Effective agency leadership: Moving from a ‘zone of incompetence’ to the ‘zone of genius’

Opinion

When you stop doing what you’re great at and find yourself pulled into things you aren’t so good at, it’s easy to lose love for the job. Launch’s CEO explains how she found her way back.

Something that catches many agency leaders off guard is the realisation that, years in, you have built the agency you dreamed of… but you no longer love what you do.

I certainly wasn’t prepared for this. I just slowly became aware that something had gone flat. 

Nothing was “wrong”, per se. The agency was working and growing, and the clients were happy. But I found myself mostly doing things I was not good at.

I’d stopped doing the work I was great at and instead was doing what needed to be done.

Many agency leaders have experienced this, and too many sleepwalk into burnout without changing it. We ignore it, work harder, and, day by day, get a little more lost. 

That’s where I found myself at the beginning of last year, and it rattled me.

Finding yourself in the ‘zone of incompetence’

From my experience, people often become leaders of agencies because they’re exceptional at their craft. They are the practitioners who are consistently recommended and whose clients take them with them whenever they move. 

As a result, demand for their (and their team) increases, and suddenly they’re employing more team members and the agency staff grows. 

You know the drill. 

However, as the agency grows, you stop doing the work you’re great at and can start to lose yourself in the weeds.

For me, I end up pouring huge amounts of energy into work such as HR, admin, invoicing, and recruiting. I was drowning in the small, constant demands of management work, not seeing the bigger vision to help our clients grow. 

To-do lists became my master, and the time I should have been spending on big-picture thinking and industry-leading innovation was set aside.

A friend of mine told me that I was being pulled into the very aptly named “Zone of Incompetence”. This is a place where you stop doing what you’re great at and find yourself pulled into things you aren’t so good at.

Just because you start an agency, a business that needs running, doesn’t mean you need to wear all the hats. 

The E-Myth by Michael Gerber sums it up nicely, that there are three roles a business needs – an expert, an entrepreneur and a manager. 

He believes that most small businesses fail because owners are actually technicians, experts in their craft and when they try to be managers as well as entrepreneurs, something needs to give, and it often leads to burnout. 

Snow blindness and the drift into irrelevance

There is a second consequence to this diversion of time away from working on the business. I think it’s possible to find yourself irrelevant. 

When moving from expert to manager, it can be easy to stop innovating or serving your clients as well as you could. At the same time, you may find that you’ve isolated yourself away from your clients, your industry and your peers. 

It’s a kind of snow blindness that limits broader market awareness.

This is how agencies become obsolete, and how many leaders lose their joy. But if the customer is genuinely at the heart of what you’re doing, you stay curious and, in turn, useful.

Keep putting value into the world, and the world will give it back.

Reclaiming the ‘zone of genius’

So, how did I get back on the right track?

I started with a time and attention audit. Without changing anything, I paid attention to how I spent my days, tracking my time. 

Then I asked myself what I’d do if I had a blank diary. Where would my energy go? What work would actually light me up?

In all honesty, it also helped that, at the same time I was doing this, the industry was being shaken by and evolving to adapt to AI, privacy changes, tighter budgets, and more. 

The economy is brutal on agency founders and leaders right now, and nothing feels stable. But sometimes, that’s the breath of fresh air you need. When the old playbook stops working, you’re forced to forge something new and to think again, properly, about customers, creativity, and long-term value. 

This is what put me back into what I call my “Zone of Genius,” which is the state where you can truly shine. 

For me, that looks like being close to customers and thinking strategically about the future of marketing. Everything in my ‘Zone of Genius’ serves me. When I’m in it, Launch is better, our people and clients are happier, and the work feels more purposeful. 

Learning again, even when you think you’re done

Too many of us focus on developing everyone else while forgetting about our own growth. But the moment you stop learning, the agency calcifies; if you’re not staying curious, your team won’t either. It’s so important to set the right example.

One of the most important things I did last year to reclaim my ‘Zone of Genius’ was complete the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme. It gave me more than just new skills; it provided the space I needed to step back, to work on the business rather than in it, and to confront some difficult truths.

In those 13 weeks and 100 hours of study, I didn’t just fall back in love with my craft, I fell back in love with agency life. It reminded me that even after decades of being in this industry, I’m not done learning, and I feel genuinely invigorated by that. 

I needed that space away from being in the weeds to have that realisation.

Falling back in love is an act of leadership

Marketing is coming full circle. Brand building is returning. Customers are back at the centre. The old playbook has fallen by the wayside, and new opportunities are ripe for the taking.

I’ve fallen back in love with my craft because it’s evolving quickly, and I took time to step back and see it with fresh eyes.

If you’re a founder or leader reading this, thinking, I’ve lost something too, know that you aren’t alone. I really recommend programmes like Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses because not only do you learn a lot, but you are surrounded by other brilliant leaders doing exactly the same.

One final lesson I urge you to take away is to take back your time. 

Emails are not your taskmaster; your to-do list should direct your attention away from what is important. Design your week to play to your strengths – your Zone of Genius – and delegate the jobs that you shouldn’t be doing to another. 

It will not only bring you more joy, but more success too – personally and agency.

Jaye Cowle is the CEO at Launch