Need a Creative Breakthrough? How About A Hug

In the age of communication via tweets, texts and snaps, let's not forget the power of a well-placed embrace.

- Sharon Napier

You can’t grow up in a large Italian family and not be a hugger. For one, it’s physically impossible to avoid the hugs. They come at you fast and loud and for all sorts of reasons. It’s your job to smile, open your arms and catch them. Yes, I’m a hugger. I dispense them with reckless abandon. You just got promoted? Bring it in. Your chocolate Lab died? That’s terrible, let’s hug it out.

And maybe that’s just me and my hug-filled upbringing, but it’s also our industry. As the CEO of an ad agency, I’m incredibly lucky to live and lead in a creative industry filled with highly emotional, highly invested people who treat each other (for better or worse) like family.

And seeing that Jan. 21, 2016 marked the 30th anniversary of National Hugging Day, it seems like the perfect time to respectfully champion hugs in the workplace. In a world when the innocent hug is being threatened by the sterile, PC pressures of modern day corporate America, I’m here to stand up for hugs everywhere. And here’s why.

I believe hugs do more for your workforce and the people in it than the most heartfelt-but-toneless armada of thank-yous, congrats and condolences emails you could ever deploy (and please don’t ever send condolences via email, ever).