Fearless Creative Leadership

Nicki Sprinz is the Managing Director of B-corp digital product studio ustwo. In the six years that she has been with the company, she has eradicated the company's gender pay gap . In her past, she's been a journalist for the Sunday Times and The Guardian, before going on to work in the NHS. She also co-founded Ada's List in 2013, a supportive global community of more than 3,000 women working in tech. That is an extraordinary list of achievements. What makes her story even more compelling is what she has overcome in her personal life long before her professional life began. As a teenager she overcome viral encephalitis- a life threatening illnesses that forced her to literally learn how to walk and talk again. And then she overcame Graves disease. As a leader, she has brought gender pay equity to her business. A challenge at which most businesses are absurdly still failing. And she brings relentlessly positive and upbeat energy with her. As Anne Richards once famously said, "Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in high heels." She left out, with a smile. In an era in which we are faced with enormous challenges, challenges that some days seem insurmountable, Nicki's story serves to me to as a reminder of what human beings are capable of. And what women leaders are capable of.

This episode is being published within a couple of days of the very sad news that Sir Ken Robinson has died. He was perhaps the world's leading thinker and expert on creativity and innovation. His original TED Talk, Do schools kill creativity?, is the most-watched in the history of TED. If you haven't seen it, take 18 minutes and watch it. It's extraordinary. Ken believed in the potential of every child. At its core, his message was profound and simple. Every human being is remarkable. I was fortunate to spend a fair amount of time with Ken between 2006 and 2008. Everywhere he went, people stopped him to say that watching his talk had changed their life. My sense from watching people's response to Ken was they thought he believed in them more than they believed in themselves. He was 70 when he died, much too young. But his legacy is extraordinary. If you haven't watched his TED Talks, I encourage you to take a few minutes and do that. They might just change your life. Stephanie Nadi Olson is the Founder and CEO of We Are Rosie. They are a very modern business, built to match marketing talent with opportunity in dynamic and flexible ways. If you were going to design a business to confront the challenges of these two viruses, WeAreRosie would be a pretty good blueprint to follow. They are built to unlock the potential of people. I suspect Sir Ken would have approved.

Marcel Marcondes is the U.S. Chief Marketing Officer for Anheuser-Busch. We talked about what he's learned about leading a culture that embraces minorities after experiencing racism in his own life. And about the need to show up as a human being first and a leader second. We also talked about why he's listening now, more than ever. And then turning what he hears into action. That last point is especially important, I think. Listening has become a new metric for leaders. But if listening is all you do, you're hoping someone else will make the tough calls. In this extraordinary time in which we're living, some leaders are stepping forward and it's remarkable to see. Others are sliding back, behind the cover of chaos, their communications and digital body language filled with excuses and justifications for decisions that they hope no one will notice or they hope will soon be forgotten. Hope is necessary for all of us. But it has never been a strategy and it is not a substitute for making hard decisions. So, as you look at the people you're responsible for, maybe ask yourself this. Are you leading? Or just hoping?

Stephen Garrett is a film and television producer. During his career, Stephen's been responsible for an extraordinary range of content - from The Night Manager, to the long-running series Spooks (MI-5 here in the U.S.), to Life on Mars to Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. He brings stories to life. And he has a rare gift for observing humanity. As almost everything about our world seems to be changing by the minute, I talked to Stephen about the stories that will be told going forward, about who are today's heroes and who are the enemies and about how and when production will come back.

Pamela Culpepper, Erin Gallagher, and Caroline Dettman are the three founders of Have Her Back Consulting. They describe themselves as a culture consultancy working with companies to tackle equity for all. When I interviewed Caroline in January - in what now seems like an almost unimaginably different world - we talked extensively about the steps that businesses and society needed to take to create gender equity. With George Floyd's murder, conversation - and in some cases - action has now shifted. As leaders struggle to come to terms with simultaneously fighting these two viruses - corona and racism - what happens to the efforts to create gender equity, how do we design companies and society for the future and who risks getting left behind?

Justin Gignac is the Co-Founder of Working Not Working - a curated community of 80,000 of the best creatives in the world. Most businesses today are led and staffed by predominantly white people. Very, very few companies reflect society. Leaders are suddenly galvanized to fix this problem, publishing staffing numbers and pledging to hire diverse talent. I believe them when they say it. I believe them when they say they're going to work to create environments that support and embrace the emotional and cultural safety of every person. But the question that too few leaders are addressing is where will we find these people? If you're really going to fix this problem, you're going to have look for talent in different places, define a successful candidate in different terms and hire in different ways.

This episode is part of Season 2 - which we've sub-titled, "Leading In The Time Of Virus". Today, leadership requires that you meet the challenges of two viruses - COVID-19 and racism. In this environment, unlocking creative thinking has never been more valuable or essential. John Couch is the VP of Product Design at Hulu and author of "The Art of Creative Rebellion: How to champion creativity, change culture and save your soul". He is also the child of an interracial marriage, at a time when interracial marriages were illegal. He has suffered prejudice from both sides of his ancestry. And he has emerged, thoughtful, philosophical and committed to making a lasting difference.

This episode is part of Season 2 - which we've sub-titled, "Leading In The Time Of Virus." Since the outbreak of COVID-19, this podcast has been focused on how leaders are adapting to a global health pandemic. But the death of George Floyd has finally and fully exposed what millions of people already knew. Another virus has already infected our society. Racism. It's been here for centuries. It adapts and evolves, it is fueled by hate and fear and it leaves in its wake deep, wide and lasting damage. And pain. Today, leadership requires that you meet the challenges of both the Coronavirus and of racism. Talking will not do it. Well written manifestos will not do it. Posting employment statistics will not do it. You have to make hard decisions, in some cases financially expensive decisions. Otherwise, you're complicit. Ian Davis is the Founder + Principal at Age Of The Creative. They describe themselves as a creative consulting firm that problem solves for companies and brands. They bridge the disparate worlds of business, strategy and artistry through deep relationships with their network of over 200 influential creative artists. I invited Ian on the show after reading an open letter that he posted on LinkedIn in early June. Ian is a black man and his letter was addressed to Jonathan Shipman, who was Head of Production at McCann, when Ian was a producer at the ad agency a little over ten years ago. In the letter, Ian describes two incidents in which he believed Jonathan and other members of McCann's leadership perpetrated what he later came to understand were micro-aggressions. Micro-aggressions are another form of racism. I've known Jonathan Shipman for a number of years and I believe him to be a caring, sensitive man. Reading Ian's post, I was struck by three things. Ian's courage in writing the letter. Jonathan's honest and humble responses to the post. And to my own reaction, which was to wonder whether I might have been guilty of similar behavior without recognizing it in the past. Racism is a virus. If Black Lives Matter is to be a vaccine or at the very least a therapeutic, we need to shine a light on racism in all its forms. And many of us, many of us need to be much better educated about how racism shows up so that we can take real action to wipe it out. This conversation is part of that work.

This episode is part of Season 2 - which we've sub-titled, "Leading In The Time Of Virus". In these conversations we discover how some of the world's most innovative and creative leaders are adapting their leadership to our new reality. These people are among the world's best problem solvers. Carl Johnson is one of the founding partners and the Executive Chairman of Anomaly. It was recorded just before George Floyd's death. But it is filled with insights and truths that I believe must be at the heart of modern leadership as together we invent a future that welcomes and supports everyone. Carl was my guest on Episode 2 of the podcast, 3 years ago. He has always been a disruptor - unafraid to break the rules. In fact, he wants to. Faced by a pandemic or inspired by a movement for lasting social change and he'll lead the charge - whether it's inventing the office of the future or redefining how great companies attract and unlock the potential of all talent. In these conversations, one thing's becoming clear to me. The better leaders are moving faster. And as the saying goes, they're not satisfied with predicting the future. They're inventing it. The expectations for which have never been higher.

This episode is part of Season 2 - which we've sub-titled, "Leading In The Time Of Virus". In these conversations we discover how some of the world's most innovative and creative leaders are adapting their leadership to our new reality. These people are among the world's best problem solvers. This conversation with Adam Tucker of Ogilvy and WPP was recorded just before the events in Minneapolis took place and the subsequent protests that are now spreading around the world. Leadership is not about trying to be the loudest or the toughest or the smartest. It is about caring about the people you lead. About being human. During our conversation Adam talked about three questions that he thinks have become critical. Are you okay? Are you really okay? How can we help? As the world catches fire, these questions become more important every day.