying yourself, your staff will too.
Georgina Armour’s five tips for fast-tracking your career
- There’s no substitute for hard work
- Stand up for what you know is right but know when to be reasonable and patient
- Use your emotional intelligence to know how to handle situations and individuals – it’s your best weapon
- Ask for what you want – your bosses aren’t mind readers. it’s a cliché but “if you don’t ask you don’t get”, don’t expect anything to land in your lap
- Control your emotions – a teary bout will last longer than the incident and you mightn’t be treated the same if your manager thinks you’ll burst into tears.
Watch Georgina Armour and Sarah Willmott share their story on Women’s Agenda TV.