Dalia Feldheim
speaker
76 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard Nov 2024
Dalia Feldheim’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsNo recordings in the last 12 months.Older appearances are listed below; set an alert to hear about the next one.
Appearances
the ups and downs in your life, you actually find the red thread. And that red thread is kind of your hint to what. So I always knew that I was about people empowerment. I happened to be a marketing director, but it was all about people empowerment, whether in the campaigns I did or the teams I built, et cetera. And that's why I, 17 years in P&G, I thrived because I was completely on purpose.
It was the last three years when my career reached the lowest point when I wasn't allowed to bring to life my strengths, that's when I kind of shrunk. And that's where I talk a little bit about the importance of, you know, how do you deal with a challenging situation?
So 17 years after working for P&G, I left and I took a role as CMO, Chief Marketing Officer for Asia. Great company. I love the CEO. I love the global CMO. I thought I landed my dream job, right? One week into the job, or maybe one month into the job, I got a new boss who was the local CEO. And Heather, it took me a week to realize that him and I were fire and water, right?
So I'm all about creativity and people. And he was all about numbers and scorecard and ROI. And most days the culture felt like ROI or you die. He told me once, I'm not going to tell you what you're good at. It's a waste of time. I'm only going to focus on what you need to fix. Anyone who comes from marketing would appreciate this. But then he says to me, Dalia, there's no art in marketing.
It's only science. You just didn't get it yet, right? Right. So you see the face. I felt like it was a dagger right into the heart. But anyway, him and I were like a match made in hell. But one day, you know, I think it was like a few months into the role. I got summoned into his office. Okay. Now, I'm a C-suite woman. I was the only C-suite on his team. And he starts giving me feedback.
And I love feedback, okay? In P&G, we used to call it tough love feedback. I'm very direct. I love you to say, don't sugarcoat. Tell me exactly how it is. But tough love, it needs to come from a position of care, right? That day, there was no love. It was just really humiliating, denigrating. And I'm holding it in. I'm a C-suite woman. But then he starts insulting my team.
Like, really, very personal. You know, I was getting so frustrated, right? Because it was so unfair. And when I get frustrated, I tear. He saw the tear in my eye and he smiled at me and he gave me a box of tissues. And I had this warm, fuzzy feeling for a moment. But then I lifted my eyes and I saw something weird in his smile. And he turned around that tissue box and I couldn't believe my eyes.
On the other side of that tissue box was a handmade sticker he prepared in advance for which read Dahlia's Tissue Box. This is unbelievable. I can't even believe this is a true story. This is how crazy this is. It's crazy. I reacted like that. I was like, are you kidding me? With the little self-esteem I had left. And he just sat back and he's like, Dalia, stop being so emotional.
It's just boy banter. I know you have a sense of humor and I can tell you the interesting thing, right? So I had this amazing career, 17 years. I was one rated, top rated the whole time. And suddenly- You know, I realized why, you know, looking back, all my strengths were not only not appreciated, but they were denigrated. I was too good with my people, right?
I was too creative, which is not process enough. In one stage, even kind of there, we got feedback that were too negative as a leadership team. And I raised my hand and I said, hey, I'm studying positive psychology. I'm happy to do some programs. And he's like, oh, that won't be needed, Miss Kumbaya.
I can tell you, I learned so much from what not to do. And I never wish this on anyone because seriously, Heather, from a super confident person, I started losing my, my mojo. I was literally, you know, the first year I still tried to kind of fight and give feedback. And of course I told HR and they just kind of, you know, Didn't do much, not enough about it.
I mean, they did in the end, but it was too slow. Second year, I kind of flight, I tried to avoid, I brought kind of a data scientist to give him all he needed, right? But I realized at the end of that year, I literally fell physically sick. I realized I left my heart and my art at the doorway.
So beginning of year three, what happened, what saved me in a way, because I was determined not to leave. I'm a fighter. I was a gymnast. I'm like, I'm not going to quit. You know, I was the main breadwinner at that time. So I'm like, he should quit. I'm not going to quit. I love what I was doing. So I was like determined to stay, right? Yeah.
Third year, what happened is I went to a P&G alumni, so my previous company. And when I walked in, that was the wake up call. I plant myself in the chair and I said, whoa, you know, this is what culture should look like. I've been a frog in boiling water because you know how it goes. And I spoke sometimes with even domestic violence. It was very similar. I kept on thinking I can change
And I learned you can't change someone that doesn't want to change, right? So, you know, at the beginning of that third year, I realized, whoa, I need to leave this toxic environment, but not before I deliver everything I committed because I committed to the CEO and I always deliver on my commitment.
So I said, okay, I'm going to stay until the end of the year and I'm going to go back to my strengths. I don't care if he likes them or doesn't like them. So my strengths is people and creativity. And I said, I'm going to bring creativity even to a category. It was washing machines in that sense, right?
And together with the team, we created a campaign that was very data-driven, but also very creative. And that won an Effie Award. The first time this brand won an Effie Award for business results and creativity. And that's when I realized, you know, I found back my mojo and it was time to move on.
And I can tell you, you know, I always say if it happened to me, it can happen to anyone, you know, because I used to be head of the Women's Network for P&G and not a pushover. I kind of stand up. But the more resilient I became, the more toxic he became. And I think, you know, I ended up doing my research on it.
So when I studied in INSEAD, I did the research, his research, and I wanted to understand, can you coach yourself out of a toxic environment? That was my research question. And my answer was yes and no. So yes, yes. You can build resilience. And the Dare to Lead Like a Girl is about my resilience model. I call it 5P. I talked about purpose. There's all around perspective or perseverance.
There's physical power, people, and positivity. So that's the model. However, that works for a general hardship or general company. I concluded that when you work for a toxic environment, there really is only one strategy. And that is zero tolerance. Zero, right? You with your two pages, you know, that's the zero tolerance. Zero. I was too empathetic. I kept on thinking I can change.
Showing 21–40 of 76 · page 2 of 4
← Previous
Next →