I spend a lot of time talking with agency owners, and lately the conversations have a familiar shape. People start with the business. Pipeline, pricing, clients pulling back, AI changing how they estimate their work. Then, if we talk long enough, the conversation turns to how they're holding up.
Some leaders are doing great. They have strong teams around them and real energy for the work, and they aren't facing the same pricing pressure many of their peers are. Others are carrying more responsibility than in the past, and they've been doing it so long it feels normal.
What interests me is the gap between those two groups. I don't know what separates them, and that's a big reason we're running a survey right now.
In the meantime, I want to share what I've been hearing this year, because I think it gives all of us a useful benchmark. I'm also curious how my qualitative conversations will match up with quantitative data.
How Are Leaders Leading Right Now?
For all the pressure on this industry, the passion for the work hasn't faded. Owners still talk with real pride about a good client or a challenging project that came together. This attachment is the reason so many of us keep the faith while going through difficult stretches. It's also why we tolerate things we shouldn't, telling ourselves the work is worth it.
Leading from inside
Most agency leaders I talk with still spend a big chunk of their week doing the work. Biz dev, client calls, fixing what broke. Some of that is choice and some of it is necessity. When budgets tighten, owners become the cheapest senior resource in the building. So they spend the week as an employee, and the strategic thinking the agency needs most gets pushed to nights and weekends.
The mask
This is the pattern that worries me most. Many leaders deliberately hide their stress from their teams, even the ones who feel good about where things are headed. We want to protect people and avoid spooking anyone. But stress that goes unspoken doesn't stay contained. It shows up in how we sleep and how short we get with people, and eventually in the quality of the decisions we make.
Never off the clock
A lot of us haven't taken a real week away in a long time, meaning a week where the agency runs without us and the laptop stays closed. AI was supposed to give some time back, and for many owners it has saved lots of hours. But those hours often get absorbed by more work and higher expectations.
What the steadier leaders do differently
The owners who seem most grounded right now share a few habits. They've handed real ownership to someone else, and they've given their team permission to push back on them. They've cut things on purpose and chosen to do less of it better. They have hard conversations with clients early, before friction turns into a crisis. And they talk openly about how things are going, good and bad, with people who can carry some of it with them.
So that's my story, but am I sticking to it? You can help all of us get better at leading in a healthier manner and show me I'm not as smart as I think I am. What do you say?
If you saw yourself in any of this, especially the week off you keep pushing back, know that many of the leaders I respect are working through some version of the same thing.
And that's why we want to learn what's helping leaders across our community carry less on their plate right now, and then share what we find with all of you. It only takes six minutes, and every response makes the picture clearer for everyone.
