Trust Is Key Attribute for Effective Leadership: Teads’s Monique Pintarelli

MIAMI – Amid the disruptions of the past few years, including a worldwide pandemic, war in Ukraine and high inflation, people are looking for leaders they can trust. That single characteristic is also the basis for effective leadership in business.

“You need to ensure that you can build trust across the organization,” Monique Pintarelli, president of North America at media platform Teads, said in this interview with consultant Joanna O’Connell at the Possible event in Miami.

“Trust comes from knowing what you’re talking about, but also operating in a way that is transparent,” Pintarelli said, “and it lets the team feel like they are part of everything that you’re doing and building together.”

Leadership styles can differ among men and women as they work to overcome obstacles and achieve business goals.

“Women by nature have a superpower of being more empathetic, of being able to read people in situations, to adapt more fluidly to situations, to connect with people,” Pintarelli said. “Men typically have a way of garnering respect quicker. They can have a stronger, bigger presence that can fill up a room in a quicker way. Men and women can get to the same place, but the path sometimes looks a little bit different.”

Trust not only is important in forming bonds with other people in an organization, but it’s also an important part of self-understanding. Believing in yourself shapes decisions.

“When I made the leap to adtech, that was a real shaky ground that I was standing on,” Pintarelli said in describing an important shift in her career in the ever-shifting media landscape. “Having some vulnerability, being open to learning from people around you, knowing that you don’t always have to be the smartest person in the room to be an effective leader — I learned a lot through that shaky time period.”