Leadership Curveballs, Blind Spots and Black Holes, Episode 11

In recent times, leaders have been tested in ways they could never have imagined. They were expected to have all the answers and provide direction to their teams when they had no idea what was coming next or how to take the next step forward when the curveballs kept coming…

In this special episode, Bobbie LaPorte and guest Erin Baudo Felter, VP of Social Impact and Sustainability at Okta, discuss Erin’s approach to leading through uncertainty, social turbulence, and the multiple curveballs leadership has faced since late 2019.

Podcast Transcript

Bobbie: Hi, this is Bobbie LaPorte your host Of Leadership, Curveballs, Blind Spots, and Black Holes, and today we have a special episode featuring our guest Erin Baudo Felter, who is Vice President of Social Impact and Sustainability at Okta.

So, Erin, I think we all know that there’s no question during the last year leaders have been tested in ways they never imagined. They were expected to have the answers and provide direction to their teams when most of the time they had no idea what was coming next and how to take the next step forward. You shared with me a story about how you leaned into your team to help solve a particularly challenging issue, can you tell us about that?

Erin: So, it was probably a few days after George Floyd was murdered. I knew, pretty close to right when it happened that this was probably going to become something big, but I don’t think the rest of my team knew it. And that’s just because, I read too much news and I read too much Twitter and I just I could tell that this was going to bubble into a place that may be prior incidents hadn’t. Although there have been several incidents leading up to it that I think made it what it was.

But anyway, it became clear later that week that this was going to require a response that was significant. And. It was moving so quickly that we were having trouble just keeping up with like where the news was at and then what the pulse of it on the employee base was and so there was a for me. Just as a leader in that it was like it was upsetting. First of all, to know what was happening in the outside world, right?

And then as a leader, it was very clear we had to do something to address this for our employees in that philanthropy and social impact was an important piece of that, as was Todd making a comment and was rallying our employee leaders to, you know…

I remember we were all working from home and hadn’t seen each other in six months or whatever by that point. And I remember being in my kid’s room and on the phone I basically called like an impromptu phone call of my two deputies at the time, because I felt like we needed to have a response, and I and I didn’t know what the answer was.

So I got them on the phone and I basically said we need to do something here. We need to respond on behalf of the company on behalf of our employees and communities. And… They weren’t engaging in the conversation with me is what I remember like what I figured out is that they were basically waiting for me to tell them what we were going to do so that they could take the direction and then go execute on it and. That was not what I needed, I needed them to solve with me and be equals in that process.

And when I realized that they thought I knew what the answer was and they were waiting for it, I knew I had to change my tune. And so I basically said to them at that point, guys. I don’t know what to do here. I literally don’t know what to do. I need you to think with me. I need you to help figure out what the response should be and it was at that point in the conversation that it became an actual conversation and we… you know, we ended up making, I think, a really good plan of what we were going to do in terms of our philanthropic response. And then we went on from there.

But that moment of realizing, you know… I don’t know how else to explain it. It’s just like they were… It was almost like the old ways in that moment of them, expecting that I was just going to say, oh, here’s what we do in this situation.

And it was not the old times and it was not the old ways that were gonna suffice. It was something very new and very different and, I think you know… in that moment because my capacity was so limited because of everything we had been going through.. I’m going through, and I’m home with two kids and homeschooling and husband who wasn’t working and whatever, I was just like I don’t know what to do… I need help.

So that’s the story. Is that helpful?

Bobbie: Yes, just even the way you phrased it, super helpful. So one other question. So. What have you learned about your leadership style and yourself? During the last year plus. It’s a very different environment.

Erin: I’m actually, I think. Felt more like myself as a leader than I ever have in my whole career in the last year. And I think it’s because. I mean a few things, but I think one of the biggest things is like there’s room for empathy in our work lives now. And I don’t feel like there was before. I feel like if you had empathy and if you had vulnerability, you weren’t allowed to show up with that.

And I’ve picked a career path where I’m kind of allowed to show up with that. ’cause I’m like this weird person over here, but in general I just didn’t feel like that was a part of the game, and in the last year and a half I think the people who show up with that empathy and with that vulnerability actually lead better. And I have felt very empowered by my natural tendencies in that arena. That to say like no, no, no, I’m not trying to be like everybody else anymore. I’m trying to be like me and it actually is working. And that’s been, I think, a silver lining.

Bobbie: And that feels much more natural to you?

Erin: Much more natural, much more natural, and it feels like what people need. You know it’s like, you can’t talk to a single person in the daily goings-on of work and not come across somebody who’s going through something really hard, even still.

You know,  I had a great conversation yesterday with a nonprofit leader friend of mine who’s said, “why are we building our systems and goals assuming everybody can work at 100% all the time? We should be building them to assume people work at 75% so that they can get their work done, we achieve our goals, but we don’t burn people out and crash them to the earth.“

And I was like, “that’s interesting.” He’s going through something where his dad’s got terminal cancer, so he’s reevaluating everything.

But, you know, the point is. That I think it’s what people need. People need grace and a break and like to be their whole selves. And if you can as a leader, just leave space for that… It’s certainly what we’ve needed the last year and a half, but it’s, I think what we need forever.

Bobbie: Do you think some of your peers, are they… were they thinking that way or are they thinking that way that people are sort of bending to the business pressures and kind of moving back to the way they used to be?

Erin: I think people were thinking that way very much in the first months of this, like so much so that it was really inspiring. In particular in Okta. And, I see less of it now. I don’t see.. I don’t think it’s gone. I still think we’re much further ahead than we started, but I think there’s been a little bit of a contraction as things seem to be getting back to normal. I think for us as a business, as we saw that our business was healthy and our business was actually growing in the face of all this. So we’re a little bit maybe unique in Okta’s circumstance that like….

You know, the world didn’t come crashing down like we thought it might, and in that period where we thought it might, nobody knew. I think that the most… I saw the most empathy I’ve ever seen, probably in an organization.

Bobbie: Yes, how, you sustain this going forward, right? It’s really the challenge.

Erin: Yes.

Bobbie: Yes, you and your organization can definitely be a role model for that, so I hope that continues.

Erin: Yeah, I hope so. Trying to keep the wheels going.

Bobbie: Yeah, that’s great. Thank you, Erin, thank you for your vulnerability and for sharing your story. And for those of you who are listening, you can learn more about Erin’s leadership journey in my upcoming book called When the Curveballs Keep Coming: A Leadership Playbook for Uncertain Times that will be released late October.