Leading with Heart: Barbara Mecchi-Knoll of Resource Advantage Group, On The Power of Authentic Women’s Leadership

An Interview With Pirie Jones Grossman

Women in leadership have a little more empathy than men do when it comes to understanding the balancing act that other women (or single dads) have to go through while trying to lead successful careers as well. If you want to catch your kid’s soccer game, you should be able to do that. Women have to meet their deadlines, and get the job done, but we juggle things a little more than men typically do, and that makes us more empathetic to maintaining a successful work-life balance.

In today’s dynamic world, the concept of leadership is continuously evolving. While traditional leadership models have often been male-dominated, there is a growing recognition of the unique strengths and perspectives that women bring to these roles. This series aims to explore how women can become more effective leaders by authentically embracing their femininity and innate strengths, rather than conforming to traditional male leadership styles. In this series, we are talking to successful women leaders, coaches, authors, and experts who can provide insights and personal stories on how embracing their inherent feminine qualities has enhanced their leadership abilities. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Barbara A. Mecchi-Knoll.

Barbara A. Mecchi-Knoll has been a leader in marketing, communications, brand management and culture change for nearly 40 years. In 1992, she founded Resource Advantage Group (RA), Inc., an award-winning communications company based in Fairfield, NJ, focused on business-to-business clients with an emphasis on the chemical, personal care and pharmaceutical industries. For a number of years, she also served as an advocate for CASA, an organization that advocates for and supports children and youth who have experienced abuse or neglect.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion about authentic, feminine leadership, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?

I started my career working my way through a variety of roles at a big European specialty chemical company with US headquarters in New Jersey — eventually finding my way to Marketing and Advertising. I enjoyed this aspect of the business and had a reputation as someone who could get things done. During this time, I managed the company’s multiple advertising agencies, which as it turned out, was valuable experience in understanding what I did and didn’t like when working with agencies. I thought I had a home and a career path there, but as often happens in large corporate environments, my position was eliminated during cost cutting and head count reduction. It was also my first encounter with the difficulties women sometimes face being recognized in what was a male-dominated culture (which the chemical industry back then certainly was).

While I was looking for a corporate role, I started Resource Advantage Group, Inc. as a part-time ‘agency alternative’ that would give companies an opportunity to get specific marketing work done. My vision was for Resource Advantage to be a place where clients could send one-off jobs and projects they didn’t need to necessarily give to an expensive, slow-moving, fully staffed agency. Over my career, I had built up a strong network, and I had the connections to get things done. That was in 1992. I was introduced to a very small chemical company in Paterson, NJ, and they gave me my first project. They liked the work that I did, and the relationship grew.

Our work was brash and unconventional but also solid from both market and science standpoints. In the B2B world, you can be as creative as you want but it won’t work if you don’t understand the market and get the science right. We spent a lot of time with PhDs. And this client started to get noticed in the marketplace as a result.

So much so, that a few years later it was acquired along with four other businesses to create one of the largest chemical companies in the world based in the United Kingdom. As one of five agencies working for the new company, we faced the loss of our client, and we were their smallest agency. Undaunted, we pitched the business and won the client. All of a sudden, Resource Advantage had a billion-dollar client, and we were international. We stayed with our roots and played to our strengths by working with smaller companies, but we also took chances using our agency-alternative-model working on projects for large companies like Verizon and AT&T.

My background managing multiple agencies and support suppliers meant that we knew the ins and outs of virtually every phase of marketing communications. And when we didn’t know something, we would learn it. That helped us become one of the first companies to produce websites and to even enter magazine publishing.

I set about to build a team that could support these activities. We were passionate, willing to roll up our sleeves and hold multiple roles. It’s the hallmark of a company that has been in business for over 30 years.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

The answer depends on what you mean by interesting. One of the most exciting was seeing our client’s messaging on a 300-foot-tall digital billboard flashing in Times Square to honor them going public on the New York Stock Exchange. This was an account that we won after they were acquired by a private investment firm for whom we’ve done a number of re-brands with their acquisitions. Often, when the re-brand is done, we hand off the work to other agencies.

With this client, we stayed on and helped them completely revamp their approach to marketing — product naming and international portfolio alignment, outbound sales materials, trade shows, public relations, employee communications and strategic program development. Again, the market noticed. When they were acquired by a second private equity firm, they became a public company. My team and I were with them for every step of their journey, and having the opportunity to be a part of their public launch was extremely rewarding.

RA has made a specialty of corporate re-branding over the years, and we’ve done dozens of them. They say as a parent you’re supposed to love all of your children equally and in this case I do. Each has its own special story — like getting legacy companies from five different European nations to get on the same page to create a global powerhouse in pharmaceutical intermediates. Or the 100+ year old food ingredients company we brought into the 21st century and held brand launch and training parties in 22 countries inside a week. Helping to bring a new company into existence is one of the hardest and most rewarding things you can do in my business. I love it.

Another thing that might be considered exciting, although maybe more ironic, was when a person from the company that had let me go called having heard that RA was ‘the company that was the best at product launches in the personal care industry’ and wanted to hire us. They had a preservative that was approved for cosmetics globally and wanted to launch it worldwide — in 90 days. Which we did to great success for them. It was a good feeling to not only be recognized by my former employer, but also to show them that there was a better way to do what they needed. This is a clear case of change is good! I’m not sure I could have had that perspective if I had stayed on my old path with them.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

At RA, we try to know our clients’ business almost as well as they know it. We think that helps us stand out. Our specialty is in representing organizations in the chemical industry, and many of the main principles of RA have deep knowledge and understanding of this space. Being based in New Jersey, we became known as the agency that has chemical industry experts who could develop stories that were exciting and effective.

In my previous job, I would work with agencies who would come on board and tell us that they were copy writers. We would find out later that wasn’t the case, and our team would end up writing 99% of the copy, and then the agency would edit it. One of the things I swore that I would do for our clients is that we would provide the work we promised. When we make our clients look good, everybody wins, and that is our sole purpose — to make our clients look good. We invest time and resources to understand our clients during the onboarding process in order to develop their messaging and to create an impactful brand story that helps distinguish them from competitors. We have a “write once, publish many” mentality, so that we can use that established messaging in content we create in multiple ways to promote our clients. That time and the investment we put in at the beginning pay dividends throughout the relationship.

This has definitely helped us stand out in the industry. In the 32 years RA has been operating, we have never once had to solicit new clients. We have remained busy and grown the organization completely through referrals from our clients over the years.

STORY #1

RA had a client selling pharmaceutical intermediates to global pharma companies. It was a fast-growing space but very different from the traditional big volume commodity chemical business. We were looking for ways to help our clients advertise but there weren’t any magazines that were worth it because the readership was so different than what we were trying to reach. We were at an industry event and approached the communications director of the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association which represented companies like our client and suggested to him that they had an opportunity to create a new publication with a built-in market, where they could both help their members and make some money. He invited us to Washington, DC to present our idea to his management. They loved it — and then said: “Can you guys do this?” We knew the publishing world but didn’t know magazines. Three months later we were publishing 10 issues a year of a brand-new magazine.

STORY #2

The year was 1994 (the year the first web browser appeared) and at our company holiday party I saw the World Wide Web for the first time. I told my colleague who was showing it to me that I thought it was a fad and wouldn’t amount to much. But risk taking has always been part of RA DNA so of course I was in. In 1995, we helped a NJ trade magazine publisher take a Personal Care Industry magazine online. We had to design and code it and we also had to teach them how to market it to their advertisers. Within 18 months, we had eight of their titles online and we were doing monthly Internet issues. This set the stage for what has always been a healthy Internet business at RA. To this day, my staff still teases me about thinking the Internet was just a fad.

You are a successful business leader. Which three-character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

1. I would say that the number one trait that contributed to my success is resourcefulness. I started RA really as a hobby to help pay the bills while I looked for full-time employment. I didn’t put myself in a position where I had to be successful. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would do this for 32 years. If I started this business and I was in a make-it or break-it situation, where my company had to be successful or I was going to lose my house or income, I never would have made it because I would have had to focus on the numbers. The first thing I did was hire an accountant to do that for me. This might not be the right way, or typical way to handle it, but that is what worked for me.
2. Another trait that has helped me is determination and a willingness to work hard. I am not embarrassed to say that I have a high school education with no marketing background. When I started RA, I worked multiple jobs to make ends meet for my family and still managed to do my marketing gig. I’ve always surrounded myself with people from whom I can learn. I had mentors that came to me from my previous job who taught me valuable lessons. I wasn’t afraid to become the sponge who could learn as much as I could, and I became the expert. When I met new clients, they had no clue I didn’t have a college degree. I don’t mind telling them that now.
3. Tying in with the theme for this article series, being authentic has definitely helped me to be successful. When you meet me, you can tell right away that I am New Jersey born and bred, and that I call it as I see it. That is something that my clients truly appreciate. Whether I am talking with the CEO, a project manager, or a secretary, I communicate with them all the same way. I am black and white — you either love me or hate me, and there’s no gray area.

This has definitely helped me to build my organization. There have been a number of clients of mine who have asked me to go beyond marketing and to take on coaching responsibilities with their staff. They realize the authenticity I have, and they have called upon me many times to help their staff get professional training to become more confident in their skill sets and to teach them how to deal with their peers more effectively. I don’t candy coat anything, and I teach people how to get their point across in a way that they will be taken seriously. Over the years, I have become a confidant, and an asset beyond marketing to many CEOs and other C-suite executives who have approached me to present different scenarios and ask me how I would deal with them. They are looking for best practices based on my personal experiences and those I have had with other clients. My reputation as a trustworthy confidant derives from my ability to share learnings from other individuals and clients, while keeping their confidentiality intact in order to help other clients, and it has helped me become their go-to problem solver — and that expands beyond marketing and communications.

D. I like to have fun. I’ve been known to say throughout my career that when it stops being fun, I’m not going to do it anymore. Making hard work fun for my employees and clients is part of what we do at RA. We spend so much time at our jobs, away from our families and managing crazy deadlines that you have to love what you do if you’re going to remain sane. I want my clients to look forward to picking up the phone with me and my people to laugh at least once a day.

Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story with us about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader? I’m curious to understand how these challenges have shaped your leadership.

At one point, we represented a large client that accounted for a high percentage of our agency revenue. This client was being disrespectful to staff members and myself. They were unrealistic with their demands, and they were rude. When it came time to sign the new contract for the following year, I went to the meeting with my resignation in hand. They refused to take it, but I told them they had no choice. I resigned this account knowing that it meant I would have to lay some people off and that I would have to rebuild the agency, but the mental health of my employees and myself was much more important to me than the revenue that was generated by this client. From that point, I have never put our organization in a position where one client had as much of an impact on the success of our company, and I have never brought a client on board who I felt wouldn’t have the respect I feel for my team and that I deserve.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Can you share a personal experience where embracing your unique leadership style, which might not align with traditional expectations, led to a significant positive impact in your organization or team?

In the past, we had a client whose employee was speaking negatively about the company’s leadership, as well as other individuals in the organization. They were sharing their thoughts with external vendors and other stakeholders, and I felt this would be damaging to company morale and leadership. I am very loyal to my clients, and I met with them to share what I was hearing, telling them that I thought it could be damaging to the organization, and that I just wanted to make them aware. so that they could take action before any serious harm occurred.

Being upfront, loyal and bringing awareness to leadership — having this transparency and level of honesty with them — in this situation and others — has led to significant trust with our clients. We have been rewarded with more business being outsourced to RA thanks to the level of trust we are able to build with our clients. This has happened multiple times throughout the time I have led the agency. This transparency and loyalty, and the lack of fear I have telling people the truth is one of the contributing factors to why we are a complete referral business, as I mentioned earlier. People know when they deal with me that I say what I mean and mean what I say — they can trust me to get the job done, and if we have to move mountains, we’ll move mountains.

In your journey as a leader, how have you balanced demonstrating resilience, often seen as a masculine trait, with showing vulnerability, which is equally powerful, but typically feminine? Can you give an example where this balance created a meaningful difference?

The chemical industry is a very male-oriented business. In order to succeed, I couldn’t show vulnerability, and to be honest, being vulnerable is not part of my make up. I am respected by men and women because I bring a unique perspective. It’s not vulnerability — but what I always bring to be successful with masculine thinkers is a female perspective on optics. I have learned during my career, that men in leadership positions don’t always look at optics from different scenarios — I bring them insight on how optics with regard to decisions they make will appear to their internal team, and what the optics are for external audiences. This spans the gamut from decisions that impact the entire future of an organization, to doing a simple photo shoot, and how taking a corporate photo needs to include a broad range of representation of all employees. I bring a different perspective from the outside looking in. You can call that the female touch, but it’s not vulnerability — as far as it comes to vulnerability, it’s not one of the words in my vocabulary.

My background can help explain that. I had a very interesting upbringing, and because of that I built a brick wall around myself early in life. I had to get into survival mode at a young age, and by the time I was 29 and started my own business, I had a lot of survival skills I developed over those years.

As a woman in leadership, how have you navigated and challenged gender stereotypes, especially in situations where traditional male-dominated approaches are the norm? What strategies have you employed to remain authentic to your style?

I have lived in a man’s world, and that has influenced the way I think in some areas to make it lean more masculine than feminine, which I think has helped me. This business and this industry were male dominated when I started, and to some extent it still is today. But I didn’t really think about it. I spoke my mind and knew people would either agree or disagree with me, but I would speak to them honestly and openly and tell them what I felt they needed to do to be successful. If they wanted me to do something I knew was wrong, I would point them down the right path. If someone would come to me and want to spend budget money needlessly, I wouldn’t let them do it with RA. I have to feel good about the job we are doing, that we are doing the right thing to set our clients up for success and believe in the approach. We put a lot of passion into what we do.

I feel that the men that I have worked with throughout my career are very upfront with me. I am not intimidated by male stereotypes — I am a strong-minded individual to the point where if a man offers to carry my luggage, I reject it as I have an independent nature — I also tend to overpack, and it’s usually a lot heavier than it needs to be. I maintain that independence in my business dealings with both men and women.

How do you utilize emotional intelligence and active listening to create an inclusive environment in your team or organization? Could you share a specific instance where these qualities particularly enhanced team dynamics or performance?”

People are there with their own skill set to do a job, and if they need guidance or a sounding board to just bounce ideas on how they are going to approach a project, I support them. Over the years, I have learned there is more than one way to skin a cat. Early on, one of my advisors told me I didn’t need to be in the trenches because that’s when businesses fail.

For example, on the art side of our business, we would have discussions on what the clients would want, I always give the client access to all my employees. When starting a project, I share from my perspective what I believe the client wants and tell our team that if they have a different idea as long as they can explain to the client why it could work better, or show them a different approach, that is great. They can present it along with all the concepts we develop. If they can defend it, they can present it! There’s always more than one way to accomplish your goals, and as far as enhancing team dynamics and performance, it gives my team the ability to have client contact, to speak up in meetings and to present ideas to the clients that I may not agree with, but that the client thinks could work.

This worked in our favor back in 2000, at the world’s largest personal care tradeshow. Our client wanted to generate earned media coverage and was looking for ideas on how to do it. A person on our team (who’s still with RA today) suggested a run/walk. I didn’t like it — thinking it would be hard to get people to commit to an early morning run when they had a long day ahead of them filled with client meetings and walking the exhibit floor, but my employee pushed, suggested it to the client and the client loved it. It ended up being wildly successful and was held annually in different countries in Europe at the same show for the next six years, with the last event being held at Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, which I would be remiss in not mentioning that we managed to rent Olympic Stadium for this event for 300 Euros. The client received earned media coverage beyond their wildest dreams.

What role has mentorship played in developing your authentic leadership style, and how do you communicate authentically to inspire and empower both your mentors and mentees?

I have had a lot of mentors throughout my career — actually hiring a business coach earlier in my career — and some of my clients have not only become mentors but mentees — we jointly help each other. I look to help anyone who is working to become an entrepreneur. I like taking them under my wing and helping them out, regardless of the industry in which they are working. I take affinity to anyone who is starting out. And this spans beyond RA. For example, I recently had a contractor at my house — he did a ton of work for me at a good price, and the reason I think he did that was because I explained to him that he wasn’t charging enough for his services. Whether it’s an entrepreneur, or someone who wants to advance their career — anyone who is career-minded and wants to be molded, I will donate as much time as it takes to help people feel empowered, so that they can go to their job with an attitude that they are where they want to be and that they’re going to succeed.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experience and research, can you please share “5 Ways Leading Authentically As A Woman Will Affect Your Leadership”? If you can, please share a story or an example for each.

1. Women in leadership have a little more empathy than men do when it comes to understanding the balancing act that other women (or single dads) have to go through while trying to lead successful careers as well. If you want to catch your kid’s soccer game, you should be able to do that. Women have to meet their deadlines, and get the job done, but we juggle things a little more than men typically do, and that makes us more empathetic to maintaining a successful work-life balance.

2. If you are in a male-dominated market like I am, when you enter a meeting, you have to read the room to identify the people who will provide you with an opening to make a connection — find the person who will take you seriously and be more willing to listen to a woman’s opinion. Find opportunities to have one-on-one time with them, so that you can demonstrate that your expertise can benefit them and their organization.

3. As I shared earlier, women bring a unique perspective on the optics of most scenarios. We look at things a little differently than men do and can strategize different approaches to successfully handle various situations. I have sat in countless meetings where the men have told me that they hadn’t thought of specific scenarios I introduced to them. Building that trust has helped in the growth of our business.

4. I believe women excel at multitasking. It is something that we are either bred to do, or that we have to learn to do in order to be successful at business and in life. We have to do 50,000 things at once — participate in PTO, finish housework, our professional work — and we need to do all of that and more functioning on all cylinders. It’s something that is unique to women, and it helps us in our professional careers because it demonstrates that we can be adaptable and handle multiple responsibilities. It makes us more efficient as we know how to manage multiple tasks simultaneously. It also helps to develop strong problem-solving skills because we always have to think on our feet to find creative solutions to complex challenges.

5. Effective communication is a critical leadership trait and leading authentically as a woman helps to strengthen your communications skills. Many women excel in interpersonal communication, which helps to build strong collaborative relationships. If you’re not straightforward, and authentic in your communications with others — regardless of gender — it will be difficult, if not impossible, to establish yourself as an effective leader.

Are there potential pitfalls or challenges associated with being an empathetic leader? How can these be addressed?

There has to be a balance between being empathetic and knowing that you have to run your business professionally. Life happens and people are going to have their ups and downs. The trick is knowing how to balance the highs and lows and knowing when you have to gently have a heart-to-heart conversation for the sake of the business, so that your clients and peers aren’t affected on a long-term basis. That could involve reducing someone’s level of responsibility. It could also be knowing when to remove the safety net to get them back on all cylinders. There is a need to be empathetic, but not at the cost of your business.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

If I can start a movement, it would be to empower people more to perform more like entrepreneurs, where they will not only have the passion for their positions, but they will also experience the highs and the lows of being accountable for their decisions. I grew my business by jumping out of the window and getting wings on the way down. If more people had the opportunity to do that in their jobs, I think that it would empower them and make their careers more enjoyable. At least for the employees that want to do that. There are paycheck employees and career-minded employees, and businesses need both, but for the career-minded employees the entrepreneurial spirit can work wonders.

How can our readers further follow you online?

RA’s web address is www.resourceadvantage.com.

Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!

About The Interviewer: Pirie is a TedX speaker, author and a Life Empowerment Coach. She is a co-host of Own your Throne podcast, inspiring women in the 2nd chapter of their lives. With over 20 years in front of the camera, Pirie Grossman understands the power of storytelling. After success in commercials and acting. She spent 10 years reporting for E! Entertainment Television, Entertainment Tonight, also hosted ABC’s “Every Woman”. Her work off-camera capitalizes on her strength, producing, bringing people together for unique experiences. She produced a Children’s Day of Compassion during the Dalai Lama’s visit here in 2005. 10,000 children attended, sharing ideas about compassion with His Holiness. From 2006–2009, Pirie Co-chaired the Special Olympics World Winter Games, in Idaho, welcoming 3,000 athletes from over 150 countries. She founded Destiny Productions to create Wellness Festivals and is an Advisory Board member of the Sun Valley Wellness Board.In February 2017, Pirie produced, “Love is Louder”, a Brain Health Summit, bringing in Kevin Hines, noted suicide survivor to Sun Valley who spoke to school kids about suicide. Sun Valley is in the top 5% highest suicide rate per capita in the Northwest, prompting a community initiative with St. Luke’s and other stake holders, to begin healing. She lives in Sun Valley with her two children, serves on the Board of Community School. She has her Master’s degree in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica and is an Executive Life Empowerment Coach, where she helps people meet their dreams and goals! The difference between a dream and a goal is that a goal is a dream with a date on it!