You got tough 360 feedback from your team, now what?! - with Gia Laudi (CEO Forget the Funnel)
You got tough 360 feedback from your team, now what?! - with Gia Laudi (CEO Forget the Funnel)
It's not always what you say, it's how you say it.
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“I was a little heartbroken to hear that my team thought I was intimidating”.
The feedback came to Georgiana Laudi during a formal 360 review cycle, while she was VP of Marketing at Unbounce.
“I know I can be an intense person. But that’s literally why I was hired… to be an activator. To get people excited. And push them to be their best.”
“And I thought I was doing better at the balancing act than I actually was.”
Today, Gia is the cofounder and CEO of Forget the Funnel and has worked with a ton of impressive B2B SaaS brands you know — Unbounce, Sprout Social, Bitly, SparkToro, MarketerHire, and many more.
But like all of us, she’s had a few speed bumps in her journey.
So when she shared this story, I was curious how it made her feel - and I wanted to hear how she navigated it.
“I started replaying my one-on-ones - and team meetings to figure out where I was going wrong” she shared.
“That really sucked…I never want anybody to feel like they can’t mess up. I mess up all the time.” Gia shared. “The situation was obviously 100% the result of a communication failure on my part, and I took that hard.”
The toughest part about navigating this experience was having to reconcile the fact that Gia’s intensity is her superpower - and (in this case) also her kryptonite.
She hit the feedback head-on, and started:
Providing a ton more context.
Over-communicating with her team
Adopting some new practices that clarify how she wants to help.
Making sure folks knew that making mistakes is okay - and encouraged..
Gia shared great stories and some tactical insights to help folks in startup leadership positions. Our conversation started with her career journey and covered a few of the speed-bumps she’s encountered on the way:
What it felt like to come back from maternity leave and learn that the company hired someone above her
How she regrets failing to accept invites to speak at conferences and build a name for herself early on
Why she’s constantly giving feedback and hates to let any issues build up
Watch or listen below 👇
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