Fearless Creative Leadership

How do your people know you’re here for them? Yves Briantais is the VP of Marketing Asia-Pacific for Colgate-Palmolive. We recorded this interview at the end of a long week at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. There are a number of areas that I could have focused on for this introduction. But the one I want to highlight is an issue that I hear about from so many leaders today. Where they lead from. For businesses that depend on unlocking creativity and innovation, the era of top down leadership is ending. And faster than many companies - most companies - realize. Servant leadership is the popular replacement. Popular in that many people talk about it, very few have fully understood it, and almost no one actually practices it. Quarterly financial targets have a habit of getting in the way of good intentions. Leading from behind is a thoughtful and honorable desire to get away from command and control leadership, and instead create a different kind of relationship with your team. One in which they know you’re there for them, while giving them room to grow. But it doesn’t quite go far enough - in my opinion. The challenge for leaders is that today, leadership requires so many different styles of relationship with your teams, depending on the situation. Collaboration. Subordination. Integration. Provocation. Expectation. And, when the heat is on, Protection. A friend and I are working on a new leadership paradigm, one designed from vast experience both inside and outside complex, highly creative and innovative businesses. One built for the reality of the world and society in which we live and for the people that we want to be. We’ll have much more on this over the next few weeks. In the meantime, this conversation is invaluable for Yves’ insights on empathy, intention, and co-creation.

Edited highlights of our full conversation. How do your people know you’re here for them? Yves Briantais is the VP of Marketing Asia-Pacific for Colgate-Palmolive. We recorded this interview at the end of a long week at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. There are a number of areas that I could have focused on for this introduction. But the one I want to highlight is an issue that I hear about from so many leaders today. Where they lead from. For businesses that depend on unlocking creativity and innovation, the era of top down leadership is ending. And faster than many companies - most companies - realize. Servant leadership is the popular replacement. Popular in that many people talk about it, very few have fully understood it, and almost no one actually practices it. Quarterly financial targets have a habit of getting in the way of good intentions. Leading from behind is a thoughtful and honorable desire to get away from command and control leadership, and instead create a different kind of relationship with your team. One in which they know you’re there for them, while giving them room to grow. But it doesn’t quite go far enough - in my opinion. The challenge for leaders is that today, leadership requires so many different styles of relationship with your teams, depending on the situation. Collaboration. Subordination. Integration. Provocation. Expectation. And, when the heat is on, Protection. A friend and I are working on a new leadership paradigm, one designed from vast experience both inside and outside complex, highly creative and innovative businesses. One built for the reality of the world and society in which we live and for the people that we want to be. We’ll have much more on this over the next few weeks. In the meantime, this conversation is invaluable for Yves’ insights on empathy, intention, and co-creation.

How much of your real self are you showing? DJ Jackson is the Vice President of Brand at EA Sports. They’re a division of Electronic Arts and one of the world’s largest developers and publishers of sports video games. Their slogan, “If it’s in the game, it’s in the game,” has become a reference point for judging the authenticity of their games. Leading a business that exists in the digital world means straddling artificiality and reality. Information and emotion. Which is a lot like leadership. Leadership has gone through a generational shift in the least three years. Leadership as a performance, which worked for more than half a century, has been made extinct overnight. Human leadership is the complicated, contradictory path to success - both professionally and personally. That creates a challenge for most of us. How much of ourselves do we want to show the world? And how much do we want to keep behind the curtain? But even that has become complex. Because today’s world class talent aren’t willing to accept whatever you’re willing to give. They have their own needs and expectations, too. First among which is they want to work for fully formed human beings. People with feelings, who don’t always have all the answers. There’s a fine line balancing the confidence that all leaders need to project, with the vulnerability that comes from being a self-aware human. Where are you on that continuum? How much of your real self are you showing?

Edited highlights of our full conversation. How much of your real self are you showing? DJ Jackson is the Vice President of Brand at EA Sports. They’re a division of Electronic Arts and one of the world’s largest developers and publishers of sports video games. Their slogan, “If it’s in the game, it’s in the game,” has become a reference point for judging the authenticity of their games. Leading a business that exists in the digital world means straddling artificiality and reality. Information and emotion. Which is a lot like leadership. Leadership has gone through a generational shift in the least three years. Leadership as a performance, which worked for more than half a century, has been made extinct overnight. Human leadership is the complicated, contradictory path to success - both professionally and personally. That creates a challenge for most of us. How much of ourselves do we want to show the world? And how much do we want to keep behind the curtain? But even that has become complex. Because today’s world class talent aren’t willing to accept whatever you’re willing to give. They have their own needs and expectations, too. First among which is they want to work for fully formed human beings. People with feelings, who don’t always have all the answers. There’s a fine line balancing the confidence that all leaders need to project, with the vulnerability that comes from being a self-aware human. Where are you on that continuum? How much of your real self are you showing?

Edited highlights of our full conversation. How much of your real self are you showing? DJ Jackson is the Vice President of Brand at EA Sports. They’re a division of Electronic Arts and one of the world’s largest developers and publishers of sports video games. Their slogan, “If it’s in the game, it’s in the game,” has become a reference point for judging the authenticity of their games. Leading a business that exists in the digital world means straddling artificiality and reality. Information and emotion. Which is a lot like leadership. Leadership has gone through a generational shift in the least three years. Leadership as a performance, which worked for more than half a century, has been made extinct overnight. Human leadership is the complicated, contradictory path to success - both professionally and personally. That creates a challenge for most of us. How much of ourselves do we want to show the world? And how much do we want to keep behind the curtain? But even that has become complex. Because today’s world class talent aren’t willing to accept whatever you’re willing to give. They have their own needs and expectations, too. First among which is they want to work for fully formed human beings. People with feelings, who don’t always have all the answers. There’s a fine line balancing the confidence that all leaders need to project, with the vulnerability that comes from being a self-aware human. Where are you on that continuum? How much of your real self are you showing?

Who is helping you be you? Liz Taylor is the Global Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy. Everyone has a story. Liz’s story, as you’ll hear, has a traumatic beginning. She grew up with an abusive father in a home in which there was always a loaded gun. The police were called often. She and her mother and brother and sister would sometimes have to leave in the middle of the night. That kind of start to life leaves a mark. We are shaped by our past, consciously or unconsciously. Which means the person we become can be defined by circumstance. Or by choice. Sometimes these choices are informed by the presence of a powerful partner in our lives. For Liz, that partner, as you’ll hear, was her mother. Today, Liz's ability to so clearly and powerfully declare the kind of environment she is determined to provide as a leader, is influenced by the protection and the support that her mother provided her. But sometimes, the choice of who we want to be does not come from the example set by someone else. Sometimes, all we have to work with are circumstances in which we were left alone to figure it out for ourselves. Circumstances in which there was no one we could trust. That can be a lonely place. One in which it can be overwhelming to ask ourselves honestly, is this who I really want to be? But I know this to be true beyond a shadow of a doubt. There are people around you who care. People who want to support you on your journey. People who will help you find your better angels and hold on to them. Our past shapes us. But it need not define us. Only we do that. We just have to ask for help.

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Who is helping you be you? Liz Taylor is the Global Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy. Everyone has a story. Liz’s story, as you’ll hear, has a traumatic beginning. She grew up with an abusive father in a home in which there was always a loaded gun. The police were called often. She and her mother and brother and sister would sometimes have to leave in the middle of the night. That kind of start to life leaves a mark. We are shaped by our past, consciously or unconsciously. Which means the person we become can be defined by circumstance. Or by choice. Sometimes these choices are informed by the presence of a powerful partner in our lives. For Liz, that partner, as you’ll hear, was her mother. Today, Liz's ability to so clearly and powerfully declare the kind of environment she is determined to provide as a leader, is influenced by the protection and the support that her mother provided her. But sometimes, the choice of who we want to be does not come from the example set by someone else. Sometimes, all we have to work with are circumstances in which we were left alone to figure it out for ourselves. Circumstances in which there was no one we could trust. That can be a lonely place. One in which it can be overwhelming to ask ourselves honestly, is this who I really want to be? But I know this to be true beyond a shadow of a doubt. There are people around you who care. People who want to support you on your journey. People who will help you find your better angels and hold on to them. Our past shapes us. But it need not define us. Only we do that. We just have to ask for help.

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Who is helping you be you? Liz Taylor is the Global Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy. Everyone has a story. Liz’s story, as you’ll hear, has a traumatic beginning. She grew up with an abusive father in a home in which there was always a loaded gun. The police were called often. She and her mother and brother and sister would sometimes have to leave in the middle of the night. That kind of start to life leaves a mark. We are shaped by our past, consciously or unconsciously. Which means the person we become can be defined by circumstance. Or by choice. Sometimes these choices are informed by the presence of a powerful partner in our lives. For Liz, that partner, as you’ll hear, was her mother. Today, Liz's ability to so clearly and powerfully declare the kind of environment she is determined to provide as a leader, is influenced by the protection and the support that her mother provided her. But sometimes, the choice of who we want to be does not come from the example set by someone else. Sometimes, all we have to work with are circumstances in which we were left alone to figure it out for ourselves. Circumstances in which there was no one we could trust. That can be a lonely place. One in which it can be overwhelming to ask ourselves honestly, is this who I really want to be? But I know this to be true beyond a shadow of a doubt. There are people around you who care. People who want to support you on your journey. People who will help you find your better angels and hold on to them. Our past shapes us. But it need not define us. Only we do that. We just have to ask for help.

How does your leadership make people feel? Ajaz Ahmed is the Founder and CEO of AKQA. They describe themselves as an ideas and innovation company. AKQA employs 6,500 people around the world and receives about 80,000 job applications a year. The most creative and innovative companies in the world thrive when they build environments that their people trust and cultures that absorb new blood of every type, willingly and happily. Developing a truly diverse talent base has been the focus of a great many failed attempts by a great many companies. This is true even of companies otherwise acclaimed as the best of the best. For the amount of time, energy and talent devoted to the effort, diversity and inclusion is still too often a well-intentioned initiative rather than a lived reality. Ajaz’s definition is the first time that I’ve heard a description that made me understand what a truly inclusive company culture would feel like. And I think that matters. Leadership has always been measured by results - usually, the kind you can see on a spreadsheet. That will always be the case. Economics matter. And in the short term, you can move the economic needle of your business through sheer force of leadership will. Which is why we tend to judge our own leadership impact by analyzing what we can get people to do. But, for any company dependent on creativity and innovation for its success, sustained economic performance is the result of how people feel. This is a frightening idea to contemplate, I think. ‘How do I make you feel?’ is perhaps the most vulnerable of human enquiries. But it’s the one that moves the needle, both on your impact as a leader and as a soul on the planet. A win-win.

Edited highlights of our full conversation. How does your leadership make people feel? Ajaz Ahmed is the Founder and CEO of AKQA. They describe themselves as an ideas and innovation company. AKQA employs 6,500 people around the world and receives about 80,000 job applications a year. The most creative and innovative companies in the world thrive when they build environments that their people trust and cultures that absorb new blood of every type, willingly and happily. Developing a truly diverse talent base has been the focus of a great many failed attempts by a great many companies. This is true even of companies otherwise acclaimed as the best of the best. For the amount of time, energy and talent devoted to the effort, diversity and inclusion is still too often a well-intentioned initiative rather than a lived reality. Ajaz’s definition is the first time that I’ve heard a description that made me understand what a truly inclusive company culture would feel like. And I think that matters. Leadership has always been measured by results - usually, the kind you can see on a spreadsheet. That will always be the case. Economics matter. And in the short term, you can move the economic needle of your business through sheer force of leadership will. Which is why we tend to judge our own leadership impact by analyzing what we can get people to do. But, for any company dependent on creativity and innovation for its success, sustained economic performance is the result of how people feel. This is a frightening idea to contemplate, I think. ‘How do I make you feel?’ is perhaps the most vulnerable of human enquiries. But it’s the one that moves the needle, both on your impact as a leader and as a soul on the planet. A win-win.