Two Types of People in the World: Which Are You?

Ben Lightfoot is CEO of McCann Worldgroup Singapore, which delivers marketing solutions that transform brands and grow businesses. Says this New Zealand native...





“There are two types of people in the world. Those with their arms wide open, and those with their arms closed. And those with their arms open will just have a go at anything! They’re open to what this world is bringing us.”




Lightfoot's beliefs grew from his childhood. “My parents were hippies. It was a high-communication, highly-artistic, highly encouraging and supportive environment. We were brought up to believe that we could do anything we wanted. And when I look back, that formed a lot of who I am as a leader. If you surround yourself with the right people, they’ll do the things they’re bloody good at. And if they’re doing the things that they’re bloody good at, our clients will do well, and we’ll succeed. Good financial results come from putting people first.”




He  continues, “Human beings are remarkable when we’re allowed to be. My job is to help others to be the best they can be. So they can be brilliant. My job is the remove any barriers to that."




Lightfoot combines his highly compassionate style of leading with how he learned fast decision-making and discipline in tough situations: “That comes from my love of extreme sports. As a teenager, I almost lost an arm in a skateboarding accident. Now, I do downhill mountain biking. Risk-heavy sports teach you fast decision-making. If you don’t turn, you’ll hit that tree at 90 kilometers per hour.”




Sharing more about being an Arms Wide Open person...

Lightfoot: “The real criteria for decisions needs to be: ‘Am I going to back this up in my heart and my head?’ 




“Never stop learning. Never stop talking to people. It’s no longer about training and development. It’s about experiences. It’s about taking in information and visiting places and talking to people that may or may not have anything to do with what you do for a job. It’s about filling up our hearts and minds with cool shit.




“One of my favorite parts of the day is talking to Singapore taxi drivers. They have the most awesome stories! They have so much that we can learn from. So I created a competition among my staff on who could collect the coolest story from a taxi driver. It was awesome! And that was having our arms open. At first, a lot of my team were arms closed — they didn’t want to do it. But when they realized they could get a free holiday out of it, they opened up.




“The point was to get my staff to keep learning. Go have a conversation. There’s a whole world out there. 




"Take the afternoon off. Go sit in a café and listen to people’s conversations, and watch. My only request is that you bring your observations back and share what you learned. That will spark the work conversations we need.”

So...

Which type of person are you?

Arms wide open? Or closed?


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