Cindy Zhou, Chief Marketing Officer at LogRhythm, is based in Boulder, Colorado, and leads a team around the globe. Cindy led teams as an executive at IBM and has worked with startups. Cindy talks about utilizing the principles of Agile by having a daily standup and doing a lot of skip-level one-on-ones. Through Cindy's interview, you'll find how to be a more connected, trusting, and vulnerable leader as you lead your “team from anywhere."
Great Quotes from this episode:
“Our company is no company without our people in it.”
“Just taking a moment to ask people how they are doing is more important than ever” -
Take-Aways
Empathy
- With an empathy-first leadership philosophy, leaders take time to understand what their team is going through and try to alleviate fear as much as they can.
- Characteristics of Empathy
- Be Genuine,
- Care about your team,
- Great desire to make your team proud
- Want what’s best for the team.
- Think about how you can be a better leader for your team so that your team sees career progression and a solid future at your organization by offering possible routes for the future, and possible learning opportunities.
The Great Responsibility of a C-Suite Leader
- Remember that moving up to the C-Suite isn’t just a sign of career progression, it’s a responsibility you carry with people’s livelihoods on your shoulders. Every leader should never take that for granted.
Agile Marketing
CMO Tips:
- Employ agile marketing methodology in the organization.
- Daily standup with Team (what did you do yesterday, what are you focused on, roadblocks)
- People can't get better if you don't give feedback. On the flip side of that is how do you receive feedback (radical candor)?
One-On-One/Daily Standup Meetings
- Open up your one on ones with how that person on your team is doing physically and mentally. How’s your family? How are your loved ones?
- Focus on building trust through transparency and vulnerability in your communication.
- Be open about personal challenges, your own personal life situations, and life stories.
- Helps you be visible and have a strong leadership presence.
- A consistent thread of communication on a daily basis
Organizational Culture:
- Book Clubs
- Learning opportunities for future leaders.
- Giving back to the community – employees do charitable volunteer work, donating to charity,
- Bike builds for underprivileged kids
Meeting with A New Team as a New Leader
- Speak with every single person one on one
- What’s working
- What’s not working
- Career aspirations
- What will you promise?
- To be transparent? To trust? To always be open? To share your thinking behind every decision that you make even if someone doesn’t agree? To consider every team member and the team as a whole when making decisions?
- Benefits of this conversation as a new leader:
- The team is comfortable and confident in what they are doing
- Their work matters
- Takes time, yes, but pays off in dividends over time. Prioritize one-on-one meetings over other kinds of meetings because your team is your first priority.
Links Mentioned:
Radical Candor
Agile Marketing
Audio Credit: Show Me the Way, Vendredi
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
