017: Elisa Steele (Yahoo, Skype, Bumble)| From Saleswoman to Billion Dollar Boards

Since 2019, Elisa Steele has served as Chair, Board of Directors at Namely, Inc., a financial and human capital management software company, where she served as Chief Executive Officer from 2018 to 2019. Ms. Steele previously served as Chief Executive Officer and President of Jive Software, Inc., a collaboration software company, which was acquired in June 2017. Ms. Steele was a member of the Jive Software executive leadership team since 2014. Prior to joining Jive Software, Ms. Steele served as Chief Marketing Officer and Corporate Vice President, Consumer Apps & Services at Microsoft Corporation, a worldwide provider of software, services and solutions, and Chief Marketing Officer of Skype, an Internet communications company, from 2012-2014. Ms. Steele also has held executive leadership positions Yahoo! Inc. and NetApp, Inc. Ms. Steele has served as a member of the board of directors of Cornerstone OnDemand, Inc., a learning and human capital management software company, since 2018. Ms. Steele holds a B.S. from the University of New Hampshire and an M.B.A. from San Francisco State University.

On This Episode:

• Learn the belief systems that Elisa has carried through her career.
• Find out how sales helped Elisa get hooked on the idea of impact.
• Discover the keys to creating a solid product for your customer.
• Get tips regarding how to pivot.
• Elisa explains what you should takeaway from failure.

Key Takeaways

1. 1. Develop a broad collection of experiences in life and business.
   2. Don’t be afraid to innovate in uncharted territory.
   3. Build an advisory board around you.

Tweetable Quotes:

• Good leaders respect and admire the talents in their people.
• If you don’t have a diverse team, you’re not going to perform at your top performance.
• Be yourself and be okay with that.
• Marketing is about influence.