What is your leadership style? Can you balance a strong influence with a softer side that truly cares for those you lead? Society seems to brainwash us into thinking that these two ends of the spectrum are mutually exclusive and simply cannot coexist with success. Today’s guest, Lisel Welden, proves that leadership that cares can be the key empowering force to pull a team together in the face of any obstacles. Listen in to find out more.
Lisel Welden is a marketing executive with a strong understanding of global youth culture. In her last two roles, she led brand marketing efforts and helped make Lyft a household name, and before that, she was global retail brand director for Nike Men’s Training. Her leadership role in Nike’s Black History Month was born out of a desire to give back to her community and it eventually led to a global program uniting Jordan, Converse, and Nike brands in the development of the Ever Higher Fund, which ultimately became Nike’s equality campaign. In this episode, Lisel shares how her mixed-race heritage as Jamaican and Chinese is a source of pride and has influenced her approach to leadership, why the key to thriving in rapidly-changing startup environments is to manage people first and business second, and why we need to scale caring.
A diverse cultural heritage
Lisel Welden moved to the US as a third grader. She was born in Jamaica to parents of Jamaican and Chinese heritage. Her grandfather came from China on a boat and landed in Jamaica, which was touted as a great place to live as a British colony of wide diversity. Her mother was the 8th of 9 kids, and she became a doctor, always teaching her daughters that women need to be able to take care of themselves and have a profitable career. Lisel traveled with her family to Trinidad, then Toronto, and finally to Miami. In college, Lisel studied art history, which she loved, but she realized it gave few career opportunities, so she chose a pre-med path as well. No matter where the family has lived or what difficulties they have faced, it was always stressed to them to take care of each other as family.
Being biracial
Lisel remembers becoming aware of her biracial heritage while living in Miami, realizing that she was part black, part white, and part Chinese. This discovery led her for awhile to believe that she was an enigma and really didn’t belong anywhere. This prompted her to learn to identify herself and find the community into which she belonged. She became bold in proving her identity and learned that all the little pieces of herself–her background, her makeup, and her experiences–are what makes her great. It was a good early lesson to learn that variances and differences are good and that we can’t all be put in the “boxes” that people want to prescribe to us. She says, “Let the boxes fade away and define yourself. As the mixed-race population in the US increases, the boxes aren’t necessarily going to work anymore.”
A career path of self-sufficiency
Remembering what her mother taught her, Lisel realized that she didn’t want to be a doctor so she could work with patients, but that she was better suited to run a hospital or an organization. She got off the pre-med path but kept following her passions and strengths. She followed the path to sports, and then to business, and then to an MBA degree. Right out of school, she had the opportunity to work for Nike in a marketing development leadership program, and she jumped at the chance. Lisel was thrilled to work for one of her favorite companies in “a really cool job” where she moved around within the company, learning and soaking it all in for two years.
The training ground
Lisel Welden had the opportunity to oversee the Black Employee Network at Nike, which is an employee resource group that exists in various forms at many large companies. The mission is to provide a community for people of color and provide leadership and mentorship opportunities. This effort was part of the Diversity and Inclusion Office of Nike and proved to be a tremendous learning experience for Lisel Welden. Everyone in the group is a volunteer, so they learn great organizing and planning strategies and practice influencing skills, always inspiring, motivating, and pulling people together. Lisel says this experience taught her to manage people first and business second to get more out of your team. She shares a story of an influential supervisor named David at Nike, and how he taught her not to “lose her voice” and to always advocate for her ideas.
Using Competitive Leadership to Build a Kick-Ass Community – with Lisel Welden
From Nike to Lyft
Since Lisel Welden had been in Portland for her Nike career, she and her family were ready for a change and she was ready to learn and grow again. Her son has special challenges so they wanted a place that offered more resources for him. Lisel saw that the world and her function in it were changing. It was an easy decision to take the incredible opportunity to work in a startup with Lyft and move to San Francisco. Lisel says, “I wanted to disrupt myself. Life at Nike was getting too comfortable.” She was able to easily transfer her skills from Nike to create success for everyone on the Lyft team.
Building the Lyft brand
As a VP, Lisel Welden developed the company’s first brand strategy. She led marketing efforts and helped make Lyft a household name. The challenges were many as she had to learn a new role, the capabilities of the team, and how to build a connection with the consumer. The success of Halloween 2015’s “Zombie Mode” was a cross-functional effort of “war room strategy” that made everyone understand the power of brand marketing and how it creates energy and moves a business forward. A subsequent TV spot enhanced awareness of the brand and set the stage for massive growth.
On to Bleacher Report
Lisel experienced a totally new situation when she left Lyft to work at Bleacher Report, which was already an established company that was looking for its next stage of growth. Since they had outgrown their former strategy, Lisel had to establish the brand mission and pillars and build strategy as they rebranded. She helped bring about new thinking in the market as Bleacher Report became the “sports culture destination for the millennial sports fan.” Lisel had to create content marketing and energize and elevate the profile of the brand. It was a fun experience that she’s happy to have gone through.
A passion for people
Lisel’s central idea of leadership is to build work cultures that help us build the communities that we want. She says, “We have to be functional and great at our jobs, but also great leaders who empower and build the next generation of leaders.” By community, she means the offline interactions we have in our neighborhoods, finding solutions that bring us together as people in spite of the tidal wave shifts that are taking place in our society. Her philosophy is to create a sense of belonging and a diverse mix of different strengths on a team in which we value the members as people and learn to scale caring in a different way. She shares a personal example of “scaling the goodness” and being transformed as a leader.
Being caring but competitive
As you have figured out, Lisel’s philosophy is very different than many other high-profile business leaders, who live with a more cutthroat approach and agenda. Lisel credits leading the Black Employee Network back at Nike as the formative influence on her leadership style. Caring for people and realizing you can still accomplish great things is the “mother lode.” Why do we think that caring and competition can’t coexist? Lisel is a caring and compassionate leader who likes to challenge people to find “more” within themselves in order to reach their full potential.
Managing different roles
If you’re a working mom, then you realize that life sometimes brings challenges that make things harder and you have to just “figure it out.” Lisel shares a story of a clinical decision she had to make that turned out to be intensely emotional and hard for her to accept as a woman and a mother. Every working mom has to make sacrifices to try to manage the different roles in life. No matter how perfect other people may look, we know that no one has an ideal life; we are all doing the best we can with what we’ve been given. Lisel says, “You have to understand that decisions have to be made about managing your time and you have to be present in the moments you have. Let go of perfection and embrace the messiness. It’s the things you don’t plan that make life really special.”
Highlights of the Episode:
- 6:07 – Family interdependence in helping each other
- 8:23 – Lisel’s biracial background
- 11:23 – Dealing with “boxes and labels”
- 12:55 – Lisel’s career path to self-sufficiency
- 16:04 – Her work with Nike’s Black Employee Network
- 22:40 – The transition from Nike to Lyft
- 25:34 – VP of Brand Marketing at Lyft
- 28:34 – The challenge of Bleacher Report
- 30:30 – Lisel’s passion for people and her work philosophy
- 38:52 – Creating a sense of belonging through leadership
- 40:51 – Being a caring but competitive leader
- 45:15 – Managing different roles at home and at work
- 50:06 – Being present and mindful and letting go of the ideal
- 52:32 – The Fem Five
Resources Mentioned:
- Connect with Lisel on LinkedIn: Lisel Welden
The Fem Five:
1. Favorite book for women?
- “A biography I’m reading right now about Robert Kennedy”
2. Favorite self-care hack?
- “Meditation and yoga, because I always feel so good after.”
3. Best piece of advice and who gave it to you?
- “Pamela from Nike told me, ‘Meet people where they are’.”
4. Female thought leader of CEO you’re into right now?
5. One piece of advice you’d give your five years younger self?
- “Don’t doubt the ability that you have. Recognize all that you bring to the table. Don’t let anyone take away what you have to offer.”
Last Time on The NextFem Podcast
Being Real Without Being a Hot Mess – with Christine Wild – with Christine Wild
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