Fearless Creative Leadership

I met Alain Sylvain only once. We recorded a podcast at the very end of October in 2018.  I remembered it long after, and looking back, was conscious that my own thinking evolved as a result of our conversation. The news of his tragic death last month has had a profound impact on many people I know. I debated whether it was helpful or not to reload this conversation.  After listening to it again, I hope that it will let those of you that knew him well, add to your memory of him. And for those of us that didn’t, I hope it will help know him a little better. Life is short. I have come to believe that at the end, we can hope for three things. To be remembered. To have made a difference. And to be loved. I am grateful to have met him even briefly. I am sorry beyond words for the sorrow and the loss that his departure leaves behind for his family and those that knew him and loved him.

What do you have a responsibility to? Marty Baron is the former editor of the Boston Globe, and the former executive editor of the Washington Post. The newsrooms under his leadership won 17 Pulitzer Prizes. At the Globe, he instigated the investigation into the sexual abuse conducted by the Catholic Church in Boston, and which was turned into the Academy Award winning movie, Spotlight.  The list of seminal stories that were reported under his watch would fill an entire podcast episode by themselves, from Elián Gonzalez, to the Snowden files, to the 2000 Supreme Court decided election to name but a few. His new book, Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and the Washington Post, describes his 8 year leadership journey during one of the most tumultuous times in the paper’s history.  Along the way, he has learned a staggering amount about leadership. Leadership, done well, is all about responsibility.  The trouble is that often, the definitions of leadership responsibility are too narrow and shallow. Too quickly defined and too quickly redefined when things get bumpy. When you meet a leader who sees their responsibility as clear, for whom that responsibility is deeply held, whose commitment to it is pressure tested, and for whom their definition of responsibility has withstood the fury of time, it often feels as though they are fearless. You ask them about being afraid and they shake their head. Not brashly, or boldly. But quizzically, almost as though they don’t understand the question. And when you are asked to describe that person’s leadership qualities, the words that come to the fore are integrity, self awareness, and courage. They are not words they ascribe to themselves. These are words that the rest of us use to help explain what sets them apart. But what sets them apart is not, as I have come to learn, their integrity, their self awareness, or their courage.  What sets them apart is the absolute certainty that they will do the right thing, because their leadership is not about them.  Their leadership is about something that they believe is more important than they are. Which might be the purest definition of leadership that I’ve heard so far. Judge for yourself.

Edited highlights of our full conversation. What do you have a responsibility to? Marty Baron is the former editor of the Boston Globe, and the former executive editor of the Washington Post. The newsrooms under his leadership won 17 Pulitzer Prizes. At the Globe, he instigated the investigation into the sexual abuse conducted by the Catholic Church in Boston, and which was turned into the Academy Award winning movie, Spotlight.  The list of seminal stories that were reported under his watch would fill an entire podcast episode by themselves, from Elián Gonzalez, to the Snowden files, to the 2000 Supreme Court decided election to name but a few. His new book, Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and the Washington Post, describes his 8 year leadership journey during one of the most tumultuous times in the paper’s history.  Along the way, he has learned a staggering amount about leadership. Leadership, done well, is all about responsibility.  The trouble is that often, the definitions of leadership responsibility are too narrow and shallow. Too quickly defined and too quickly redefined when things get bumpy. When you meet a leader who sees their responsibility as clear, for whom that responsibility is deeply held, whose commitment to it is pressure tested, and for whom their definition of responsibility has withstood the fury of time, it often feels as though they are fearless. You ask them about being afraid and they shake their head. Not brashly, or boldly. But quizzically, almost as though they don’t understand the question. And when you are asked to describe that person’s leadership qualities, the words that come to the fore are integrity, self awareness, and courage. They are not words they ascribe to themselves. These are words that the rest of us use to help explain what sets them apart. But what sets them apart is not, as I have come to learn, their integrity, their self awareness, or their courage.  What sets them apart is the absolute certainty that they will do the right thing, because their leadership is not about them.  Their leadership is about something that they believe is more important than they are. Which might be the purest definition of leadership that I’ve heard so far. Judge for yourself.

Edited highlights of our full conversation. What do you have a responsibility to? Marty Baron is the former editor of the Boston Globe, and the former executive editor of the Washington Post. The newsrooms under his leadership won 17 Pulitzer Prizes. At the Globe, he instigated the investigation into the sexual abuse conducted by the Catholic Church in Boston, and which was turned into the Academy Award winning movie, Spotlight.  The list of seminal stories that were reported under his watch would fill an entire podcast episode by themselves, from Elián Gonzalez, to the Snowden files, to the 2000 Supreme Court decided election to name but a few. His new book, Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and the Washington Post, describes his 8 year leadership journey during one of the most tumultuous times in the paper’s history.  Along the way, he has learned a staggering amount about leadership. Leadership, done well, is all about responsibility.  The trouble is that often, the definitions of leadership responsibility are too narrow and shallow. Too quickly defined and too quickly redefined when things get bumpy. When you meet a leader who sees their responsibility as clear, for whom that responsibility is deeply held, whose commitment to it is pressure tested, and for whom their definition of responsibility has withstood the fury of time, it often feels as though they are fearless. You ask them about being afraid and they shake their head. Not brashly, or boldly. But quizzically, almost as though they don’t understand the question. And when you are asked to describe that person’s leadership qualities, the words that come to the fore are integrity, self awareness, and courage. They are not words they ascribe to themselves. These are words that the rest of us use to help explain what sets them apart. But what sets them apart is not, as I have come to learn, their integrity, their self awareness, or their courage.  What sets them apart is the absolute certainty that they will do the right thing, because their leadership is not about them.  Their leadership is about something that they believe is more important than they are. Which might be the purest definition of leadership that I’ve heard so far. Judge for yourself.

DeEtta Jones, founder of a leading EDI consultancy, discusses the changing nature of leadership and the importance of self-understanding. They explore childhood influences on creativity, the impact of nature versus nurture, and the challenges of implementing inclusive practices. The podcast emphasizes the need for empathy, resilience, and personal values in leadership.

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Can you hear yourself think? DeEtta Jones is the founder of one of the world’s leading EDI training and strategy consultancies. She’s seen leadership and leaders through many lenses. And she’s learned that the best of them are not necessarily the ones making the most noise. Leadership is changing in real time. I see evidence everywhere, every day. The beliefs we have grown up with about leadership - that it starts with standing in front of a group and selling them on a vision, that your success depends on your ability to put everyone else first and yourself second, that your confidence and certainty is the fuel on which the race to the future is run. There is still some truth in these. You still need to be a reference point, a compass, a constant. But if you try to do those things and be those things before you have done the quiet work of understanding who you are, before you are clear about what matters to you, before you can be honest about when (and why) you get in your own way, then you are building your leadership on quicksand. Knowing who you are and who you want to be are foundations strong enough to support not just your future, but that of anyone that matters to you.

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Can you hear yourself think? DeEtta Jones is the founder of one of the world’s leading EDI training and strategy consultancies. She’s seen leadership and leaders through many lenses. And she’s learned that the best of them are not necessarily the ones making the most noise. Leadership is changing in real time. I see evidence everywhere, every day. The beliefs we have grown up with about leadership - that it starts with standing in front of a group and selling them on a vision, that your success depends on your ability to put everyone else first and yourself second, that your confidence and certainty is the fuel on which the race to the future is run. There is still some truth in these. You still need to be a reference point, a compass, a constant. But if you try to do those things and be those things before you have done the quiet work of understanding who you are, before you are clear about what matters to you, before you can be honest about when (and why) you get in your own way, then you are building your leadership on quicksand. Knowing who you are and who you want to be are foundations strong enough to support not just your future, but that of anyone that matters to you.

Are you taking care of yourself? Nancy Hill is the CEO of Marcus Thomas, and the former CEO of the 4As. She was named by Advertising Age as one of the ‘100 Most Influential Women in Advertising History’. Nancy recently wrote an article for AdAge. The link is in the show notes for this episode. In the piece, she describes discovering that she was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Leadership is lonely. I’m hoping that we can change that over the coming months and years but for now, it’s a truth. Have a plan, know the answers, don’t show weakness. All of these are the expectations when you agree to be the leader. And while it’s true these expectations are placed on you by others, they are even more emphatically placed on you by, well, you. The needs of everyone else become your greatest concern. If there’s time left over you’ll worry about yourself then. The only flaws in that thinking are that it doesn’t scale and it isn’t sustainable. What’s the alternative? How do you build a lasting foundation for your leadership that allows you to unlock your own potential and the potential of others? In 1870, global life expectancy was less than 30 years. 1870 was only 150 years ago. Today, we have reached the point that biologically, if we avoid serious disease and unhealthy lifestyle choices, our bodies are capable of lasting 150 years. Already, the life expectancy of a child born in the West means that they will live long into the 22nd century. By the time we reach the 22nd century, life expectancy will almost certainly take us well into the 23rd. That means children born today will have great grandchildren who will live in the era of Star Trek. Boldly going where no one has gone before. The future is coming at us faster and will last longer. A leadership style, philosophy, paradigm that places your own emotional and physical well being behind the needs of everyone else, may feel selfless in the moment, but is actually designed to minimize the depth and length of the impact you could have. Should have. The era of ‘get to 60 and stop’ is over. The era of ‘get to 60 and start’ - not just a new chapter but a new book - is already here. Will you be ready to meet it? Will you be able to? Physically? Emotionally? They say that every journey begins with a single step. For years, I believed that meant movement forward. But what I’ve learned is that the first step for any leader needs to be to stop. To pause. Because, if you want to make a difference, if you want to drive creative, innovative and economic success for your organization, if you want to unlock the full potential of the people and the business for which you are responsible, then step 1 is to understand what you need.

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Are you taking care of yourself? Nancy Hill is the CEO of Marcus Thomas, and the former CEO of the 4As. She was named by Advertising Age as one of the ‘100 Most Influential Women in Advertising History’. Nancy recently wrote an article for AdAge. The link is in the show notes for this episode. In the piece, she describes discovering that she was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Leadership is lonely. I’m hoping that we can change that over the coming months and years but for now, it’s a truth. Have a plan, know the answers, don’t show weakness. All of these are the expectations when you agree to be the leader. And while it’s true these expectations are placed on you by others, they are even more emphatically placed on you by, well, you. The needs of everyone else become your greatest concern. If there’s time left over you’ll worry about yourself then. The only flaws in that thinking are that it doesn’t scale and it isn’t sustainable. What’s the alternative? How do you build a lasting foundation for your leadership that allows you to unlock your own potential and the potential of others? In 1870, global life expectancy was less than 30 years. 1870 was only 150 years ago. Today, we have reached the point that biologically, if we avoid serious disease and unhealthy lifestyle choices, our bodies are capable of lasting 150 years. Already, the life expectancy of a child born in the West means that they will live long into the 22nd century. By the time we reach the 22nd century, life expectancy will almost certainly take us well into the 23rd. That means children born today will have great grandchildren who will live in the era of Star Trek. Boldly going where no one has gone before. The future is coming at us faster and will last longer. A leadership style, philosophy, paradigm that places your own emotional and physical well being behind the needs of everyone else, may feel selfless in the moment, but is actually designed to minimize the depth and length of the impact you could have. Should have. The era of ‘get to 60 and stop’ is over. The era of ‘get to 60 and start’ - not just a new chapter but a new book - is already here. Will you be ready to meet it? Will you be able to? Physically? Emotionally? They say that every journey begins with a single step. For years, I believed that meant movement forward. But what I’ve learned is that the first step for any leader needs to be to stop. To pause. Because, if you want to make a difference, if you want to drive creative, innovative and economic success for your organization, if you want to unlock the full potential of the people and the business for which you are responsible, then step 1 is to understand what you need.

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Are you taking care of yourself? Nancy Hill is the CEO of Marcus Thomas, and the former CEO of the 4As. She was named by Advertising Age as one of the ‘100 Most Influential Women in Advertising History’. Nancy recently wrote an article for AdAge. The link is in the show notes for this episode. In the piece, she describes discovering that she was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Leadership is lonely. I’m hoping that we can change that over the coming months and years but for now, it’s a truth. Have a plan, know the answers, don’t show weakness. All of these are the expectations when you agree to be the leader. And while it’s true these expectations are placed on you by others, they are even more emphatically placed on you by, well, you. The needs of everyone else become your greatest concern. If there’s time left over you’ll worry about yourself then. The only flaws in that thinking are that it doesn’t scale and it isn’t sustainable. What’s the alternative? How do you build a lasting foundation for your leadership that allows you to unlock your own potential and the potential of others? In 1870, global life expectancy was less than 30 years. 1870 was only 150 years ago. Today, we have reached the point that biologically, if we avoid serious disease and unhealthy lifestyle choices, our bodies are capable of lasting 150 years. Already, the life expectancy of a child born in the West means that they will live long into the 22nd century. By the time we reach the 22nd century, life expectancy will almost certainly take us well into the 23rd. That means children born today will have great grandchildren who will live in the era of Star Trek. Boldly going where no one has gone before. The future is coming at us faster and will last longer. A leadership style, philosophy, paradigm that places your own emotional and physical well being behind the needs of everyone else, may feel selfless in the moment, but is actually designed to minimize the depth and length of the impact you could have. Should have. The era of ‘get to 60 and stop’ is over. The era of ‘get to 60 and start’ - not just a new chapter but a new book - is already here. Will you be ready to meet it? Will you be able to? Physically? Emotionally? They say that every journey begins with a single step. For years, I believed that meant movement forward. But what I’ve learned is that the first step for any leader needs to be to stop. To pause. Because, if you want to make a difference, if you want to drive creative, innovative and economic success for your organization, if you want to unlock the full potential of the people and the business for which you are responsible, then step 1 is to understand what you need.