• It has become something of a taboo in our society to say you don't want to be a leader — especially if you are one. Richard Hytner, a former CEO at the global advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi, experienced it firsthand and is trying to break that stigma.- Lillian Cunningham, Editor, On Leadership, The Washington Post
  • Hytner notes that talent development, for example, is crucial to companies now, so the lack of a great track record for hiring, inspiring, and keeping star employees sometimes trips up aspiring CEOs.- Anne Fisher, Fortune Magazine
  • He argues convincingly that a great team of a chief executive and a number two is a more successful proposition than a solitary leader. Mr Hytner describes the various types of consiglieri – lodestones, educators, anchors and deliverers, according to his segmentation.- Luke Johnson, Financial Times
  • Richard Hytner, deputy chairman of London-based advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi, thinks corporate understudies are too often overlooked. He’s set out to burnish the reputation of the second-in-command...- Adam Auriemma, the Wall Street Journal
  • It’s a trove of advice about how to be a great deputy and principal adviser, a calling that has brought out the best in people as varied and admirable as Warren Buffett’s Charlie Munger, Anna Wintour’s Grace Coddington, Abraham Lincoln’s William Seward, and Henry VIII’s Thomas Cromwell.- Frederick E. Allen, Forbes

Media Article

When Being Second is First Choice

When Being Second is First Choice

In the pages of Fast Company, Worldwide Deputy Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi Richard Hytner posits why being at the top doesn’t necessarily mean being the one in charge. In a provocative article titled “Why Second In Command Can Have More Influence Than The CEO,” the author of Consiglieri: Leading from the Shadows and Adjunct Professor of Marketing at the London Business School describes how a generational “C-change” in leadership just might be taking place.

“Millennials see opportunities for growth and leadership in new ways that extend beyond the hierarchy,” writes Hytner. “Their evolving attitude and appetite for multiple jobs in their lifetime is supported by data from the Emerging Leaders Program at London Business School. Leadership today should be viewed as a lateral adventure—not a linear journey.”

This shift in ideas about leadership challenges the traditional, “winner take all” mentality that if you’re not striving to be number one, you lack either ambition, guts, or both. In his Fast Company article—something of a précis of his most recent book—Hytner suggests that if always-on, adrenaline-driven As are all about “the thrill of having to make the final call,” Cs are often granted more time and space to think, the opportunity to create and shape outcomes, and the satisfaction of mentoring and helping others. Knowing what kind of leadership role best suits an individual is as simple—and challenging—as knowing oneself.

Read the full article here.

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