On The Leaders' Lounge with Pauline Linton
As important as it is to look forward and keep a pulse on the ever-evolving arts and media landscape, it’s also as critical, if not more, to have sound knowledge of relevant theory in the space.
Pauline Linton is Head of Social Media, APAC at Adobe. We caught up with her to find out more about her experience, her thoughts on diversity in the industry, and where the industry is heading.
What excites you most about your current role?
The opportunity to work with our creative community, digital marketing customers and employees to deliver social-first campaigns and programs. I love the idea of approaching social media differently, kind of from an earned perspective, and thinking about our communities as audiences and channels at the same time.
You've had quite a remarkable career to date, what's helped you get there?
Starting my career in the not-for-profit space (youth mental health service ReachOut.com) taught me to do more with less, focus on impact and outcomes and not outputs and also use communications for good; so I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to start in a space where communications was critical to ‘business success’. Along the way I met colleagues that became mentors and friends and were critical in helping me navigate my work - and become a better communications professional - as well as my work style to become a stronger leader.
What challenges have you as an individual had to overcome, to get where you are today?
I started my career working for an organisation that was born digital, but as I moved from ReachOut.com, to the agency side, I came up against a lot of clients and colleagues that didn’t have the same background and experience in the online space - so getting on the same page wasn’t always easy. At times that presented communication challenges as I’d sometimes assumed a level of digital knowledge that wasn’t there; and other times it was difficult to simply articulate ideas when you had to go right back to basics to bring everyone up to speed. Another challenge I sometimes faced was a little more personal. For most of my career I was lucky enough not to be (or at least feel) discriminated against as a younger female. However, as I started to become more experienced and more senior, I found that change slightly. I found that there were quite a few men and women around me that became dismissive of my thoughts and ideas because - I felt - because of my age and sometimes gender. Funnily enough, I sometimes felt that more from women around me rather than men.
What's the best career or professional advice you ever received?
‘You can’t get experience without getting experience.’ As a young, ambitious professional, I was very assertive in making my results known and asking for a raise or promotion whenever or as soon as I thought I deserved it. For the most part, I was successful, until one day… I had been successful in managing a project that went swimmingly and my team was happy. I’d received a promotion 6 months prior and felt ready for the next. It was during that conversation that my manager at the time gave me that advice; and getting experience and showing results wasn’t just about sailing through the good, but also getting through rough patches. It taught me to be both patient with myself and also more respectful of the experience of those around me.
Define ‘media’:
Anything that communicates; and some say that’s everything!
How reflective of Australian society is our Arts and Media industry currently?
Not very reflective, unfortunately. Diversity - that reflects the real world / our society - doesn’t seem to be mainstream. I want to say that the fix is easy, but there is a lot to do. We need a shift of some sort, not sure if it’s in communication or mindset or both, but we need to stop seeing the diversity in society as progressive or minority. Australian society today is more diverse than ever, but from an arts and media perspective, that diversity still isn’t mainstream.
What education, training, skills and/or knowledge do you believe are necessary for emerging industry leaders?
Communications theory, media theory, social sciences, a solid understanding of digital tools and technologies and communicating in the digital age - both how to create and how to distribute content and information; and all the soft skills that any good leader needs, including the importance of strong EQ - proven to be more critical to leadership success than IQ.
And finally, what's your prediction for the future of the industry? Where is it heading, and what's it going to look like in 10 years time?
I truly hope that diversity isn’t something we’re still striving for, but what arts and media just is. I think the operating rhythm or ‘plumbing’, so to speak, of the industry will change before the outputs do. It feels like how we work needs to change before we can improve / refine outputs. Teams are looking different and the way we’re working as an industry seems to be changing. I’m hopeful that the way we work will mean more diversity of thinking and collaboration that goes into developing programs and ideas and therefore more representative outputs and outcomes.
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