Dec 14

Dec 14 Gabberissue #21: Empathy

Guest edited by Andy Wright, Never Not Creative, Streamtime and Mentally-Healthy

Have you ever had an empathy lesson?

Maybe you’ve had, or you’ll get, leadership training. Maybe you’ll get neither. Our industry isn’t famous for its investment in people.

I can tell you, I’ve had neither. I’ve watched and learned from the people who have led me.

I’ve learned how to run a business; a P&L; clients; presentations; and win a fair few pitches.

Perhaps it won’t be a surprise to learn that I was taught nothing about empathy or leading a team. I’m one of the countless leaders who was plucked from being a doer – and plopped into the position of leader.

I embraced it. As you would. I loved the challenge. I’d been driven by getting up to that next rung on the ladder. But what do you do as you get higher and higher up and further and further away from the safety of the ground you know below? You make shit up as you go along and you copy what you’ve seen from those above.

I like to think that I’ve done a pretty good job for at least some of the time. There are lots of people that I’ve worked with in the past, that have become good friends and that I still keep in touch with now.

But I also know that I did a bad job. Many times. Not intentionally. But that’s no excuse. I certainly wouldn’t be anyone’s nominee for leader of the year. Perhaps I’m a bunch of people’s nominee for something a lot less ambitious. I wish in hindsight, I’d been better.

After 10 years of leadership positions I think I’m finally more aware of some of the nuggets that make a better leader. I’ll never be one of the greats, all I can do is keep striving to improve.

Last year I did a Mental Health First Aid course. As early as the first hour I knew that this was the first real bit of leadership training that I’d ever had. I was taught to be more aware of those around me. To realise that if it looks like someone isn’t pulling their weight, or if they’re behaving erratically, it’s likely not because of their aim to disrupt. It’s probably because they’re going through something themselves.

This little epiphany was also the reason why the Mentally-Healthy Change group (that I run with the amazing Nina Nyman) trained over 130 people in mental health first aid last year and more than 60 industry leaders in 2020. All for free and because of the passion and dedication of the incredible Chloe Hooper.

In our mentally-healthy research, almost everyone in the industry told us that the number 1 thing that they thought would improve their mental health was…

…better educated and more empathetic leadership.

So there you have it. When Jess and Siobhan asked me to edit this issue of Gabberish, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to put the topic front and centre.

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This Gabberissue is a catalyst. A dip of a toe into the enticing ocean of empathy.

Our Gift Of The Gabberer is an insightful and astounding interview with New York Creative Director Tim Jones who talks us through the task of bringing a parent’s lost son back to life.

The irrepressible Prue Jones (who I could only have hoped for as a boss) helps us to set some ground rules around empathy and tells us how the grown ups do it.

You’d think that perhaps our ability to show a softer side might be a newer phenomenon.

Well back in the days when Mr Burnett and Mr Berndbach were plying their trade (ok perhaps not that long ago), if you were brave enough to speak up for some help, turns out you’d have been looked after…

– David Westgate shares his guide to a good confession.

Jumping forward a few decades and Matt Bladin has chosen to find his wisdom in the chasing of waterfalls. Yes. Incredibly, if we’d have listened more closely to Left Eye, T-Boz and Crystal we could have been all hugs, hygge and high fives by now.

In one of the most confronting pieces of this issue, Amber Bonney shines a light on the dark side of our industry. What’s it like when you release a piece of work that’s misunderstood and then piled on like a schoolboy scrap? Why are we still seeing this appalling behaviour?

Aren’t we all in this together?

Alessia Castiglione and Katelyn Testa countdown their top 10 of shit CD’s say and Scott Wrigg shares the problem with living in a bubble.

Dale Bigeni accepted the gauntlet that was thrown down to prove that even the Grim Reaper has a soft spot.

Matt Eastwood shares how empathy can be a part of the creative process and one of our industry’s up and coming brightest lights and hardest workers, Charlotte Goodsir shares her top 10 ‘empathic moments’ so far.

And to mix things up a bit, stick your headphones in and take a listen to the very wise Victoria Davies who has swapped running some of the most successful agencies in London and New York to start an artificial intelligence business to nudge leaders into being better. Yes. It’s a Never Not Creative x Gabberish podcast. Have a notebook handy - I pulled out at least 13 quotes while editing, without even trying!

Finally, my new partner in crime at Never Not Creative, Ve Dewey brings it back to the essentials. This year can help us cast-off a lot of the bad habits of the past and embrace some much needed change.

We can all help each other to ‘let it go’.

Thank you to Jess and Siobhan for inviting me into the Gabberish history books. I’ll be forever grateful for the opportunity to have worked with all of the incredible talent who contributed to issue #21.