COO Ironclad, Leyla Seka: More Equal Is Always Better

Leyla Seka has a clear idea of “what makes me great” as the COO of Ironclad: She’s incredibly direct with her team. Although many people are not comfortable with getting direct feedback, she says, “I can’t do my job if I can’t tell you what I’m seeing.” And in the end, she sees her job as one of seeking out the truth, to make her business better.

In this episode, Leyla and Joubin discuss developing peccadilloes as you get older, why a former boss told her “if you’re in a bad mood, don’t come to work,” what a COO actually does for her team, working through the first dotcom bust, why Leyla doesn’t think she’s better than anyone else, the long battle for equal pay, the “victim mindset” in the tech industry, empowering others who don’t have confidence in themselves, and why you can’t outwork every problem.

In this episode, we cover:

• Maintaining a positive attitude, and dealing with low-energy days (07:57)
• “The culture of the company is why you stay” (12:02)
• Overthinking things, good communication and letting go of anxieties (17:50)
• Leyla’s previous jobs and her parents’ unusual careers  (24:55)
• Keeping ego out of it and focusing on the “next best action” (31:10)
• Fighting for equal pay for women at Salesforce (39:19)
• The double-edged sword of innovation at Salesforce (49:19)
• How Leyla makes stars out of the underestimated people on her teams (55:40)
• Leaving Salesforce and starting Operator Collective (59:55)
• How she started working at Ironclad, and what the company does for customers (01:04:19)
• The biggest challenge Leyla has faced in her first six months at Ironclad (01:08:36)

Links:

• Connect with Leyla
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm