There’s often no shortage of fires to extinguish during the course of a normal workweek, but according to leaders speaking at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit, the key to effective leadership isn’t just problem-solving: it’s stepping up to address what’s most critical for the business.
“As we’ve seen the world become more complex—everything being fast—I’m seeing just a lot more expansiveness in all of our C-suite roles because we can’t be silent. Everyone needs to think about growth,” said Zena Arnold, chief marketing officer at Sephora.
When change leads to chaos, employees find themselves looking to leadership for stability. Tia Sherringham, general counsel at DoorDash, said she tries to model her approach after a tranquil swan.
“My team is looking to me to be calm, and I think of myself as the duck—or in a good day, maybe the swan—that’s on the water,” Sherringham said. “…They’re looking at me not just to be centered, but also to make clear what actually matters, like this is what matters. This is where you should focus.”
Photograph by Stuart Isett/Fortune
Ellie Mertz, chief financial officer at Airbnb, echoed the value of agility and context across leadership.
“Scaling has this element of needing you to be agile and figure out what’s the next thing that needs to get done, and where can I uniquely help out?” Mertz said.
Even if someone doesn’t have the proper skillset to solve a problem, identifying the issues at hand and the right people to tackle them is a priority for her—and something she encourages her team to do as well. Mertz said she learned this early in her career at Netflix, where she came to understand the value of giving people context during unpredictable times.
“In a complex organization or a world that can be uncertain, context is really the most important,” Mertz said.
Education as the ‘great equalizer’
Jacqui Canney, chief people and AI enablement officer at ServiceNow, added that education ends up being central to building a confident and agile workforce.
“I believe that education is the great equalizer,” Canney said, adding that it equips workers with the courage to try something new without the fear of breaking something, which ultimately sparks innovation.
Across industries, these leaders agree: staying calm, providing context, and enabling learning are the hallmarks of modern leadership—and sometimes, being a graceful swan is just as important as solving the next big problem.
