Women Of The C-Suite: Dalton Dorné Of Tinuiti On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive C-Suite

You have to have a vision. You have to set a strategic direction to achieve that vision. You need to be able to execute that strategy and last, you have to have the ability to motivate and inspire people to work together to bring that vision to life.

As a part of our interview series called “Women Of The C-Suite” , we had the pleasure of interviewing Dalton Dorné.

As chief marketing officer at Tinuiti, Dalton Dorné, is responsible for setting the growth strategy and elevating the brand of the largest independent performance marketing firm in North America. She is a two-time winner of Marketing Executive of the Year at the American Business Awards, most recently in 2021. A graduate of Elon University, Dalton is a Mandarin speaker who spent 12 years in Asia working across high-growth markets. During her career, she has worked with clients such as e.l.f Beauty, Etsy, Lenovo, Unilever, Pernod Ricard, Avocados from Mexico, Reckitt Benckiser, Shiseido, Anna Sui, Coty Inc., and Coca-Cola.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

At 20, I knew I wanted to be a CMO. The path that took me there was a winding one, yet it all somehow worked the way it was meant to happen.

After I graduated college, I moved to China. My plan was to work there for a year at a startup, and I supplemented that job working at a state-owned CCTV station on nights and weekends. As it turned out, Ogilvy China was looking for a PR person who understood the media from the inside. So lucky for me, they were attracted to my TV experience. I joined the Corp Comms team and while I was good at PR, it was not my passion.

It was the most exciting time to be in China. The Beijing Olympics brought global advertisers to the country for the first time and Chinese brands were suddenly on a global stage. I ended up spending time with the global CMOs of Johnson & Johnson, Motorola, and other huge brands, which was an amazing opportunity for someone so young in their career. I loved working with these CMOs and that’s how my job shifted organically into marketing. I was getting big brands interested in Ogilvy through PR and marketing, but I was not part of the pitch process to get it over the finish line and that’s where I wanted to be.

I ended up moving to Euro RSCG (now Havas Worldwide) in Asia Pacific, after someone I knew from journalism recommended me to them. That’s when I took on the new business and marketing piece as a regional marketing director and was finally able to get the exposure to the other side of the business that I wanted to be part of.

There I met George Gallate, the CEO, who hired me (and whom you’ll hear more about later on.) After several years, a CMO role opened up in NY and Havas moved us to the Big Apple, after 12 years in Asia. I became the CMO for Havas PR and Havas Health. I didn’t enjoy PR as much as advertising; it was more siloed. But it helped me get clear on not just the type of job I wanted to be doing but where I wanted to be doing it — and that was at a digital agency.

George ended up leaving Havas after 26 years and that move changed the course of my life for the second time. He moved to Rimm-Kaufman Group (RKG) and I ended up following him there, too. We sold to Merkle in one year (not five as was the original plan) and I became the CMO, building the demand B2B marketing function with a robust, technical suite.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

It’s definitely how I met Zach Morrison, the CEO of Tinuiti, where I am now. We met at a Google conference where we were both speaking. He was on stage before me talking all about culture and I thought, “This guy’s full of it. I know what agency life is like. There’s no way his agency culture can be as good as he’s making it out to be.”

It turned out I was wrong. I’ve been working at Tinuiti since 2018 and it’s hands down has the best culture out of any place I’ve ever worked. And that’s because the center of our business strategy is actually our people’s happiness. It’s actually enshrined in what we call our “Forever Flywheel.” The philosophy is that employee happiness leads to client happiness, through driving great results, which leads to us being able to reinvest back into innovation and people. This is how we cultivate not just growth, but healthy growth. And it’s been working. We’ve been routinely experiencing double-digit growth.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When I was working at the TV station in China as a part-time gig, they were launching an English language game show in Chinese for people learning English. They put me in the craziest wardrobe with corduroy pants and loud prints, and put my hair in an updo like I was going to a wedding. They also asked me to do an American cheer and to intentionally make a mistake speaking in Mandarin, which I was fluent in. I think it’s fair to file that whole experience under the “mistake” category.

I also once did a segment for a food show. A sort of Anthony Bourdain-style show where I hit mom-and-pop shops. In one episode, the producers asked me to eat a particularly pungent type of Beijing breakfast soup because they wanted to capture my face on camera and I was determined not to make a face on TV and I am proud to say I achieved that. However, the segment ended up getting picked up by Air China, which played it in-flight and in the airport for four years. For years after that, every time I picked up a client at the airport, they were like, “Hey, I just saw you on the plane eating soup.”

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

George Gallate is the one. He’s on the Board at my company, Tinuiti, and that’s how I ended up here. He taught me tons about the industry, always believed in me, and he’s always been my career whisperer across all the continents.

In my work, I often talk about how to release and relieve stress. As a busy leader, what do you do to prepare your mind and body before a stressful or high stakes meeting, talk, or decision? Can you share a story or some examples?

Two things: First, I run to relieve stress because it’s where I find my white space to think about whatever high-stakes thing I have coming up. Second, I prepare. It’s my secret weapon. Prepare and rehearse. To some, it might seem neurotic, but it has served me well throughout my entire career.

As you know, the United States is currently facing a very important self-reckoning about race, diversity, equality and inclusion. This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have a diverse executive team?

One of my pet peeves is when organizations tout their diversity and post their numbers, but they don’t actually have diversity in senior ranks. It’s very common. I don’t think it’s fair for companies to say they have a diverse workforce if that’s only reflected in the junior ranks. If you don’t have diversity in your senior ranks, you are not a diverse organization. Full stop.

Diversity is so important because leaders spend a lot of time thinking about the traits they need to hire for to complement the strengths and weaknesses of their team. They are trained to think about diversity from a skills perspective, but for it really to matter and to be rounded out, it has to also translate into gender and race and all forms of diversity so you have that across the board.

As a business leader, can you please share a few steps we must take to truly create an inclusive, representative, and equitable society? Kindly share a story or example for each.

At Tinuiti, we have a great program called T-Up founded by our CEO, Zach Morrison. It’s Tinuiti’s paid internship and mentoring program, which connects career-orientated high-school students from underserved communities with access to mentoring, digital marketing training, and the opportunity to hone their professional and practical life skills. We are trying to reach kids who maybe don’t have role models in business. Maybe their parents aren’t execs working in big organizations. We are intentionally and strategically trying to nurture a group that wouldn’t normally have access to this kind of career path and open them up to these kinds of opportunities.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a CEO or executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?

You have to have a vision. You have to set a strategic direction to achieve that vision. You need to be able to execute that strategy and last, you have to have the ability to motivate and inspire people to work together to bring that vision to life.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive. Can you explain what you mean?

People think the further you go up in career, at some point, you’re just sitting in an ivory tower and just doing strategy. That’s a big mistake people make. They think once you’re senior, you don’t do work anymore but you direct other people’s work. But that’s not the case–or it shouldn’t be the case. If you’re not also doing the work then it’s a part-time job.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

Some traits that are considered “stereotypically female” can hold you back from opportunities that your male counterparts experience. Your organization needs to be sensitive and dynamic, with a strong focus on making sure that’s not happening or women can get left behind.

Research tells us that men will raise their hands to apply when they are only half qualified to do so, where women won’t apply unless they feel qualified to do it. And it’s not just women; it’s many underrepresented groups. Organizations need to know that’s going to happen and correct for it.

What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?

For many years, I thought being CMO was about running marketing. But the truth is when you’re in the C-suite, you have two jobs. The division you run AND being an executive player. You will also have to help with mergers and acquisitions (M&A), corporate strategy, setting roles for the organization, talent issues, and wearing many hats outside your lane. Only half of my job is marketing. Any major challenge in the organization is everyone’s challenge. This is especially true for the head of marketing because marketing is already touching and working across all the other departments, so we are specially situated to do that.

Is everyone cut out to be an executive? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful executive and what type of person should avoid aspiring to be an executive? Can you explain what you mean?

This generation of workers is so much better about this than prior generations. In our parents’ generation, you climbed the ladder in one direction, and everyone aspired to that. This generation realizes there is more than one path and it’s not always about getting to the top, but doing what you love, having a good work life balance, and good mental and physical health. They are really rethinking what it means to be successful at work and they realize not everyone is meant to be the biggest boss, nor should they put pressure on themselves. We can all learn a lot from the younger generation of workers.

There is no one trait you need to be an executive because then you wouldn’t have the diversity of talent, thinking and superpowers that make an organization thrive. On our exec team, we have some who are analytical, some with vision, some who are more relationship- and people- oriented and some who are introverted. There is a lot of diversity on our exec team that collectively allows us to play together as a team. You wouldn’t want to hire six quarterbacks for your football team. Same goes for your C-suite. You all need different skills to operate together as a team that can win the Super Bowl.

What advice would you give to other leaders to help their team to thrive?

More than ever, it’s time to rethink your team’s employee experience. The pressures and high and lows of the last two years require us as leaders to adjust the way we reward, manage, and inspire people. The best way to help your team thrive is to be willing to change your style to grow happiness and get the best out of people so they can be the best at what they do for your customers and clients.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

Putting my marketing skills to work for pro bono for causes that wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford it. Some of those organizations include the “Bob Woodruff Foundation” for vets, “Be the Match” for bone marrow donations, “One Young World for Youth Davos,” and “T-Up” for high schoolers.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

“If you have nothing to say in the meeting, don’t come.”

That’s an invaluable piece of advice. Be thoughtful, think ahead if you are going to add value at a meeting as opposed to just showing up and participating for no real reason.

“Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.”

When I was an editor and a writer at a TV station, I wanted to be on camera. So, I started dressing up for the part and it helped me land the role. It makes you feel more confident.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

It would be to reimagine the way we think about modern work. When my generation started it was a 9–5 thing, then Blackberries came on the scene. So we were part of the transition between a set stop and start time to each day to then having no boundaries. The younger generation coming in gets it and they have more boundaries.

I would advocate for the power of a four-day work week (at Tinuiti, we already have Flex Fridays and a no meetings rule). I believe in longer weekends and more time with family, loved ones, dogs, and doing things you love. When everybody follows that philosophy, it works. That’s why it works in France when everyone is taking off all of August because they are all doing it together. There needs to be a revolution around this, especially if we keep on working from home.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

There are so many:

“Go fast, go alone, go far, go together.”

Also, I always remember what the poet Maya Angelou said: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

If there’s one thing that makes marketing work, it’s that it makes you feel something. That feeling is way more memorable than what the tagline or the image was. All those are elements that ladder up to a creative product that should evoke a certain emotion or response. By the way, this applies to not just work but how you treat people both in your professional and personal life. We all have the power to inspire people.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Serena Williams. I would love to sit down with her. She’s my tennis icon and idol not just because she is the G.O.A.T. but because I love her personality on the court. She gets mad and frustrated like I do. She makes major statements with her fashion choices. I just love her on and off the court.

Another person is Alicia Keys. She successfully managed and built her brand, Keys Soulcare, into a full business that stands for something. She put her money where her mouth is and she picked e.l.f. Cosmetics to team up with because they have a majority female board and she launched a skin care line for the diversity of women. She is the best that there is about marketing personified.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.