Bossing It: Why Kevin Gammon Never Avoids the Hard Issues
Kevin is the managing partner and creative director of Teak in San Francisco - a creative studio dedicated to giving brands a soul. He spent the first 18 years of his career in the creative departments of global advertising agencies FCB & McCann Worldgroup. In that time, he created, and managed the creation of, prominent national and international advertising campaigns partnering with CEOs and CMOs across almost every category for both B2C and B2B brands. His clients included Microsoft, Amazon, AT&T, Citibank, Gatorade, MillerCoors, MTV, Boeing, Blue Shield of California, Taco Bell, Illinois Bureau of Tourism and the Oakland A’s and San Francisco 49ers.
In 2009, he founded SA-5, a branding studio whose initial clients included Yahoo, Logitech, San Francisco Travel and the San Jose Earthquakes. He merged SA-5 with Teak in 2014.
Kevin is a board member of the Marin Bicycle Coalition and a member of the Pedestrian & Bicycle Advisory Council for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District.
LBB> What was your first experience of leadership?
Kevin> I was working for FCB in San Francisco in the early 2000s. Our Chicago office (where I started my career) won the HP/Compaq account. They managed and created all of the TV advertising, and in SF I was somehow put in charge of all the of the B2B - mainly print - work.
LBB> How did you figure out what kind of leader you wanted to be – or what kind of leader you didn’t want to be?
Kevin> A combination of emulating others and trial and error. I worked for great leaders and not-so-great leaders and tried to take the best from the best and avoid the mistakes of others. I had one great boss in particular, Geoff Thompson at FCB. He was clear with his expectations, supportive when needed but mostly gave me freedom to succeed or fail on my own. That space is something I needed desperately. It was inevitable I would go out on my own at some point. I can’t imagine having any kind of 'boss' (even a great one) now.
What’s interesting to me is that he was the perfect leader for me, but not for everyone. Not everyone does well with that much space and freedom, which is something I learned later when managing a larger team.
LBB> What experience or moment gave you your biggest lesson in leadership?
Kevin> At first, I didn’t really understand what I was supposed to do. Honestly, I didn’t really get that I was the one in charge. Nobody sat me down and explained what my responsibilities were. A few weeks into it, I got a very tough email from Jonathan Harries, the worldwide ECD at FCB basically asking me “What the hell are you doing out there?”
That was the best email I could’ve gotten. It made me quickly realize that if you want to lead, you have to grab the reins. No one is going to hand them to you, and no one is going to explain how to use them. Just like you 'take ownership' you have to 'take leadership'.
LBB> Did you know you always wanted to take on a leadership role? If so how did you work towards it and if not, when did you start realising that you had it in you?
Kevin> I knew early in my career I wanted to be a creative director. I assumed everyone who started as a junior copywriter or art director or designer wanted that. That was the designated career path. However, I didn’t necessarily want to be the leader that managed a lot of people. What I really wanted was autonomy. I’ve never been good at having people tell me what to do.
So, I worked towards that creative director role, and with it came the leadership part. What I knew I had in me was the ability to make decisions and defend them, which is critically important. What I had to learn how to do was communicate and relate to people who had totally different mindsets than myself.
LBB> When it comes to 'leadership' as a skill, how much do you think is a natural part of personality, how much can be taught and learned?
Kevin> There are aspects of leadership that correlate well to certain inherent character traits. Decision-making ability, conviction, passion, empathy - these are all important. There are people that are natural public speakers and know how to speak to a large audience. I’m much better one-on-one or in small groups, so I had to learn how to better speak in public for instance.
LBB> What are the aspects of leadership that you find most personally challenging? And how do you work through them?
Kevin> To be a good leader takes a lot of energy. You have to be 'up' for everyone, even if you’re not feeling it that day. That’s hard, especially for creative people who tend to ride the rollercoaster of emotions. Some have that naturally, and for some it takes work.
I’m a positive person. Most of the time. When I’m up, I’m way up. But when I’m down I’m also way down.
For me, leadership gets challenging when your team gets larger. When you have 20-40 people, you’re going to get people who don’t agree with you. You’re also going to get those people who just want to tear down anyone who is in charge. It can get lonely real quick.
LBB> Have you ever felt like you've failed whilst in charge? How did you address the issue and what did you learn from it?
Kevin> I’ve failed so many times. Looking back, my biggest failures were avoiding the hard issues. The hard issues were mostly dealing with people who caused friction and dissent within the organization. I learned you have to address these things immediately. I also learned I don’t like firing people. Which is part of the reason we scaled our company back a few years ago.
LBB> In terms of leadership and openness, what’s your approach there? Do you think it’s important to be transparent as possible in the service of being authentic? Or is there a value in being careful and considered?
Kevin> I have to be transparent. Maybe too transparent. I’m an open book. I often talk a lot and digress and say things off the top of my head. I’m just wired this way. I just love talking about ideas. It’s why I got in this business.
However, that way of operating does not work when you’re a leader of a larger organization, at least communicating that way to a broader group. In that context, it’s essential to be careful and considered, as people will interpret what you say based on their own individual biases. That large group of people won’t know you well and understand the quirks of your personality.
In that larger group setting, you still should be transparent and authentic, but filtered. You really need to think through everything. Are there multiple ways others can interpret what you’re saying? You need to keep it as simple as concise as possible.
LBB> How important is your company culture to the success of your business? And how have you managed to keep it alive with staff working remotely?
Kevin> Going from 30 plus people to four people was a combination of a conscious decision and the pandemic. We were already getting smaller, and then we accelerated that direction in 2020.
One of the first things we did after the lockdown was schedule a 30-minute zoom call every day at 10am for the company. Over three years later, we still do this call every day. And it never lasts 30 minutes, it usually stretches to an hour or more. We talk about work, yes, but we talk more about current events, our interests, travel, music, TV, culture... all the things you would talk about together in an office.
I think we all could honestly say we know each other better now, and our culture has never been stronger. That said, if we had not worked together in the office prior to this I’m not sure it would have worked as well. I’m a big fan of working together and in-office culture, and my belief is that this only works because that’s where we started.
LBB> What are the most useful resources you’ve found to help you along your leadership journey?
Kevin> I’ve read a gazillion books about personal development and leadership that probably all contributed to learning and trying to get better. The classics in that category are hard to beat - '7 Habits of Highly Effective People', 'How to Win Friends and Influence People'. I recommend digging into that whole category of books, and picking out what makes sense and works for you.
The book Rework came out right when I was starting my first agency. It reaffirmed some of the ideas I had about leading a company and encouraged me that a different way of working is not only possible, it’s preferable.
For about six years I worked mostly with Microsoft through McCann in San Francisco. Not long after I started, we did an all-day work session with a company called. Gatehouse discovery. Basically a personality test. I learned so much about how to better communicate with others who think about the world differently than I do. This may have been the one thing that impacted me the most.
Also I highly recommend therapy, particularly as your agency grows.
