RevRev Ep. 7 – Helen Baptist
Helen Baptist, COO at PathFactory, joins me for this episode of Revenue Revolutionaries. Recently recognized as a Top 50 female leader in SaaS, Helen is a strong leader that shared too many insights to count. We discuss a wide range of topics including the importance of creating a workplace environment for authentic relationships, lifting up others who don’t look like you and embracing value-based selling to create the right customer relationships. Helen also shares some great ideas for how to stay engaged with your team during the pandemic.
Episode Key Takeaways
1. Move at ‘intelligent speed’ – People need to be able to make their own decisions at low risk for the company and themselves, Helen calls this ‘intelligent speed’. Authentic and transparent communication without ego makes it easier to move fast and produce results.
2. Customers put food on the table – Customers make the world go around and it is so important to keep this top of mind ongoing. The company owns the customer and the company gets paid by the customer so that it can provide for its employees. A key question to ask: How is the customer receiving the team and company and how are we making it easy for them? Helen encourages leaders to ‘act like a customer’ when you joining a new team to fully understand the current state of the customer experience.
3. Lift up others that are like you AND not like you – Helen is an empathetic leader that stresses the importance of getting to know team members at a personal level. You don’t know a person from the outside, it so important to connect with people on a personal level so that you’re in a stronger position to lead and develop.
4. Give team members room to be authentic – Helen runs an exercise with her team to create an environment that encourages team members to open up and be authentic with other team members. The goal is to break down the walls between team members so people can get to know each other at a level that creates more trust and understanding.
5. Try new things to help team members feel connected – The pandemic requires leaders to be creative. It has created a new level of distance between teams and team members and leaders need to find new ways to stay engaged with team members. She provides examples in the episode but the overarching message is that the new dynamics require leaders to invest more in finding creative ways to help the organiation stay connected with each other to maintain relationships and culture.