Several years ago, I interviewed Joy Allen-Altimare, now the Chief Marketing Officer of Saucony, in an interview originally published in Thrive Global. At the time, Joy was the Chief Marketing and Product Officer for EHE Health. Here is an excerpt from our interview:

Adam: What are your best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders

Joy: Listen and ask questions. If someone doesn’t agree with your management style or doesn’t like the direction of the company, don’t silence that person. Listen. And ask questions of your entire team: What do you think of this? How do you feel about that? This open dialogue makes it easier to proactively identify problems and work together to create a mutually beneficial environment. It will also make your employees feel appreciated and acknowledged. 

Recently, we implemented a feedback loop through Butterfly.  It’s amazing as it allows for the leadership team to get consistent feedback from our teams.  While sometimes painful to read – we are going through a tremendous transition, which can be difficult across the board – it serves as a useful guide to help us navigate and drive toward success.

Set the goal of working as a team. Encourage a squad mentality. If you want your team members to work together, have them work for something together. Setting goals just for the department or one individual breeds a limited mentality and forces team members to remain isolated. Instead, give staffers a unified focus and purpose, to inspire them together.

It is my job as a leader to set the goals for the company and remove barriers for the team to succeed.  To do that, we’ve re-thought our structure and have adopted to concept around building cross-discipline squads. Leverage the business, technology, and product subject matter experts, the process helps drive towards resolution. 

Be consistent. This is an important rule because it lays the groundwork for a trusting and thriving team. Before a management approach can be effective, it must be consistent. You must reward the same behaviors every time they appear, discourage the same behaviors when they appear, and treat every member of your team with an equal, level-headed view.

I think this is similar to parenting – as a mother, I want my daughter to be healthy, positive, and productive.  And, I want the same thing for my team – so, I have found that consistency in behavior, organization, and process provides a level of comfort for the team to thrive. 

Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level? 

Joy: First, we have to set the example of what we desire.  So, you’ll see most of the executive team – led by our CEO – walking around the office, talking to employees, and trying to understand what their experience is and what improvements they’d like to see. 

Second, I believe in the concept of servant leadership – which is the philosophy of balancing emotion with intellect as a leader.  It’s a concept that suggests that true leaders understand the importance of the following characteristics as it relates to building and managing a loyal, high-performing team: listening, empathy, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community. 

Lastly, we have adopted to concept around building cross-discipline squads.  It’s similar to how start-ups operate, and since we consider ourselves a 105-year-old start-up, it works well for us.  Squads are multi-disciplinary teams that foster agility, collaboration, and expert delivery.  Leverage the business, technology, and product subject matter experts, the process helps drive towards resolution. 

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?

Joy: You take yourself wherever you go, so like yourself, love yourself, and be happy with yourself.

Adam: What can anyone do to pay it forward?

Joy: If I could do anything good in the world, it would be to have the financial ability to support single, working mothers.  Especially women who have left non-ideal personal situations to provide a better life for them and their families.  I would provide them with 100% confidential support – legal counsel, emotional and mental wellbeing counsel, living and education expenses.  And, it’s important to note, that this would be accessible to all women.  Women who are at the executive assistant level to the executives that they support.  

I have found that society often looks at educated, happy, smiling women and they think that they are doing just fine.  But, sometimes those women wear a mask at work and are really dealing with some not-so-nice stuff at home.  I would have a fund for women who need to leave their current situation and provide them with access to the support – financial, emotional, or physical – they may need for themselves and their families.  All confidential.  All free.  For all women.

This is a movement centered around building a community of those who care – because, truly, it takes a village.

Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?

Joy: It is those skills that you cannot learn in a classroom that have allowed me to enjoy every success and failure I’ve made along the way.  Today, I feel like I’m standing on the shoulders of great men and women who have come before me to pave a way for me to achieve great success.  And that, along with a strong faith, keeps me steady and unmovable – despite any opposition.  Stay positive, stay true, and stay looking forward.


Adam Mendler is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, educator, and nationally recognized authority on leadership. Adam is the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one-on-one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal-winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations. Adam has written extensively on leadership and related topics, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders. A Los Angeles native, Adam is a lifelong Angels fan and an avid backgammon player.

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