#WomensMonth: Recognise the importance in reaching your goals

She gives us her views on being a women in the advertising industry, how working flexible hours can be achieved and with great success, and her message for future generations.

Briefly tell us about your role?

Glover: I’m an executive creative director at TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg. I run the creative department with my two partners. This includes everything from maintaining client relationships, reviewing and presenting work, mentoring talent and managing the many personalities within the agency. I’m also Mom to Grace (4) and Ivy (2).

What is your core strategy?

Glover: I’ve worked incredibly hard to make myself a valuable commodity, because, as harsh as it sounds; you have to be worth the number on your paycheck.

I’ve also always understood that you need to really distinguish yourself if you want to rise in the industry. What’s more, you need to do it consistently.

What is your main business challenge?

Glover: Reinventing and revolutionising the old agency model is an industry-wide challenge, but also an epic opportunity.

Most important attribute needed to do your job?

Glover: I’m going to say ‘creative brains’; that combination of creative talent and the smarts to know how to use it to solve a business problem.

What advice would you give to women pursuing a career in your field?

Glover: Pour all your efforts into developing your abilities and becoming the best you can possibly be at your job. Being good at what you do is your most powerful asset. Ultimately the cream always rises, so make darn sure you’re the cream.

Never, ever bat your lashes to get what you want. This is a sure-fire way to lose the respect of clients and peers. It’s also hugely damaging to the image of professional women in general. Your brain and talent are the best ways to sway a room or assert influence.

Work for the best people. I owe everything to the amazing people I have worked for, not the places I have worked at.

Is there a glass ceiling in your industry?

Glover: Right now the convention is set to ‘men only’ at the top, but I do believe that will change.

One major barrier that needs to be addressed is the industry approach to women with children. Having children is advertising leprosy. The fact is, valuable and talented women reach a certain age, they have children and then they disappear or move onto the freelance circuit. If we want to keep the best talent in our industry, we need to address this. The solution is simply a more flexible model. Good people will always be good and will always get the job done, regardless of the specific structure of their working hours. I still have the same ability as I did pre-children. I haven’t lost my talent, brain or ambition. I work faster, smarter and just as many hours.

The old male guard need to get their heads around this if they want access to this talent pool.

What is your message for Women's Month?

Glover: Women need to recognise that their dreams and ambitions are as important as men’s. This unspoken expectation that we must give these up to support our husbands in their careers or raise children is beyond arrogant and almost cruel. More than anything, I want to help redefine a new normal for women, most especially for my daughters.