Q: Project Manager; Strategic Planner; Director of Technology and Innovation. What are the skills from each role that help you do great work in your current role as Global Brand Director, Advanced Concepts?

KATIE DREKE: Having just started a new role at Nike, I feel like I’m calling upon past lessons from every experience I’ve had – work, sport, and everything in between.

That said, the three you mention scarred me/skilled me in some pretty specific ways…

Being a project manager taught me to adore measurement, and to obsess about forward momentum.

To be able to unemotionally breakdown a massive object into smaller progressive steps allows you to start creating movement, even if the task is freakishly daunting.

“What gets measured gets managed.

What gets managed gets done.”

(not my quote but one I love…)

Being a PM also made me realize how much I enjoy being a ringleader. I’m so lucky to have worked amidst fantastic colleagues, and I learned from them that a good project manager does more than just manage the project, they also go into bloody battles for resources, and diagnose the daily mood and energy of their team.

They know when to pull out the whip, or pour you a beer. They know how to get the best work out of their people because they acknowledge their humanity. They illuminate the joy in the work.

Being a global strategist taught me to always put the human first.

And to not be afraid to fall in love with my target audience. I’ve had the distinct honor of walking in the shoes of immigrants who send money back home to their families, small business owners who need shipping services, car buyers considering hybrid technology, sport obsessed teenagers, frequent fliers, gamers, young male beer drinkers across AsiaPac, Australian grocery shopping mums – and each of them are with me still. I’ve learned something important from all of them.

The role of Technology & Innovation was a lesson in pushing the front line whilst pulling the back line – simultaneously.

I learned you need both lines to move together, or no meaningful change will happen. This meant prototyping new concepts in the morning, and running training workshops in the afternoon. We all move forward together, or no one does.

courtesy of theepitomeofquiet

Q: You mentioned that early on in your career, Shaun Campbell Stripling created opportunities for you, because you had great instincts. How do you spot if someone has good instincts to be a strategist?

KATIE DREKE: I often think of that time in my life and career, and how thankful I am that I was working with someone collaborative like Shaun. I was a new Mom with a baby at home, and had just made the transition from a pure digital studio into a traditional advertising agency.

I was lost amid the unfamiliar lingo and processes. I feel a genuine responsibility, and a real pleasure in paying that generosity forward. However, not everyone deserves it.

The marketing/advertising world is full of double speak, jazz hands, and faux talent. We don’t need more. Not everyone is right for the job.

From my point of view, someone who has good strategy instincts will:

have a tendency to listen more than speak; actively seek opportunities outside of their comfort zone; have an ability to see the ‘interesting’ in any assignment; be more turned on by the ‘assist’ than the ‘dunk’; have an ability to see/uncover fresh new connections between disparate things ask the questions other people don’t think of, and then ask another one.