Paul Marobella: Leading Through Crisis

In this episode, Maria and Paul discuss:

• The evolution of Paul’s leadership style and how it has changed throughout the years to where he is now.
• Leading your team through hard times in an environment where they can contribute their best work. Pauls share how he successfully led teams through three major global crises: 9/11, the 2008 recession, and the current COVID global pandemic.
• Walking the walk and talking the talk - supporting the right thing both personally and professionally. 

Key Takeaways:

• If you don’t take care of yourself first, you will not be in the right place to help lift and serve others during hard times. You have to ground yourself before you can have the capacity and space to think of things from other’s points of view. 
• Younger generations are paying more attention to what companies are saying and doing - this will continue to be impactful as more of this younger generation becomes part of the c-suite. 
• Change is happening even in larger companies, but it is harder to turn a larger ship and it takes a little longer. 

"There's no playbook...The whole world was in the same spot without a manual on how to get through what we've gone through. So I give a lot of the brands a pass if they attempted to do something that maybe fell flat." —  Paul Marobella

About Paul Marobella: Paul brings the rare combination of a proven operational growth leader with being a modern marketer. Having led organizations of all sizes from early-stage and PE-backed fast-scale-ups to large enterprises as large as $400mio in revenue/$80mio in EBIT, Paul always leads with heart/vision and focuses on balancing profits with people and purpose. He's led brand and marketing transformations for many of the world's most iconic brands including IBM, Coca-Cola, Jim Beam, Microsoft, Adidas, and many more. 

Building high-performance cultures with a priority focus on diverse and inclusive teams has been a consistent thread throughout his leadership career. Working with his team, he developed a Fast Company World Changing Idea entitled #blackatwork that shed light on the experience of black employees in advertising. He was also an inaugural signatory of the 3% Pay Equity Pledge in 2018 ensuring that pay equity in his North American organization was third-party audited and adjusted accordingly. Leading organizations through transformational inflection points with purpose and focus has resulted in hyper-growth for his teams and companies.  

Paul is also passionate about providing resources and direction for at-risk youth in the inner-cities of America, especially Chicago. He chairs and sits on multiple boards whose purpose all focus on developing a healthier community and better educational opportunities for the kids of Chicago. He is an advisory board member of the Chicago Blackhawks Foundation, Chairman of the Inner-City Education Program and board member of Off The Street Club on Chicago’s West Side.

Paul is a co-founder of the T.E.A.M Hockey Academy, a mobile hockey and life skills academy for players of color in North America, launching in 2021 with former NHL player and current NBC analyst, Anson Carter.

Paul lives in Chicago with his wife, two teenage daughters, English bulldog Lord Stanley and when not in a conference room, you can find him on the ice playing hockey. 

Connect with Paul Marobella:  

Twitter: @marobella

Instagram: @marobella

LinkedIn: Paul Marobella

Website: HavasCreative.com & InnerCityEducation.org

T.E.A.M Hockey American website coming soon!

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

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