For Marissa Ash, vice president of customer success at physician search platform Garner Health, becoming a mother meant more than maintaining a regular bedtime for her son. She also wanted to set an example for other women on her team in order to show them they could thrive as both a parent and a professional.
“The prospect of pushing my career forward while building a family was daunting,” Ash said. “When I returned from maternity leave, I wanted to model what a working mother could look like.”
Of course, demonstrating success in juggling work and parental duties isn’t the only way leaders can empower their teammates. Simply sharing women’s accomplishments in Slack channels or companywide meetings is something that Claire Spangenberg strives to do as vice president of marketing at mental healthcare platform Alma. Doing so not only highlights her peers’ personal strengths before a larger audience but acknowledges the impact they’ve had on her professional growth.
“We have some incredible female leaders here and working alongside them has made me a stronger leader, which is something I love to celebrate,” Spangenberg said.
Sometimes, uplifting other women doesn’t involve sharing what you know. In fact, it can mean the opposite. As vice president of marketing at e-commerce marketing platform Yotpo, Rosa Hu makes an effort to demonstrate her own fallibility in the workplace. By offering other women the space to grow, she has greater opportunities to do the same.
“In order to get stronger, learn and grow, you must admit you don’t know everything and reinforce the idea that others can help you become a better teammate and leader,” Hu said.
Built In NYC caught up with Ash, Spangenberg, Hu and three other local leaders to learn about the impact that empowering other women in the workplace has had on their career journeys.
What were some of the defining moments that brought you to where you are today?
After working in various communications and research-related roles, I went to Stanford to earn my MBA in 2016. I had the opportunity to meet some phenomenal individuals there who shared how important it was to create an empowering culture. After receiving my degree, I led a number of departments, including sales, account management and growth, at Transfix. Through these experiences, I discovered my passion for delivering exceptional client service and my knack for complex project management.
I now love working in client-facing roles, which isn’t something I expected earlier on in my career. As vice president of customer success at Garner Health, it’s my job to ensure all of our members have excellent experiences and bring their voices into the decision-making process.
As a leader, what have you done to empower and uplift the women around you?
As a manager, one of the most important responsibilities I have is to help others achieve success and reach their full potential. Each quarter, I ask everyone to create a personal development goal in addition to their core responsibilities. I think this is important for everyone, but perhaps more so for women, as it becomes an enabling moment for them to ask for more.
Last year, one woman expressed a goal to do an executive presentation. In an effort to better understand this goal, I worked with this person to uncover the factors driving this desire. We realized she wanted to work on projects that were critical to the business, improve her presentation skills and build her credibility. Over the next few months, she worked extremely hard and ultimately crushed the presentation.
I often see talented women downplay their accomplishments or doubt themselves unnecessarily. When this occurs in a group setting, I try to create space for her to share the business outcomes she has achieved. If we are in a one-on-one meeting, I will explain how I see the situation differently. Not only is it important for women to recognize their contributions, but it’s also critical to ensure their colleagues do as well.
Not only is it important for women to recognize their contributions, but it’s also critical to ensure their colleagues do as well.”
What behaviors do you think are important for leaders to model to their team members?
I’m a new mom, so it’s an exciting time for me and my family. My son is really wonderful and a huge motivation for me. When I returned from maternity leave, I wanted to model what a working mother could look like. For many years, I was daunted by the prospect of pushing my career forward while building a family. I was worried that having children would hinder my ability to take on challenging and impactful roles. As I navigate life as a working mother, I want my work-life balance to be visible to others who might find themselves in a similar position one day. For instance, my team understands that the time between 6 and 7 p.m. is reserved for my son’s bedtime each night.
While having a baby has changed my life tremendously, it has also increased my dedication to my team. During the work week, I spend more time with my teammates than I do with my son. Given that, it’s important for me to work at a company where I’m surrounded by smart and dedicated people all striving toward the same meaningful mission. I’m lucky to have found that environment at Garner.
What were some of the defining moments that brought you to where you are today?
One of the most defining moments of my life and career occurred when I dropped out of law school to join the marketing team at Chipotle. My manager at the time, Jacqueline Gonzales, took a chance on me, even though I lacked marketing experience. During my time as a brand marketing strategist at Chipotle, I was responsible for building and executing the brand marketing plan for an entire region. It offered me ample autonomy, opportunities to harness my creativity and storytelling skills, plus the chance to master the marketing ropes.
My next big career move was to Caviar. During my time there, I had the opportunity to dive headfirst into tech marketing. This experience gave me the language and skills needed to be a data-driven marketer and leader. I also learned how to advocate for brands in a data-obsessed, acquisition-focused culture.
When Alma founder and CEO Harry Ritter asked me if I would be interested in becoming the company’s first marketing employee, I wasn’t looking for a new job. Of course, that’s how many great stories begin.
As a leader, what have you done to empower and uplift the women around you?
I lean into vulnerability. At the end of the day, we aren’t humans in our personal lives and superhumans at work. We are 100 percent human all the time. That’s why I try to share my fears, insecurities and challenges while encouraging others to do the same. When we pretend to have it all together, we’re not empowering each other to take chances, fail fast and be brave. Recently, I’ve included personal reflections in my weekly newsletters to my team to share my honesty regarding workplace challenges, such as workload, prioritization tradeoffs and burnout.
Additionally, I celebrate and evangelize my teammates’ wins. I take opportunities to recognize their impact during one-on-ones and in more public forums, such as our wins channel in Slack, all-hands meetings and board meetings. I create space for my teammates to own their roles and work, and I seek out opportunities for them to lean into cross-functional leadership.
It’s crucial for leaders to embrace their humanity at work.”
What behaviors do you think are important for leaders to model to their team members?
It’s crucial for leaders to embrace their humanity at work. I don’t always have the answer, and I’m not going to show up to work each day perfectly. When I personally see leaders model vulnerability, I feel less alone and more empowered and energized in my work.
It’s also important to invite feedback, which is different from being open to feedback. Inviting feedback means you seek commentary in different forms in order to give teammates the opportunity to be heard. Everyone’s voice matters. Leaders who invite feedback and reflect this value to their teams can foster trust and build a culture that focuses on getting it right rather than being right.
Lastly, it’s essential to model bravery. Leaders should demonstrate a willingness to have a unique point of view and make their own bets. If you’re wrong or you fail, so be it. This is a skill I continually try to refine.
What were some of the defining moments that brought you to where you are today?
The most important decision I’ve made in my life was to attend Wellesley College. I gained a great deal of confidence there. There were no men to hold leadership positions, speak up in classrooms or run for class president. The alumni network is also extremely strong. In fact, every early-career internship or job I had was achieved through a Wellesley connection.
I began to grow substantially during my time as a marketer at a small company, which was later acquired by SAP. While I was there, I met the greatest mentors. They often said things like: “Why shouldn’t you go advocate for yourself? Why shouldn’t you introduce yourself to an executive you admire? You can do anything you want to do.”
Another significant moment in my life occurred when I got my first management position. I managed 30 people at various stages of their careers. Some of them had more experience than I did, while some had less. I was nervous at the beginning. I spoke with every single one of my mentors and read every management book and article that I could find. Ultimately, I kept coming back to the same message, which was, “You’re never going to be ready, so just dive in and do it. You’ll make mistakes, but you’ll get through it.”
As a leader, what have you done to empower and uplift the women around you?
When I joined Yotpo, many people were very excited to have a female product marketing leader. They immediately showed me how much they trusted my intuition. My biggest priority was to win the trust of my teammates, who were all women at the time. For me, it’s about treating my peers as equals. We do everything together and it’s not just me leading them. I frequently advocate on their behalf, whether that involves voicing their opinions, making sure their concerns are heard quickly, ensuring they feel fulfilled and challenged, helping them achieve personal growth, or enabling them to stand out in front of stakeholders.
It’s important for women and others to have the opportunity to be heard and speak for themselves. That often means giving them an opportunity to speak in front of executives, offering them credit and making sure their names are attributed to projects they’ve owned.
It’s important for women and others to have the opportunity to be heard and speak for themselves.”
What behaviors do you think are important for leaders to model to their team members?
There is a misleading stereotype that women are jealous and compete against each other. It’s beneficial to be transparent, hear teammates out on their concerns and let them know what’s going on in the organization. There’s no need to be secretive about how things work or keep things from your teammates unless it’s absolutely necessary. The more they know, the more they will appreciate you and understand why and when decisions are made. Occasionally, employees will be upset about the way a strategy is designed. In these cases, you can discuss it with them, provide reasoning or simply share your lack of understanding.
It’s important for me to show my teammates that I’m human. This means I don’t have all the answers and I rely on my team to brainstorm ideas. When you show your humanity, they will model those same behaviors and understand they can ask for help and embrace their weaknesses.
What were some of the defining moments that brought you to where you are today?
I studied quantitative finance in grad school and worked at a bank for a period of time. I graduated at a strange time, considering Lehman Brothers had just gone under, and I landed a pretty visible role that enabled me to build risk models in visual basic for applications and dive deeper into analytics. While I was in a highly male-dominated field, I had several incredible managers who taught me so much and gave me ample autonomy. Their faith in me enabled me to build my confidence and confront feelings of impostor syndrome.
Although I loved working in that role, I recognized I mostly enjoyed the technical and quantitative aspect of the job. I knew I wanted more flexibility than a financial institution could offer long term, so I decided to make the switch to engineering. It was hard to leave the team but I learned a lot about what I value in a leader and how meaningful it is to work for people who trust, champion and believe in you.
Since then, I’ve moved into a management role, and I enjoy the strategy, mentorship and problem solving that comes with it. The people I work alongside are talented and make it easy for me to be their advocates.
As a leader, what have you done to empower and uplift the women around you?
Before taking on a formal leadership role, I worked with my peers to fight for policy changes, such as equitable pay practices, diversity in leadership, and thought and support for different affinity groups and communities in our workplace.
I’m proud of how far we’ve come as a company, and I love that our engineers get to see women leaders represented across the organization. I do my best to ensure the women I work with are heard and validated and try to share as much knowledge as I can so they feel empowered to drive decisions.
I also take smaller steps. For instance, I brag to anyone who will listen about how capable my teammates are and try to be as inclusive as possible during discussions and team rituals. This focus on inclusion involves experimenting with different tools and structures to gain more opinions, amplify voices and find ways to demonstrate individuals’ impact.
Leaders need to ensure women in junior roles see other women in management positions.”
What behaviors do you think are important for leaders to model to their team members?
It’s important for leaders to model inclusive practices, considering a positive culture and healthy behaviors start from the top. Leaders can achieve this by being vocal in their support of equitable policies, following up on teammates’ concerns, applying systems that promote equity and adapting to team members’ different learning styles. Additionally, leaders need to ensure women in junior roles see other women in management positions while building a culture that fosters their growth and success.
What were some of the defining moments that brought you to where you are today?
My background is rooted in design. I initially started my career visualizing business data and strategic plans for Walt Disney’s Imagineering team. During my time at Disney, I learned a lot about analytics and how to craft stories with data. After that, I joined Albert. As one of the company’s earliest team members, I’ve watched myself grow alongside the organization. Having the opportunity to work across several areas at the beginning of my career enabled me to see problems from a different perspective, which informs my decision-making process.
As a leader, what have you done to empower and uplift the women around you?
One of the best things you can do is give people space to grow. Growth is difficult, especially in a fast-paced, startup environment. I believe in learning by doing, which involves searching for ways to give team members a chance to try new things. If you give them space to hone a new skill or make mistakes and learn from them, there’s a good chance they’ll achieve success.
One of the best things you can do is give people space to grow.”
What behaviors do you think are important for leaders to model to their team members?
One idea that I wished I had embraced earlier on in my career is that there is no single path to strong leadership. While it’s essential to learn from other leaders’ experiences, it’s equally important to understand yourself and lead with your own strengths.
It’s easy to get stuck trying to achieve a specific vision of how to do things. In reality, there are many ways to thrive. Occasionally, this involves trying different strategies out until you find what works for you. Exposing this process can be eye-opening and creates space for others to do the same. Rather than conform, it’s acceptable to shape your own mold to accommodate your working style and the requirements of your role. It’s all about how you make yourself, not just the work, invaluable.
What were some of the defining moments that brought you to where you are today?
I started my career in finance as an application developer. I later transitioned to capital markets and spent ten years in that industry moving through different roles within software engineering before ultimately landing in data. In 2017, I realized I wanted to grow my business acumen and decided to get an MBA, and in 2020, I graduated from NYU’s executive MBA program. Through that program, I made connections that introduced me to different industries and brought me to Wonder, where I now lead the data teams.
As a leader, what have you done to empower and uplift the women around you?
During the last couple of years, I’ve become more involved in mentorship. I’ve mentored women whom I’ve worked with in the past as well as other women in data through various organizations. I’ve had great mentors throughout my career, and I’m glad I’ve had the chance to offer the same support to other women. Mentoring women has taken various forms, from improving their professional networks and growing their technical skills to helping them fight impostor syndrome.
Leaders should demonstrate empathy and understanding on a daily basis.”
What behaviors do you think are important for leaders to model to their team members?
Leaders should demonstrate empathy and understanding on a daily basis. It’s important to understand the individual members of your team, including what drives them, how they communicate and their career aspirations. It’s crucial for women to see leaders demonstrating these behaviors because it emphasizes the idea that work is not just transactional. We spend a large amount of time at work and leaders need to ensure that people feel empowered to show up as their authentic selves. When a leader creates space for peers to work with authenticity, the team as a whole will communicate and collaborate more effectively.
