Building a great team in a sports marketing agency isn’t about assembling the most impressive CVs or filling a room with people who all think the same way. It’s about having clarity and being deliberate in how you build a team. Most of all, it’s about creating an environment where people can do their best work with the freedom and confidence to push boundaries and achieve success. At Ten Toes, we talk a lot about being ‘all in’ – it’s the definition of our name – and it defines our approach to our team members, our work and our values.
Sport is global, emotional and deeply cultural, so the teams shaping how it shows up in the world need to reflect that reality. Ten Toes is built on a genuinely diverse mix of backgrounds, cultures, lived experiences and skill sets – diversity makes the work sharper, the thinking braver and the output more relevant. When different perspectives sit around the same table from different countries, industries, sports or creative disciplines the work is better for it.
But just throwing together an eclectic mix of people isn’t enough – you have to build the conditions for success. That means being clear about what you’re trying to achieve as a business, and just as importantly, being clear about what success looks like for the people inside it. In a fast-moving industry like ours, ambiguity can feel exciting, but without direction it is aimless. Clear objectives give teams confidence and clear pathways give people belief that there’s somewhere to go.
At Ten Toes, we’re big on ownership and accountability, but those things only work when expectations are understood on both sides. People should know what’s expected of them in their role today, and what they need to develop to get to the next stage tomorrow. When you give people that clarity you create space to learn, make mistakes and grow into versions of themselves that are better than the job description they were hired into – this is as applicable at all levels within the company and the better the leadership group is on this particular point the better it is for the entire agency. It’s crucial everyone is open to learning and developing.
Another non-negotiable is staying close to the industry. The best teams are curious teams. They’re talking to athletes, brands, rights holders, creators, platforms and partners all the time and not just when there’s a brief on the table. Sport doesn’t stand still, and neither can we. If you’re not listening, you’re already behind – it’s partly why our one-of-a-kind, AI-powered insights engine Ten Beat (more to be announced on this soon!) is such a weapon in our arsenal – in addition to the ‘feel’ of the industry, it allows us to tap into the heartbeat of culture globally. We encourage people to build relationships, attend events, ask questions and challenge assumptions, it keeps the agency culturally relevant and commercially sharp.
That outward focus has to be matched with strong internal culture. Culture isn’t a slogan on a slide; it’s how people treat each other on a Monday morning in January or when deadlines are tight and pressure is high. It’s whether junior voices are heard in meetings, it’s what goes on the snack table, it’s whether feedback is honest and constructive, not political or personal. It’s whether people feel safe enough to say ‘I don’t know’ and confident enough to say ‘I think we could do this better’.
Leadership plays a huge role here. Building a team isn’t about control, it’s about working towards joint goals, setting a vision, clearing the obstacles and then getting out of the way – the older, more experienced I’ve got, the more I realise the importance of the latter point in particular. It’s also super important to recognise that everyone learns differently and that development isn’t linear – some people want to move fast, some want to deepen their skillsets, some want to explore new lanes entirely and all of that should be encouraged if it aligns with the broader goals of the business.
Ultimately, building a team in a sports marketing agency is about consistency and balance – if you get that right, you don’t just build a team that delivers great work but you build one that lasts, adapts and keeps moving forward together, ten toes down.
