Explained in an interview on Cultural Brilliance Radio! Creating a Culture of Belonging with Claude Silver.
Who is Claude Silver?
As VaynerMedia’s first Chief Heart Officer, Claude Silver unlocks employees’ potential by forging human-to-human connection, creating cultures of belonging, empowers teams to be purpose-driven, efficient and strong, and infuses the agency with empathy, humanity and joy. Claude’s unique perspective on servant leadership and team-building comes both from her training in Positive Psychology and her experience in talent management, leadership development, coaching, workplace culture and people operations for over 800 employees across VaynerX. She also founded and ran an outdoor adventure and surf company in San Francisco, where she was in the cold Pacific Ocean coaching 250 days a year. Prior to VaynerMedia, Claude held leadership positions at Publicis London, J. Walter Thompson (London and San Francisco), and Organic San Francisco. She and her partner live in New York City and are expecting a baby girl in late October.
Claudette: Welcome Claude! So, one of the things I know is you’re a Chief Heart Officer, and not many people get to be a Chief Heart Officer. So tell us what that means for listeners who are thinking that’s interesting, what does she do?
Claude: Hi Claudette, it’s great to be here, thank you! So, in any other organization that would most likely be called the Chief People Officer. But the difference here is that my one remit is to reach every single employee and infuse the agency with empathy – that is actually my job description. The reason that we call HR Heart here is because quite frankly, we’re dealing with human beings who have a heart. And culture is the heartbeat of an organization. So, Chief Heart Officer is very much incorporating the people, their experience, the culture and really the DNA if you will, of the agency.
Culture of Belonging
Claude: Human beings are wired to connect, and we are wired to belong to one another and with one another. So, it’s super important that we’re creating a place here where people feel like they belong, where they feel emotionally safe, where they feel courageous, where they feel obviously physically safe, because we want people to come in. And we don’t want people to feel other, in that negative way, of other we want.
All cultures have emotions. Our culture happens to be one of camaraderie, one of friendliness, one of meritocracy as I said, and also collaboration. People want to work with one another and they want to brainstorm with one another.
Claudette: This is an interesting take on belonging, because a lot of times when I hear people talk about belonging, they’re talking literally about feeling that they’re part of something, and it sounds like this goes a step further to really benefit everyone.
We put so much emphasis on people, which then in return gives us success with the consumer, gives us success with the client and gives us success with the agency. You notice I said to consumer first. I didn’t say client. We are all about fulfilling that consumer, the end consumers’ wants and desires much more than a client.
To listen to the podcast and full interview with Claudette Rowley and Claude Silver visit:
Cultural Brilliance Radio on Transformation Talk Radio!
