Name: Nasdaq CEO: Trust in Yourself and Success Will Follow
Uploaded: 2018-02-07
Duration: 4 min 38 s
Description: Adena Friedman discusses her career and the decisions that lead her to helm the company.

Do you know you are the first woman to be running a major global stock exchange. And you became CEO as just about a year now. That's right. What's the most important leadership lesson you've learned through all of these so far. I think that the key is making sure you have the great people around you, honestly. Having the right people that you can trust And a power to make sure that the business is not only being handled day- to- day, but also that they're working together with Hue to design and execute on a strategy is by far the most critical part of leadership. It's interesting that you actually started as an intern out of business school. And then some 20 years later, you become CEO, what would you say was the key to your success in making that big rise? The big thing is I started very early in my career saying yes to a lot of things, right? So I just never let anything stand in my way to taking the next opportunity to saying yes to the next assignment and making sure that they saw me as a go to person. That was number one early in the career. As it got later into my career it was really all a matter of execution. If they gave me a project I handled it, I got it done. It could be a simple thing, it could be a very complex thing. Deals can become very complex and I managed through a lot of deals from the stock, and acquisition deals. And those thing really do allow you to demonstrate your leadership across a multiple spectrum. Of skills and responsibilities. I also understand that you took up, not long ago, as a hobby, taekwondo. I'm very impressed that you earned a black belt. I know there's a lot of benefits that come out of that hobby, from Self confidence, flexibility, stress reducer. And, also, I understand, improves leadership skills. How do you think taekwondo made you a better leader? I really believe that taekwondo teaches you self reliance. If you are looking at how to get better, it's only on you to improve. You can try to please a teacher, but it's not why you're there. You are there to make it so that you improve yourself and you become self reliant. And I think that that self reliance is an important skill for anyone who is navigating the cooperate world. Mm- mh. One of the thngs that you've been doing in your fisrt year as CEO is that you are tyring to make other market structure here and modernizing the market processes whether it's through technology or aquisation, so there is a lot of change. How are you getting this message across to all your employees and getting them onboard to execute? Well, the leadership style, I like to describe my leadership style as collaborative commands. So it's the matter of bringing in all of the opinions, collaborating across teams, but also in making decisions, acting on them, and getting everyone to walk down the path with you. Or frankly, even run. [ LAUGH ] And depending on what your needs are. And I think that, that requires a great ability to establish what your vision is, to be able to communicate that vision in a way that people feel that they can relate to it, and then executing every single day against that vision so they can see progress, and they can march down the road with you. We do that through a lot of communications, town halls, ask me anything's Ways that we get out and make sure that every employee feels engaged in what we are doing. But, when you're change agent like this, and you are making strategic changes, some people [ UNKNOWN ] are some where, do you feel like you have to bring in new people who are really willing to embrace innovation and like all the people who Just don't get it. I did not have to make any dramatic changes when I became the CEO. This team is spectacular and they are there to innovate. Now, getting everyone on board with what that means for tenure vision versus a three year vision, that's been a really fun project and a fun journey for us to 2017, but the team is ready. I mean they're here to make sure that we carry ourselves into the future. Well when you're looking for leaders, and to be on the team, is there one thing you're really looking for? Yeah, the first thing is electro curiosity, and the second thing is, focus on execution. So if you are intellectually curious, and you are always willing to learn Always willing to listen, and you have that curiosity and then you apply that curiosity into execution. That's a great combination for a leader. As you look back on your really succesiful career. What was the best leadership advice that you ever received, and that you've continued to follow that advice even today? Sure, well, Bob [ UNKNOWN ] fell earlier in his tenure as CEO, really sat me down and particular as we're working through deals. And he said Dina, the most important things as you work through a deal is to cut through the noise and find the issue that's most important. But that advice is relevant across every decision and everything we do as leaders. The most important thing is not to distract the company, keep it focused and focus on what's important. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Adena Friedman discusses her career and the decisions that lead her to helm the company.