A Conversation with Martha Spencer, Chief Customer Officer & Vice President of Customer Experience
What does great leadership look like? My conversation with Martha explores her leadership philosophy, values, and approach to preparing the next group of people to lead organizations, manage effectively, and deliver results. This post—full video interview included at the end—unfolds her leadership journey and the insights she has so generously shared to set other leaders up for success, exemplifying what great leadership looks like.
Martha believes that most great leaders come from management, a role she has held for over 40 years, and one she feels most humbled by. She has spent much of her career in customer experience, with the last twenty years in education. Feeling honored to have been in management positions time and time again, she says she gets the most energy from working with people.
“The day I’m gone, if my name is there and it says she was a great mom and a great manager, I’ll be very happy.”
She shared that the best leaders she knows, the ones she’s been fortunate enough to work with, were all great managers. Not because they continue to manage, because they eventually need to step away from that, but because they value management. And that made all the difference.“The best leaders I know value management.”
This has remained a North Star for Martha, recognizing that it’s through management that leaders ultimately meet the visions and objectives of the company.
Great leaders value management.
Martha describes leadership as having the ability to remain curious while putting the puzzle pieces of information, processes, technology, and a variety of variables together in a way that makes sense for the people on the team, for the organization, and for the customer.
She believes curiosity and great leadership go hand in hand, sharing that the greatest leaders she’s worked with have a healthy curiosity and an abundance mindset. In contrast, she says those she’s seen struggle in leadership positions are often too bought into their own ways of doing things.
Curiosity and leadership go hand in hand.
Martha’s values include people leadership and authenticity. “Who you are and what you say needs to be the same.” She emphasized the value she places on helping others identify and articulate their strengths and the passion she has for creating opportunities for people to learn.
Having had the benefit of many amazing mentors, Martha looks to pay forward what others have done for her. Whether she has a group of 10 people or 300 people, she is always on the lookout to develop someone for the next opportunity.
“We have to prepare the next group of people to lead organizations, manage effectively, and deliver results.”
One mentor in particular, who had a transformative impact on her journey, shared something with her that she now passes along often: you have to get uncomfortable to move forward. Saying that if you wait until you’re ready, you will miss the opportunity. “If you’ve got the passion for it, then you need to move forward.”
Feedback that she has received and taken to heart and now shares as lessons learned, is to share more of yourself with your team. She can still picture someone from her team saying: we’d love it if you’d just share more about you as a person.
She reflected that sometimes leaders forget and need to remember, that they are still a person to their teams, and that it’s important to show that personal side. “I was very interested in everybody else, what’s going on, but I didn’t share that much about me personally.”
Share some of yourself with your teams. You’re a person too.
A second learning she shares is that when bringing your team together, giving your opinion right out of the gate shuts down the conversation because it invites agreement. Because of the position leaders hold, if they give their opinion too early, they lose out on having their ideas challenged and that if this is something they want, they need to actively encourage it.
On the other hand, Martha advises that if the decision has already been made, leaders shouldn’t pretend they’re having a conversation. They should say it plainly, that the decision is already made and that they, as the leader, are completely responsible for the outcome.
Leadership is being clear when a decision has been made and being open to ideas when it hasn’t.
For anyone looking to lead others, she believes it’s critical to genuinely like people and to assume innocence over offense. When coaching others on this criticality she says, “I need you to like them well enough so that when that person acts differently than you might expect them to, you don’t get offended, you ask if they’re okay.”
Martha encourages leaders to stay curious and continue learning, emphasizing that learning is not a destination but a responsibility. She believes people want to follow leaders who are learners, who have evaluated the situation and determined the right path, not only because it is the goal of the organization, but because the team has what it needs to achieve it.
Ultimately, Martha says the art of leadership is knowing when to step back and let the team step forward.
“Nothing’s more satisfying than watching people moving forward.”