Think before you speak: why leaders need to filter team communications
Margaret Kelsey (former OpenView, Appcues, Invision) shared how to avoid accidental misalignment with higher ups
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“The feedback felt like a gut punch,” said Margaret Kelsey.
“I was told that I had created a mini culture within my team that was at odds with the broader marketing group and the organization as a whole.”
“I was floored. I was so proud of the team I had built. I felt like we had really high standards and high emotional safety — we could talk openly about what was working and what wasn’t working.”
Margaret has spent almost a decade working in SaaS including VP of Marketing at OpenView, Branding Creative Director at Appcues, and Content Marketing and Community Manager at InVision.
But this story happened fairly early in her career, and taught her an important leadership lesson.
At the time, Margaret didn’t realize the importance of filtering her team communications.
“I was getting information from the leadership team. But I wasn't asking enough questions to learn how decisions were being made,” Margaret shared. “I was just getting annoyed, and then immediately sharing both the information and my annoyance with my team.
I didn’t insert a checkpoint to determine if I needed to apply a filter before sharing.”
Once Margaret understood how she was accidentally creating a toxic subculture within her team, she quickly changed her approach.
“I learned that I didn’t have to throw the baby out with the bath water,” she said. “But I did have to make better decisions about when to share my frustrations and when to put a positive spin on something in order to motivate my team to do great work.”
In addition to sharing this story, Margaret and I also talked about:
Why you should think of your company as a sports team rather than a family
The art of detangling your work identity from your personal identity
How to navigate what she calls “executive thrashing”
How every piece of feedback is optional
The need to rethink hustle culture