Ep 179: Deirdre Findlay - In 15

Edited highlights of our full conversation.

Deirdre Findlay is the Global CMO of Condé Nast. In that position, she’s responsible for all of the company’s consumer-driven revenue.

She took the job in January of 2020, and faced by an industry in transition and a world in chaos, has dramatically grown the company’s subscriber base, as well as the affiliate and commerce revenue. More than that, the company has held onto its new-found audiences, even as we start to leave our homes and reconnect with each other in person.

Like every leader, she’s responsible for producing business results at a time when the employer-employee relationship is being entirely rewritten.

If you’re leading a business that depends on unlocking the power of creative thinking and innovation for your success, you know that talent acquisition and talent retention have always been critical.

Most people think that’s true for one reason. Hire the best talent and win the game.

For many companies, their strategy for finding and keeping the best talent came down to this: Pay them, praise them, promote them, and prioritize them - especially when it came to handing out the best opportunities.

If that’s still the cornerstone of your thinking, you’re already falling behind in the race for game-changing talent.

Today, as a leader, it’s not just the job you’re selling, it’s the journey.

The journey you’re taking the business on.

And the journey you’re offering everyone who works for you. One of self exploration and personal development. A journey to discover what they can do and who they can be.

You’ll still need business plans and financial performance metrics to determine who you need to hire and what you can afford.

You’ll still need visions and missions, job descriptions and benefits packages to open the door to the right people.

But if you want to close the deal and ensure the best of them stick around long enough to make a difference, you’ll need two things that most leaders don’t know how to measure.

Empathy and interest. Which means, as Deidre said, getting comfortable with balancing the work and balancing the people.