Jane Stanley's Fuckup

"When I worked in London, I had a particularly tough client who was not always reasonable. One day she sent the team a strong email that did not support our partnerships (more a list of demands as if we were a functional supplier). This was after a period of time where we as an agency had gone beyond to support the clients’ initiatives. I had reached the edge with this client and felt very strongly about protecting the team.

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So, in a moment of hot-headedness, I responded to the email stating some pretty strong words about the client’s behaviour. Unfortunately, this was meant to go to just the team but I had mistakenly included the clients email address.

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Obviously, what followed wasn’t my most enjoyable career moment, but it did teach me an incredibly valuable lesson. The client on receiving the email said she was extremely surprised I felt that way as I had not raised it.

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I realised I had not been dealing with the issue in the ring instead relying on voicing my frustration in the cheap seats. Corridor conversations that aren’t voiced in the room are pointless and benefit no-one. We have to speak our truth every minute of every day to all audiences otherwise we are just commentators of the situations not leaders of growth."