Golin CEO Matt Neale on Helping Leaders Succeed

In December 2019, Matt Neale became the sole CEO of Golin after the Chicago-based agency ended its three-year “CEO+” model. Golin had adopted the three-CEO structure in 2016 when Fred Cook, its chief executive since 2003, moved into the chairman role.

The New York-based Neale spoke with me further about lessons he’s learned through this experience, agency leadership during the coronavirus pandemic and those who have inspired him throughout his career.

Last year was challenging by any measure. What three tenets helped you lead Golin through the COVID-19 pandemic? 

The first was to communicate regularly and transparently to all our staff, especially when I didn’t have all the answers. The second was to try and temper my natural optimism that everything will work itself out. The impact of this pandemic, especially in the late spring of 2020, was unprecedented in my lifetime. It was simply unrealistic to predict what would happen next or to make the assurances I wanted to. 

The third was to solicit more purposefully the expert counsel of our senior leadership team. At heart I’m a conviction kind of person but this crisis has underlined the incredible value of problem-solving together. A vital element of our success was for me to let go and trust individual leaders of the agency to see through a strategy with their own sense of ownership and identity. 

It seems that these uncertain times will continue for at least another few months. How are you leading teams for the long term who may be exhausted at the moment?

Our biggest focus right now is trying to figure out what the workplace of 2021 will look like. How will we create work together? Will clients still want to meet us in big offices? Do you need to live in the same city where your “office” is located? 

Answering these questions will guide us to design a new system [by which] we can protect our agency culture and also guard the private time we need for friends and family. But it will take several months.

Right now, I’m concerned about getting our people through the winter, before we’re vaccinated. In many cultures around the world, people feel reluctant to say they need a mental break and time off. I try and encourage people that it’s OK to feel vulnerable and to ask for help.

You’re a leader of leaders. How do you lead professionals who are talented in their own right?

My former CEO Fred Cook always gave me space to be entrepreneurial and never micromanaged me. [His example] has stayed with me ever since. 

I like to hire exceptionally motivated leaders, then try and create an environment where they are most likely to succeed. To me, that inherently means more autonomy for those people. I believe in laissez faire rather than command-and-control, albeit with a safety net so any mistakes are measured. An effective CEO should clear a path for their leadership to be successful and help them achieve their professional dreams. 

Who are the three best leaders you’ve worked for, and what made them great?

On the client side, Roland Weening, current CEO of Capri Sun, is exceptional. We worked closely while he was at Unilever. Think of your favorite university professor and that’s Roland: infectiously enthusiastic, firm but nurturing and limitless in his ambition. Quite simply, you want to do the best work of your life for Roland. 

Also on the client side, Stuart Jackson, current director of communications at Amazon Europe, Middle East & Africa Operations, is the epitome of a magnetic, creative and inspirational leader. We worked together when Stu was at [Paris, France-based telecommunications operator] Orange. Whenever I bump into his former employees, they all say the same thing: that he was the best manager they ever had. 

My former CEO Fred Cook was often called the “Steve Jobs of PR” by our founder, Al Golin. That is somewhat unfair, as Fred never lost his cool [unlike the famously hot-tempered Jobs]. But like Steve, he is a visionary. Fred has intellectual curiosity that rivals that of an imaginative child, coupled with razor-sharp executive leadership. There is no one better in developing and nurturing leadership talent. Fred is the master. 

What’s the most important step you’ll take personally to help our profession achieve greater diversity and inclusion? 

Holding myself accountable for our commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion by externally publishing our data together with the things that worked and also the things that failed, and the learnings we have drawn. 

Making sure that this accountability and ownership permeates right through our agency from regional president to our next intern. You cannot get promoted into a leadership role at Golin unless you have delivered against our DE&I plan. This is not a competition and one agency or business cannot succeed at the expense of another. All ships need to rise for true societal change. 

You were named Golin’s sole CEO in 2019, after a leadership experiment in which the company had three co-CEOs. What leadership lessons did you learn from that experience? 

The upside of sharing leadership among CEOs was to have a more considered view on matters of strategy. But in practice, it’s hard for an organization to have three leaders. We got on incredibly well and were aligned on most of the big issues, but you do lose speed and focus.

We were also spread across 12 time zones, which makes clear communication and decision-making a challenge. Hierarchy is hardly the warmest concept in the creative industry, but a degree [of it] is needed to move forward quickly — and somewhat counterintuitively, to give the autonomy that exceptional leaders thrive on.