Meeting People Where They Are
At Choozle, our focus is on the advertiser. Every decision, partnership, and product update is made with the singular goal of helping our clients make their desired outcomes a reality. But to truly give Power to the Advertiser, our teams must first be empowered to do their best work internally.
That empowerment starts with trust. Trust is built when we genuinely care for our people and partners in the ways they prefer to be supported. And care, much like trust, isn’t simply something we say we value. It shows up in how we communicate, how we listen, and how willing we are to adapt to the people around us.
In my recent blog, Power to the Advertiser Starts With Trust, I explored how trust creates the foundation for empowered teams and stronger client relationships. Care is a natural extension of that idea: once trust is established, the next step is understanding what people need from us to do their best work. For decades, business leadership has leaned on the Golden Rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated.
While well-intentioned, the rule assumes that others think, communicate, and process information the same way we do. But when a detail-oriented strategist is managed with high-level broad strokes, or a performance-driven client receives long-winded backstories instead of concise metrics, communication can quickly break down.
To bridge that gap, we look to the Platinum Rule: Treat others the way they want to be treated. It’s a subtle shift, but an important one. Instead of using our own preferences as the default, the Platinum Rule asks us to stay curious about what helps someone else feel informed, supported, and empowered to do their best work.
The Foundation: Caring for People Drives Results
Caring about your team isn’t just a cultural nice-to-have; it’s directly tied to organizational performance and client success. In her article Care for Your People and Profits Will Come, Dr. Geil Browning, founder of Emergenetics International, highlights the tangible business case for prioritizing job satisfaction:
“There is also a selfish reason to focus on employee job satisfaction. Gallup research indicates that lack of engagement costs businesses between $450 billion and $550 billion each year in the United States. Moreover, companies with engaged employees perform 200 percent better than those without.”
Creating this engagement requires leadership that listens and adapts to the modern workforce. As Dr. Browning points out, meeting employees where they are is essential:
“Part of this comes from a new generation of employee. According to a Pearl Meyer survey reported by SHRM, millennials expect constant feedback, training and development opportunities and a manager who is interested in their career growth. If you do not have genuine care for the people you lead, it may prove difficult to provide regular feedback, be attentive to your staff’s professional development and generally meet the needs of employees today.”
Dr. Browning connects this directly to leadership and care:
“One way to start showing your appreciation is to use the Platinum Rule, which means to treat others the way they want to be treated. This rule goes a step above the Golden Rule because, by focusing on how your employees want to be treated (rather than using yourself as a measure), you show your respect and appreciation for their feelings and perspectives.”
That idea is especially relevant in a workplace where people bring different communication styles, ways of thinking, motivations, and strengths to the table. Caring for people does not mean treating everyone the same. In many cases, it means taking the time to understand what allows each person to contribute at their best.
Building that awareness is something we approach intentionally. Tools like Emergenetics can give teams a shared language for understanding those differences, but the real value comes from putting that understanding into practice: adjusting how we communicate, give feedback, collaborate, and support one another. That’s where care becomes empowerment.
That need for a more individualized approach continues to show up in current workplace research. Gallagher’s 2026 Employee Communications Report identifies human-centric communication as a priority for organizations, emphasizing that personalization, relevance, and accessibility are essential to building employee engagement and trust. The report also found that fewer than one in five organizations are satisfied with their ability to personalize communication through their current channels—a reminder that understanding how people prefer to receive information is one thing; consistently putting that understanding into practice is another.
Carrying the Platinum Rule into Client Care
True employee empowerment carries directly into the client experience. When our team feels supported and understood, they bring that same intentionality to our partners.
Client relationships are built on trust, transparency, and shared values. Applying the Platinum Rule to client success means recognizing that no two advertisers are identical:
- A fast-moving partner may thrive on rapid-fire Slack updates and hands-on collaboration.
- A more structured team may prefer weekly recaps and high-level executive dashboards.
- For certain clients, the value is in digging into the details behind a recommendation.
- For others, what matters most is a clear answer, the key metrics, and what to do next.
None of those preferences is inherently better than another. The important part is understanding what gives each advertiser the clarity and confidence they need to make decisions. When we adapt to our clients’ preferred ways of receiving information and feedback, we move away from a transactional vendor model and build an enduring, trust-based partnership.
We also give advertisers something at the heart of Power to the Advertiser: greater control over how they engage with their advertising partners and how they make decisions about their business.
The technology, data, and automation available to advertisers continue to evolve, but those tools are most effective when paired with people who know how to listen, understand context, and apply good judgment. The Platinum Rule helps make sure the human side of that equation is just as intentional as the technology itself.
Care as an Operational Strategy
Building a culture that drives real value for advertisers starts from within. When leadership models ownership, provides permission to grow, and respects how individual team members operate, engagement follows. That doesn’t mean every person gets a completely different set of expectations. It means creating clarity around shared goals while recognizing that people may take different paths to achieve them.
By grounding our culture in the Platinum Rule, we ensure our people and our clients get the tailored support they need to succeed. Care for your people, empower them to work at their best, and the results will speak for themselves. Because ultimately, putting power in the advertiser’s hands starts with empowering the people who serve them.
Possessing the self-awareness to assume good intent creates space to recognize that when the impact of someone’s behavior feels negative or harmful, it was most likely not their intent. It also creates a safe space to ask clarifying questions and bridge the gap between intent and impact. This skill takes time and practice to develop, but when it becomes a core part of a company’s culture, everyone, including clients, benefits.
As trust is built, it becomes easier to see a path to the next layers of Lencioni’s pyramid of high-functioning teams. These teams build on trust by adding conflict resolution, commitment, accountability, and a focus on results. Teams that embed this pyramid into how they work together are made up of engaged employees who know they are working toward a shared goal for the client.
