Jackie Stevenson, Global CEO of creative agency The Brooklyn Brothers, shares her career-defining lightbulb moment with CNBC’s “My Biggest Lessons.”
It’s generally accepted that our work and personal lives should be kept completely separate — especially if you’re a CEO.
However, Jackie Stevenson, CEO of creative agency The Brooklyn Brothers, challenges that notion, arguing that separating the two into neat buckets is impossible.
“Nobody can have a work-life balance,” Stevenson told CNBC “Make It.” “It’s always about a work-life blend. Sometimes work is going to come in more, sometimes life’s going to come in more.”
It’s advice that Stevenson has lived out herself. When her marriage broke down six years ago, she kept it quiet at first. “It was something that I didn’t talk to anyone in the business about. I carried myself,” she said.
But the façade could only be held up for so long.
“When I could share my real feelings, suddenly the empathy that I had for other people in the business really changed. To be able to talk about a period in your life, when you feel completely vulnerable, when you feel like you’re not in control, is something I found in my business career to be hugely important.”
Stevenson says the experience made her an advocate for bringing your authentic self to work, and it’s brought her team closer together as a result.
For more lessons from Jackie Stevenson, including the leadership lessons she learned from ballroom dancing, watch the video above.