What Triggers You?

Kate Rouch is the Chief Marketing Officer at Coinbase.

October was Mental Health Month.

But the truth is, every month should be.

And when you’re the leader, every month is.

What Do You Know About Who You Want To Be?

Rick Brim is the Global Chief Creative Officer at adam&eveDDB.

Rick was on the podcast four and half years ago in early 2019. I called that episode, “The ‘I Don’t Know’ Leader”, to highlight Rick’s point that it’s okay for leaders not to know the answer every time.

But Rick has been changed by the last four years.

What Makes Great Happen?

Robert Brunner was the Director of Industrial Design for Apple, a partner at Pentagram and the chief designer of Beats by Dr. Dre, before becoming the Founder of Ammunition. He was named one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business,” and his work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Design is the art and science of knowing what to start and when to stop.

In that respect, it’s very much like leadership.

How Do Your People Know You’re Here For Them?

This week’s guest is Yves Briantais. He’s 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.

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.

Leading a business that exists in the digital world means straddling artificiality and reality. Information and emotion.

Which is a lot like leadership.

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.

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. AKQA employs 6,500 people around the world and receives about 80,000 job applications a year.

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.

Do Your Weaknesses Shape You Or Stop You?

James Townsend is the Global CEO of Stagwell Brand X Performance Network and the Global CEO at Assembly.

Knowing yourself, your strengths and your weaknesses, has never been more critical to your success and to your happiness.

It is rare, I find, for someone to have the kind of clarity about themselves that James describes.

What Do You Need To Know And When Do You Need To Know It?

Sir Martin Sorrell first appeared on the show in 2019, and in that conversation, I was struck by his pride in building companies that provide the livelihoods for hundreds of thousands of people.

Sir Martin is a polarizing figure. But he is, of course, much more human than his public persona has shown over the years.

What do you need to know and when do you need to know it?

Those questions sit at the heart of modern leadership.

What Would You Regret?

Jon Cook is the Global Chief Executive Officer of VMLY&R.

Jon died last October. As you’ll hear, the fact he is still here to have this conversation required a set of circumstances so improbable that they would have strained the credibility of your favorite episodic drama.

But the fact he is still here, gives him, and those that meet him, a living and breathing teacher of what will really matter to us, when we reach our end.

How Fast Are You Going?

Andréa Mallard is the Chief Marketing & Communications Officer of Pinterest.

I interviewed Andréa at Cannes, in the lobby of the Majestic Hotel. Her energy struck me, the moment she arrived. Her perspectives about her life and her leadership have stayed with me, long after we said goodbye.

How Do You Feel?

Tim Mapes is the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for Delta Airlines.

Early in our conversation, it became obvious that Tim is very willing to look at himself honestly and at his own behavior with self awareness.

I asked him where that came from. And he said, simply, counseling.

Are You Looking Backwards Or Forwards?

Keith Cartwright is the Founder and CCO of CARTWRIGHT, an agency built on the principle of Creative Audacity. He is also Co-Founder of SATURDAY MORNING, an organization built on using creativity to shift negative perceptions in the African American community.

When we understand the journey and the influences that have brought us to this moment, when we know where we want to go, and we are clear and conscious about the obstacles and limitations and beliefs that we place in our own way, then we become a rare and powerful force.

Where are you on that journey?

How Creative Are You?

Morgan Flatley is the Global CMO of McDonald’s.

Creative thinking comes in many forms. And its value is unlocked exponentially when, as leaders, we gain the confidence to see ourselves as we truly are. Powerfully creative in our own right.

This does not make creative leadership a competition. It makes it an equation focused on the people that work for us.

An equation that says recognizing our own talent can make us even better at unlocking theirs.

How Do You Say Goodbye?

Brad Simms is the President and CEO of GALE Partners. They describe themselves as strategic storytellers.

The creative industries are a case study in dynamic organizations. Change is not just inevitable but essential.

In that environment, people will come and others will leave. And that is as it should be, both for personal growth and the growth of the business.

There are two variables in that equation. When they leave and how.

The question of when is for another day.

The question of how is as important. And often significantly more so.

What Are You Responsible For?

Emma Armstrong is the CEO of FCB New York. Most recently, the office was named Agency of the Year at the Clio Awards.

Creativity and innovation are fueled by trust. And trust happens when you believe that the person on the other side of the table, or the screen, cares - genuinely cares - about your well-being.

Brand, agency, employer, employee. Parent, child, friend. When both of us can put the other person’s interests first, well, that’s when the world is changed.

Are You Willing To Be Vulnerable?

This week’s episode is a rebroadcast of a conversation I had in January of 2020 with Marc Pritchard, the CMO of P&G.

In a pre-pandemic world, leaders with jobs as visible and demanding as Marc’s were not talking about the importance of being vulnerable very much.

His willingness to do so then stood out as so unusual - perhaps even unique.

What Are Your Priorities?

Most recently, Suzy Deering was the Global Chief Marketing Officer of Ford. Before that, she was the Global CMO of eBay. She’s held senior positions at Verizon and Home Depot. And she’s been recognized as one of Business Insider’s “Top 50 Most Innovative CMOs.”

The demands of those kinds of jobs can make you lose yourself.

Holding on to who you are and being clear about what really matters, does not happen easily - or by accident.

How Are You Creating Your Company’s Culture?

Melissa Waters is the Chief Marketing Officer at Upwork. They describe themselves as the world’s work marketplace. 

Without the physical structure of an office to provide the container in which culture incubates, the responsibility to create those connections falls squarely on the leader. 

How do you lead when a company’s culture is no longer built around physical space?