Confronting Misalignments with Higher Ups with Margaret Kelsey (OpenView, Appcues, InVision)

It’s stating the obvious but leadership is tricky. You’ve got to find a balance between creating space for open dialogue while also filtering how much you actually share.

Margaret Kelsey, Founder and Marketing Advisor at TatCo, was forced to take a step back and look closely at her team culture when she got some very disheartening feedback during her time at Appcues. She quickly came to realize she’d created a toxic mini culture in her team by expressing frustration with the organization in an unproductive way.

In this episode, Margaret shares some of her struggles in aligning her team with the larger company and getting buy-in from higher ups on their strategies. She also discusses how she’s learning how to detangle her personal and work identities. Listen to discover how you can become more self-aware as a leader to lead teams effectively and continue being satisfied with your work.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. As a leader, you need to be responsible about what messages you filter through to your team

2. Every piece of feedback you receive is optional

3. It’s better to think of your company as a sports team rather than a family

Things to listen for:

[11:14] Rethinking hustle culture

[15:25] Filtering frustrations and leadership messages to your team

[18:22] Navigating the challenge of misaligned values at work

[28:49] Detangling your work and personal identity

[32:01] Dealing with “Executive thrashing”

[37:13] Leaning into your feelings rather than judging them

[40:04] Building self-awareness as a leader

[41:13] Setting boundaries and choosing what feedback to accept

Resources:

- Connect with Margaret on LinkedIn

- Check out Margaret’s podcast

- Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn or Twitter

- Learn more about Navattic

- Learn more about Appcues