Building a culture of open communication and transparency with Marina Golemis

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Episode Summary

Open communication and transparency are the foundation of your company culture. But they can be double-edged swords, given that it’s tricky to determine how far you should go with being transparent. 

According to our guest Marina Golemis, transparency is non-negotiable but still isn’t a standard. Also, not all information brings value to your team, so it’s critical to at least share the information that can affect their work, performance, results, etc. 

Marina is the SVP of North American Sales at ShipBob and has over 15 years of experience in sales. She joins our host Christina Brady to share what goes on behind-the-scenes of sales and CS, the difference between the two, and why they should work in tandem. She also explains how she uses past experiences to be successful in her current role and be a good leader. Marina and Christina discuss the importance of feedback, especially when employees give it to their superiors.

Guest Profile

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Key Insights

Episode Highlights

Marina’s Career Path

Marina was six years old when her parents moved to the United States from the Soviet Union. She didn’t think about the concept of the ”land of opportunity” at the time. But now she says growing up in the US came with opportunities she probably would not have if they had stayed in Ukraine. 

”Right around middle school, everyone was wearing Abercrombie, and all I wanted in my life was an Abercrombie T-shirt. But there was no chance at that point that my parents were buying me a $60 T-shirt.

And so I went and got a job at Abercrombie and felt like I had a cheat code for life. I was like, ‘I could get a job, earn money, get a discount, and buy the Abercrombie shirt myself.’ So my career ambitions started right around then.

So now, we’ll fast forward. 2008 was a bad recession; I couldn’t find a job, so I was bartending. And, as any of you sales folks know, bartending is the best sales training you’ll ever get. And so I learned a lot about hustle there and writing your paycheck. It transitioned seamlessly into a business development role that I was able to find with Echo Logistics. So it was an exciting time. And from there, it was a typical sales climb from BDR to AE.

I moved over to another startup in Boston to be an individual contributor there. That startup awkwardly got acquired by Echo, so I was like, ‘Okay, I’m out.’ And then the big breakthrough for me was when I went over to Trunk Club — back when Trunk Club was a pretty small company, about 150 people or so. I got to experience startup life as an individual contributor, then as a sales manager, and that’s when I made the decision to go into leadership. 

One of my mentors, a super close friend and somebody who has heavily influenced my career, said I should give this a shot. And that’s when I went into the sales director role and spent five years there. It was incredible.

And from there, with one other startup in between, I hopped over to ShipBob. So it’s been four and a half years at ShipBob. I came in as a sales director and am proud to say that I’ve had three promotions and two kids while there. So three promotions, four years, two kids.”

If You Want People on Your Team to Be Engaged, You Must Let Them into the Information Sharing Circle

‘Sharing is caring’ is not just another catchphrase. It’s a business philosophy companies can benefit heavily from. So, as an organization aspiring to grow, your job is to build trust with your customers and employees, and transparency helps you reach it. 

”People are much more bought into their role when they know what’s happening with the company. Anything I know, my managers know. Anything kosher for me to share, I am sharing it as soon as I know it. That’s the way I’ve always gotten buy-in from my managers. I’ve made them a part of the journey. […] 

The second part is we’re real people. I’ve always loved your take on work-life satisfaction, and for me, work-life satisfaction isn’t: you’re done at five; you start again at nine. It’s bringing it into your world. 

I’m not saying people have to overshare their personal lives. But I’ve always had great relationships with folks on my team, so I’ll tell them about what I did over the weekend. My Instagram is just my kids, so I’ve got nothing to hide. If you want to follow me, go for it.”

When Feedback Initiates Significant Change

Open communication is key to building a healthy company culture, and when it comes to feedback, it should be a two-way street. So not only do employees receive feedback from their managers, but it is also the other way around. 

However, it’s hard for employees to give direct feedback to their superiors, as they fear potential consequences. This is unfortunate because this feedback can be pretty valuable. A situation Marina shared with us proves it. 

”I was in a previous company, and it was a 360 review, and one of the pieces of feedback was, ‘Marina uses humor to try to downplay tough situations.’ And I was like, ‘Oh sh*t. I do that.’ They nailed it, whatever intuitive person this was. If someone’s noticing that, it’s not going over all that well. So I said, ‘You know what? That’s absolutely true.’ 

I think it takes emotional maturity to handle tough situations head on and not try to diffuse them using humor. I’m very cognizant of that now. And when we are having true big conversations, tough conversations, I’m just gonna get straight to the point. […]

You lose so much impact if you try to gloss over something or if you try to sugarcoat something and then it’s like, what was the point of all of that effort. You wait for that moment, you prepare for that moment, and then you don’t even get the gravity of your point across.

I’m grateful to whoever that person was because now it’s never gonna happen again. I shouldn’t say never. I’m human, but I’m so aware of it that I’m gonna always look out for that.”