Janel Steinberg - Leading with Kindness: The Art of Compassionate Leadership

Join us on the Career Wanderlust podcast as we delve into the transformative power of saying "yes" with award-winning PR expert Janel Steinberg. Discover how embracing opportunities, even when unprepared, can lead to unexpected growth and success. Learn how curiosity, humor, and empathy play vital roles in effective communication strategies. We also explore the transformative power of leading with kindness. From fostering a supportive work environment to practicing empathy and curiosity, discover the qualities of compassionate leadership that inspire and empower teams. Tune in for practical advice and real-world examples that will empower you to navigate career challenges with confidence.

Content:

• The Power of Saying "Yes": Explore how embracing opportunities outside your comfort zone can open doors to new experiences and connections.

• The Impact of Compassionate Leadership: Explore how leading with kindness can enhance team morale, productivity, and overall well-being.

• Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: Learn how saying "yes" despite self-doubt can lead to valuable personal and professional growth.

• Building Empathy in Communication: Learn the importance of understanding diverse perspectives and practicing active listening in professional interactions.

Janel Steinberg is an accomplished public relations professional with a diverse background spanning industries such as tech, consumer goods, and hospitality. With a track record working with top-tier companies like Nestle, PayPal, and Oracle, Janel currently serves as the Vice President and Head of the U.S. Office for Liberty Communications. Her expertise in media relations and strategic communications has earned her industry recognition and respect.

Key Takeaways 1:

• Embracing the "power of yes" can lead to unexpected opportunities and personal growth.

• Overcoming self-doubt and imposter syndrome is essential for seizing new challenges.

• Compassionate leadership involves fostering empathy, understanding, and collaboration among team members.

• Authenticity and transparency are essential for building trust and credibility as a leader.

• Prioritizing kindness and empathy in leadership can lead to greater team morale, productivity, and overall success.

For more about Janel Steinberg: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janelsteinberg/

If you enjoy learning from others, please give us a like, subscribe, and share with a friend. If you are looking to add top talent to your public relations, marketing, communications, sales, or business development team quickly, check us out at paradigmstaffing.com. 

Transcript

Janel Steinberg 

[00:00:00] Jolie Downs: Welcome to the Career Wanderlust podcast, your compass for new career horizons. Today we are talking with Janel Steinberg. Janel is an award winning public relations professional with extensive experience across a wide variety of industries. Everything from tech and consumer to food and beverage and hospitality.

[00:00:20] She has worked with companies ranging from Nestle, PayPal, and Rolls Royce to Oracle, Virgin America, and the House of Blues. Having held senior level roles with the likes of MSL Group and Ogilvy, Janelle is currently the Vice President and Head of the U. S. Office for Liberty Communications. I'm really excited to learn more.

[00:00:41] Janel, thank you for joining us on the Career Wanderlust podcast. 

[00:00:45] Janel Steinberg: Thank you for having me. I'm excited to talk to you 

[00:00:47] Jolie Downs: today. Oh, I think it's going to be great. I would love to hear from you what you feel has been some of your favorite career advice and why. I 

[00:00:58] Janel Steinberg: think, , for me, the power of yes is something that's important.

[00:01:05] Jolie Downs: Tell me more about this. This is powerful. Yes. 

[00:01:08] Janel Steinberg: , so yes, gives you opportunities that you maybe wouldn't have wanted to take on before you wouldn't have been open to and it opens new doors. So whether it's a recruiter calling you out of the blue, even though you're not interested in a job, whether it's an extra assignment at work, whether it's.

[00:01:28] Staffing an event and play, you know, to help somebody else out. I think it, it's always a learning experience. It forms new connections and, you never know what it's going to lead to. So, 

[00:01:41] Jolie Downs: absolutely. This is actually a reoccurring theme in. , people who are living the most successful, fulfilled lives is, is, is this, the power of yes.

[00:01:50] Because they do, they say yes to things, even when they're not ready, even when they're not, prepared or what have you, and they think, you know, that imposter syndrome might come up. They'll say yes for the experience, because that's how you get experience, right? Is by doing these things. And so often, , I think a lot of us will say, No, , almost is I don't know, like it just, the no just comes, you know, , because of all, so many different reasons, you know, in your head, you have all these different reasons for the no.

[00:02:19] And so it just comes so easily. But if you are proactive, like you said, the power of the yes, and you hold on to that and you move forward with that, you actually push yourself forward in amazing ways. This is what I found by talking to people who are just living their best lives. Really good advice. How have you used this for yourself?

[00:02:38] How has it benefited you? 

[00:02:41] Janel Steinberg: , for instance, if I've taken on an extra assignment at work, you know, I've learned new things I've got to meet people earlier on in my career I staffed events in LA for our New York offices and I got to meet really cool people doing it I made new connections. I got new learning experiences All things that I could move forward with in my career and that were fun.

[00:03:08] And, you know, maybe like you were saying at the time, there's so many reasons why you might say no, right? There's, you can think of anything, any number of excuses, but when you do say yes, it's just, it opens up endless possibilities. 

[00:03:24] Jolie Downs: Yeah, it really does. That's going to stick with me. It's a good remind, you know, it's a good reminder.

[00:03:28] You know, we all need to be, A, a lot of people are not thinking about this, but the ones who have thought about it, we forget, sometimes too. Yeah. New Year's Resolution. Yeah. So, so what about, , a personal story that you've had, I mean, an impact. lesson or event that you've had in your own work experience.

[00:03:49] What's happened to you? What did you learn from it? 

[00:03:54] Janel Steinberg: , well, with the former client, for instance, , you know, I, I pitched a media story for, you know, for example, obviously because I'm in PR and, I wasn't sure that it was going to fly at all. And then I kind of backed away from it and my boss kind of said, Hey, there's another similar story to the one that you pitched a couple of weeks ago.

[00:04:15] So I went straight back to that reporter and ended up having the reporter fly. To Europe to do a sit down with all the C level executives. And then that led to, , an unveiling at the Detroit auto show and a piece on the today show, all because I said, yes, I'm going to pitch this guy and see what happens.

[00:04:37] Jolie Downs: That's fantastic. And what do you feel other people should take away from this? 

[00:04:44] Janel Steinberg: Well, let's say if your boss asks you to do something, right? Say, maybe sit down ahead of them if you have reservations about it.

[00:04:51] Whether it's from a time constraint or how do you approach this or what would happen if you're in the situation? and i'm a big believer in Coming to your boss or in any situation maybe with some solutions versus saying I don't necessarily understand how to do this And so run those potential solutions and your concerns past your boss discuss it And that way that'll take some of the stress away from you and give you some guidelines as to how you can approach that 

[00:05:21] Jolie Downs: problem.

[00:05:21] Really good advice. And then you have your outline for what to do next time. 

[00:05:27] Janel Steinberg: Yeah. And you have your boss who, you know, is hopefully advocating for you, while you're going through this process and, as a boss for, , My team right now, I want to be open and available to answer any questions, talk through problems.

[00:05:43] So hopefully anybody who's watching this podcast has bosses that are similar like that or somebody who can kind of play that role for them. 

[00:05:52] Jolie Downs: Exactly. That, that's how you move up the ranks in the very best way possible, having someone who's willing. to work with you on all of those aspects. So I love that.

[00:06:04] What do you think is most important in a manager? Just out of curiosity that on that topic? 

[00:06:10] Janel Steinberg: Well, I learned this early, , because you know, we all have certain ways that we like to be managed. So the first place that you're probably going to come from is the way you like to be managed, but that's not the most effective.

[00:06:25] You need to manage people for the way they want to be managed. Right. 

[00:06:29] Jolie Downs: Right. Oh, you know, so simple. So simple. But that perspective twist right there, that's everything, isn't it? Yes. Yeah. 

[00:06:39] Janel Steinberg: Yes. There are some things, you know, where somebody that I worked with, they wanted a lot of pressure on themselves to deliver media hits.

[00:06:47] And for a lot of people, That might not work, but that worked for him. And he, , delivered results every time because that's the way he did it. Other people, , are very unsure about things, want to sit down, want to have a lot of handholding, other people don't want to be managed, like they just want to talk to you at the beginning and then at the end, you know, so.

[00:07:09] It all depends what somebody likes, and it isn't up to you, it's up to 

[00:07:13] Jolie Downs: them. Mm, so good. So do you ask your, do you ask your employees how they like to be managed? Is that how you do it? 

[00:07:21] Janel Steinberg: Sometimes, but also sometimes, , I know their style. Right, you know, you know. Yeah. Through experience, I know what works for them.

[00:07:29] Yeah. But usually when somebody is new, it helps, right? Because hopefully they know a little bit about themselves, and if they don't, then you can also discover that over time.

[00:07:38] Jolie Downs: Exactly. Oh, it's incredibly valuable. I love this piece of advice. So now, what about Liberty Communications? Can you tell us more about Liberty?

[00:07:45] What do you guys do well, and what do you look for in Euro talent? 

[00:07:49] Janel Steinberg: Well, we're a boutique tech agency, and we have offices in the UK and the U. S. So we get to work on a lot of global clients were a small team that's been around for more than 25 years. So we get to work with really innovative technologies, but yet some of the more established companies as well.

[00:08:07] , because we are a smaller team, small but mighty. , we need people who are not as concerned about Yeah. This is my title. And this is what I must do at this title. Like we all need to pull in at different levels, make it a real team effort. And, you know, nobody who can be too proud to do something at any level.

[00:08:29] So big team player and then getting that , global experience at a small agency like ours, I think is very invaluable and especially for the junior people, they're getting to really step in and do things that they would never get to do at some of the bigger

[00:08:45] Jolie Downs: places. No, that's exciting. And , it is unique, definitely.

[00:08:50] So is there anything that you've read or watched or listened to that had a positive impact on your life or your career and you think it would benefit other people to either listen or watch or read? 

[00:09:04] Janel Steinberg: Well, for that, , I would say that when I'm done with work, I kind of like to be done with work. I work long hours.

[00:09:13] So, , I have read biographies of, you know, executives and I watch a lot of, , webinars and things like that to get those type of things. , you know, the type of information that I would like. So, , sad to say, I can't really. 

[00:09:28] Jolie Downs: Well, is there anything you really enjoy that helps turn things off for you?

[00:09:33] Janel Steinberg: Oh, there are way too many TV shows and movies and restaurants to name and travel adventures to plan. 

[00:09:43] Jolie Downs: Right there with you. Right there with you. 

[00:09:48] Janel Steinberg: One thing that I do think is important, though, is that, well, and it's important at Liberty, too, which is why I wanted to join the company, I think also leading with kindness is important, right?

[00:10:02] Like trying to see everybody's point of view. You never know where What somebody is dealing with in their personal life and how that might impact them at work like what their challenges might be , you even see it a lot just in our day to day lives or maybe if you've seen some of the crazy footage of Airplane encounters or something like that, you know, people are dealing with a lot, right?

[00:10:27] So I think just trying to lead with kindness because it doesn't take any more effort 

[00:10:32] Jolie Downs: No, it doesn't. And really being a leader that is caring and compassionate and curious about their staff and employees. Those are the leaders that inspire , and retain , their employees and the best talent around.

[00:10:49] I can say this hands down, , it is very difficult to leave a great leader when you have one. 

[00:10:56] Janel Steinberg: Yes, exactly. And you know, you bring it up. Curiosity is something that I also think is very important because I think to be successful at your job, you need to have curiosity about it. Right? So, , as somebody who's in public relation, I consume a lot of media, right?

[00:11:14] I'm always watching. different media outlets, seeing the way reporters write, understanding what's going on in the world, you know, why is that being covered or what kind of angles are they taking? So I think in general, just a sense of curiosity about it, because if you're just doing. A job, you know, where you're checking the box and like the clock hits five and you're out, maybe some jobs are like that, but at least in public relations or marketing, it's not like that.

[00:11:43] So I think having that extra curiosity is very beneficial to a job in PR. 

[00:11:50] Jolie Downs: Yeah. Oh, definitely. And that's really interesting, you bringing up just the different things that you consume, and it just makes me think about people in this profession, how interesting it is for them to consume the other content and, and see the different ways that people are doing and probably be like, Ooh, that wasn't a very good idea.

[00:12:08] You might've, you might've wanted a different strategy on that one. It's got to be a lot 

[00:12:13] Janel Steinberg: with. I was going to say, I see it a lot with crisis communications. 

[00:12:17] Jolie Downs: Yeah. I just, I bet that's really interesting just as a professional to, to, to watch out in the world. So, yeah. Well, Janelle, thank you so much. This has been great.

[00:12:28] But before you go, I'd love to ask you one final question, a little bonus question, if you will. What would you say is your personal superpower and, and how has it helped you in life? 

[00:12:39] Janel Steinberg: Well, I don't know if I would necessarily call it a superpower, but I like to find humor in things, right? So whether, I'm approaching a new situation or meeting a new person, or even dealing with tough situations, I always like to find some humor in it because I Laughter helps relieve tension.

[00:13:00] Um, it helps us deal with situations better and you know, who doesn't want a good laugh? 

[00:13:06] Jolie Downs: Oh, completely. Laughter truly is the best medicine. I, it's proven. Not only do I believe it, but it's proven.

[00:13:16] And you know, I completely agree. I mean, you're going to go through life and you get to choose how you're going to go through life. So you might as well choose to try to find the humor at any point in time. I think that's beautiful. Thank you. So. I really appreciate you joining us. Thank you for coming out on the career Wanderlust podcast.

[00:13:33] Thank you. 

[00:13:34] Janel Steinberg: It's great talking to you.