Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Humor might benefit women more than men, the winner of the women’s Boston Marathon had only run one marathon before the big race, and Fortune senior editor Claire Zillman shares a new interview with Alludo CEO Christa Quarles. Have a great Tuesday!
– ‘Leadership by haiku.’ Christa Quarles, then the CEO of OpenTable, rocked Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in 2017 when she called “bullshit” on an angel investor who suggested women in tech weren’t supporting each other.
“In Silicon Valley today there is a sisterhood of women who are supporting each other, telling each other about board opportunities, giving each other business ideas,” she said at the time.
Quarles revisited that interaction on the most recent episode of Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast—and what came next. Her callout was “a great moment of introspection” for her own company. It prompted OpenTable to address the gender gap among its engineers. OpenTable started putting résumés through anonymizing filters, considered at least two diverse candidates for each opening, and shook up who weighed in on hiring decisions. The next quarter, half of the engineers OpenTable hired were women. Quarles argues that bias is “usually a systems-level issue…You sink to the level of your systems,” she says.
Since then, Quarles, who sits on the boards of Kimberly-Clark and Affirm Inc., joined software company Alludo as CEO. She steered the company through a rebrand—it used to be called Corel—and is leaning into remote work as many tech companies call workers back to the office.
She sees the return-to-office debate as an identity crisis for leaders. “Leaders now have to change the way that they operate,” she says. “It’s forcing people to look at outputs, not necessarily inputs.” Leaders need to be able to measure “what ‘done’ looks like.”
Quarles argues that “when people hear the word ‘remote first,’ they then interpret ‘meet never.’ And that is not the intention.” Alludo gathers “all the time,” she says, but does so intentionally. “Every time we have an off-site, I say the No. 1 thing we’re doing here is neuro-biological connection; we are wiring ourselves together so we can tell each other really honest, direct things next month because we had that moment, we had that trust.”
Quarles also abides by a concept she calls “leadership by haiku,” which is less about communicating in 17-syllable snippets and more about learning how to work within specific parameters—say, the need to offer workers flexibility or reach a specific hiring goal or power through a tough economy. “I just think that most great companies—when given a set of constraints that they have to operate within—become much more innovative and creative as a result,” she says.
You can listen to the whole interview on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Claire Zillman
claire.zillman@fortune.com
@clairezillman
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Kinsey Crowley. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Unregister. Despite creative business moves by Bed Bath & Beyond CEO Sue Gove to steer the company away from bankruptcy, engaged couples are losing confidence in the store, cutting the retailer's registry business via Zola by more than 50% compared to this time last year. Zola, the wedding planning site founded and led by CEO Shan-Lyn Ma, has also seen an uptick in sales of its own home goods as couples eschew Bed Bath & Beyond. Bloomberg
- Optimizing in-store. Best Buy is slashing hundreds of in-store "consultant" roles after making a series of store closures and international cuts during the last few years. CEO Corie Barry has said that the company is trying to optimize its staffing model to reflect shifting consumer behavior and prepare for a tumultuous economic year ahead. Wall Street Journal
- Funny girl. New research on TED Talks and startup pitches found that women benefit from being funny more than men. This is partly due to humor's ability to convey both competence and warmth, which are often seen as opposing, zero-sum qualities for women. Harvard Business Review
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Britta Ernst, wife of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, is leaving her role as state minister. Lewis Roca has brought on Lauren Symington as the firm's first chief talent officer. Frédérique Irwin is the next president and CEO of the National Women’s History Museum. Wedding planning platform Joy has hired Porter Gale as its first CMO. Sports marketing agency rEvolution has hired Justine Fedak as chief client officer.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Debut win. Kenyan Hellen Obiri, 33, won the women's division at the Boston Marathon. The race was her Boston debut and only her second marathon ever. New York Times
- Dutch findings. More than one in three people at the Dutch parliament have experienced toxic behavior like discrimination, improper pressure, or sexual harassment, a new report says. Dutch officials commissioned Utrecht University to study the legislature's culture after a number of scandals involving high-powered men came to light. Bloomberg
- Fertility future. Startups are finding ways to extend the window of fertility for women. For instance, Gameto, cofounded by Dina Radenkovic, is pursuing ways to make IVF less intrusive. Other companies are further developing the concept of IVG, or making a sperm and egg with non-reproductive cells. The New Yorker
ON MY RADAR
Are you a silky mom, a crunchy mom, or a scrunchie mom? The Cut
RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Sasha Colby on why her time is now Vogue
Dianne Feinstein is becoming a big liability—and Republicans know it Vanity Fair
The thrill of the office crush New York Times
PARTING WORDS
“I am a dreamer, but I’m not sure I could have ever imagined THIS is where we land.”
—Sports agent Nicole Lynn, who brokered quarterback Jalen Hurts's history-making $255 million deal with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Correction, April 18, 2023: A previous version of this article misstated that Gameto is developing IVG. It only focuses on improving IVF.
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