Week 2: Leader/Follower Relations at Six One Agency

After officially completing week two of my internship at Six One Agency, I have had a chance to more closely observe the relationships that exist between leaders and followers within the company. As PR is a very collaborative industry, it was no surprise to me to see that a lot of the work done at Six One is done in a team-like aspect. That being said, there seems to be a constant stream of communication and collaboration between all members of the team, across all levels of seniority. There are roughly four “levels” of seniority at Six One (not including interns). At the top is the agency’s founder, followed by the Senior Account Executives, then the Account Executives, and then PR Assistants (followed by myself and the other summer interns).

Although there is technically a tier system, everyone works together on many of the same projects. In order to streamline this process and ensure that everything is completed in an efficient manner, Six One uses a top-to-bottom approach. The agency’s founder works closely with the Senior Account Executives to assign general tasks and projects, who then assign tasks to the Account Executives, and so on. However, the entire agency meets virtually three times a week (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) for about two hours to run through every client and discuss top priorities for the week. This meeting is done in an extremely collaborative manner and gives each member of the team a chance to voice their ideas, upcoming to-dos, concerns, and anything else they may have going on that day. Based on my interactions with various members of the team, every single person has a lot of trust and respect for their fellow co-workers. It is evident that this style of interaction has allowed the entire agency to work quite smoothly together, and has resulted in great relationships among team members. Even as an intern, I myself have experienced this sense of relationship building. At the beginning of my second week, the founder of the agency set up a call with me to discuss my goals, aspirations, and just to make sure that I felt welcomed at the agency. This quick twenty minute phone call made me immediately feel welcomed and like I was an integral part of the team. That being said, it seems that overall the leader/follower relations at Six One are very strong, and that strength is clearly benefiting the work that the agency puts out.