Every Agency Leader eventually faces the same question: What happens when the CEO seat changes hands? CEO of Mile Marker, Scott Shamberg, took that question head-on in a 50-minute conversation on Wisory’s “The Baton.” 

Scott, who served as US president and then CEO of Performics before taking the helm at Mile Marker, joined fellow former Performics CEOs Daina Middleton and Michael Kahn for a roundtable moderated by Tom Collinger of Northwestern University. The conversation ran from the handoffs they wish they had done better to the advice they’d give the next CEO. One thread ran through Scott’s answers, and it sits at the center of how we run media at Mile Marker: powered by IQ, delivered with EQ.

Smart strategy gets you in the room. How you lead the people behind that strategy decides whether it ever gets delivered. Here are the four takeaways Scott came with it.  

Agencies are people-first. Lead like it. 

Scott was clear that a CEO in an agency needs a high level of EQ, especially in what he called a people-based business. He tied it to the industry’s current focus on AI: keeping a human in the loop is really a reminder to pay attention to EQ, a lesson he said he learned from Michael.

Agencies aren’t factories providing a product. What clients “buy” is the judgment, creativity, and the effort of the media planners on the account. That makes culture an operating decision, not a perk, and it puts the CEO’s job in a different light: the role is to create the conditions where talented people do their best work. 

Leading people-first means EQ shows up in the everyday moments: how direction is communicated, how people are developed, and how hard conversations are handled. At Mile Marker, it’s the principle we measure ourselves against.  

Managing Up is Part of the Job 

Even as CEO, one would expect that the job is all about those who report to you. But Scott emphasized that leadership is not only about the people who report to you. Whatever your title is, no matter how senior, you are also answering to higher-ups. Even if that is a board, an owner, a predecessor, or a successor. Consistency is key, and the relationship you build with your higher-ups needs to reflect the same intentions that you give the rest of your team. 

Simply put, clear direction across the board comes from full alignment. When people at the top aren’t on the same page, everyone below feels it, and the team spends a lot of time and energy trying to decode the mixed signals from leadership, instead of putting that time and energy where it should be: serving clients.

Ask a Future Leader: Do You Want My Job? 

Don’t play a guessing game with future leaders and C-suite succession. If you’re hoping to develop the next leader, the most direct step is also the simplest: ask them whether they want your job. 

If the answer is yes, the next step is to work together on how to get them there, starting with an honest look at what they have in each bucket, EQ and IQ, and where he can personally invest time to fill the gaps if they’re coachable. If they say no, or aren’t sure, he’s not convinced it’s worth the time, and it’s time to look at other succession options or bring someone in from outside. He also stressed that this isn’t something to start in the 30 days before you leave. In his view, succession planning is time CEOs don’t spend enough on, because the business side is the easier thing to attack.

Match Your Team’sTalents to the Direction of the Organization 

For Scott, succession planning is really talent planning. It happens over time, he said, as you “match and pace your talent with the direction and the vision of the business.” You can’t hand off a baton well if you haven’t been paying attention to who is ready to carry it.

When strengths and direction line up, there’s less room for politics and more room for good work. People see how their contribution serves the bigger goal, and clients get a team that’s focused and moving together.

These lessons are about leadership, but they show up in the work clients get. An agency led with EQ, aligned from the top and clear about its direction can put its full IQ behind your business.

Listen to Scott Shamberg’s full conversation with Daina Middleton and Michael Kahn on The Wisory’s “The Baton.”

Ready for a media strategy that’s powered by IQ and delivered with EQ? Let’s Talk.