Fearless Creative Leadership

Edited highlights of our full conversation. This episode is being published on Christmas Eve, which is my favorite day of the year. Growing up, the anticipation of everything that was to come filled me with wonder and possibility. The month long build up of advent calendars being opened, trees being bought and houses being decorated, cards arriving, then food, then grandparents. The chill in the air, and the hope for snow that stays with me to this day. As I got older, and started to see Christmas through a different lens, I discovered A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. One of the most memorable experiences of my life took place on Christmas Eve 1994 when Chris and I saw Patrick Stewart's one man performance of the story onstage in New York. I've never found a video recording of it anywhere. But if you're willing to step back in time, you can buy the CD on Amazon. It will take you to Dickensian London from its first moment. Set amongst the despair and darkness of a struggling city, A Christmas Carol is the story of a powerful man led astray by greed. He creates a world that has no compassion or concern for others. Sounds familiar. Michael Wolff is a former editor of Adweek but is famous for his work as a columnist for New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, British GQ, The Guardian, and The Hollywood Reporter. He is best known as the author of several books on some of the leading figures of our time. Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House topped the New York Times best seller list for ten weeks in 2018. His most recent book, Too Famous, is a collection of stories and essays that he has written over the years about some of the world's most powerful and controversial leaders - from Rupert Murdoch, to Harvey Weinstein. From Boris Johnson to Michael Bloomberg. These are people that he has come to know intimately and the effect of whom he has seen up close. After listening to our conversation, you might believe that Michael is not a fan of leaders or, in fact, of leadership. In fact, I think it would be easy to come away from this episode feeling that some of the spirit of the early chapters of A Christmas Carol had seeped in, like frost through the keyhole. But like A Christmas Carol, I think this episode is ultimately one of hope. Next year is going to be chaos on steroids. The Great Resignation, work from home, vaccination passports, rapid tests, two plus years of physical disconnection, a fundamental change in the structure of society, a de-emphasis on work and a yearning for in-person experiences, the accelerating acceleration in the use of technology. In the middle of all that, we need some people to step up and provide a way forward. We will need leaders. Brave, bold, empathetic, caring leaders who will have to do this without case studies or classes or books or mentors who have experience, for the simple reason that none exist and no one has any. Given all of that, traditional leadership can no longer be the reference for how you meet this moment. So how do you lead with so little knowledge of what we're facing and amidst so much uncertainty? The framework I think, lies in an answer that Michael gave in response to my question about how he is raising his children during the pandemic. If we have learned anything from 2020 and 2021, it is that we cannot know what 2022 will bring. The story we tell future generations about how we met this moment will depend on how we approach what comes next. With frustration and old rules. Or with grace, originality and some humor. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to you all.

Judy Jackson is the Global Head of Culture at WPP which makes her responsible for providing the vision and strategy for building a culture that embraces 100,000 people. There's no one size fits all approach that satisfies that brief. It's a role that requires a three dimensional view of human beings. Leaders aren't particularly fond of displaying their weaknesses and vulnerabilities. After all, it takes time, work and a lot of sacrifice to reach a position of power. Why would you give someone the ammunition to knock you off that perch? How very 2019 of me. Leaders are going to have to get used to showing up as fully formed human beings - flaws and all. Because the pandemic has made us all more conscious of who we want to spend time with. Who we trust and who gives us hope. It's also forced us - or perhaps better said - allowed us to show each other who we really are. Not the bib and tuckered, booted and polished professionals who think strategically and execute unerringly. But the harried humans who wear blue fuzzy Birkenstocks, whose offices are squeezed into the corner of their bedrooms and whose families don't always provide the cathedral-esque silence appropriate for the seriousness of the Zoom call we're participating in. If, after all of that, you think Judy's wrong and you're going to go back to showing the people the work for you only the good of you, you're going to miss out on a couple of important opportunities. The chance to unlock your full potential. And the chance to help others unlock theirs.

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Judy Jackson is the Global Head of Culture at WPP which makes her responsible for providing the vision and strategy for building a culture that embraces 100,000 people. There's no one size fits all approach that satisfies that brief. It's a role that requires a three dimensional view of human beings. Leaders aren't particularly fond of displaying their weaknesses and vulnerabilities. After all, it takes time, work and a lot of sacrifice to reach a position of power. Why would you give someone the ammunition to knock you off that perch? How very 2019 of me. Leaders are going to have to get used to showing up as fully formed human beings - flaws and all. Because the pandemic has made us all more conscious of who we want to spend time with. Who we trust and who gives us hope. It's also forced us - or perhaps better said - allowed us to show each other who we really are. Not the bib and tuckered, booted and polished professionals who think strategically and execute unerringly. But the harried humans who wear blue fuzzy Birkenstocks, whose offices are squeezed into the corner of their bedrooms and whose families don't always provide the cathedral-esque silence appropriate for the seriousness of the Zoom call we're participating in. If, after all of that, you think Judy's wrong and you're going to go back to showing the people the work for you only the good of you, you're going to miss out on a couple of important opportunities. The chance to unlock your full potential. And the chance to help others unlock theirs.

Raja Rajamannar is the Chief Marketing & Communications Officer for Mastercard and is also President of the company's healthcare business. His list of accomplishments is long and significant. He was recognized as the Global Marketer of the Year by the World Federation of Advertisers, was named one of the Top 5 "World's Most Influential CMOs" by Forbes, and one of the Top 10 "World's Most Innovative CMOs" by Business Insider. He has been inducted into The CMO Club Hall of Fame. He has also been recognized as one of AdWeek's most tech-savvy CMOs. So what matters to him today? How do you live your life well? That question is at the very heart of the upheaval of the employer - employee relationship. Whether we come to call it 'The Great Resignation' or 'The Great Self-Reflection' or anything else. For the first time in the history of our society, the people who do the bulk of the work are discovering they don't have to do it on someone else's terms. They can decide what a 'life well lived' looks like on their terms. They're discovering that they have agency in their own lives. The pressure this puts on leaders is almost more than we can understand. It changes everything. And if you thought 'it's lonely at the top' was true before, it's going to become an even more meaningful cliché as we stumble into 2022. Leaders are going to have to adapt and evolve to these dramatic societal shifts. Leadership is going to have to change at its very heart and soul. But as you personally confront these challenges, my hope is that you will place at the center of your thinking that very same question. How do you live your life well? Empathy, vulnerability, care and compassion are going to have to be building blocks on which your leadership is built. I don't see a way in which you can succeed from now on without those as the foundations from which you lead. But you can't fake these qualities. They're not sustainable unless they reflect the life that you want to lead. What do you want to do with your life? What do you want to spend your time on while you are alive? These are questions that scare us. Questions that can feel judgmental or too filled with consequence if we really confront them. But when we are willing to confront them, the answers unleash such reservoirs of possibility, that soon we cannot imagine why we lived for so long without the clarity and the confidence they provide. And they come with the added benefit that they will make you a world-class leader for as long as you choose to lead.

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Raja Rajamannar is the Chief Marketing & Communications Officer for Mastercard and is also President of the company's healthcare business. His list of accomplishments is long and significant. He was recognized as the Global Marketer of the Year by the World Federation of Advertisers, was named one of the Top 5 "World's Most Influential CMOs" by Forbes, and one of the Top 10 "World's Most Innovative CMOs" by Business Insider. He has been inducted into The CMO Club Hall of Fame. He has also been recognized as one of AdWeek's most tech-savvy CMOs. So what matters to him today? How do you live your life well? That question is at the very heart of the upheaval of the employer - employee relationship. Whether we come to call it 'The Great Resignation' or 'The Great Self-Reflection' or anything else. For the first time in the history of our society, the people who do the bulk of the work are discovering they don't have to do it on someone else's terms. They can decide what a 'life well lived' looks like on their terms. They're discovering that they have agency in their own lives. The pressure this puts on leaders is almost more than we can understand. It changes everything. And if you thought 'it's lonely at the top' was true before, it's going to become an even more meaningful cliché as we stumble into 2022. Leaders are going to have to adapt and evolve to these dramatic societal shifts. Leadership is going to have to change at its very heart and soul. But as you personally confront these challenges, my hope is that you will place at the center of your thinking that very same question. How do you live your life well? Empathy, vulnerability, care and compassion are going to have to be building blocks on which your leadership is built. I don't see a way in which you can succeed from now on without those as the foundations from which you lead. But you can't fake these qualities. They're not sustainable unless they reflect the life that you want to lead. What do you want to do with your life? What do you want to spend your time on while you are alive? These are questions that scare us. Questions that can feel judgmental or too filled with consequence if we really confront them. But when we are willing to confront them, the answers unleash such reservoirs of possibility, that soon we cannot imagine why we lived for so long without the clarity and the confidence they provide. And they come with the added benefit that they will make you a world-class leader for as long as you choose to lead.

Chris Hirst is the Global CEO of Havas Creative - they describe themselves as the world's most integrated advertising and communications business. He's also the author of an award winning book, No Bullsh*t Leadership. Which means he's given a lot of thought to the art of leading a creative business. So much has been written and said about leadership. Libraries full of thinking and advice. Strategies and objectives and theories and case studies and oceans-full of best practices. We humans are complex beings. Biological entities fueled by emotions and very often willing to make decisions and take actions which, even after a moment's thought, work against our own best interests. No wonder that the Doomsday Clock is set at 100 seconds to midnight. Leadership requires you take people on a journey. From where we are today. To a better version of tomorrow. A lot of attention gets paid to your definition of the destination. Justifiably so. After all, to slightly misquote Alice in Wonderland, if you don't care where you're going, any road will do. But as Chris points out, the other end of the journey, the honest acknowledgement of where you are today, is often missing, for fear that someone will be upset or offended or will judge the progress so far as inadequate. Honesty about the challenges you're trying to overcome is where leadership begins. Without that honesty, at least two things become true. First, every time you think you're making a decision, you're making it through a distorted lens. Which means it's not a decision at all. It's a guess. And second, if you won't trust yourself with the truth, why should anyone else trust you? So, trust yourself and start with truth.

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Chris Hirst is the Global CEO of Havas Creative - they describe themselves as the world's most integrated advertising and communications business. He's also the author of an award winning book, No Bullsh*t Leadership. Which means he's given a lot of thought to the art of leading a creative business. So much has been written and said about leadership. Libraries full of thinking and advice. Strategies and objectives and theories and case studies and oceans-full of best practices. We humans are complex beings. Biological entities fueled by emotions and very often willing to make decisions and take actions which, even after a moment's thought, work against our own best interests. No wonder that the Doomsday Clock is set at 100 seconds to midnight. Leadership requires you take people on a journey. From where we are today. To a better version of tomorrow. A lot of attention gets paid to your definition of the destination. Justifiably so. After all, to slightly misquote Alice in Wonderland, if you don't care where you're going, any road will do. But as Chris points out, the other end of the journey, the honest acknowledgement of where you are today, is often missing, for fear that someone will be upset or offended or will judge the progress so far as inadequate. Honesty about the challenges you're trying to overcome is where leadership begins. Without that honesty, at least two things become true. First, every time you think you're making a decision, you're making it through a distorted lens. Which means it's not a decision at all. It's a guess. And second, if you won't trust yourself with the truth, why should anyone else trust you? So, trust yourself and start with truth.

Jill Kelly is the Global CMO of GroupM, the world's largest media investment company. The journey that brought her to this powerful position has been complicated and has forced her to confront threats both real and imagined. It has been said that if you stand in a group of randomly selected people and ask everyone to place their fears in the center of that circle, most of us would choose to take back our own. If that's true, it's because our own fears have become so familiar to us that we have learned to live with them, sometimes even to empower them, in case confronting them reveals an ever greater terror - that we were right to be afraid. That the monster in the attic is real. Fear is a foundation of the human condition. Without it we would not exist as a species. But the fear that fills today's society, the fear of individual irrelevance, has become so powerful that it threatens to wash away everything else that matters on the human journey. Kindness. Compassion. Empathy. Respect. And love. The only path away from the abyss is leadership. And that is the hero's journey. The willingness to resist the herd mentality and forge another path. That journey is always hard. But it becomes impossible if we decide to accept our own monster in the attic without resistance or challenge. Because when we start to accept our own fear, when we allow it to join us, unchecked, on our journey, only one thing is certain. That the time it will show up is when our back is turned and we are facing the real threat. I cannot promise you that you will ever conquer your monster in the attic. But I can promise you that every day you stare it down, you weaken it. Even time you shine a light on it, you expand what is possible. For yourself and for others.

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Jill Kelly is the Global CMO of GroupM, the world's largest media investment company. The journey that brought her to this powerful position has been complicated and has forced her to confront threats both real and imagined. It has been said that if you stand in a group of randomly selected people and ask everyone to place their fears in the center of that circle, most of us would choose to take back our own. If that's true, it's because our own fears have become so familiar to us that we have learned to live with them, sometimes even to empower them, in case confronting them reveals an ever greater terror - that we were right to be afraid. That the monster in the attic is real. Fear is a foundation of the human condition. Without it we would not exist as a species. But the fear that fills today's society, the fear of individual irrelevance, has become so powerful that it threatens to wash away everything else that matters on the human journey. Kindness. Compassion. Empathy. Respect. And love. The only path away from the abyss is leadership. And that is the hero's journey. The willingness to resist the herd mentality and forge another path. That journey is always hard. But it becomes impossible if we decide to accept our own monster in the attic without resistance or challenge. Because when we start to accept our own fear, when we allow it to join us, unchecked, on our journey, only one thing is certain. That the time it will show up is when our back is turned and we are facing the real threat. I cannot promise you that you will ever conquer your monster in the attic. But I can promise you that every day you stare it down, you weaken it. Even time you shine a light on it, you expand what is possible. For yourself and for others.

Deirdre Findlay is the Global CMO of Condé Nast. In that position, she's responsible for all of the company's consumer-driven revenue. She took the job in January of 2020, and faced by an industry in transition and a world in chaos, has dramatically grown the company's subscriber base, as well as the affiliate and commerce revenue. More than that, the company has held onto its new-found audiences, even as we start to leave our homes and reconnect with each other in person. Like every leader, she's responsible for producing business results at a time when the employer-employee relationship is being entirely rewritten. If you're leading a business that depends on unlocking the power of creative thinking and innovation for your success, you know that talent acquisition and talent retention have always been critical. Most people think that's true for one reason. Hire the best talent and win the game. For many companies, their strategy for finding and keeping the best talent came down to this: Pay them, praise them, promote them, and prioritize them - especially when it came to handing out the best opportunities. If that's still the cornerstone of your thinking, you're already falling behind in the race for game-changing talent. Today, as a leader, it's not just the job you're selling, it's the journey. The journey you're taking the business on. And the journey you're offering everyone who works for you. One of self exploration and personal development. A journey to discover what they can do and who they can be. You'll still need business plans and financial performance metrics to determine who you need to hire and what you can afford. You'll still need visions and missions, job descriptions and benefits packages to open the door to the right people. But if you want to close the deal and ensure the best of them stick around long enough to make a difference, you'll need two things that most leaders don't know how to measure. Empathy and interest. Which means, as Deidre said, getting comfortable with balancing the work and balancing the people.