The New Portrait Of Leadership: Brittany Hart of Platinum Cubed On Which Legacy Ideas About Leadership Need To Be Discarded, And Which New Approaches To Leadership Should Be Embraced
An Interview with Karen Mangia
Intentionality — My life mantra is Intentionally Adding Value. Every interaction I have and the solutions we create for our clients is centered on adding value. This leadership viewpoint drives how I am adding value to those that I lead and that means beyond providing a paycheck.
We are living in the Renaissance of Work. Just like great artists know that an empty canvas can become anything, great leaders know that an entire organization — and the people inside it — can become anything, too. Master Artists and Mastering the Art of Leadership draw from the same source: creation. In this series, we’ll meet masters who are creating the future of work and painting a portrait of lasting leadership. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Brittany Hart.
Brittany Hart is the Founder of Platinum Cubed LLC, a Salesforce implementation consulting firm with locations in Chicago, Irvine, New York, Phoenix, and San Diego. The firm specializes in helping Commercial Mortgage Origination firms optimize their Salesforce presence to improve onboarding, analysis, and retention of key investment acquisitions and asset opportunities.
Thank you for joining us. Our readers would enjoy discovering something interesting about you. What are you in the middle of right now that you’re excited about personally or professionally?
Where to start! Earlier this year I took a short sabbatical to reimagine both the professional me and the personal me. From there I launched into creating a physical space that would foster the three areas I really wanted to lean into this year: The CEO Brittany, the creative Britany, and the mindful/active Brittany. So, I kicked off a home-office remodel and could not be more excited about the spaces that are being created in my home office!
We all get by with a little help from our friends. Who is the leader that has influenced you the most, and how?
I feel like there have been leads who have influenced me at different points in my journey. Early in my career, Tracey Groves (eCapital) really influenced me on how to show up in male dominated industries. Next is Melissa Forman-Barenblit (TriumphPay) showed me how to create a culture of a high performing team. Last year, Brene Brown reminded me of my individual strength when resilience is needed and Mel Robbin’s gave me the confidence that being direct/ no-fluff is not a bad thing.
Sometimes our biggest mistakes lead to our biggest discoveries. What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made as a leader, and what did you discover as a result?
I think one of my biggest mistakes as a leader was not getting out of the way of my team. As a leader, and in particular the CEO, I feel the weight of making sure my team is provided for. At times of stress or heightened anxiety, I have jumped, without a life vest, into the deep end and tried to do it or figure it out alone. This not only disempowered the team, but it left us all grasping for air. The discovery that came from that is, if I create the pattern that I am always going to jump in when I feel things are getting hard, they can’t step up and take the accountability themselves for problem solving.
How has your definition of leadership changed or evolved over time? What does it mean to be a leader now?
I think my definition of leadership started as taking a second position, watching, evaluating, and then sharing what I saw; good and areas to improve, but if I’m being honest I was focused more on the areas that needed improvement. I would wait for my people to say what they thought they should be doing. Then I swung far to the other side by telling them what to do and how to do it. Then when they didn’t do it my way, I would ask them why? What I have learned and where I have landed is… my way of leadership is a teaching leadership style. I know we are all thinking of the saying “those who can’t do, teach,” but that is not what I’m saying here. Teaching is understanding where each person is on your team, thinking about what knowledge you have and how you can show them how to put that knowledge into their playbook, and then cheering or holding accountable the goals you collectively set. It is being in the thick of it with them, but with your own life vest on so you can keep everyone in a positive mindset.
Success is as often as much about what we stop as what we start. What is one legacy leadership behavior you stopped because you discovered it was no longer valuable or relevant?
One legacy behavior that I have shed is lack of transparency. As an early leader, I saw having information as something that made me more valuable and I lead from a need-to-know philosophy. I learned that the more information I shared, the more our team came up with better ideas to solve our client’s challenges. As I lead this company, I’ve learned to take the same approach, when we have an internal challenge, we take it out of the silo of the executives and bring in the extended leadership team. The solutions brought to the table are insightful and bring the team together.
What is one lasting leadership behavior you started or are cultivating because you believe it is valuable or relevant?
One leadership behavior that I started last year and am continuing working to cultivate is a concept from Brene Brown called: “Paint done”… ““Painting done” means fully walking through my expectations of what the completed task will look like, including when it will be done.” This has helped with communication around expectations. Sometimes, I ask a team member to “paint done” for something they are asking me to do for them, and sometimes, I need to “paint done” for them, because I’m communicating in a rush. It gives us a good way to say, I don’t have a clue what you want me to do, can you give me some more details?
What advice would you offer to other leaders who are stuck in past playbooks and patterns and may be having a hard time letting go of what made them successful in the past?
Take a break! Once upon a time, not too long ago, ok actually 4 months ago. I got stuck in a rut and I could tell that I was not leading to the best of my ability, I had fallen into patterns that I had learned from former leaders and were detrimental not only to myself but the team. I took a short sabbatical to reset. I read a book unrelated to our business and our industries, I took a solo trip and shed the mental load. I trusted the team to do what I knew they knew to do. I trusted family members to help with my family. The weight of the mental load came off and I could see clearly what the next steps needed to be and I was able to revitalize my direct reports with the energy I had found.
Many of our readers can relate to the challenge of leading people for the first time. What advice would you offer to new and emerging leaders?
I would encourage them to think about the best and worst leaders they have experienced and make a list of the traits, conversations, teaching moments that most impacted them for good or bad. Then work to mirror that. Each time something feels natural, continue to incorporate it in, things that don’t feel natural shed them. Also, something that my team will tell you is I always ask, what book are you reading right now. Reading or Podcasting, continues to bring new ideas to you. Lastly, let your new team know this is your first time. You are going to do some things well and you are going to make mistakes as you learn and grow. Ask for their feedback and most of all, when you do screw up, ask for forgiveness!
Based on your experience or research, what are the top five traits effective leaders exemplify now? Please share a story or an example for each.
- Communication — I dove deep into communication a few years ago and found a book and assessment called “I Said This… You Heard That” by Kathleen Edelman. Her work created a framework the company could use when communicating. It has moved our organization and personal relationships forward by leaps and bounds.
- Intentionality — My life mantra is Intentionally Adding Value. Every interaction I have and the solutions we create for our clients is centered on adding value. This leadership viewpoint drives how I am adding value to those that I lead and that means beyond providing a paycheck.
- Genuiness — This is about creating strong and personal relationships across the team. We are known for our psychologically safe culture and have parted ways with clients when there is a misalignment between our culture and theirs. Team members are free to show up as their complete self, not a hollow employee.
- Continuous Development — This goes for not only the people I lead but also myself. I strive to really learn something new each month, sometimes that is earning a certification, sometimes that is completing a book about a different industry, and sometimes that is trying a new physical activity.
- Interconnectedness — Leaders are interconnected. As much as it gets lonely at the top sometimes, I am interconnected with my team for us to all succeed. We are interconnected with our clients for joint success, looking through the lens of interconnectedness creates amazing synergy!
American Basketball Coach John Wooden said, “Make each day your masterpiece.” How do you embody that quote? We welcome a story or example.
When I think of “Make each day your masterpiece” I think of every day and every action as a singular step in creating your ultimate work or solidifying your legacy. A beautiful painting isn’t done in a single stroke. A championship team isn’t formed in one practice, and a leader isn’t made via a promotion or starting a company. A masterpiece is made over a lifetime of accumulating knowledge, adapting to challenges, and overcoming them. “Make each day your masterpiece” really means to make every success and failure in your life an opportunity to build your masterpiece one step at a time.
What is the legacy you aspire to leave as a leader?
I strive to leave a leadership legacy of intentionality. Intentionality around moments to teach and moments to praise. One time I encouraged a team member to attend a yoga class. Something she had never done before. Initially she thought it was because she was very energetic while providing sales demos to our clients. The actual intention, which she walked away with, was the feeling of having no clue what the instructor was talking about. The yoga terms did not mean anything to her. I asked her what she thought our clients might be feeling when we use a lot of technology terms. It clicked and she was able to quickly and quite effectively put the lesson into practice in her demos.
How can our readers connect with you to continue the conversation?
LinkedIn is a great way to connect with me and continue the conversation https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhart/
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to experience a leadership master at work. We wish you continued success and good health!
About The Interviewer: Karen Mangia is one of the most sought-after keynote speakers in the world, sharing her thought leadership with over 10,000 organizations during the course of her career. As Vice President of Customer and Market Insights at Salesforce, she helps individuals and organizations define, design and deliver the future. Discover her proven strategies to access your own success in her fourth book Success from Anywhere and by connecting with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.
The New Portrait Of Leadership: Brittany Hart of Platinum Cubed On Which Legacy Ideas About… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.