Marisa Peters, VideoAmp | There’s only one principle you need to build a great company culture: Truth

Marisa Peters is Chief People Officer for VideoAmp. VideoAmp is a Series C company focused on helping advertisers supercharge their video marketing. They’ve also succeeded at supercharging their culture. In this interview, we explore how Marisa’s acting background informs her HR and culture leadership. 

Truth is at the core of great acting - and great people leadership. An actor must get up on stage and actually be authentic; otherwise, the audience will know. A company’s leadership must not just tell employees uncomfortable truths; it must create a space for employees to respond with their uncomfortable truths. When the truth is known, everyone can make better decisions about how to solve the problems that are unearthed. And these decisions are the very thing that builds amazing cultures and high-performances businesses.

A wonderful example of this in action: When someone leaves a job because  they don’t love their manager or the culture, many companies have exit interviews so they can learn from the experience. At VideoAmp, there are stay interviews where both parties can honestly express why they wish to recommit to the relationship and how it might be improved. Marisa and her team help people get clear on their truest aspirations and dreams so they can honestly determine whether it makes sense to stay at VideoAmp. There’s no paranoia about them leaving because VideoAmp wants to work with people that are truly aligned with their mission.

And, when people are aligned to the organization's mission, both the people — as well as the organization — are able to build, to create, and to thrive to their highest potential.