Hear Here Edition Two: “Too Nice To Lead”

What comes after the “girl boss” era?

As female leaders in any industry, the line we draw for ourselves between being a confident leader and being seen as a bitch is very thin. Too confident, too assertive, too nice… these feelings echo in minds across the creative industry; a world where only 17% of Creative Directors are female.

We tackled this topic in our latest edition of Hear Here – our first in London – inviting Emma Baines, Global Head of Creative at Tony’s Chocolonely, to take the stage. She shared a new version of her SXSW London talk, “Too Nice To Lead”, adapted specifically for our audience.

So how exactly can we turn niceness into leadership strength, when it’s plagued by years of boring, beige connotation? Is it really something to be proud of?

Emma talked us through real-world examples of when empathy created tangible results. Empathy is how you feel, and Niceness is how you show up. The result? A happier team – and happy people create better work. There are plenty of strong stories outside of the design world too.

Does niceness as a leadership strength sounds positively obvious to you, or far from effective? Either way, you can use it in your team building – Emma shared the above quiz to find out what comes most naturally to you.

After Emma’s talk, we enjoyed a very engaged Q&A with the room of 70 female creative leaders engaged in the conversation – including provocative takes, personal reflections and an impromptu lesson in behavioural science! One thing is for sure: everybody in attendance had their own story of how niceness – or lack of it – shaped their career and stayed with them.

Know that your nice decision making will be remembered, effective, and continue to build the right conditions for growth across the creative industry.

Thank you again to Emma for joining us from Amsterdam, and to D&AD for kindly hosting us and partnering on this edition of Hear Here.