Chimers in Leadership: Meet Margaret Lee, Director of Lifecycle Marketing and CRM

“When I joined Chime, it was my first role as a director,” says Margaret Lee (she/her/hers) of her career move to Chime®️. “It’s common for women to read a job description and focus on all the requirements we’re missing, but I was trying to break that thought cycle. While the jump into a director role might have been considered a leapfrog moment, I had put in the work to master my scope and was ready to acknowledge the accomplishments under my belt.”

Prior to joining Chime, Margaret spent three years at Postmates®️/Uber®️. “Most people who join Chime cite the mission as their reason, but if I’m honest, it was the people and the interview process that really won me over,” she says. “I remember thinking that joining Chime felt like joining Hufflepuff, a warm and caring vibe that is uncommon in tech.”

Here’s a look at Margaret’s journey to leadership and how she leads today.

Beginning with solid roots.

When Margaret looks back at her journey to leadership, she credits a lot of her growth to having solid roots — after landing her first job out of college, she stayed for six years and was promoted every year. “That experience gave me a really solid foundation in what it means to be a professional in the workplace,” she says.

It also gave her her first role as a people manager — at the age of twenty-five. “I was told on a Friday that my boss at the time would be moving on to a different opportunity and my first direct report would start on Monday,” she says.

And while she may have started managing people early on in her career, Margaret doesn’t believe you ever stop learning how to be a manager. “I feel fortunate to have fallen into that role as early as I did, but I’m constantly reflecting and looking outward,” she says. “First-time managers often mimic behaviors and leadership styles they have experienced, and it’s critical to recognize that and broaden your perspective sooner than later.”

What she loves about being a leader.

Margaret now has a big team at Chime, where she describes her leadership style as seeing the forest and the trees. “I love to nurture and be hands-on with my teams — I want to know how the sausage is made,” she says. “By seeing how my team is doing their work, I can become a better manager and have more empathy for them.” She achieves a deep understanding of their day-to-day by moving between being in the weeds and operating at thirty thousand feet.

As a leader, Margaret gets the greatest satisfaction from working cross-functionally with her team and their partners. “I love curating a vibe where everyone brings their own flavor of excitement and skills to the table to tackle a shared problem,” she says. “There’s so much joy that comes from watching a driven, passionate team come together to overcome a daunting task, create something innovative, and beat our metrics.”

And to motivate herself as a leader (and her reports), Margaret always reminds herself that the job is what you decide to make it to be. “I’ve often been put in positions where I’m doing a job at a level for the first time,” she says. “I always try to make new roles my own and make the most of them. Being able to blaze new trails, empower my team, and celebrate everything we accomplish is much more important than the original scope.”

The importance of paying it forward.

One lesson Margaret has learned along her journey to becoming a leader was from a manager she once had who shared how important it is to pay it forward with your team.

“So often, you’re rewarded after the fact: you have to put in the work and already be doing the job to get the promotion or bonus down the line,” she explains. “One of my former managers had a pay-it-forward mindset and invested in her team as critical pillars — even if she hadn’t worked with them before. The way she trusted them (and her own instincts) was such a refreshing approach that I admired. It’s something I’ll never forget and try to adopt as well. Giving people the benefit of the doubt and making them feel valued early on can set the tone for the rest of your relationship.”

Having role models and mentors, whether they were her managers along the way or not, has been especially important to Margaret as a child of immigrant parents. “I have surpassed what either of my parents have done in their professional lives, so seeing and receiving mentorship from other leaders has been crucial to my journey as a leader and developing my own philosophy,” she says. “I truly believe that every success story stems from a genuine core. There is something to learn in every role (whether it was part of your career plan or not) and every unsung effort–every deck you read outside your scope, extra credit project you took on, the behind-the-scenes hours to perfect or understand something–will come together and radiate outward.”

Representation matters.

As Margaret has moved through several chapters of her career, she’s found herself thinking more and more about representation: “I’ve now had people tell me they’re happy to have a boss who looks like them,” she says. “Which has only made me think more about what it means to be a woman of color in leadership and the role I play.”

“Having representation of all that it is to be a woman is so important — there are many facets that make us unique. It’s not just about being an Asian leader or a female leader, but bringing my whole unique self to work, which represents something beautiful, special, and different. I want to celebrate the idea that being a woman can look different across female leaders. Having diverse representation of what a leader can look like is one of the reasons it’s so important to have women in leadership and one of the reasons I’m committed to doing my best to lead my teams.”

We loved hearing Margaret’s story and are grateful for the leadership she brings to Chime.

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