Fostering a High Performance Team Culture
Filippa Noghani, AVP of Marketing at SoftServe
Hi! I’m Suzan Bond. I write about org leadership, leadership teams and and navigating organizational change. I’m back this week with another installment of my leader interview series.
Fostering an effective team culture is one of leaders’ biggest challenges. How do you ensure you’re reinforcing the right mindsets and behavior? How do you create a culture that also drives results? The task becomes even more challenging when we’re remote. This week my guest is Filippa Noghani, AVP of Marketing at SoftServe and sits on the board of NYC Tech Women as the marketing chair. Filippa is passionate about getting results so I wanted to talk with her about how she builds a high performance team culture while avoiding unhealthy competition.
We talked about:
How open communication and leading by example are key to team management
Avoiding unhealthy competition while still setting high standards
Building trust in remote and global teams
The power of vulnerability as a leader
Hi Filippa. It’s great to see you. We know each other well.
Yes, great to see you. Thanks for having me. We met through NYC Fintech Women and some mutual connections.
Can you introduce yourself for people who don’t know you like I do?
I have been a marketeer for almost 15 years. Oftentimes I come in to build a foundation for marketing. For the past five years, I've been running growth marketing and field marketing – I'm responsible for the marketing strategy, everything that touches the customer, the end users. I've been with two IT consulting firms now. At one company, I was responsible for $800 million in revenue. Today I head marketing strategy and field marketing at SoftServe for their banking, financial services, and retail CPG markets. I'm also on the board of NYC Fintech Women and am a strategic advisor for Eastwind Hotels.
Today we want to talk about fostering team collaboration.
After I knew we were going to have this conversation I reached out to my team. I wondered how they felt because I demand a lot. They said, “You put the bar high but you’re not a micromanager. Even while we strive to reach that bar our team never feels like we’re competing. We’re always working together towards that goal. You’ve never put us against each other.”
How do you think you’ve been able to create a team environment where standards are high but they’re competing with each other?
I think the reason is because I continuously reinforced a circle of trust. It’s very open communication about what is going on and how we are in it together. If someone doesn’t hit a deadline I don’t give feedback in front of the rest of the team. That’s a side conversation we’ll have so you can improve. One of my team member’s told me, “You set the bar very high but once you reach it and see what you can create it makes you so proud.” I think my job is to help the team get really good so they can go to the next level whether that’s within the company or another one. No one wants to stand still in their careers and not learn anything. You want to have a purpose with what you’re doing. So I try to create that for the team.
It goes back to trust. I will always have my team’s back, no matter what. I appreciate mistakes, I appreciate questions, I appreciate feedback. I will go back and forth with the team. I do this because if you don’t have someone to talk to and get feedback from you’re just not going to become better at what you do. It’s the same with my leadership. I’m constantly asking the team what I can do better to support them. I ask where we might be going wrong. I get a lot of feedback for better or worse. I don’t believe you can have too much information.
We often think when we raise the standards, it naturally becomes a competition.
Yeah, unfortunately it is. I think it’s actually a demotivator. Throughout my career, I haven’t believed in competition. I do my job and think my work speaks for itself. Your reputation speaks louder than anything else. It’s important not to get into competition – you vs me. It stacks people against each other and takes energy away from performance.
Yep, we forget that we have to work together, we’re all really one.
I agree with you. The sooner people realize that, the better. You can’t pit people against each other because it’s never apples to apples. People are different. Some are looking for a nine to five job, or just doing the work to pay the bills while others are so passionate and dedicated and want to get in the weeds with the work. It’s important to understand the kind of players you have and build your team based on that. You have to consider the personalities to create a culture, not just skillset.
Right, you have to consider not just the roles and structure of the team but the kinds of people who are on the team. Having all the same kinds of people on the team may not work out that well.
You really touched a good part because I have this. My team are all go-getters who go that extra mile but the personalities are all different. Some are calm, others are high energy. It is a mixture that works together.
I’m a strong believer in high performance. There has to be an outcome. There has to be growth. To build a high performing team I need to have a certain culture and that is not stacking them against each other – it’s bringing them together. That’s how you scale and grow.
Do you have principles or values for the team? Are they written down or more spoken?
I know it’s not popular but I don’t believe in writing down our values. I think it’s about how you act, leading by example.
It sounds like you have values but that you don’t write them down because it’s sort of the idea that “talk is cheap” but actions say much more.
Absolutely. I don’t believe that you can say, “We trust each other” and tomorrow you throw them under the bus. It just doesn't work that way. One of the greatest leaders I worked for in my prior job. He created trust doing this. So I reflect on that and I’m forever grateful (to have worked with him). As a middle manager, you only have so much power where you can step in and change things. But you can still do your best and create these micro cultures within your group.
I love that you mention because we often talk about culture as if it’s one but there are many micro cultures inside a company. It sounds like you were aware of building that culture on the team right away.
I’m a strong believer in high performance. There has to be an outcome. There has to be growth. To build a high performing team I need to have a certain culture and that is not stacking them against each other – it’s bringing them together. That’s how you scale and grow.
Admitting you’re wrong changes the dynamics so much. That doesn't make you less of a leader. It shows maturity. People will respect you for that more than anything else you can do as a leader.
How did you go about building trust?
They know they can come to me with any problem and I will help them. There have been challenging situations and I was there to take the fall – my team should never have to take the fall. I make sure they’re not in the crossfire.
How do you help them trust each other?
I have direct reports and resources that don’t report to me but are dedicated to the outcome and performance of the team. They’re key players. It’s a lot of work for the team to trust each other. That’s probably the most challenging part because I have team members that are supporting us and they're key pillars, but they are the extended team so we try to bring them into conversations and campaigns so they’re all part of it. I give full ownership to my direct reports so they understand they own their work. If something doesn’t happen, it’s on you but not allowing finger pointing. It’s also important to create timelines and processes, making sure everyone understands. It’s been a lot of work to have the teams trust each other.
It’s hard too because it’s human nature. It takes time to develop trust. I love what you said about emphasizing ownership and a sense of responsibility. If everyone does that, it creates a great environment. There’s no passing the buck.
Yes, and that is extremely hard. It’s even more challenging when you are remote. You're working in global teams with different cultures.I prefer calling and speaking to someone because there’s more misunderstanding and miscommunication when we type things. I always tell the team, when things go south don’t go into Asana fighting, teams, nor emails - just call the person. We're not seeing each other. We don't talk to each other. We don't know the tone we're talking to each other with.
For example, I am very sarcastic. One big learning I had was that not everyone understood it. There are cultural differences. We have teams in South America, we have teams in Europe, all over the world. So there are challenges in building trust with each other when you're so far away. You don't hear each other and you can't see facial expressions. So you need to pick up the phone and take ownership that builds trust.
Trust is so important for collaboration. If we don’t trust each other, we’re not going to collaborate well.
It just doesn’t happen naturally. It goes back to your point about microcultures. My team has a strong culture but how do we work with outsiders across different functions? How do we build trust with them? I talk with my fellow leadership team all the time about this, my head of digital, Yulia and I always talk about how to build this within our teams. Our teams are totally different but it all comes back to creating a foundation that keeps the team excited.
I think having hard conversations also helps. When we’ve had a bit of friction and come out the other side we build trust.
It’s key to admit when you're wrong, even as a leader. I’ve had moments when I had to apologize and tell my teams that was not the right way to handle it. It’s important to drop the ego and have a frank conversation. It doesn't make me smaller. It makes me better because at the end of the day, the team will actually respect you.
What advice would you give pre-leader Filippa about fostering team collaboration?
The advice I give to anyone is to have empathy. As a leader, if something goes wrong it’s ok to say “I was wrong.” That doesn’t make you less of a leader. People look up to you when you do this.
Having empathy and being vulnerable.
Yeah. I worked what people would describe as one of the toughest leaders, but in reality he was the most humble person. If he did something wrong he would admit it and apologize. It made me admire him rather than think less of him as a person, and it’s the key trait I carry with me.
Admitting you’re wrong changes the dynamics so much. That doesn't make you less of a leader. It shows maturity. People will respect you for that more than anything else you can do as a leader.
Interested in having a facilitated session at your leadership offsite? Learn more about my Facilitated Offsites. I’m happy to talk with you about what it would look like for your team.