The mantra at the Marketing Academy that simply pulses through everything is the philosophy of “Give not get”. It’s a mindset shift that has the power to change everything in your life, and improve the worlds of the people around you. What is a simple check in with self can have the most profound impact on the way you interact with people, cultures and organisations. Sitting there in Bootcamp #1 we leant the power of a giving mindset versus a getting attitude and through the course of the year this kept ringing in my mind – I decided to try putting it into action. Here’s an example of how it unfolded.

Covid. “The unprecedented times”. Every living soul on the planet has experiences to share of their struggles and learnings of existing through a global pandemic. Organisations themselves have transformed almost overnight, change that ordinarily would have taken 10+ years, much resistance, and many change managers holding the hands of people as we “slowly slowly catchy monkey”. Now we find ourselves talking about “return to work” or “new hybrid working models” and we have to start to form new working relationships. My company, a global business with every geography facing ebbs and flows of lockdowns, opens, more lockdowns, borders closed, borders opened and closed again all at different times around the world. As senior leaders across the globe we came together at some unsociable hour to extend across multiple time zones and we talked about our culture and how to bring our people back together in a post covid world, if such a thing exists. Around the world I heard tale after tale of how people’s team members wanted to remain at home, they liked the flexibility, they preferred the no commute, they wanted more autonomy, they feared public transport, they wanted more choice. Well into the meeting without much change in topic or tone i paused the conversation and asked one poignant question to reframe our thinking;
“Can we all engage our people with a different question I asked, rather than thinking about what you can get by remaining 100% working from home, can you please give thought to what you can give to your teams by committing 1 day back in the office per week. Can you think about how you can contribute to a positive team culture, how you can help someone who might be struggling with a project, how you could welcome someone new if they’ve recently joined, how you could help someone learn by osmosis by simply being there”.

The room stopped, there was silence, and what followed was a resounding acknowledgement that our entire company had a “get” mindset. Individuals thought about what worked for themselves as opposed to team thought about giving to a culture or community. We still work on this today but it’s evident the business now champions being in the office for the reason of giving back to each other and slowing the drumbeat of people sharing, learning and laughing feels like it could be a norm again.

Much has been written about Leadership; leadership styles, lessons from the top, how to embrace being an adaptive leader. But if you want a ten second masterclass on what is means to be a leader, look no further than 4 simple words that Sherilyn so profoundly shared with us.

How can I help?

I was immediately struck by this dsitillation of a much debated and complex subject. But I was even more moved by the undeniable truth of this idea.

Leadership isn’t a title that is bestowed upon us, an achievement we seek or a set of beliefs we hold about who we are. It’s simply behaviour in action. Once we come to recognise this, we begin to see inspiring leaders in every facet of our lives. It’s the good samaritan who helps someone less mobile cross the street, it’s the child in the playground who approaches someone feeling left out, it’s you when you reall walk the talk.

Most recently I’ve been inspired by one of my own colleagues who truly put ‘how can I help’ into life-saving action.

Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, our Cief Information Security Officer, Boston-based Andrew Smeaton, learned several of his co-workers, including Kris van Huystee, were stranded and needed help. Here’s a snippet from Boston25News that tells the story:

“We were getting pretty desperate,” shared van Huystee. “It was very difficult for us to arrange transportation through the border…I was very scared for my family.”

Andrew left Boston for Frankfurt, Germany, then connected to Krakow, Poland. Once on the ground, he realized getting a car wouldn’t be easy. He said he eventually traded his wristwatch for a 15-year-old Toyota that was low on oil and needed duct tape to keep the hood in place. Armed with only a pen knife, a container of gasoline and two bottles of water, Smeaton crossed the border into Ukraine Mar. 2. He encountered several checkpoints along the way but very few people heading his direction.

Andrew eventually made it to Lviv, a city in western Ukraine, where Kris, his wife, 12-year-old son, dog and cat were waiting.

“Oh, I was super relieved,” said Kris. “Seeing a familiar face, a guy who went out of his way to risk his life to come and get me, it really meant the world.”

Andrew said the ride back to Poland was so tense, no one spoke until they crossed the border. “It took 15 seconds for them to get in the car and we didn’t speak the entire journey back until they got over the Ukraine border. Then there were tears,”

Andrew and Kris are staying in a Krakow hotel, working with World Central Kitchen to help the thousands of refugees entering Poland every day.