Reckitt-Benckiser’s Global Content & CX Director, Lindsay Barrett, has had a diverse journey in her marketing career. Through this, she has developed a keen interest in the psychology of management, which is her Shiny New Object, driving her curiosity in how to motivate excellence in her marketing team.

Lindsay’s work involves working with start-ups and internal teams around the world, yet she began her conversation with me by recalling a way in which she failed to account for differences in culture when she first moved to the UK from Australia. Her biggest work mistake, she humorously remembers, was talking before listening and barging into a very polite British meeting with what she calls “driven Australian style” that fell flat.

This was an opportunity for Lindsay to become attuned to understanding and preparing for cultural differences, and it’s now something she does naturally before any new meeting with teams overseas. Getting a flavour for how marketing is done in different environments has led her to learn about what drives people, too. 

Lindsay’s Shiny New Object is all about the driving force in an excellent team, the psychology of management and how different styles of leadership impact behaviour. She absolutely loves Netflix documentaries like “The Last Dance” and “The Playbook” and studies how learnings from sports coaching can be implemented in the office. Lindsay thinks anyone with little management experience can adopt this approach, by asking questions and trying to understand their employees. She always asks: “How can you make that relationship [with your team] more successful?”

This attitude to management is all the more important in our age, where Lindsay thinks that “younger generations absolutely expect and deserve us to be so much more attuned to different personality types”.

As for Lindsay’s quick tip on how to continue to be an inspirational manager during COVID-19 and beyond, it’s to always have the video on when on a Zoom call! “It’s the best way to build rapport and chemistry”.

Listen to the full podcast episode here.

Tom Ollerton is the Founder of Automated Creative. Subscribe to the ‘Shiny New Object’ Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and Soundcloud.