The workplace is in a moment of reckoning. Our workforce has overcome incredible feats in the past few decades, including the promotion and support of female leaders. With so many monumental breakthroughs and milestones on inclusion and employee empowerment, the question now is how leaders can empower top talent and the workforce of tomorrow.
Tiffany Guarnaccia, CEO and founder of Kite Hill and founder of Communications Week®, recently joined top female executives in the media, marketing and technology industries to discuss how they rose to the top, sharing lessons, insights and best practices they learned along the way. Hosted by Dailymotion, Guarnaccia moderated the conversation and was accompanied by Laura Burkhauser, Director Product Management at Rent the Runway, Stephanie Fraise, Chief People Officer at Dailymotion, Morgan Greco, VP Digital Partnerships at A&E Networks and Jacqueline Quantrell, Chief Revenue Officer at TripleLift.
Kicking off the conversation, Guarnaccia asked each executive to share insights from their personal career journeys and explain how they came to their current roles. While each panelist had a different background story, Guarnaccia pointed out that “there was no one path to the top, everyone had an entrepreneurial spirit while establishing themselves in their career.” Panelists went on to shed light on particular company initiatives that are helping to support women specifically.
The conversation then shifted to broader workplace challenges. While climbing the ranks within a workplace, professionals are tasked with achieving a healthy work-life balance. Burkhauser shared a tip for all audience members, advising them to find the things that matter most to themselves while striving for a balanced life. With so many senior leaders raising a family, Burkhauser advised parents to “take the time to do what you enjoy with your child and the rest of the time be the best parent you can be. Also add in the things that give you energy and make you happy." While it’s not always about doing less, it’s often times about making time for the commitments that make you feel energized and complete. Panelists went on to expand on the fact that a healthy work-life balance is not something that comes without putting in the effort. "You have to seek the work-life balance for yourself. Part of it is the support your company can offer directly and another part is support you demand for yourself," explained Greco.
Panelists reflected on situations where they’ve worked to “break the mold” of women in the workplace. Quantrell shared an experience from early on in her career that has stuck with her to this day. While travelling to CES, she recalls walking on a flight and quickly realizing she was one of only four women on a flight of 300 passengers travelling to the event. While the industry has made huge strides and improvements over the past decade, women need to continue finding their voice in the workplace.
Speakers went on to share advice for those coming up in their career. “Use all the experience you’ve learned throughout your career to make insightful, powerful decisions to make sure your voice is heard,” noted Quantrell. When managing a team, it comes down to leading by example. Guarnaccia challenged leaders to “manage with transparency and to be authentic when communicating to your team” - a best practice she lives by while managing her own company.
Burkhauser chimed in, "Sometimes we feel like we need to wear a mask at work. It's really important for leaders to be the ones that are authentic for their teams to feel they can be themselves in the workplace."
Looking to the future, speakers shared how they want the workforce want to look in 2025. Panelists agreed that inclusion will continue to prevail, hoping all workplaces will foster a fully diverse environment.
The panel concluded with tips on how to advance in today’s workplace. While anyone on a team can identify what’s going wrong, professionals can differentiate themselves by providing strategic insight on how to fix an issue. “Have a voice, be strong and be passionate,” Quantrell advised. Coming to work motivated and enthusiastic is another factor up to each individual employee. While it’s easy to teach someone skills, strategic thinking is a technique that is learned through experience. Guarnaccia stepped in to explain the importance of an employee taking the time to understand the larger business and how their role impacts the broader company.
Promoting a strong future workforce stems from the actions of today’s leaders. Thank you to all the attendees for joining us!
- Kara O’Donnell, Senior Account Executive