80: Mojo Under Fire: How To Embrace Your Agency & Take Control with Lindsay Pattison

"There is no White Knight coming to save you."
My former boss Lindsay Pattison said this to me recently, and it landed hard.
Lindsay was global CEO of Maxus, part of Mark Read's core WPP team, running a global agency network at what she calls "200 miles an hour."

At that speed, you don't have time to question whether you're going in the right direction. You just go.
Until the day she realized: this pace was making decisions for her. So she did something radical. She chose to pause. Not because she had to. Because she wanted agency over what came next.
The conversation we had about this decision is one of the most honest I've recorded. It's about:
* What it really means to have agency when you're at the top (it's not what you think) * The responsibility that comes with leadership that nobody talks about
* How to make massive life decisions without certainty
* What happens when you stop running and start choosing

This is exactly why I'm launching the new series Mojo Under Fire - conversations about the crucible moments that forge great leaders

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Hope you love it
Richard 🦋

And if you'd like to book a free 30 minute discovery call with me to talk about some coaching can help get your Mojo back - just drop me an email.

The Mojo Podcast
Hosted by leadership coach Richard Stokes from Ibiza
@mojorichard on Instagram
richard@mojo-leadership.com
www.mojo-leadership.com

Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Initial Reflections on Mojo
03:01 Understanding Mojo: Authenticity and Magnetism
05:57 Navigating Change: The Power Pause
08:42 Leadership Evolution: From Solving to Listening
11:41 Agency and Accountability in Leadership
14:48 Crucible Moments: Testing Belief and Confidence
21:42 Gender Dynamics in Leadership: The Double Bind
23:35 Navigating Ambition and Confidence
26:02 The Importance of Supporters and Allies
26:48 Empowering Women Through Programs
30:27 Building a Network of Allies 3
2:23 Reframing Self-Doubt into Confidence
34:01 Handling Pressure in High-Stakes Meetings
38:51 Building Trust Through Crisis Management
43:22 Embracing AI as a Transformational Tool

Lindsay is a seasoned marketing and media executive with extensive leadership experience across global organizations. Most recently serving as Chief People Officer at WPP she oversaw people strategy for 110,000 employees worldwide, led AI-powered workforce planning initiatives, and managed executive talent acquisition across all c-suite roles.

Previous roles include WPP’s Chief Client Officer, managing 50 Global Client Leaders, representing >£4.8bn revenue, successfully driving organic growth for Top 50 clients with a culture of ‘high performance, high support’.
Lindsay was Global CEO of WPP’s fastest growing media agency Maxus in 2014-17 after an extraordinary period of success as UK CEO.

Lindsay currently serves as Senior Independent Non-Executive Director for Rugby World Cup and sits on the Board of NASDAQ-listed Waldencast PLC as Chair of the Compensation Committee. She is also an Advisory Council member for AI leadership coaching company Valence.

A passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion, Lindsay founded the ‘Walk the Talk’ initiative for senior women, which expanded globally across WPP and reached over 3,000 female colleagues. She also served as President of WACL in 2014.

After leaving WPP in June 2025, Lindsay on taking what’s been described as a ‘power pause’ or gap year, before beginning her next career chapter.