SAP's CMO Julia White learned early in her career about the challenge of leading teams through change, and earning respect by owning up to mistakes

Business Insider

SAP's CMO Julia White recalls a lesson learned earlier in her career — on leading teams through change, and owning up to mistakes. She was interviewed by Business Insider at the Cannes Lions 2024 International Festival of Creativity.

Transcript

00:00This was the wrong time, and it was going to be a really, really disruptive and too big of a change for that time.

00:10One of my most favorite mistakes, I'll call it, was pretty early in my CMO career,

00:14and I came into an organization, I was going to change it and bring in new types of marketing, product marketing, different categories,

00:19and I was literally at the final stages of rolling out a pretty big org change.

00:24And I was hearing resistance, but I was like, that's normal, people don't like change.

00:28But it was right up at the end, I hadn't sent the email, I hadn't communicated it broadly,

00:32but a leader pulled me aside and was like, I just need you to hear me out on this.

00:36And I really listened, and I paused, and then I went and I asked other leaders,

00:40and I realized that this was the wrong time, and it was going to be a really, really disruptive and too big of a change for that time.

00:47And so I walked back from it completely, and I remember a couple of my leaders pulled me aside,

00:51and they're like, I've never seen anyone literally admit it was wrong, change their mind, and do something different in the way you did.

00:58And so they actually admired me more, which I thought was strange, but in the moment,

01:02because I felt like, God, how did I get this far and make this wrong thing?

01:05And then ultimately, three years later, I implemented that change when the team was ready and when we were ready as a business to do it.

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