Page 87 - Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

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LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING
CHAPTER 4
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cell phone.” When her children were younger, she took them to visit David
Ogilvy in the south of France. “Seeing him play with my children made me
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realize how completely intertwined my career and family have become.”
Lazarus has come to an understanding of herself as a role model. Fortune
magazine has included her in every issue of its annual “50 Most Powerful
Women in American Business.” Her example of making time for school func-
tions “gives other women in the company, or clients, the confidence to be able
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to say, ‘I’m going too.’” Young women seek her out for advice. “There’s one
thing I say all the time: You have to love what you’re doing in your professional
life. If you ever want to find balance, you have to love your work, because
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you’re going to love your children.” Most important, Lazarus believes in the
direct approach to integrating work and life. “Encourage them, outright, to fol-
low your example.”
Her boss, Martin Sorrell, chairman of the WPP group (of which O&M is
a member), says, “She has an incredible focus on people and understanding of
this business and the way it is developing. But I wouldn’t want [to say] she’s
just a great people person; she is a very good business manager who doesn’t
back away from tough decisions.” 25
SAYING IT ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH
Lazarus places great emphasis on reiteration. “I don’t think you can ever com-
municate too much. Communicating to your organization is not something
taken care of a couple of times a year in memos, or at the annual Christmas
party speech. I know from my advertising background that the most effective
communication is multilayered. One message builds on others.”
As an advertiser, Lazarus understands the value of different forms of
communications. “Emails are great for speed, but they never replace the face-
to-face. Group meetings are fine for the camaraderie, but they never replace
the intimacy of one-to-one. Formal communication—the written word—
gives weight, but all the more so when it is supported by spontaneous and
informal contact.”
“Above all, you can never walk the halls too much,” she says. “David
Ogilvy once told me that as much time as he spent on people, it was never
enough. Since people are the number one asset of any organization, I don’t
think you can ever spend too much time with them—in written communica-
tion, on the phone, in person.”

SUSTAINING MERIT
Lazarus credits David Ogilvy with creating a sustainable foundation for the
business. “[Ogilvy’s] genius was in taking a very strong point of view about
how to run an organization and from that point of view developing a set of