How To Become A Better Leader In 2023
When you make decisions in 2023, what will the impact be?
"FEARLESS CREATIVE LEADERSHIP" PODCAST - TRANSCRIPT
Episode 367: How To Become A Better Leader In 2023
Here’s a question to begin the year. When you make decisions in 2023, what will the impact be?
I’m Charles Day. I work with creative and innovative companies. I coach their leaders to help them succeed where leadership has its greatest impact. The intersection of strategy and humanity.
This is my first episode of the year and it asks the question, how can you become a better leader in 2023? The answers are drawn from a series of conversations I’ve had over the last three weeks with a wide range of experts.
Over the next few minutes, you’ll hear short extracts from my conversations with renowned and award winning leaders from across the entire creative leadership spectrum: two iconoclastic business founders; the CMO of a world-famous collection of brands; a legendary futurist; a thought provoking global business CEO; a ground-breaking museum director; a world-class psychiatrist and an iconic culture shaper.
This set of interviews surprised me for the natural cohesion and consistency of the insights they revealed.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll release each of these interviews as standalone episodes back on my regular Friday schedule. They’re filled with insights and original ideas about the world we now live in and how to be a better leader in 2023.
And with that, let’s jump in.
By anyone’s definition, the last few years have been traumatic. We have faced everything from financial uncertainty to existential crises about the future of democracy, as well as the lingering implications of a global pandemic.
But for all the analysis about the impact of these last few years, it’s rare that people acknowledge the deep seated and personal effect that they have had on almost all of us.
Madeleine Grynsztejn is the Pritzker Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. She is responsible for creating, as she describes it, a culture of inquiry, and for building an organization that examines change within society.
“I think that people are still feeling very fragile in their bodies, which is the first house, as well as in their spaces and when they go out. And, we need to respect that we are all fragile. all of us, even, those of us with a great deal of income. Even those of us who are very, very strained. We are all feeling a fragility.” - Madeleine Grynsztejn
The media of the day prefers to present the world in black and white with hard edges. Nils Leonard, the co-founder of Uncommon - who have been named agency of the year in the UK in each of the last two years - sees the response to our collective fragility through a more nuanced and intimate lens.
“We feel very much like we're out of control. And I think there's also a fear that the answer to that cannot just be more outrage. It cannot just be more anger and pushing and vitriol into a social hole. I think we are recognizing that we need deeper, more societal answers to this stuff and more wisdom and more intelligence, really. And I think that's the first time I think culture's seeing that. you're, you're reading it across the board and you, you're seeing people really responding that way. You're seeing words like caring and kindness. Supposedly soft words are being used more and more and more. And I think that's as a result of how we're all feeling.” - Nils Leonard
The sensitivity that Nils suggests we need is itself under threat. Kerry Sulkowicz is the President of the American Psychoanalytic Association and a leadership advisor whose work has influenced my own. He sees the challenges to becoming a wiser and more intelligent society as deep rooted.
“It's a time when I think democracy is in peril. That's obviously a major topic of discussion all around the world right now, but the inability to have free discussions, the threat of feeling silenced, for saying something that is a mistake. We need to be able to make mistakes. That's part of creativity, something that you certainly know a great deal about. And, if we're going around walking on eggshells when we talk to each other, particularly when we talk to people who are different, I think it has profound implications for the workplace. For people to come together at work, from diverse backgrounds, diverse in every sense of that word, and that's a wonderful thing. But when there's a fear of talking to people who are different, that severely constricts one's ability to work effectively as part of a team, as part of an organization.” - Kerry Sulkowicz
Walking around each other on eggshells has not made the Return to the Office any easier. Faith Popcorn is the first and best futurist. She is not optimistic for how this plays out for humans..
“So when you see how companies handle their workers, you start to say, “I'm not handing over my heart attack to this company. I'm leaving. I'll do gig work. I'll do this. I'll figure out something. I'll move away.”
And how many people, like, moved as far away from the company as they possibly could? But this is what's going to happen to the workers. It's like a Charles Dickens novel. It will speed up companies' interest in robot replacement of humans. They're already interested in that. So, you know, robots don't need vacations, and they don't need the lights on, actually, and they don't need food, and they don't complain, and they're not as advanced, maybe, intellectually quite, quite yet, as we are. But they're learning fast. - Faith Popcorn
The last three years have been so filled with challenges and uncertainty and trauma. So relentless in their ability to blow up everything we know or thought we knew. We don’t trust institutions anymore. Many of the things we used to count on have been damaged, perhaps irreversibly.
It is time for reinvention. Here’s Nils Leonard on the kind of fuel we will need to find.
“Everything is so black or white. Everything is so either full on or dialed back that I think, the only way to sway things is going to be optimism, actually. It's going to be the soft stuff. It's going to be empathy, it's going to be care, it's going to be optimism, I'm feeling a bit like the time for impotent rage and change and banners and fireworks is, is actually feeling a little worn out. You know, I think we've run out of jet fuel, and I feel like there's a need for, for a very different energy. I don't mean soft in an, an impotent way. I mean it in a, in a very, very powerful way and an expansive way.” - Nils Leonard
And where can we turn to for that kind of energy except ourselves. Our most creative, our most human selves. After all, as Madeleine Grynsztejn points out, we are the architects of our own future.
“I like to quote actually Patti Smith who I love. And she said, "Art has the power to transform people. Art has the power-power to excite people, to incite people. But only people can make change." We are asking ourselves, what are we going to choose to preserve? We are asking ourselves, what are we going to choose to take care of? These are fundamental, existential questions that happen after a plague, whether in the 1200s or in 2023. Where are we going to choose to put our attention?” - Madeleine Grynsztejn
This transformation of priorities is not one that we can engineer overnight. We are so embedded in our old ways of thinking and being and working that even a pandemic has not allowed us to fully make the transition from habit to hope. From acquiescence to agency.
Not fully. But the fuse has been lit.
The question now is what future will we create and who will lead it?
“I recently saw an exhibition that began literally with a breath. It began with a recording of people breathing. And it began with, a vial that contains someone's breath. That is, to my mind, one of the greatest, most gorgeous, symbols of fragility that I've ever seen open an exhibition.” - Madeleine Grynsztejn
If you are listening to this podcast there are two truths that we share. We are alive. And we have choice. Much more choice than we realize.
And if you are in a leadership role there is one other truth. Your ability to impact the future is much greater, much greater than you realize.
I say that consciously and deliberately based on much evidence. Because, in my experience, leaders rarely understand, almost never recognize the extent to which they can change the world for the people around them.
And when you don’t recognize that, not only do you miss the opportunity to unlock your full potential as a leader, you miss the opportunity to unlock your full potential as a human.
And you leave behind opportunities for other kinds of energy to fill the void. Energy that often does not have your kindness, your generosity, your care, your concern or your empathy at its heart.
Which means it’s not enough any more to occupy a leadership position and to look only at the business results you’re producing. You have to look at the human consequences you’re creating. Because like it or not, you are.
Devika Bulchandani is the Global CEO of Ogilvy. And her passion for the impact of leadership on people’s lives is infectious.
“95% of people, I think, have potential, and are fundamentally good. Thinking anything other than that is kind of depressing for me, because I wake up like... Can you imagine waking up and saying, "People are bad, and people don't have potential"? So this is my belief. My job as a leader is to unlock it.” - Devika Bulchandani
Unlocking the potential of people is the most predictable path to leadership success. It’s also the least understood. You hear a lot of talk about servant leadership which attempts to take this idea and codify it. In practice, servant leadership makes leaders passive, company cultures erratic and businesses flabby. The service of leadership is to unlock the potential of those around you. But don’t confuse that with being their servant. They need more of you than that.
Leadership happens in the real world. And reality is hard to manage. The celebrated Joanna Coles sees the business world more clearly than most.
“I think good leaders thrive in a crisis and I think you've seen many people I know rolling up their sleeves and really buckling down and really focusing. And at a time when frankly many of them could afford to walk away. I mean interesting that Bob Iger is going back into Disney. And it's it's just who he is, right? These are big problems that people love to wrestle with when they're that kind of a leader. And I think it's complex, it's difficult, but that's what makes it interesting.” - Joanna Coles
Solving big problems by unlocking people’s potential in a world disconnected from its past and with no clearly lit path to the future.
Leadership in real time. Which is where it matters most.
So if the past is no longer the guide and the future has never been more up for grabs, how can you be a better leader in 2023?
Carl Johnson is the co-founder and Chairman of Anomaly, this year’s agency of the year in the US. His leadership philosophy starts from a simple place.
“One of the questions I always say to myself is, on any decision, "Okay, Carl, imagine it's an all-staff meeting and you’re onstage, and you are announcing this. How are you feeling? You feeling good? You feeling like you're trying to bullshit people? Or is this the truth?" And so, for me, if you're not prepared to say the truth, you should ask whether you're doing the right thing.” - Carl Johnson
In today’s society, the truth is too often seen as a matter of opinion. The boundaries in which we all used to operate are increasingly flimsy. In some cases they no longer exist.
Kerry Sulkowicz suggest that the answer lies with those who are willing to lead.
“And one of the challenges of leadership, again from the dawn of time, I would argue, is to be rooted in reality. To be rooted in the reality of the business, to be rooted in the external reality that impinges on the business.
I mean that is an essential aspect of leadership, is to define, for their organization what the reality is internally and externally to the best of their abilities to do so. knowing that, that reality of course, is constantly shifting in one way or another. But it also means telling the truth.” - Kerry Sulkowicz
Leaders need to define the reality in which their organization operates so that they themselves can be held to account to their own standards. Nils Leonard and Carl Johnson do not know each other. And yet both of them have built award winning companies from the same core leadership behavior.
“I've always believed that not enough of us are mechanical, about our values. And I mean that literally in the sense of the word in that, particularly in our industry, despite the fact we give advice all day to brands and offer them operating systems and triangles and pyramids and onions, we're woeful at doing the same for ourselves and giving ourselves codes to live by and exist by as an agency or studio.” - Nils Leonard
“The key to it was, you know, we had guiding principles, as we always have. You know me, everything is extremely clear, written down, thought through, that's not up for grabs. We don't have a debate every six months about what we believe in, we know all those things.” - Carl Johnson:
Marcel Marcondes is the global CMO of A-B / In-Bev. He has built an award-winning creative culture on this same fundamental belief.
“I think now, more than ever, we have to make it crystal clear what we stand for, what our brands stand for, so that our actions can be not only meaningful, but they are also authentic. Because more and more, it's impossible nowadays to have something that is unanimous. You have different groups with different perspectives, so you need to have total clarity on what you stand for.” - Marcel Marcondes
However you describe them, principles or values, they matter because they affect how people experience the organization, and that changes how they show up, as Devika explains.
“We talk about, bring your whole self to work. I'm like, "How can I bring my whole self to work when you tell me, 'My life values are different to my work values.' I can't bring my whole self." So I just think if we approach the workplace in the same way that we approach our lives, the workplace will be a lot better and our lives will be better because we're more fulfilled.” - Devika Bulchandani
And Faith Popcorn highlights the challenge of trying to build a performance culture without your people trusting that culture.
“So if you want to increase productivity, you have to make people feel warm, embraced, and aligned with their goals. Now, they're not going to tell you their goals easily, because they don't trust you. So you're going to have to figure out how to reestablish the trust.” - Faith Popcorn
The willingness and determination to create a workplace that reflects our life values and which engenders trust, demands a level of vulnerability from leaders that until now has been hard to find. Kerry Sulkowicz points out why this kind of emotional capacity is essential to building modern organizations, even if it causes us to personally hesitate.
“The need for leaders to be more emotionally connected to their people, that includes being more emotionally open and vulnerable themselves. In fact, it starts with that. That's essential. that's what creates safety in teams, is when the leader, him or herself, can make themselves a bit more vulnerable, a bit more open than might otherwise have been comfortable with. That sets the tone that gives permission for others to do the same.” - Kerry Sulkowicz
This willingness to feel vulnerable - a word that represents an existential threat to society’s traditional definitions of leadership - is a key to unlocking a more welcoming, optimistic and ultimately human future. Madeleine explains why our old understandings of leadership need to change.
“I think that you can have a lot of strength in the condition of fragility, in the condition of vulnerability, because it then leads to bridging differences. And in surfacing those differences, that entails curiosity which then might generate momentum, which then might generate change. This strongly inward predilection that we are experiencing is not going to help bridge differences.” - Madeleine Grynsztejn
Which for Nils Leonard translates like this.
“I think you're going to need to believe in slow and steady, and you're going to need to believe in a way forward that is just a bit more tender, a bit more reflective probably, and a bit wiser. I think wisdom. Wisdom's a really under said word. (laughs) You know?” - Nils Leonard
Which brings us to the hard part about being a better leader in 2023. It’s not enough to create an environment that is designed to unleash the potential of the people that work for you. Not enough to show your willingness as a leader to define the values and principles by which your organization operates.
You have to bring something much more personal. Clarity and consciousness about your own behavior and the feelings that drive them, feelings which can sometimes get in the way of making decisions that are in your best interest and those of your organization.
This is not a small task as Joanna Coles recognizes.
“Leadership is lonely and you want to make sure that you're set up for it in the best possible way, you know, physically, as well as emotionally and psychologically.” - Joanna Coles
Leadership is lonely.
It can also be even more frightening than that, as Marcel Marcondes bravely admits.
“But at the same time, exactly because of that, the visibility, the exposure is so big that sometimes it's also terrifying, right? Because every day you're making decisions, you're taking risks knowing that everybody's going to see it. So, it's terrifying sometimes to think about it, right? Because it makes the decisions complicated, and taking risks is complicated. And you have to be brave. And you have to move forward. You have to trust your instincts, your process, your people, right? You have to empower people because at this point it's about winning through the team. My job now is to make... is to set the team up for success. It's not... it's not about me anymore.” - Marcel Marcondes
Joanna and Marcel trust the people close to them and they are not afraid to ask for help.
But for many others, the willingness to tolerate loneliness and battle the terror in silence and in private are traditional measurements of leader as hero. The logic flaw in that thinking takes but a moment to understand.
“Leaders need to look at themselves first. Sometimes they have a reflexive aversion to doing so, whether it's because they don't like what they see, or because they feel that they're sort of, above the problem, and don't really need any help. Leaders can't take care of other people emotionally and be there emotionally for others if they're struggling themselves. And so it does start with one's self and it's not selfish to take that approach whatsoever. It's actually, smart and enlightened.” - Kerry Sulkowicz
Leaders can't take care of other people emotionally and be there for others if they're struggling themselves. It bears repeating. A couple of times.
Leader as hero is an old song. And it doesn’t need to apply anymore. At least not in the way we have been taught.
The new definition of leadership heroism is simple. Show us who you are. Show us what matters to you. Show us that we matter.
Devika does all that like this.
“I tell people at work I love them because I'm like, I do, I spend so much time with them. If I don't feel love for them, then something's wrong with me. So that balance was the thing that I struggled with the most is how can I bring the feminine side of me, and yet have the confidence to break the status quo? That was a really big deal.” - Devika Bulchandani
It’s one thing to accept the need to be more vulnerable. It’s another to tell the people that work for you that you love them, isn’t it? When I suggested to Devika that expressing love in the workplace might be a red line for some leaders, she offered me this.
“You know, my husband said to me the other day,, "I don't understand how you hang up the phone you like be talking to somebody and you're like, love you." I said, "Because I do, I have affection for them. Why is love such a... why is it such a precious commodity? Wouldn't the world be better by the way if we all just felt more of it? We talk about the world's problems today, right? and then we've made the one commodity or the one thing, one emotion that could solve all the problems, the most precious commodity. You don't say it in work, you don't feel it here, you don't feel it here. I don't believe that shit.” - Devika Bulchandani
Leadership is an opportunity.
There are risks. Of making mistakes. Of being disliked. Of being wrong.
But, as I ask myself and ask those that I work with, what does success look like for you?
I’d like to offer one final quote that helps me to answer that question. It’s by the musician Nick Cave. He writes:
“The everyday human gesture is always a heartbeat away from the miraculous — [remember] that ultimately we make things happen through our actions, way beyond our understanding or intention; that our seemingly small ordinary human acts have untold consequences; that what we do in this world means something; that we are not nothing; and that our most quotidian human actions by their nature burst the seams of our intent and spill meaningfully and radically through time and space, changing everything… Our deeds, no matter how insignificant they may feel, are replete with meaning, and of vast consequence, and… they constantly impact upon the unfolding story of the world, whether we know it or not.” - Nick Cave
We are human beings on an extraordinary journey. We all make a difference.
Leadership is simply the chance to make a bigger one. And to know that we did. Don’t be afraid to ask for help along the way.
Thanks for listening.
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