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Work, Perspective

Transparency Starts With Me: Melanie Rosenwasser

Published on November 17, 2022

At Dropbox, I love how much focus we put on our company strategy. Our Senior Leaders are deeply passionate about our mission, and I couldn’t be more excited to be the Chief People Officer for a company that has tossed out the workplace rulebook and made Virtual First a reality, combining the best of remote work and in-person collaboration. 

 

As companies grow and scale, it’s easy to forget about the small things that you can do as a leader that might feel straight-forward to you but will have a big impact for your team. I learned this recently as we were rolling out our 2023 strategy…it starts with me.

 

In addition to our All-Company Strategy Session, I committed to holding a follow-up Town Hall just for the People Team. I knew taking an hour out of our busy week was a lot to ask but I believed it would be a good use of time. When I thought about goals for this session, I was focused on the what - understanding what our company strategy is. But as I really thought about it, what I actually care about is how employees felt after hearing the content and getting their questions answered. I wanted them to leave this session feeling proud of our company, educated on our strategy, and excited for the future. 

 

As part of it, I introduced what I called #MelSpeak, which was my simplified translation of our strategy through the lens of our customers. In collaboration with our internal comms and HR Leadership team, we put together a presentation that went through our history to put our company strategy into context of where we’ve been, and why we’re so confident in our long-term success. Finally we had a segment of how the People team specifically facilitates our strategy - whether through talent acquisition, focus on inclusion and diversity, talent development, total rewards and more. 

 

Taking this time with my team helped build excitement and confidence in our long-term success. Employees said it was the best strategy presentation they had ever seen. Don’t underestimate the power of simplifying and tailoring your messages.

 

The takeaway: Be transparent and take ownership. Meet your employees where they are with clarity and in terms they understand. Simplifying your message isn’t going backwards, it’s sustainably going forward.