Perhaps the best way to show your leadership chops — particularly in the ad world — is to listen. Few listen better than legendary adman Jeff Goodby.
Goodby is co-founder and co-chairman of the San Francisco agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. His simple act of listening arguably turned Madison Avenue on its creative head some 30 years ago.
Goodby, 72, listened to a blunt focus-group member — somewhere in the Central Valley of California — who said the only time they paid attention to milk was when there was none left in the fridge.
That simple act of listening got Goodby's creative wheels spinning. If nobody pays attention to milk except for when it's gone, why not embrace that very scenario? He turned it into an ad campaign for his agency's newest client, The California Milk Processor Board.
That led to years of rollicking milkless ads, like when there's no milk left to pour on your cereal — or to help wash down a peanut butter sandwich. It also led to Goodby concocting that awkwardly eloquent and now iconic tagline: Got Milk? Fast-forward to 2023. Goodby is ranked as one of the few ad chiefs who could also eloquently answer this question: Got success?
Tap Your Creativity Like Jeff Goodby
Goodby has success by the boatload. Along with agency co-founder Rich Silverstein, Goodby's creative vision has rocked advertising for decades with ads he's helped to create and direct. Among them: the envious Budweiser lizards who try to electrocute the Budweiser frogs. Also the ubiquitous Doritos triangle shape that overtakes pop culture. And yes, even those infamous hand-clapping E-Trade chimpanzees. It's no surprise that Goodby has been inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame.
GS&P, purchased by Omnicom Group in 1992, consistently outperforms. Over the past year, for example, it maintained 100% of its clients — a rarity in the business. Clients Kraft Heinz, PepsiCo and Blackstone posted double-digit organic growth over the past year — another rarity. Its average client tenure is more than five years — roughly double the national average.
Maintain Your Humanity Amid Success
But perhaps Jeff Goodby's greatest attribute isn't about the growth of his agency, but the depth of his humanity. With his hippie-era hair still flowing long and his 1960s-era smirk still just as pesky, he's widely beloved for his Neil Young-esque speaking voice that he says has been compared to "intellectual stoner stammer."
At 72, after 44 years in the advertising business, including 40 at GS&P, Goodby looks back on his game-changing success as an advertising stalwart and credits it to two things: humor — and forgiveness.
"To be a great leader, you have to have the grace to forgive people and to look at the world through their eyes," said Goodby, who credits that character trait to his dad. "When something goes wrong and is not succeeding, you have to find a way to help others off the floor. Bosses need to understand that."
For example, Goodby still recalls an expensive commercial shoot in Paris, when he was informed of an extremely talented but temperamental ad director who was mistreating people and yelling at some of the extras on the set.
Goodby called the ad director and told him to report back to the U.S. office immediately. The ad director was so angry that he punched his hand through the wall of his hotel room and had to be hospitalized to remove the glass from his hand. When he ultimately returned to the U.S., Goodby met with him in his office.
"I reminded him how talented he was," says Goodby. "I forgave him — and he went on to do fabulous work."
Goodby: Find The Humor In Life
Just as important, according to Goodby: Great leaders have to always show a sense of humor — particularly during the most difficult times.
When Goodby's in meetings, he's always listening for subordinates who are willing to poke fun at their bosses while standing in front of them — then listening to hear how the boss responds. "That's very healthy when you see it going on," he said. "Humor makes it possible to talk about forgiveness."
Perhaps the true sign of a great leader, says Goodby, is the willingness to "incubate" people around you who are, in fact, potentially better than you. "If you are willing to hire someone who can be better than you — and help them achieve that — you are a great leader," he said.
Goodby's agency is famous for doing just that — and sometimes losing these overachievers who go on to start their own agencies. After all, that's exactly what Goodby and co-founder Silverstein did in 1983, when they left legendary San Francisco ad agency Hal Riney & Partners to start their own agency.
Relish Your Uniqueness And Mistakes
Few know the unique leadership style of Goodby's any better than Margaret Johnson. She's the agency's chief creative officer. But she admits to almost leaving the agency on several occasions. What stopped her from leaving? Goodby's leadership in action.
"He sort of speaks in Zen riddles," said Johnson. "He always leaves it so that the student has to find the solution to their own problem."
Years ago, when Johnson first started in a junior art director role at the ad agency, Goodby asked her to oversee a new billboard ad campaign for a large client. When the billboards were posted, she received a quizzical phone call from Goodby. He said that he'd just received a phone call from his wife who drove by one of the billboards and noticed the type was way too small to read while driving by.
Goodby didn't yell at her. He didn't even give her any marching orders. "He said he'd leave it up to me to figure it out," recalled Johnson. She did. "The things you learn from fixing your mistakes are the things that make you great," she says.
Goodby gets that.
Trust Your People Like Goodby Does
He believes in the folks he hires — sometimes more than they believe in themselves. And he's dumbfounded by the fact that they keep coming to him for advice.
"To have anyone listen to me is amazing — especially when it's younger people," he said. "When I sit down with Big Cheeses at the company that's nice, but there's nothing like sitting down with a brand-new young person who is still hungry to grow."
His key advice to younger employees at the agency? "I tell them that how good they want to be is far more important than how good they actually are," he said.
Don't Fall Into Routine
Goodby is still humble enough to try to learn something new each day. For example, he disdains the notion of a daily routine — particularly for someone in the ad business.
"It makes you blind to the world around you," he said.
So, each day, he tries to mix things up a bit. Even if it's just in the daily act of brushing his teeth. Sometimes he'll flip that morning routine and brush with his left hand instead of his right.
Goodby constantly has his radar up for learning. Perhaps that's because as a young kid, he had no choice. He was bullied.
"Dealing with bullies as a kid was very influential," he says. "I got beaten up by bullies until I learned how to convince them not to beat me up." Part of that, he says, was in trying to look at the world through their eyes. "I learned how to talk to them without angering them," he said.
Know Success Is More Than Money
Never mind that Goodby runs a multimillion-dollar ad agency. Nothing stresses Goodby more than the topic of money — especially when it's the money paid to his own employees.
"As a creative person, I don't want to think about money — but I have to," he said. "I have to make decisions about money every day. Deciding what to spend money on stresses me because it's about other people's lives. It's about families and kids and homes and pets. It's a responsibility I don't take lightly."
On two occasions it was money that almost convinced Johnson, the creative director, to leave the agency. On both occasions, she talked it out with Goodby — and opted to stay.
The first time, she had an offer at another ad agency. She found herself very nervously talking with Goodby while seated in two forward-facing chairs near an elevator in the lobby of a Pasadena hotel while attending an ad conference. Goodby posed a challenge to her. Instead of leaving for another ad agency, he said, "Why don't you change this place?"
She agreed to stay. And, indeed, she has changed it.
Goodby: Stay In Tune With Top Employees
A decade later, Goodby cosmically felt that Johnson was restless again — even before she spoke one word to him. Johnson received an unexpected text from Goodby, who had quietly returned to that same hotel lobby — with the same two forward-facing chairs — and simply sent her a photo of the chairs. There were no words in the message. Just the chairs.
"If was as if he was saying: We changed things then, and we can change things now."
Again, she stayed. And the agency is still changing.
So what ultimately satisfies a true leader in his industry — even if that industry is advertising? Goodby says he's not at all remorseful about being an ad guy.
"I hope that I have brought a dignity and humanity to a business that isn't famous for such things," he said. "And as a maker of popular culture, I hope I have put good things in your head instead of ugly ones. Looking back on 40 years of stuff this week, I was not at all ashamed."
Is anyone listening?
Jeff Goodby is.
Jeff Goodby's Keys
- Co-founder and co-chairman of the San Francisco-based Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, the award-winning ad agency behind "Got Milk?" and other iconic campaigns.
- Overcame: Run-ins with bullies in school urged him to practice swaying other people's actions.
- Lesson: "To be a great leader, you have to have the grace to forgive people and to look at the world through their eyes."
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