Bossing It: Embracing a Continual Journey of Growth with Tim Marshall
Tim Marshall is an award-winning executive producer with over a decade of experience in creating iconic commercial campaigns for some of the world’s foremost agencies and brands. After working as a freelance producer for many years, he launched Scenester Films in 2021 and prides himself on producing commercials and branded content to the very highest possible standard. With a company ethos geared towards innovative thinking and flexibility, Scenester is optimally placed to handle the many challenges of the modern advertising landscape. Since its foundation, Scenester has produced commercials for major global brands such as Samsung, Mars, Nissan and many others.
LBB> What was your first experience of leadership?
Tim> Broadly speaking, probably captaining a football team at university many, many years ago! I’m not sure that’s the best example to give here though, we were dreadful! I suppose my first real experience of leadership within our industry was when I stepped up from production management and took on my first producer role. Realising that the buck stopped with me and taking on that ultimate level of responsibility was the first time that I actively considered myself to be in a leadership role.
LBB> How did you figure out what kind of leader you wanted to be – or what kind of leader you didn’t want to be?
Tim> I figured this out like most people do I think, through a mixture of trial, error and experience. I don’t know if many people truly have a grand plan all worked out for the exact kind of leader they want to be. I think it’s a constantly evolving picture and you always have to remain open to switching up your management style in line with different circumstances. There’s no definitive archetype for being the perfect leader in every situation, you have to embrace the fact that you’re on a continual journey of growth and adaptation.
LBB> What experience or moment gave you your biggest lesson in leadership?
Tim> I think some of the most valuable lessons in leadership came out of my experiences of working under other leaders, early-on in my career. Some of those were highly positive experiences that set a great example to me going forward. Others were more negative experiences in which I didn’t feel I was led in an effective way. I always try to remember both ends of that spectrum and apply this to my own leadership ethos in equal measure!
LBB> Did you know you always wanted to take on a leadership role? If so how did you work towards it and if not, when did you start realising that you had it in you?
Tim> I think I probably knew from a fairly young age that I wanted to be a leader in some aspect of my life. I’ve always been fairly confident and I guess I’m a “people person”, so I think in the back of my mind I always knew I wanted to lead in some regard. Moments of personal doubt are a natural human experience but I truly think self-belief is the key to effective leadership. Always be open to learn, adapt and develop but always believe in yourself and your own ability, you didn’t become a leader by accident, you’re there for a reason!LBB> When it comes to leadership as a skill, how much do you think is a natural part of personality, how much can be taught and learned?
Tim> I think it’s a bit of both. I do think some people have a natural aptitude to lead, particularly when it comes to interacting effectively with other people, which is a major part of leadership in my book. That being said, I don’t think anyone can just step into a leadership role and instantly succeed without a lot of experience and hard-learned lessons under their belt. If I didn’t have the right mentors early-on in my career then I wouldn’t be half the leader I am today. I’m not sure there’s such a thing as a comprehensive crash-course on leadership as you’re so often presented with situations and challenges that require unique solutions - it’s all about remaining versatile and adaptable.
LBB> What are the aspects of leadership that you find most personally challenging? And how do you work through them?
Tim> Probably striking the right balance between keeping a comprehensive handle on how projects are going without veering into micro-managing my team too much. I do think it’s important in a leadership role to always be aware of the overall picture, but you also have to give people the level of trust and autonomy that they need in order to flourish. If you’re too intense with your management style then it leads to people not feeling trusted and valued, which is counterproductive. I try to make sure that I keep a keen overview on how a project is going without making people feel like I’m constantly looking over their shoulder.
It's all about trying to achieve that optimum balance and I always make a conscious effort to get this right.
LBB> Have you ever felt like you've failed whilst in charge? How did you address the issue and what did you learn from it?
Tim> I’m sure everyone looks back on errors they’ve made in the past and wishes they had the chance to go back and handle things a bit differently. The key is to accept that moments of failure in your leadership will happen and you need to learn from these going forward. It’s very easy to be personally defensive and make excuses when things don’t go to plan, but that’s a futile way of thinking. Nobody is an objectively perfect leader all of the time. If you can take ownership, learn from mistakes and genuinely improve as a result; then failures actually become the most valuable learning curve and developmental asset available to anyone seeking to become a good leader.
LBB> In terms of leadership and openness, what’s your approach there? Do you think it’s important to be as transparent as possible in the service of being authentic? Or is there a value in being careful and considered?
Tim>I am very considerate and careful when it comes to managing the big picture on any given project. I believe that leading in a production role requires a huge amount of diligence and forethought in order to be effective. That being said, I think transparency with your team, on an operational level, is incredibly important. Withholding information and feedback is rarely a productive approach. I think promoting a sense of openness helps to create a feeling of mutual trust, which in turn serves to bond a team together in a sense of collaborative endeavour and a shared desire to achieve the best possible results.
LBB> As you developed your leadership skills did you have a mentor, if so who were/are they and what have you learned? And on the flip side, do you mentor any aspiring leaders and how do you approach that relationship?
Tim> The ultimate mentor in my career has been Helen Hadfield of Snapper Films, without a doubt. Way back when Helen was running Bare Films and I was a junior producer on the way up, she allowed me to take the lead on a number of projects that really helped to advance my production skills to the next level. I’ll always be grateful to Helen for seeing my potential, handing me those opportunities and enabling me to really earn my stripes as a producer. As a direct result of that personal gratitude, I regularly look to pass on opportunities to the next generation of production talent. I’m a big believer in encouraging and promoting people that show leadership potential and I always try to be the very best mentor I can be in that regard.
LBB> In continually changing market circumstances, how do you cope with the responsibility of leading a team through difficult waters?
Tim> I think you have to project a personal sense of positivity and also work to promote this attitude within your wider team. Everyone is aware that there has been a lot of volatility in our industry over recent years but dwelling on that is detrimental to achieving success. With so many changes to the advertising landscape in recent years, everyone has been posed with a variety of new and unique challenges. The key to overcoming these challenges is to come up with innovative, fresh and flexible solutions. I try to encourage my team to think outside of the normal parameters and be forward-thinking when looking to solve problems.
There’s always a way to make things work and, by embracing this philosophy, it certainly becomes much easier to navigate your way through choppy waters!
LBB> As a leader, what are some of the ways in which you’ve prioritised diversity and inclusion within your workforce?
Tim> This is something that is hugely important to me. When I first founded Scenester I made it my number one priority to identify a core base of directing talent that was inclusive and represented a wide range of different backgrounds and lived experiences. Equally, whenever my production team is crewing up for a project, I ensure that we’re making an active effort to promote diversity on-set and to be inclusive across all departments. Any situation in life benefits from embracing diversity and inclusion, the world of production and filmmaking is no different.
Nowadays, film sets are thankfully much more inclusive and diverse than they were when I first started working in the industry, but we still have a long way to go. I firmly believe that one of the foremost priorities for any producer, production manager or head of department is to strive to promote diversity and inclusion within their team and across the working environment as a whole.
LBB> How important is your company culture to the success of your business? And how have you managed to keep it alive with increases in remote and hybrid working patterns?
Tim> I think Scenester’s company culture is a very important part of our success. We genuinely put a huge amount of effort into going the extra mile for the agencies and brands that we work for. The one true company ethos that I try to instil in anyone working on a Scenester project is that they genuinely need to care. I think if you don’t care about a project and treat it with anything less than the highest levels of passion and diligence, you will never achieve optimum results.In terms of hybrid and remote working patterns, I have found this development to be nothing but advantageous. I personally prefer the chemistry and efficiency of a team working together in an office but recent advances in hybrid and remote working have revolutionised the levels of flexibility that you can offer your team. Everyone working together within the same four walls is no longer a practical requirement and I think this allows people to embrace flexibility on a basis that suits their own personal needs and preferences. I think that as long as an active effort is made to keep communication and transparency levels high, then a company’s culture can continue to thrive and function effectively within a hybrid or remote working setup.
LBB> What are the most useful resources you’ve found to help you along your leadership journey?
Tim> Honestly, talking to people. I think you can only ever make your journey harder if you’re blinkered to outside input, stuck in your own lane and not talking things through with others. It’s really important to communicate with other leaders from within your own field but I’ve also learnt a huge amount from people who aren’t involved in our industry at all. As a concept, leadership is something that every single person in the world experiences in some regard. By listening to other people’s viewpoints and experiences, you can craft a much more complete idea of what it takes to become the very best leader you can possibly be.
