Over the course of my career, I have managed many young women and provided a listening ear to both female and male peers. I’ve seen how women, as they advance in their careers, go from being doers to thinkers, while still being expected to provide plenty of doing on the side. 

In comparison, research shows that as men progress and transition from being doers to thinkers only, their doing days are largely behind them.

It’s 2020 but women still carry the lion’s share of the emotional workload in our industry.

Economics Professor Lise Vesterland's study, found that women were more likely to do more than their fair share of the work and reluctantly raise their hand to do the non-promotable work that doesn’t ladder up to any revenue growth more than their male colleagues. 

It is unfortunate but women tend to feel that they need to do more in order to feel equal to men. Sadly, in turn, it has a negative consequence to women either via slower progress in being recognised for promotion or even an emotional impact on their confidence as being always seen as the doer, not the thinker. 

The insight from this study might actually hit home harder for some more than others. The reality is, that in the workplace, there will always be an uninspiring brief, one that doesn’t make the best of your smart brain, and sometimes it will fall on your lap. 

Rising to an uninspiring brief 

Over the course of my career, I too have found myself facing an uninspiring brief in my inbox. It is an experience that can very easily affect you negatively and allow you to question your value. So, I took a new approach: cups and ice! Yes, that’s right, it's not a typo. 

If I’ve learned one thing from Friends, a series that is the gift that keeps on giving, it’s to take a bad brief and really own it. In one episode, Phoebe wants to help plan Rachel’s birthday party. But instead of being a part of the planning process she is given a menial task by Monica: cups and ice.

After initially resenting the menial task, she rethinks the job in hand, takes on the responsibility with enthusiasm, and turns ‘cups and ice’ into a creative brief that becomes the life and soul of the party. She creates a cup banner, cup chandelier, cup hats, has buckets of crushed and cubed ice plus snow cones. Eventually, Monica realises her mistake and asks Phoebe if she’d like to co-host other parties. Watch the clip.

I love this example, and I’ve applied it to my own work time and time again. 

Forging your own path

In reality there is practically no one in our industry that has complete control of the tasks that land in our inboxes. Yet while it is impossible to control every brief that comes our way, it is absolutely in our power to take ownership of our response to it and in turn find purpose in our careers.

Changing your mindset on feeling uninspired by that particular task or brief and approaching it as something you can shape, lead and run with, rather than something limiting, can take help take you from being cog in the machine, simply a doer, to being a strategic thinker and someone who delivers impact and noticeable results. 

Usually, a terrible brief comes from people not understanding how best they can work with you, and, whisper it, not really knowing what they want. So, take that brief as a challenge, a chance to show what you’re capable of despite having very little to work with.

With your career, and a shift in mindset, you can shape your own narrative and make your own journey. And remember, always, cups and ice.