Twitter’s new CEO reminds one of a particular Bravo reality star in terms of her even temperament, openness, and honesty – not unlike what one might find from an accomplished reality star! She has proven adept at maneuvering her way through Madison Avenue’s treacherous waters with ease.
Linda Yaccarino Wikipedia revolutionized media industry during her time as chairman of advertising and client partnerships for NBCUniversal, yet now faces her most daunting challenge yet.
Transformative Leadership
Transformational leaders create a compelling vision to compel their team into action, communicating it efficiently so that everyone understands the path toward success. Furthermore, these leaders build trust through ethical behavior emphasis while encouraging others to follow in their footsteps.
They listen with an open mind to ideas shared by their teams without self-censoring or fearing failure; accepting that not every idea may lead to transformative results.
Transformative leaders take great care in understanding each member of their team. They understand their individual strengths and weaknesses, offering coaching or mentoring opportunities to foster growth. Unlike transactional leaders who may respond to negative performance with punitive measures such as cutting commission for missed sales goals or reassigning employees, transformational leaders foster new ways of thinking on an ongoing basis, helping their organizations anticipate change more easily.
Leading with Empathy
Yaccarino’s empathic leadership style can be seen in how she cares for her employees. Her colleagues describe her as being both tough negotiator who can be trusted and open ear. Additionally, she hosts SoulCycle sessions which many staffers attend; often seen wearing thick-framed glasses with stylish heels paired with power suits.
Twitter staffers have expressed fear for their jobs due to working long hours. Recently, she hosted two Tea Time gatherings for staffers; people familiar with these gatherings reported.
Twitter’s new leader must attract advertisers back to its platform amidst competition from Mark Zuckerberg’s secret Instagram clone and volatile owner Musk – her strong ties with Madison Avenue could prove invaluable in doing so.
Putting People First
Linda Yaccarino has earned a well-earned reputation as an ambitious risk taker throughout her career. She was instrumental in revitalizing NBCUniversal’s ad sales department and in driving forward their ad-supported streaming platform Peacock launch; and spearheading industry debates around data gaps emerging online.
But she knows when it’s time to pull back. In an interview with CNBC’s Sara Eisen, Twitter/X figurehead Sheri Fink pretended all was well at a site that has struggled heavily since Musk’s controversial takeover last year.
She publicly supported the name change, changing her Twitter username from Lindayacc to LindayaX to show her support and justify it as liberation for users and advertisers alike. But she failed to acknowledge the site had lost billions in value following its controversial rebrand and reinstated many accounts that had been closed under previous leadership for violations – something which wouldn’t exactly create trust from advertisers and their stakeholders.
Taking NBCUniversal Global
After 10 years with media network CBS, Yaccarino will move to Twitter as CEO to oversee an organization with over 2000 employees and an advertising revenue exceeding $100 billion.
At NBCUniversal, Yaccarino managed one of the largest advertising portfolios in U.S. media – comprising cable and broadcast television, news outlets, multiple digital platforms including Peacock and an ad-supported streaming service. She also helped launch a unified ad sales offering as part of an identity data and commerce partnerships vision and spearheaded cross-functional teams for successful delivery of such partnerships.
Yaccarino had planned to lead an important marketing presentation to advertisers known as the upfronts this week in New York, known as an Advertising Sales and Client Partnerships presentation. Instead, Mark Marshall will serve in an interim capacity reporting to NBCUniversal Chairman of Television and Streaming Mark Lazarus. Twitter currently faces an unstable landscape as advertisers react negatively to revamps made to content moderation and verification policies; some users also accuse Twitter of pushing political agendas or spreading climate change misinformation through its platform.
