Leaders are what you make them

This time last year, as I started my first Chief Strategy Officer role at Diva, I put some words together on how I was feeling. I never got around to editing it down to publishable length but looking back, a year later, I thought it might be worth sharing. Would love to know what you think.

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I have a new job. Chief Strategy Officer at the Bristol-based gaming native creative agency, Diva Agency . It's a fully remote role, for an agency specialist in a category I am enormously passionate about, and I’m joining an ambitious leadership team with a growth plan to match.

Exciting. And in equal parts terrifying. 

I’ve not been a CSO before. I don’t want to get this wrong. 

What should a chief strategy officer say, think and do in 2022? 

I’ve had the fortune (mis and good) of working under a fair few CSOs in my time. They all stick out in mind for varying reasons. 

• There was one I was absolutely scared shitless of, until we sat in our first meeting - their modus operandi was so open and generous, it made you do nothing other than strive to be the best planner on the spot.
• The one that told me on my last day ‘You’re NOT a planner, James’
• The one that cried with and for me when I explained my six weeks leave of absence was due to a mental health breakdown and suicide attempt. 
• The one that told me ‘Apologies are a disease for dogs’ (no, me neither).
• The one that told me on my last day ‘You ARE a planner, James’
• The one that got drunk before a pitch rehearsal and had a row with the managing partner in front of the juniors... I won’t forget that in a hurry. 

Like I said: a few. 

Planners and strategists, or ‘strats’ (not sorry), we’re a funny lot. The pressure of being The Smartest Person In The Room™ - on demand! - is as flattering as it can be flattening. 

So from the best (and some of the worst) CSOs I have learned one thing above all else: strats need love. They need support. Strats need time to grow - and food to nurture that growth. But in this business, we know this can be rare. And for a discipline that is founded on the principles of empathy, imagination, and data, we seem to be far too focused on the latter at the expense of… well, everything else. 

With that in mind, here are my three 'CSO lessons' on what to say, think, and do in 2022 and beyond.

It’s how I want to keep sane, honest, and focused. I hope it’s useful. 

1. SAY: Treat others how you want to be treated. 

Crediting freelancers? Always. 

Onboard properly? Definitely. 

Sticking up for (or pointing out the lack of) minority voices in the room? Whenever and wherever possible. 

Trust, empathy, and respect? From. Day. One. 

But the opposite is also true: if you lock yourself away in a glass room where no one can access you then people will see you in a glass room and won’t access you. And that’s… shit? 

‘Managing upwards’ is a core skill you’re told about when you join adland. ‘Oh, you need to be careful of [c-suite person X], they will tear your head off if you’re not careful’. I’ve had this said about more bosses than I have fingers typing right now. Nine times out of ten it’s always the one doing the warning I’ve learnt most about because, as it turns out, the boss I’m warned about is someone who is incredibly busy and hates timewasters.

So if you've done your homework (bonus bit of advice for c-suite meeting? Be bright, be brief, be gone' - thanks for that one Matt Holt ) then you’re on safe ground. If you turn up to that kind of meeting without doing your homework, well of course you’re going to get chewed out.

Which leads me to…

2. THINK: Always do the prep. 

Always. And if you ever find yourself warning someone else off a leader, maybe check to see if it’s not your own ill-prepared experiences doing the warning. 

But what if that’s not enough? 

What if your boss is a bully or worse, a psychopath?

Side: In Jon Ronson’s excellent 2011 book, The Psychopath Test, it states ‘1 in 100 regular people is a psychopath. That figure rises to 4% when you get to CEOs and business leaders’

Then my advice to you is to get out. Run. As fast as you can. 

This goes against my mantra of ‘move towards opportunities not away from problems’ but sometimes you are left with no other options but to turn tail and leave. 

If your line manager takes pleasure in torturing you fast and slow with last-minute/endless feedback meaning you never get your weekends? Leave. 

If your dept head thinks it’s OK to make misogynistic jokes about the fresh intake of interns? Leave. 

If your CFO is handsy at the Christmas party? Leave. 

As 💥 Amy Kean 💥 writes when she brilliantly talks about ‘The Imposter Virus’: Hurt people hurt people. And you are better than being paid to be hurt. 

There are people out there just like this. When they get found out, the running joke is that a) get shipped to Hong Kong or Singapore (filth) or b) start their own thing (and then get found out later).  

For you: you need to escalate… or leave. Yes, we are facing an unprecedented cost of living crisis. But your mental health comes first and the labour market of our industry has never seen so much demand.

There will be jobs out there. If your leader won’t look out for you, then LEAVE. 

3. DO: Look out for your team.

You are at all times the literal embodiment of the values that you want your team to live to. Keep your standards high and your ethics visible. If you see something wrong, say something.

You are literally have the highest seat at the table and in this talent crunch, if high standards aren't set and adhered to, people will be hurt, talent will go, and the business will suffer. It can't be that hard, can it?

________

The point is: I’ve learnt a lot from the bosses I’ve had in adland. 

What to do in a crisis. 

What not to do for catharsis. 

For my hopefully many years ahead as a CSO, I’m going to try and be the best leader I can be. Thank you to all the men and women I’ve learned from. 

You have built this leader-in-waiting with the choices you’ve made. 

And I intend to act on them all so I can build my own that will come after me.