Tips For Being A Strong Leader In Digital

During the Women in Cable & Technology Conference in Denver, Carrie Seifer, President of Digital, Data & Technology at MediaVest, sat down with SheSays to share some of her knowledge, learnings, and experience being a strong leader in the digital space.

Be Curious

Carrie feels excited she landed in digital because the space requires she be curious and it leaves her always wanting to learn more. She feels the vast landscape of technology allows her not to be a perfectionist because she can accept that she can’t know it all.

“Consumers keep changing the landscape for us. Even if you know it technically, you have to be able to predict where consumers are going to take it to the next level — so you can never know it all.”

Whether it is adtech, data, social, digital marketing, etc., there is always going to be more to learn. Relating it to be like a doctor, who understands that they can never know everything about the human body, Carrie espouses digital offers many avenues to those who are curious and like a changing environment.

Everyone at the Table

Brands need to think about the overall customer experience as a whole. There needs to be representations from all departments that impact the customer at the table when crafting the brand experience. The best results come from companies that have a healthy tension between different departments. It’s more important to have opposing viewpoints to create the holistic picture rather than from only one department view.

Unfortunately for the customer, many companies have technology based on a department or silos. In her daily interactions, Carrie works with clients to determine where the ownership should live for the brand experience for the individual organization. Whether it is product, tech org, marketing, etc., she helps determine based on the individual organization and its culture. The industry has not yet defined where “experience” should live right now, so Carrie has stopped trying to force it into one group. Instead, she leaves it open to live in the best place that supports the culture.

Recommendations for Advancement

Men & women, old & young, tall & short — people consistently sabotage their own careers. People put their needs first — rather than the company’s goals. Her recommendation is to remember that you’re not in your living room, rather a workspace. When she was younger, she received the best advice “The person in control of the conversation is the person not talking.”

Carrie originally wanted to get into sociology but didn’t see a career path. Instead, she chose sales because she sees this as an avenue where she gets to analyze and assess people regularly. In meetings, Carrie is often diagnosing the dynamics of the room. She recommends paying attention to what each person needs in the room. When you are in a meeting, choose a single goal you want to be communicated in the meeting and keep focused on that so when everyone leaves the room they have your point.

What is your Favorite Technology & Trends?

Carrie is really fascinated with the Internet of Things (IoT) and wearables. The feedback loop and gamifying of the data is what she sees as the future for her clients. Across the board, brands are investing in Customer Experience (CX) but how deep they go varies client by client. As President, she values listening to her clients and getting real feedback. However, she has learned that investing her listening team and people offers the best results for the client experience. Overall Carrie is excited and thrilled to be at an agency so she can continually learn and grow.

~Contributed by Lori Kirkland, VP of Experience Transformation at Universal Mind and SheSays Member.