Lucy Goode, owner of Goode Coaching, provides leadership and career coaching and employee research for small and medium-sized agencies in the UK, Europe, and North America. Lucy spent more than 25 years in senior agency and marketing leadership roles all over the world, and after a short stint in executive search, she retrained as a business psychologist and executive coach, earning her Diploma in Coaching from ICE, University of Cambridge and an MSc in Organizational Psychology from Birkbeck, University of London. 

Combining her years of agency experience with her in-depth training, Lucy is able to advise leaders of creative businesses on how they can enjoy work more, whether that’s tackling day-to-day challenges, developing confidence and skills as a leader, or deciding on a new career. She’s provided these services to numerous organizations, including Courier Media,  BBDO, Publicis Media, The Gate (part of MSQ) and the University of Cambridge.

Some of our agency partners might already be familiar with Lucy, she joined us at our 2020 Regional Summit in London to share tips and insights on solving the talent crisis. 

We sat down with Lucy to learn how to spot employee demotivation or disengagement, if it’s possible to balance daily challenges with the big existential questions we’re all facing around the world, and why “it depends” might be her most used phrase, and that’s okay.

WPI >> Tell me about yourself and your company. What types of agencies do you work with? What services do you provide? 

Lucy >> I’m an ex-agency person who retrained as a business psychologist and became a coach and researcher. I work with all kinds of small and medium-sized agencies; some are independent, some are part of bigger networks. They’re all unique but at the moment they’re sharing many of the same issues, particularly around motivation and engagement.

WPI >> What are the biggest challenges you see your clients face today?

Lucy >> It’s always been about prioritisation: “how do I run the day-to-day and grow the business at the same time?”. That’s still the case, but many of my clients are tackling with the big existential questions, too: the global economic context, “what do I do about AI?”, and the climate crisis. 

A big one, particularly post-pandemic, is the way that work itself has changed and what that means in practical terms (do I need an office?), for your culture, and for team motivation and growth. It’s a lot. We’re all still figuring it out.

WPI >> What excites you about working with agencies on leadership coaching? 

Lucy >> Its impact reaches way beyond the person being coached: everyone benefits from a leader who’s self-aware, resilient, and confident. 

On a personal level, it’s very rewarding to help people untangle their thinking and to be around as the penny drops and a shift happens. Plus agency people are fun to work with.

WPI >> Have you seen a shift in the types of coaching that agencies are requesting over the past few years?

Lucy >> Not really. Essentially, coaching helps you develop as a leader while working through day-to-day challenges. That hasn’t changed but as I’ve said, the context has: life’s (even) faster, weirder and more unpredictable these days. 

So the shift, if there is one, is that people are recognising the value of coaching more than ever. It gives you the chance to take a breath, get some perspective, and figure out what’s really going on so that you can make better and more considered decisions. 

It also gives you the opportunity to give yourself a pat on the back. Leadership can be hard and it can be lonely, so it’s important to have someone who’s on your side, and to acknowledge success when it happens.

WPI >> You also conduct employee research to help agencies understand how their people are feeling and why they’re feeling this way. When employees won’t reveal this, or perhaps can’t because they don’t even know why they feel a certain way, how do you get at this information?

Lucy >> It’s a combination of a few things. Creating the conditions for them to feel comfortable. Asking good questions. Listening properly. 

After that, it’s down to analysis and interpretation: spotting patterns that might suggest (for example) demotivation or disengagement, even if the interviewee isn’t using that language, or identifying issues that might be bubbling, like pockets of stress or feelings of unfairness. 

WPI >> You have an MSc in Organizational Psychology. How do you use this education and experience to work with advertising agencies? 

Lucy >> Two things: I’m better at diagnosing problems, and I say “it depends” a lot. 

Organizational Psychology is the study of how people behave at work. Because I’ve looked at the theory and research around things like leadership and motivation, work well-being, and organizational change, I’m able to ask better questions, get to the root of what’s really going on, and suggest ways of making changes that are supported by good evidence. 

And I say “it depends” a lot because people and organisations are complicated. What’s “best” for you and your agency depends on a load of different variables: wouldn’t life be grand if there were one ‘best’ way of doing leadership or managing a change process? 

This is where smaller agencies have the advantage: it’s easier to get under the skin of what’s actually going on, and it’s easier to tailor whatever solutions you come up with to your culture, brand, and people. You can also involve the team in the process, which is often a pre-condition for successful change. 

WPI >> Your goal is to help people enjoy work more. Certainly, this varies a great deal by person, life stage, position, organization, even location. But is there one thing that, universally, makes people enjoy their work more? 

Lucy >> It depends, so it’s impossible to pick one thing. But motivated people enjoy work more and vice versa, so these might be useful:

At work, most people are motivated by a combination of:

• being treated fairly

• being clear about their role and the contribution they make to the business

• having clear, challenging but achievable goals

• feeling that they have some control over the way they do their work (autonomy)

• having positive, supportive, and constructive relationships with their co-workers, manager, and team

• feeling competent: knowing that their work is recognised, that they’re good at what they do, and that they have opportunities to learn and grow

Flip it round the other way and you might get some clues on what’s de-motivating you or your people. Push it further and you’ll see how they might also become sources of stress. 

WPI >> Workplace stress is at an all-time high following the pandemic, and the PR and marketing industry is one most stressful according to 2022 research by the London Medical Laboratory. What toll is this having on workplaces and employees, and how can we reduce stress?

Lucy >> On people: a vast range of physical and mental health issues. 

On agencies: absenteeism, sick leave, reduced productivity, higher turnover, reputational damage. 

The first step in reducing stress is to take the onus away from the individual to manage their own stress, and put it on leaders and organisations to prevent it from happening in the first place. 

However well-intentioned it is, no amount of mindfulness training, yoga or summer half-days will compensate for poor management, lack of support, huge workloads, lack of training, and irregular feedback.

So the first step is to figure out where the causes of stress are. Talk to your people. Have a sense of what the stressors could be before you start. The list I’ve shared above might help. 

You can run internal research (I would say that, wouldn’t I?), you can do a formal risk assessment, or you can make discussion around stress part of regular check-ins or stay interviews.  

For leaders: Lead by example, build your own knowledge, and aim to create an environment where talking about stress isn’t a sign of weakness or failure. 

WPI >> In three words or less, what makes a good leader? 

Lucy >> It depends. 

This article is an installment in a series where Worldwide Partners speaks with experienced consultants and service providers that are part of our WPI Faculty. Check back for more interviews with our industry’s leading consultants in PR, business development, financial services, training and coaching, and more.