31. Recap:
1. be prepared for your 15 minutes
2. become ambidextrous
3. anticipate change
4. develop your authentic brand
5. IQ and EQ
6. never stop learning
7. find a life work balance
Hello, it’s great to be here. I am Stephen Hahn-Griffiths, CSO of Leo Burnett. I’m relatively new to Chicago - but I have to say, I love this city. Today, I am going to share with you what I’ve learnt along the road - during my career in advertising - and hopefully I’ll be able to put it all into a context that you’ll ben apply to your own chosen career. And for those of you who are tweeters out there, let’s be 21st century - send me know what you think and #uberstrategy\n
So, let me start with my journey, that dates back to 1987 in the UK - when I made the radical switch from medicine to advertising. It’s still amazing to me as to how many parallels there are between medicine and advertising - they’re both about surgically dissecting issues - be it brands or people - diagnosing problems - and come up with creative solutions. Since the early days of the business in London UK - I haven’t look back since - and I’ve now been in advertising for over 23 years. I’ve worked for 5 different agencies including Saatchi and Saatchi, Bates, and Mullen. I have practiced advertising in 5 continents, working on some of the biggest, best brands i the business. What I have learnt along the way is the following.....\n
It’s a fun, exciting, volatile, innovative, stressful and crazy old business. And I’ve survived all the craziness, by keeping my head on straight, staying sane, while many others all around me are losing it. That’s what I am going to talk about today. I am going to share my story with you. \n
And you may ask yourself, what do I mean by crazy? Why is advertising such a crazy business? Let’s take a look a short video - that attempts to capture the sentiment of what it’s like to eek out a career in advertising.\n
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The key theme there, is the potential to be fired. And it exists - because in an ideas business, you’re only as good as your last idea or ad campaign. It’s means you’re always one step away from glory and disaster, based on how good and bad your ideas are. in a people driven business, where talent represents over 80% of the overhead, there’s only one way to make your ideas better - fire people and bring in new people with better ideas. \n
This is how that makes you feel. Because of this - you’re always faced with the looming threat of the chop, the guillotine, or put another way, the potential for career decapitation. It’s what there’s industry with an average of 25% a year turnover. Why nearly 1/3 of the total workforce in ad business since 2000 have been exterminated - or has left to do something else. And why they call advertising a young man’s game - because not everyone gets to make a career of it beyond the age of 40.\n
And so, with this as a back drop, it’s no great surprise that to remain successful in advertising - you have to keep your head amongst all the craziness, while all others may be losing theirs. Question is - how do yo do that...?\n
We’ll today - I am going to unveil the 7 headly secrets to sanity and success - on how to keep your head in advertising. It’s not full proof - and there’s no money back guarantee (joke.) But I hazard a guess that if you practice these principles in advertising, or even your chosen careers there’s a pretty good chance that you’ll be outrageously successful.\n
So here it goes. For the first secret - I’m going to tap into two familiar faces, to make my point.\n
Andy warhol and sully sunderberger. Andy told us about the 15 minutes of fame - and that we’ll have one. What he didn’t tell us - is that what if not ready, and it passes us by. That’s what the “Miracle on the Hudson” pilot sully sunderberger told us - everything he’d learned in life prepared him for the 15 mins when he had to land the plane. If he hadn’t been ready for that moment - it wouldn’t be fame that he’d be enjoying but infamy.\n
And so that teaches us all a lesson - to always be ready for your 15 mins because you never know when it’s going to come. That big interview, presentation - or work project, that’s your ticket to fame may come up when you least expect it. I’d like to think that I still have my best 15 mins ahead of me, but there have been many an occasion when I’ve had my 15 minute moments. (give brief example)\n
To reveal my second secret, I’m going to use a sports analogy. Perhaps someone who you may be familiar, especially if you’re tennis fan.\n
Rafael Nadal. One of the greatest tennis players of our time. And he’s successful not just because he’s a naturally gifted tennis player. He’s great because when he was young - at the peak of his adolescent tennis career - his uncle (I think it was) made him switch from a right to a left handed tennis player. As a result, he learned to develop two fore-hands (left and right) and that makes him very difficult to beat. And so the lesson that we can learn from Nadal is....\n
learn to be ambidextrous. ambidexterity is a secret weapon. I had a similar experience growing up - as school I excelled at both art and science - when I was in my 20’s - I broke my right arm and I learned to write with my left had. Since then, I’ve worked at developing my left brain and right brain skills, and have developed an ability to equally be able to appreciate an allegory or algorithm - inspire creativity and develop quant research. Whatever you do in your chosen career, I would suggest that being ambidextrous is a good thing.\n
For the third secret - let’s set a mousetrap. Not literally, but let’s think about the following....\n
Cheese. Think of your salary as a piece of cheese, that you can feed on. Them imagine - what it might be like to being trapped into feeding of that cheese even if you’re unhappy in your chosen career. Or what if someday - someone decided to take the cheese away? Like by firing you. What would you do - would you be financially snared? Point being - don’t get too comfortable with your cheese....\n
anticipate change - and start to imagine how to make your piece of cheese bigger, tastier - or even a different kind of cheese. Have a plan b in your back pocket so that if something were to happen you wouldn’t get snared. (tell story about Bates)\n
For secret number 4 - what can we learn from....\n
Lady Gaga. You know - that lady who arrived at the Grammy’s being carried in an egg. And take a look at here here - she’s wearing a meet dress to the VMA awards. She’s not exactly the best singer - and if I say so myself, she’s not that pretty... but there’s one thing that she does have?\n
“authenticity.” She knows how to leverage who she is - and where she’s come from to unashamedly develop he own uniquely authentic brand. She’s successful being herself - and in the moments I wavered in my career in trying to be someone that I am not, I’ve always come back to that core understanding. I’m good at what I do, when I am good at being me. Whether that’s how I work - think, represent myself on a resume / job interview - the values I lead by. I learned that knowing how to leverage my brand, my British up-bringing and personality, is how I’ve become promoted and offered jobs that I’ve taken.\n
For secret number 5 - I am going to tap into my medical and psychology training....\n
to look into the human mind. In our chosen careers, it’s our intellect, expertise and know how that typically drives us up the corporate ladder. Whether that’s through being street smart - or book smart, a bright mind is key. And that’s especially true in advertising. But IQ can only get you so far - there’s another “Q” that’s an important....\n
it’s EQ. Add that to IQ and you have the fifth “headly” secret. EQ is a measure of emotional intelligence and it relates to a persons ability to relate to other or read a situation. Many a smart person in advertising has fallen by the way side by having IQ but without the EQ. EQ relates to how you read a situation, sell your story - or manage people. In a people’s driven industry that key. I made the mistake early in my career that IQ was my sole ticket to success (use lego example.) I quickly learned that EQ was as important.\n
For the sixth secret - I going to use an example from the world of engineering....\n
The engineering theory goes that a chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link. And what’s ironic - is that’s equally as true of people - in the sense that you’re only as good as your biggest weakness. It’s easy to put our weaknesses on the back burner - and to say, “I’ll never have to do that in my job, or I can get someone else to do that” - and to not worry about what I can’t do. But what I can tell you from experience is that your weaknesses become more and more exposed as you become more senior. You never know when that weakest link in your skill set will catch up on you. And cause you to fail. So what’s the lesson here?\n
Secret 6 is never stop learning. Always work on your weaknesses and not just live off your strengths. If it means go back to school, do it. Take constructive advice on what you’re not good at - and take the time to get better. In 2000, I recognized I had to reinvent myself and that I needed work on my business sensibility and leadership skills to better acclimatize to life in the US - and I so went back to school to get an MBA. It had nothing to do with creativity or psychology. But it gave me such a burst of confidence, and new perspective - and I have never looked back since.\n
And so finally, what’s the 7th “headly” secret of sanity and success....well let me explain it from the perspective of tight rope walking.\n
Walking a tight rope is like a metaphor for your career. One mistake and it could be a long way to fall. What I’ve observed in advertising, is that working all the hours, always pushing yourself harder and faster causes you to look down too much and to be too self-conscious of the fall beneath you. All work and no play puts you out of balance - and if run too fast you’re more likely to fall. Ironically, the solution to getting back in balance is not to work a 70 hour week - but rather to work smarter. In other words, the last secret to sanity and to success is....\n
life work balance - in finding the time to work hard, and the time to recuperate. Too much life, won’t help you achieve the fulfillment from your career either. But finding that balance with hard work and life after work is key to longevity and sustained success. In my 30’s I realized I was pushing myself too hard and making too many sacrifices at the expense of my family. Since then I have been a lot better - in making sure I take vacation time and enjoy quality time with my family. I’m still not perfect in this regard, but I never lose sight of it.\n
So just to recap, these are the 7 “headly” secrets to sanity and success....\n
And so the question is - when and how to apply them? Well, put simply, it begins with defining the north star that can guide your career - and all the decisions along the way. It starts with the following...\n
It’s the one thing that any executive coach will tell you. Firstly, imagine what success looks like. Define what you want to get out of life and then shape your career goals accordingly. Be as literal and specific as you want to - but don’t make it so unrealistic that you’ll end up disappointed. Spell out success, write it down, and remind yourself of it every once in a while and then measure it up to which of the secrets of sanity and success.\n
Secondly, never lose sight of what you want to achieve, and be great everyday. Don’t be complacent, or rest on your laurels. Being great is what you’re being paid for everyday - and if you don’t live up to then you’re only letting yourself down - not your employer.\n
Form my perspective, what does it mean to be great in advertising? Going back to where I started - you’re only as good as your last idea. Thankfully for me, I’m working for a great agency, in Leo Burnett, that’s doing great work that we can be proud of the work that we’ve created. And so in advertising, helping to great ideas is what it’s all about. Here’s a few examples of the great ideas that our company has originated. Maybe you’ll recognize a few of these ideas let’s take a look....\n
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So in closing, thank you for listening to me. Don’t let crazy get to you. Be sane. Go be great. I wish you all the very best in your promising careers ahead. Thanks for being a great audience. I’m now open to answering any of your questions today.\n
