A Good Judge of Leadership

It’s June 2024, and day three in the Cannes jury room and all ten of us were fading. The room was (somehow) getting colder, even the novelty international snacks had lost their intrigue. Work we all liked four hours ago was now actively starting to piss us off. Apple's Tor Myhren, our jury president, grabbed a water bottle. "Right," he said, placing it in the centre of the floor. "Spin the bottle. Whoever it lands on speaks next."

It was simple, it was silly. It was exactly what needed to happen. That experience made me realise something. One, the water bottle being the tip of the iceberg in terms of the tools Tor has in his arsenal. And two, his creative leadership skills are enviably the best in the business.

If you’ve done a few juries, you’ll have had both experiences. The joyful ones, where your mind gets opened, bent, and changed. Where you learn as much about yourself as you do about the work. Where you leave wanting to bring a celebratory energy back to your team (but not before a few drinks in the pub with your new best pals).

And then there's the other kind. The ones where you’re locked in a room and no one can agree on anything. It's like a really bad meeting, but it goes on for days — conjuring up bad memories of bad pitches from yester-year. You come out frustrated, even furious, questioning the industry, the process, your place in all of it. It’s no fun. No one goes to the pub.

When you’ve got a room full of senior leaders in one room, a sizzling melting pot of ideas, creativity and talent, who steers the ship when you’re all a captain? The ones who have honed their creative leadership skills. A good jury president isn't just there to guide people through the work or resolve a split decision on a bronze statue, they are there to navigate ego, conflict, fatigue, and creative disagreement in real time.

A good creative leader, just like a good jury president, also creates an environment where people can show up as the best version of themselves. To be generous, imaginative and vulnerable. Creating a place they can be at their most persuasive and, paradoxically, also at their most receptive. Where people can think together instead of defensively protecting their first idea or their first opinion. It’s exactly the environment we seek to create in our creative departments, and something the best creative leaders instill in all their teams.

It’s been a soul-searching year for awards, and I think we’ve all been looking for ways to remind ourselves of their value and feel good about them again. For me the fact that they are unique hothouses for creative leadership is one very good reason.

So as we head - with perhaps a little trepidation - into the madness of the summer awards circus, my point is this... the gathering of great people in windowless rooms isn’t just about the gongs at the end and how good you are at cutting a case film. What it’s really about is collective learning. The whole industry benefits when a great room is led by a great person, and from the magic we, as leaders, can take back and share with our agencies and our people.

If you're lucky enough to be named jury president, treat it like the privilege it is. Not because you get to decide what wins. Because you get to show an entire room of creatives what leadership can be.

Franki Goodwin is CCO of Saatchi and Saatchi London and in 2026 served as a Jury president at Creative Review Awards and as Foreperson at Creative Circle as well as a D&AD judge this year. She didn’t make anyone spin the bottle at any of these events.