In our latest podcast, we spoke with Howard Handler, Chief Marketing Officer of Major League Soccer. Handler shared his marketing journey, how he defines leadership, and the power of having a mission.
Here are our top three favorite highlights:
On leadership.
“At summer camp, we would do wilderness trips, canoes, packs. We would be out in virgin wilderness and we would have to read maps, make our way, find campsites, [and] figure out how to protect ourselves from the elements… Sometimes the weather could be pretty troubling and we were just kind of there and were in a position to try to figure it out… You would learn who was going to lead, who was going to follow, [and] what role everybody was going to play… I learned what effective leadership might look like, who showed grace under fire, who was flexible, who was creative, and I tried to model some of my own decisions after that.”
On having a mission.
“[T]he people that distinguished themselves to me were the people that had the greatest leadership skills, the most imagination, and honestly the most magnetic personalities. They just were the type of people that other people wanted to be around because they were hungry, they were curious, they were on a mission, they were fun, [and] they knew how to solve big, complicated problems.
On going into marketing.
“[M]y heartbeat, my pulse was really more driven by music and media and pop culture and the closest thing that seemed applicable in business was marketing. Because marketing was essentially about demand and about dealing with consumers and solving problems within that context. And so that's what energized me in that way.”
In our latest podcast, Ray Cao spoke with Jeff Smith, Company Group Chairman for North America, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies. Smith reflected on his career and shared his best advice for rising sales and marketing leaders.
Here are our top three favorite highlights:
On schedules.
“[I do] simple things like always making sure I scan my full week on a Sunday night and understand [that] what's in front me still exists. But the ability for it to shift and change during the week is increased by a factor of a hundred-fold from my early days. So you tend to learn that while what might look like something on a Sunday night, by Wednesday it could look very different.”
On work-life balance.
“I tend to walk out and whether my boss is still there or not. It doesn't really matter over the years. You just keep up with whatever works in your different pace, I think. The whole concept of work-life balance doesn't exist as a macro level; it exists as an individual level. And you need to figure out what works for you individually.”
On his best advice.
“Have more patience. It's interesting because you look back on it and you think of all the things you sweated that just weren't sweatable. It just didn't matter in some ways and yet, at the moment, it was like the most important thing. How did Mary or Fred get promoted before you, or whatever. And that ability to be able to believe just in yourself and what you're doing and stay focused on that instead of all that's going on around you. And it's hard for human beings. We see things, we experience things, we have feelings, etc. But if I could go back in time and say, literally stop sweating it. Be less stressed about it and stay more focused on what you're doing.”