150: Marc Pritchard - "The Vulnerable Leader"

Marc Pritchard of P&G

How To Create Engagement In A Hybrid Office.

"FEARLESS CREATIVE LEADERSHIP" PODCAST - TRANSCRIPT

Episode 150: Marc Pritchard

Hi. I’m Charles Day. I work with creative and innovative companies. I coach and advise their leaders to help them maximize their impact and grow their business.

Welcome to Season 3, which we’re calling, “Leading The Future”.

We’re living in an unprecedented time. An epoch in which the collision of science, technology and humanity is changing everything we thought we knew.

How do leaders lead when none of us have ever been here before?

This episode’s guest is Marc Pritchard, the Chief Brand Officer of Procter & Gamble. He focuses every day on being useful to the people around him. And that allows him to see the world through an invaluable lens. Theirs.

2020 was complicated. But, 2021 is going to re-define the word. For the last year, the playing field has been level. Everyone stayed home.

But as vaccine rates increase and cases decrease, the questions about who returns, when they return, and what they return to, become ever more complicated.

On one extreme, there are already reports in the press of companies implying that they will terminate anyone who won’t come back into the office once they are vaccinated.

At the other end of the spectrum, some companies are giving up millions of square feet of office space and creating entirely new expectations about what working will look like.

In the middle of all this sits the leader.

Whether you go back fully, partially, or not at all, there is one measurement of success that will provide the foundation on which all other measurements will sit.

Are your people engaged? Do they care, are they inspired, do they feel included?

There will be many, many ways to make sure they do.

And even more that would guarantee they don’t.

At that point, the only question left to answer would be a simple one.

Who will be leaving first? The people who feel left out. Or the leaders who left them out.

Here’s Marc Pritchard.

Charles: (02:12)

Marc, welcome back to Fearless. Thanks so much for coming back on the show.

Marc Pritchard: (02:16)

It is great to be back with you, Charles.

Charles: (02:18)

How will you look back on 2020?

Marc Pritchard: (02:20)

Wow.

How I look back on 2020. As simply extraordinary and unimaginable year. I go back to 20 years ago before that, when I was at a spiritual retreat with my family. At the end of this retreat, the spiritual leader came up to me and he said, "I hope you know the good you can do because you're in business and business will someday be the greatest force for good in the future. If you choose to do so, you can do a lot of good." I said, "Wow." That was one of these blinding moments of clarity. I fast forward to 2020, and that's really when it landed for me, is that this is the year that he was talking about because of the extraordinary impact of the pandemic, the economic downturn, the social unrest, the racial injustice, the political upheaval, and the climate change that occurred all in the same year.

What I really saw was that it was time for business to step up and step up as a force for good. I really believe that that happened. I think it was triggered by this unimaginable confluence of events that came upon us, that thrust us all into a leadership position to make a difference and try to make the world a better place.

Charles: (04:01)

I was conscious when you and I spoke at the end of 2019. It's weird, isn't it? Because last year both exists in real form, but also somehow doesn't exist. So it's hard to judge the passage of time over the last couple of years. But when you and I spoke late in 2019, I was struck by the fact that you were very conscious about how you lead and you have clearly given it a lot of thought. How has your leadership evolved over the last 12 months?

Marc Pritchard: (04:29)

I would say in the last 12 months, it has probably reinforced the core leadership tenet that I described before, which is that what I need to do is be useful as a leader. I literally get up every morning and pray for the strength to be useful to whomever I engage with during that day and beyond. I really tried to put that into my leadership approach. I believe that has become even more important, and that leadership is about serving, is about serving the people that work with you, your partners, externally, the consumers. In our case, the consumers we serve, the people we serve. And that that has become even more important. I think if anything, what has happened is that it has elevated empathy. I feel like after going through a year like we did, and frankly, we still are, this hasn't completely ended.

That really just dials up the importance of empathy. I feel generally I'm an empathetic person to start with, but it became an even more enhanced sense and characteristic. Because I even think back on, for example, when the pandemic hit we recognize, wow, job one is, we've got to make sure that our employees are okay, and that they're safe, and that their families are okay and they're safe. We really thought very, very, very deeply about ensuring that that was the case. Then we stepped up to ensure that we could serve consumers with our products, which are everyday health hygiene, and cleaning products that people need. Then it was surprising how many people didn't have access to them, which then led us to helping communities. We already have a very strong history of community health, and we just pivoted all of our disaster relief, which typically is reserved for hurricanes, and tornadoes, and floods into making sure that people had these products during this pandemic.

But then it went beyond that. If you think about, for example, after George Floyd was killed, the grief that so many people were feeling and the pain that so many people were feeling. For me, it extended and for so many of us, so much more empathy in terms of trying to really deeply understand. I had many conversations with many people too, about what do I do? How do I act? Then that led to taking action and actually getting to the point where I made a decision with our team, that we were going to do something to help the white community step up. Because there were so many people in the silent majority of the white community who really were emotionally affected by this and wanted to do something, but were frozen and didn't know what to do. So we created “The Choice”. “The Choice” was a film that we created that really contrasted what it's like to be black in America, what it's like to be white in America.

How, when you're white in America, you don't need to state your life matters. With that comes power, and with that power comes the opportunity to do something about it. So if you have a choice, you can make a difference. That empathy, then I guess what I would say has propelled us to take action. I think that that is just carried throughout the rest of the year and through today.

Charles: (08:32)

Empathy in a leadership context is often seen to be a reactive quality that you're exposed to something. Obviously when we're in the office, you can use one's power of empathy and sensitivity just to understand who's off today, right? Who might be struggling. Obviously, as we've all been stuck in these little boxes and looking out at the world through these screens for the last year, that becomes impossible to do other than on a Zoom call, which is obviously not ideal. How have you brought that sensibility, the sensibility of empathy into your leadership in a proactive way?

Marc Pritchard: (09:08)

Well, I think what's interesting about the virtual community that we live in, is it in an interesting way, enables more contact in some cases. So we have more of an opportunity to reach more people and engage with more people. It's just done in a different way. It doesn't have the human energy that you have, but it still does enable contact and the ability to connect. So if anything, we have a lot more connections now than we did before. I think that it's actually allowed us to reach more people. We've done so many more engagements on a range of different areas, particularly related to first COVID, then what we've done with our work with the African American community, with the Hispanic American community. I've been privileged enough to work with Native Americans and our network there.

We did a program called Can't Cancel Pride. That was last year during Pride that we're now doing again. I'm working on now, something for Asian Pacific Americans, because we now need to step up on that front. Of course, our gender equality, I give you this long list of things, but it has enabled us to be able to then use our leadership voice, to be able to go out and connect with more people. Not just through a virtual event, although those events have happened. They've been two to three X, the number of people that it's affected, but also in just basically using our voice, our voice in advertising and in the programs that we've created. That's what's been extraordinary about this last year is this ability to be able to step up and make things happen, and actually make things happen in a very short period of time.

Charles: (11:17)

Do you think this virtual communication becomes part of the fabric of leadership moving forward?

Marc Pritchard: (11:23)

I do. I don't think we can go back to just the leadership approach of, you convene a large group of people physically and convey your views. Again, as I come back to this usefulness and this service mentality, this virtual technology is also the great equalizer. That's one of the things that I noticed from the very beginning is that suddenly you're all on the same plane. I've found more that as a leader, the job is not to convey, but it's to engage, and to draw people out, and to ask questions even more so than ever, and get the best idea. Even on much of the development that we've done on so many of our different programs, we've been able to assemble a larger and more diverse group of people to be able to get opinions and input, and then make a decision and move. I think virtual technology has enabled us to do that. I think that's going to be good for the future, not to mention the fact that it doesn't require the time and the physical toil of travel all the time.

Charles: (12:55)

Do you think the trade off of that, to some extent is going to be greater willingness of people to let us into their homes in off hours? I mean, there's a lot of concern about maintaining a work-life balance, right? This has to some extent changed the definition of a work-life balance because we're always at home, but we're also seem to be always at work. Once we start to get back somewhat to the office and because as I'm sure you're right, we are traveling less. Do you think there'll be more blur between, let's have a one-on-one and let's do it after the kids have gone to bed, or let's do it later at night, than we might otherwise think about having a business meeting?

Marc Pritchard: (13:29)

Yeah, I think that adjustment is still something that is required because… I think we're starting to see that start to creep in a little bit more effectively now. I mean, I think I heard somebody say that it wasn't like we were working at home, it's that we were living at work. That's not healthy on a long-term basis, and it was okay at first, when a lot of urgent activities that needed to be taken. But I'm starting to see more people, and we're certainly encouraging people, to set the boundaries. We see many groups who were saying, "Look, Friday after a certain time, afternoon, Friday, no more meetings." When it comes to email, cut it off after six o'clock and cut it off on the weekends.

I think that people starting to find they need that, which makes sense. That's the one thing about working in an office or in a physical workplace is that you had a time that you went to work, and then you worked, and then you came back. So I think that that will create some new natural boundaries again. But I think people are starting to adjust now anyway. I think we'll have a hybrid world together. Where we're looking at it as, figure out what's the job that needs to get done? What's the best approach for the team? Then who are the right people to be involved and then figure out, is that something you need to do virtually? Is this something you need to do in person, or is it some kind of a hybrid?

Charles: (15:27)

I'm sure you're right about that as well, it just makes sense we'll end up in a hybrid environment. I think one of the leadership challenges of that will be when some people are together in a room and some people are calling in. Right now, we're all playing by the same rules. So when the call finishes, we all know we're at home and no one's having backdoor conversations. That clearly won't be the case when we've got a hybrid approach. Part of leadership is the evolution of leadership, it seems to me, we'll be making sure people are comfortable with that dichotomy of experience, right? How do you help people through the trust factor, I guess, of that dynamic?

Marc Pritchard: (16:04)

Yeah, I think it's just making the expectation clear in terms of how we're going to get things done and then… and just continuing to be inclusive. It's back to this point about inclusive leadership, is that, there shouldn't be judgment about how people engage. You need to do that in a way that is what's best for getting the job done for the team and for the individual. Look, I have several meetings now where it's hybrid. Sometimes I'm in the office in a physical environment with multiple people and other people are on either the phone, or the WebEx, or vice versa. What I've found is, the leaders that are the most effective are the ones that make sure that everybody's engaged. So it can be done.

Charles: (16:59)

One of the things that I was struck by when we last spoke, was you talking about leadership being a weight bearing position, and you've talked a couple of times today about waking up and wanting to make sure that you are as useful as you possibly can be. People tend to forget, however, that leaders are people too, right? And are under enormous stress, no one's ever written a rule book for how to lead a modern company through a pandemic. There are challenges being presented every day that none of us have ever seen before. How do you find the balance between taking care of everybody else and taking care of yourself?

Marc Pritchard: (17:33)

Well, the good thing about experience is you get in shape for being able to manage heavy workloads and stress. So it just becomes something that you don't just jump into it, it's something that we learned and that I've learned over the years in terms of how to manage things. So that's literally where I've actually found it to be emotionally more rewarding and more helpful to actually think more about other people than about myself, and think more about being useful to others, as opposed to myself. Then, still then recognizing boundaries and limits, counting on other people, asking other people for help. I have very, very deep relationships with people who I know I can count on, both inside work and within my family and friends.

That's just a big part of it. There are people that… I think every leader has got to find people who they can just talk with and they can trust, and they can have conversations. My pal, Andrea, who you know well, we work together. I mean, every once in a while, I just give her a call, say, "Hey, can I just complain for a minute?" Then we're done and we move on. So you got to do that. But look, in leadership positions, I think physically taking care of yourself is also essential. Eating well, getting sleep, doing whatever you need to do emotionally and spiritually, getting some exercise, getting out. These things, they're not huge steps, but they're important steps.

I'm a big fan of what Arianna Huffington and Thrive has been able to do. She's a partner of ours that talks about micro steps. When do you put your phone to bed? What is the end your day? Define the end of your day and then end it. It's these kinds of little things that just help you deal with the stressors that are inevitable and that you need to do. Then try to spread it out because it's a marathon and it's a marathon sprint when you're in the leadership positions, that those of us who are listening to this podcast are on. But get in shape for it and then stay in shape.

Charles: (20:16)

Yeah. It's amazing how often intention becomes just part of leadership, doesn't it? And being clear about your intention in all ways, not only from a business objective, but also I think in terms of how you take care of yourself. I think that's so well said. What do you think are the stories that will come out of this from a leadership standpoint?

Marc Pritchard: (20:35)

Wow, I think the stories are going to be about how people have stepped up. What I think is going to be some of the most poignant stories are going to be how, for example, our employees stepped up, we have 97,000 people at P&G. The real heroes of the pandemic in our company are the employees who have stepped up. The majority of our employees are our frontline workers who are manufacturing and distribution. What they've done is they've been working flat out since this pandemic began. There's been huge demand for our products and they've had to create the capacity to do these things. They've had to startup new machines that had been idle. They'd had to deal with fires of machines that caught on fire, and they have to fix that.

That's the kind of thing. We talk about, there's the United States, but there's folks in India, and Indonesia, and Brazil, and other parts of the world, in Africa, China, other places where it's different than it is here in the United States. They've been able to get through some extraordinary challenges. Those are the stories that I think will emerge as being the most inspiring. Because if nothing else, I think it has literally been, during this time, is the people who are really on the front lines, keeping things going, we owe them a gigantic debt of gratitude. We've all been privileged, many of us who are in jobs, like the jobs we have, where we can work from our homes. We can work on our laptops, but not everybody's had the opportunity to do that. I think that we, coming out of this, should really continue to provide a huge debt of gratitude for those folks.

Charles: (22:58)

Yeah. Very well said, I couldn't agree with you more. It's just remarkable to see the heroic acts that many people have performed and you're right, we have been very privileged to have been almost bystanders to some extent.

What have you learned about yourself over the last 12 months?

Marc Pritchard: (23:14)

I think what I've learned about myself is how much I deeply care about people. How much I care about making a difference, really for humanity, and how important... I mean, I've always talked about being useful, being empathetic, trying to be a force for good, but I've also learned a lot more about leading with love. We literally created a campaign called that, and I think it’s because… And imagine a company like P&G actually having a campaign called Lead With Love. Why? It's because I think that's a lot of what, as challenging and as difficult as this time had been, is that it kind of brings you back to the fundamentals. That has given me at least the courage to go ahead and open up about things like, it's important to love each other, and to lead with love, and to be empathetic, and care about other people.

These kinds of extraordinary events make you realize how important human beings are, and relationships are, and humanity. That, I think for me, has just brought it all together into trying to be the best person I possibly can, and do what I can to lead in a better way, and hope that I can do the best for whomever I come in contact with today and in the future.

Charles: (25:12)

2021 is going to be, I think in many ways, a more complicated and challenging than last year even, in terms of the uncertainty with which we start to emerge. I think one of the untold story, one of the unconnected stories at the moment, I think, is the trauma that people have gone through and how that's going to get manifest as we will come back out into the world. So I think, to your point, this idea of leading with love is going to be absolutely essential.

Marc Pritchard: (25:38)

Yeah, and it's okay, and it's actually not… more than okay. I mean, I remember my first boss talked to me about business and saying, "It's not personal." He was trying to, I think in a positive way, just say, "Look, you just got to make sure you're objective." And I get that and I understand that. But business is very personal. Yeah, you need to be objective, yes, you need to do the right thing, but I think it's more and more, when leaders can be human and can be empathetic, there is so much more that you can get as, not only individually, but as a company, as an organization. Because every human being wants to feel like they're valued, they're useful and they want to do the right thing. So that's our jobs and that means personal, that means empathy, that means yes, L, love. You show that, things are going to be a lot better.

Charles: (26:56)

Yeah. If I had an emoji, it would be the 100 emoji after that. That's exactly right. Marc, thanks so much for joining me again today, it's always great to talk to you.

Marc Pritchard: (27:06)

Great to talk to you, Charles. Thank you.

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