Empathy. Optimism. Humanity.

For those of you who don't receive my weekly newsletter, I wanted to share what I sent out yesterday, as a summary of what's been happening in our community calls. I am happy to report that this past week we saw an incredible rallying around Empathy, Optimism, and Humanity. I hope this is helpful to you and your teams...

Today’s newsletter is going to look a little different—actually, a lot different—than what you’ve seen before. As all of you have experienced in the last few weeks, “normal” doesn’t exist anymore and the new “normal” that emerges will look dramatically different tomorrow than it did yesterday.

As all of us are pivoting, “slipping and spinning,” learning new skills, adjusting to our colorful new work environments, trying to rebalance work-life "balance,” and teach our kids to use the printer to help us prep for the next zoom meeting, one of the most beautiful things is happening right before our very eyes: humanity. Or said another way, compassion for each other through these times and giving permission for all to be human.

I’m stealing a lot of these amazing thoughts from the private community calls we’ve been having all week, with CMOs across the industry and Innovators across the globe. We are all trying to adjust, on an hourly basis, to the new normal and have learned to be forgiving of one another as we are all equally juggling so many new things.

Another important theme from this week has been optimism. And I believe that optimism is born from the miraculous feats that are occurring from every brand, every marketer, every person on the planet to serve humanity. They are intricately linked together.

In our first CMO Community call last Sunday, Indra Nooyi, former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, was kind enough to join us and share her perspective. Her mantra, “Be nostalgic about the past, realistic about the present, and optimistic about the future.”

As we went through the week, we found that mantra playing over and over again in our heads, which translated to every other call we got on, including the two Innovators Community calls, one led by Musa Tariq, Global Head of Marketing at Airbnb Experiences, and the other led by Carla Hassan, Global CBO of Citi.

As every call is private to best serve the people joining and provide safe spaces, we cannot share the exact conversations, but everyone agreed that we are all in this together. With that, please find the top takeaways below in the hopes that they can bring some optimism to your day:

What Brand Marketers are Optimistic About Right Now:

• Humanity coming together
• The removal of “vertical thinking”
• Giving our teams permission to be human
• Amplification on the value of human connections
• Global, cross-industry connections to advance all
• Authentic messaging putting humans at the center
• The speed in which we’re driving innovation forward
• People and brands genuinely asking, “how can we help?”
• Companies being less brand-out and more community-in
• Extra time with family as fuel and energy to come out stronger

Ways to be an Empathetic Leader, Especially Today:    

• Put yourself in the shoes of others to understand their needs
• Listen with the intent to just listen, not respond
• Pay attention to tonality from members of your team
• Be mindful of your own tone and behaviors, even virtually
• Be team-in, not leader-out

Tips on Leading with Purpose:

• Ask your community what they need from you right now
• Don’t let budgets dictate how much impact you can have
• Create a “brain-trust” of trusted peers for honest feedback
• Remember good ideas can come from anywhere
• Be open to unlikely partners in other industries or even competitors
• Walk away if an idea is not consistent with your brand values
• Remember, if it’s not authentic, it’s not going to work

We’ll be back with more episodes of CMO Moves, Innovators, Challengers, Women Trailblazers, and Gen ZEOs soon. We, like you, pivoted to apply our energy, right now, in the most meaningful place. With you, connecting you, listening to you, brainstorming how we can help you more. Good news is we have two big things coming for you: 

• The Marketer Toolkit has returned! It is live today and we are tweaking it as we speak. We invite you to take a peek and share with us your thoughts before we fully (re)launch it. Right now, this is a way to search for key inspirational stories across the different pillars of your careers: Managing Your Career, Growing Your Skills, Leading Your Teams. The future will bring deep dive solution guides in each pillar and for each topic, hopefully, providing you and your teams much needed support over the long haul. 
• We are launching the Adweek Executive Mentor Program on April 14. Now, more than ever before, mentors and mentees need each other and we are growing the program from 110 Mentors to 200+ Mentors to help even more marketers. 

All of us here at Adweek are sending you lots of positive vibes. We are here to help and any input, feedback, suggestions are welcome here: [email protected]

Best,

Nadine Dietz

Adweek's Chief Community Officer

Host of CMO Moves

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