As one of the leadership team at Mantis, I take great pride in our team. I’m not an understated cheerleader. My ability to be an embarrassment to anybody doing things I think are wonderful, is limitless, but always from the heart. I’m banned from watching my husband play cricket and I’m known as the mum who cried at the talent show so loudly that all the kids watched me, instead of my daughter.

So, it’s not without a warble of pride in my written voice that I can happily say that we promoted our Lily last week. Everyone always says that promotions are well deserved when they talk about them. It’s of course very true in Lily’s case. However, what’s particularly joyous about this one is the growth I’ve seen in Lily in the last year. Some switch got flipped, some newfound confidence flared, and away she went.

She’s the one who, when she contributes in a meeting, or a brainstorm, is giving you the best thought-out idea. Her natural inclination to doubt her talents has now developed into the skill of thinking a plan or proposed tactic through from every angle. She presents each side of the argument. Like any very good account manager, she can back up her ideas with facts based on what the media actually want. This makes her a gift to her clients because she won’t give you promises we can’t deliver on.

If you’re reading this and wanting to be promoted from SAE to AM, the trick is to hurdle the procedural and get into the strategic. Tell me what the media strategy should be. Tell me why my content idea won’t work. Show me where my client’s competitors have made an impact. Remind me of that deadline. Inform me if metrics, money or team members are faltering. Lily’s initial forays down these sorts of pathways have been very strong.

We work in partnership with our clients and there are several of you out there who will have witnessed this growth, and thank you for continuing to give us the sort of inspiring work that enables us to build people like this.

On a personal note, Lily forms a very special first brick in the wall of Mantis Bristol, and she’ll forever be my office-choosing wing woman, my fellow lover of terrible hair-metal and good cider.

Congratulations Lily. The picture here was taken about 10 seconds after I told Lily the good news, and that smile made my day.