Fearless Creative Leadership Charles Day

Here’s a question. What terrifies you?
This week’s guest is Marcel Marcondes. He’s the Global Chief Marketing Officer for AB InBev.
Becoming the successful Global CMO of any major brand is a life’s dream for many people.
If you’re one of the few to make it, it’s easy to get caught up in the gestalt of the thing. The public adulation that comes with the buying power and influence that you suddenly wield.
But for the very best of them, being a Global CMO brings out the human being in you.
I’m not conscious that I’ve ever heard prominent leader publicly use the phrase, ‘sometimes it’s also terrifying’.
There are three points to make coming from Marcel’s memorable use of that phrase.
One - that business is in great hands because it’s being run by someone who’s conscious of the responsibility and is also conscious that he needs to be courageous to keep it moving forward. The fastest path to letting the status quo win is to believe that what you should be doing next does not require courage.
Two - more talented people will want to work for Marcel because he is honest about the size and consequence of the challenge. And if there is a single truth that I’ve learned, it’s that creative people want to make one thing more than anything else - a difference.
And three - leadership is a constant battle between fear and courage. It has to be.
If you feel afraid a lot, you’re probably on the right path to making a difference.
If you sometimes feel terrified, you definitely are.

Edited highlights of our full conversation.
Here’s a question. What terrifies you?
This week’s guest is Marcel Marcondes. He’s the Global Chief Marketing Officer for AB InBev.
Becoming the successful Global CMO of any major brand is a life’s dream for many people.
If you’re one of the few to make it, it’s easy to get caught up in the gestalt of the thing. The public adulation that comes with the buying power and influence that you suddenly wield.
But for the very best of them, being a Global CMO brings out the human being in you.
I’m not conscious that I’ve ever heard prominent leader publicly use the phrase, ‘sometimes it’s also terrifying’.
There are three points to make coming from Marcel’s memorable use of that phrase.
One - that business is in great hands because it’s being run by someone who’s conscious of the responsibility and is also conscious that he needs to be courageous to keep it moving forward. The fastest path to letting the status quo win is to believe that what you should be doing next does not require courage.
Two - more talented people will want to work for Marcel because he is honest about the size and consequence of the challenge. And if there is a single truth that I’ve learned, it’s that creative people want to make one thing more than anything else - a difference.
And three - leadership is a constant battle between fear and courage. It has to be.
If you feel afraid a lot, you’re probably on the right path to making a difference.
If you sometimes feel terrified, you definitely are.

Edited highlights of our full conversation.
Here’s a question. What terrifies you?
This week’s guest is Marcel Marcondes. He’s the Global Chief Marketing Officer for AB InBev.
Becoming the successful Global CMO of any major brand is a life’s dream for many people.
If you’re one of the few to make it, it’s easy to get caught up in the gestalt of the thing. The public adulation that comes with the buying power and influence that you suddenly wield.
But for the very best of them, being a Global CMO brings out the human being in you.
I’m not conscious that I’ve ever heard prominent leader publicly use the phrase, ‘sometimes it’s also terrifying’.
There are three points to make coming from Marcel’s memorable use of that phrase.
One - that business is in great hands because it’s being run by someone who’s conscious of the responsibility and is also conscious that he needs to be courageous to keep it moving forward. The fastest path to letting the status quo win is to believe that what you should be doing next does not require courage.
Two - more talented people will want to work for Marcel because he is honest about the size and consequence of the challenge. And if there is a single truth that I’ve learned, it’s that creative people want to make one thing more than anything else - a difference.
And three - leadership is a constant battle between fear and courage. It has to be.
If you feel afraid a lot, you’re probably on the right path to making a difference.
If you sometimes feel terrified, you definitely are.

Here’s a question. What role does love play in your leadership?
Before we start, I want to acknowledge the death of someone who played a big role in helping Chris and I create the film editing company that we built in the ‘90s and 2000s.
Jim Garrett was a brilliant businessman and a gentleman. He was the founder of the award winning and internationally recognized production company, Garrett and Partners, working with directors like John Schlesinger, Nick Roeg, Ken Russell and Richard Loncraine along the way. I’ve posted a link to his obituary in the London Times in this week’s show notes.
When we were conceiving our film editing company in 1994, Jim sat down with Chris and I over lunch in London and gave us advice that formed the foundational DNA of a business which is still thriving almost thirty years later. Many of the principles and practices on which that business operates today came from that lunch. All of us who have spent any part of our careers working at the original Lookinglass or at the Whitehouse film editing companies owe him our thanks. His impact was and is enormous.
And now, on with the show.
This week’s guest is Devika Bulchandani. She’s the global CEO of Ogilvy. And her view of leadership includes an impassioned belief that seemed so obvious to me once she said it but which I have never heard before.
The business of running a business does not usually contain much discussion of love. You hear people say occasionally, “I love what I’m doing” or “I love where I work”. You can see evidence of passion in some people, particularly business founders.
But the idea of saying “I love you” to a co-worker will send tremors down the backs of HR and Talent leaders across the entire spectrum of the creative industries.
And yet, as Devika asks, wouldn’t the world be better by the way if we all just felt more of it?
We live in a time of apparently limitless upheaval. And we will spend roughly a quarter of that time at our jobs.
Shouldn’t part of that upheaval be to challenge the norms under which we’ve been working?
Including the possibility that “I love you” might be a leading indicator of what it means to be a more human leader.
Where do you draw the line? And why?

Edited highlights of our full conversation.
Here’s a question. What role does love play in your leadership?
Before we start, I want to acknowledge the death of someone who played a big role in helping Chris and I create the film editing company that we built in the ‘90s and 2000s.
Jim Garrett was a brilliant businessman and a gentleman. He was the founder of the award winning and internationally recognized production company, Garrett and Partners, working with directors like John Schlesinger, Nick Roeg, Ken Russell and Richard Loncraine along the way. I’ve posted a link to his obituary in the London Times in this week’s show notes.
When we were conceiving our film editing company in 1994, Jim sat down with Chris and I over lunch in London and gave us advice that formed the foundational DNA of a business which is still thriving almost thirty years later. Many of the principles and practices on which that business operates today came from that lunch. All of us who have spent any part of our careers working at the original Lookinglass or at the Whitehouse film editing companies owe him our thanks. His impact was and is enormous.
And now, on with the show.
This week’s guest is Devika Bulchandani. She’s the global CEO of Ogilvy. And her view of leadership includes an impassioned belief that seemed so obvious to me once she said it but which I have never heard before.
The business of running a business does not usually contain much discussion of love. You hear people say occasionally, “I love what I’m doing” or “I love where I work”. You can see evidence of passion in some people, particularly business founders.
But the idea of saying “I love you” to a co-worker will send tremors down the backs of HR and Talent leaders across the entire spectrum of the creative industries.
And yet, as Devika asks, wouldn’t the world be better by the way if we all just felt more of it?
We live in a time of apparently limitless upheaval. And we will spend roughly a quarter of that time at our jobs.
Shouldn’t part of that upheaval be to challenge the norms under which we’ve been working?
Including the possibility that “I love you” might be a leading indicator of what it means to be a more human leader.
Where do you draw the line? And why?

Edited highlights of our full conversation.
Here’s a question. What role does love play in your leadership?
Before we start, I want to acknowledge the death of someone who played a big role in helping Chris and I create the film editing company that we built in the ‘90s and 2000s.
Jim Garrett was a brilliant businessman and a gentleman. He was the founder of the award winning and internationally recognized production company, Garrett and Partners, working with directors like John Schlesinger, Nick Roeg, Ken Russell and Richard Loncraine along the way. I’ve posted a link to his obituary in the London Times in this week’s show notes.
When we were conceiving our film editing company in 1994, Jim sat down with Chris and I over lunch in London and gave us advice that formed the foundational DNA of a business which is still thriving almost thirty years later. Many of the principles and practices on which that business operates today came from that lunch. All of us who have spent any part of our careers working at the original Lookinglass or at the Whitehouse film editing companies owe him our thanks. His impact was and is enormous.
And now, on with the show.
This week’s guest is Devika Bulchandani. She’s the global CEO of Ogilvy. And her view of leadership includes an impassioned belief that seemed so obvious to me once she said it but which I have never heard before.
The business of running a business does not usually contain much discussion of love. You hear people say occasionally, “I love what I’m doing” or “I love where I work”. You can see evidence of passion in some people, particularly business founders.
But the idea of saying “I love you” to a co-worker will send tremors down the backs of HR and Talent leaders across the entire spectrum of the creative industries.
And yet, as Devika asks, wouldn’t the world be better by the way if we all just felt more of it?
We live in a time of apparently limitless upheaval. And we will spend roughly a quarter of that time at our jobs.
Shouldn’t part of that upheaval be to challenge the norms under which we’ve been working?
Including the possibility that “I love you” might be a leading indicator of what it means to be a more human leader.
Where do you draw the line? And why?