Ep 241: Nancy Hill of Marcus Thomas - ”The ’Take Care Of Yourself’ Leader”

Here’s a question. Are you taking care of yourself?

This week’s guest is Nancy Hill. She’s the CEO of Marcus Thomas, and the former CEO of the 4As. She was named by Advertising Age as one of the ‘100 Most Influential Women in Advertising History’.

Nancy recently wrote an article for AdAge. The link is in the show notes for this episode. In the piece, she describes discovering that she was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Leadership is lonely. I’m hoping that we can change that over the coming months and years but for now, it’s a truth. Have a plan, know the answers, don’t show weakness. All of these are the expectations when you agree to be the leader.

And while it’s true these expectations are placed on you by others, they are even more emphatically placed on you by, well, you.

The needs of everyone else become your greatest concern. If there’s time left over you’ll worry about yourself then.

The only flaws in that thinking are that it doesn’t scale and it isn’t sustainable.

What’s the alternative? How do you build a lasting foundation for your leadership that allows you to unlock your own potential and the potential of others?

In 1870, global life expectancy was less than 30 years.

1870 was only 150 years ago.

Today, we have reached the point that biologically, if we avoid serious disease and unhealthy lifestyle choices, our bodies are capable of lasting 150 years.

Already, the life expectancy of a child born in the West means that they will live long into the 22nd century. By the time we reach the 22nd century, life expectancy will almost certainly take us well into the 23rd.

That means children born today will have great grandchildren who will live in the era of Star Trek. Boldly going where no one has gone before.

The future is coming at us faster and will last longer.

A leadership style, philosophy, paradigm that places your own emotional and physical well being behind the needs of everyone else, may feel selfless in the moment, but is actually designed to minimize the depth and length of the impact you could have. Should have.

The era of ‘get to 60 and stop’ is over. The era of ‘get to 60 and start’ - not just a new chapter but a new book - is already here. Will you be ready to meet it? Will you be able to? Physically? Emotionally?

They say that every journey begins with a single step. For years, I believed that meant movement forward.

But what I’ve learned is that the first step for any leader needs to be to stop. To pause.

Because, if you want to make a difference, if you want to drive creative, innovative and economic success for your organization, if you want to unlock the full potential of the people and the business for which you are responsible, then step 1 is to understand what you need.