Bruce Francis on Empathy
There will only ever be one Marc Whisperer
Bruce Francis will always be one of my favorite people across my work career. I caveat this because I never knew him outside the context of work but boy did he make a great impression on me. I suspect he has made a great impression on everyone who's had the chance to work with him.
That's because long before the term became fashionable, Bruce had empathy for people (probably for dogs too given the amount of pets he owns). When he joined Salesforce in 2005, the PR team doubled in size. While his official title was somewhere between Chief Messaging Officer and VP Corporate Strategy, internally he quickly became known as the Marc Whisperer. Bruce for obvious reasons spent an inordinate amount of quality time with our CEO, and like a horse whisperer, intuitively understood his boss' emotional and psychological needs. That allowed him to build trust, communicate effectively, persuade and build a healthy relationship with Marc. He got him.
And that I think was among other things, Bruce's superpower. His ability to demonstrate true empathy helped him bring out the best in other people. Not just Marc, but everyone he spent time thinking about, whether employees, partners or customers. That empathy allowed him to effectively speak the truth.
Here's a little personal story to demonstrate. Every year, Marc would assemble his global leadership team for an offsite in Half Moon Bay. It was always timed to be a couple months before Dreamforce, our biggest customer event which meant more often than not, I was providing an update and call to action to the team assembled. Whether these were my peers or not, it was always intimidating. To calm my nerves, I remember one time that Bruce took me aside and said something like: "Don't worry Tom. You're Lightning in a Bottle. Just remember that and you'll kill it." Now while I aways hoped to be the thought leader, the jokester or the intellectual, those probably weren't the strengths I show up with. Bruce got me, and it helped me focus on my strengths.
We can't all be Bruce, but we can all work on our empathy.
