Sarah Thompson of Droga5 on the Selfless Nature of Leadership
I wanted to be a journalist at first, but by the time I graduated, I really wanted a job in advertising.
I wasn’t going to do them forever, but if you have a choice to do an average job or a great job, why not do the great job?
It was a hard road, but with all those jobs I did at a young age, I just wanted to do a fantastic job, because I had a keen awareness
that they were going to help me with a reference or a connection somewhere else.
Otherwise, you become stretched too thin because you’re micromanaging people,
and then they become dependent on that, so they’re not really empowered to do what they can probably do really, really well.
I had a moment when I really had to figure out how to keep my energy
and focus at a constant and high level to be thinking about what is next, even when things are hard.
I see lots of leaders who are the best at what they do — they’re the smartest people in the room — but it’s hard for them to move to that next level.
