Mimi Nicklin is a Dubai based business leader, who over a 15 year career has held roles as diverse as Strategic Director, Vice President and Creative Director, various cities including Cape Town, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, London and Singapore, for some of the world's leading advertising agencies.
Her creative mind and her experience in empathetic leadership, along with her passion for balancing humanism and capitalism, have led her to writing her first book 'Softening the Edge', released on 15 September.
In the latest in a series on women in business, Connector asked Mimi a few questions about her journey and her experiences of the business world.
Q. When did you get bitten by the business bug?
I have wanted to work in the creative industries since I was 12 years old! My dad was an adman and for as long as I can remember, I wanted to be like him! Today I still follow in his footsteps.
Q. Did you have mentors that encouraged you, and who were they?
My gosh there have been so many people that have supported me wonderfully, but of all of them Konstantin Popovic (KP), CEO of Grey Group, Singapore stands out as a career changing leader. Seeing the world through KP’s leadership lens was ultimately extremely powerful for me. I learnt how to navigate complex business negotiation with resilience and how to balance immense challenge with true loyalty and consistency.
Q. What challenges did you find in the business world, and how did you overcome them?
My greatest challenge is to understand those that don't value transparency as a currency to growth and mutual gain. As someone who deeply values empathy, I work hard on overcoming this when I encounter it but I find it hard to understand any need to constantly turn to 'smoke and mirrors' to win in the business world. I overcome this by focusing on ensuring me and my team put all our energy into the opposite and set a standard for true people led leadership.
Q. What challenges did you find when balancing work and home life, and how did you overcome them?
I find that if you can truly feel both belief and passion in your work, the balance finds itself. If you believe your words and are passionate about sharing them, the rest becomes far less of a hurdle.
Q. What encourages and motivates you?
My vision is of a stronger, kinder, more connected post COVID-19 world. A world where the discussion around empathetic influence can be a beacon of change and a driver of our uniquely human ability to inspire people and more deeply understand them. If I meet or talk to just one person every day who finds value in my message or data, that’s enough. I have been lucky that for five months now I have met at least one of these people every day. This gets me up early and keeps me up late.
Q. Does anyone inspire you at the moment?
I absolutely love how Jacinda Ardern is leading New Zealand with empathy, understanding and humility first. For me she is a beacon of hope for humanity-led principles of growth and change at the highest political levels.
Q. What advice would you want to use for women who are contemplating entering the business world?
I have learnt that the fear of failure is always worse than the failure itself. In failing we learn, and in learning we grow. Ultimately as humans we were born to thrive and to continue to grow; without this we bore, lose momentum and lack in inspiration. Balancing the potential for failure against the potential for stagnancy makes you realise that the risk of potentially failing is the far less scary option.
Mimi's book 'Softening the Edge' is released on 15 September and is available to preorder from www.Amazon.ae.
For more about Mimi, visit her website www.miminicklin.com