During her 10 years at NBCUniversal, Gina Reduto has revolutionized the sales function, bringing the company into the programmatic era and now leading the team that advises brands on how to optimize their messaging to its 227 million monthly customers.
But what elevates Reduto to Wonder Women status is a quality that sits above the numbers and margins. It’s her approach to leadership — one that comprises extraordinary emotional intelligence, agility and a relentless dedication to the startup mentality she honed at companies including Atari and Glam Media even as she now helms a team of 23, with six direct reports.
“I do think empathy is a big part of building and leading a team,” she said. “Having diverse mindsets and perspectives and facilitating a dialogue to arrive at decisions has always been important, because there is never a singular answer in terms of a way to do something. So having a collective approach to how we problem-solve, hiring people from super-different backgrounds that contribute different lenses to how we’re looking at the business or certain solutions is really important.”
Having diverse mindsets and perspectives and facilitating a dialogue to arrive at decisions has always been important, because there is never a singular answer in terms of a way to do something.”
Gina Reduto
Reduto arrived at NBCU in March 2014 as its first standalone executive focused on programmatic sales at a time when that category (now an estimated $20 billion slice of the U.S. TV advertising pie) was in its infancy.
“The industry was changing, and my role was all about getting people to think differently,” she said. “Nothing was broken at NBC. They were a well-oiled sales machine and were beating their goals every year and I had to come in and say, ‘But wait, we need to lean into this new way of selling and building product.’
“I’m not a salesperson but I thought [what] if I put myself in their shoes and think about what it would be like to have someone tell me that,” Reduto continued. “That’s how I learned to build a collaborative mindset, establish shared goals and really have the sales team be a part of the process.
“I don’t own anything as a strategy leader. My success is contingent on sales wanting to partner with me and believing in the opportunity. So the change management piece was the most challenging, but I found my way by finding those little wins, socializing those wins, having everyone be a part of those wins and building from there.”
The effectiveness of Reduto’s leadership is not lost on Mark Marshall, NBCU chairman of global advertising and partnerships, who described it in one word: Elevation. “She elevates people to do their best work. She elevates the stories that we tell. She pushes for great work from her team but does it in a manner that is inspiring and team-oriented,” he said.
“There is not a meeting, a day, a month that Gina does not make us better as an organization. Her inclusive approach is a model for all of us to follow. She is one of the most respected and admired people in our organization.”
Inclusive Team-Builder
Regarding the composition of her team — and perhaps in a nod to her first job as a junior high math teacher — Reduto follows a different kind of equation. One where intangible, often overlooked qualities combine in a whole that’s truly greater than the sum of its parts. Her strategy team is organized by industry, including finance, retail and insurance, but those specific categories are not top of mind when she hires.
“Anyone can learn about finance or retail,” she said. “It’s things like willingness to try new things, fail fast and fail forward and collaborate, that I think are more innate and more of the mindset that allow you to be part of a winning team. And when you hire a team that way you have to flex your leadership style based on that person’s preferred way of working.
“I never impose my way of working or my style or my hours on the team,” she added. “It’s about adjusting to meet their needs, which I think creates a more productive environment.”
When it comes to elevating women in the workforce, Reduto is equally impassioned — particularly in terms of supporting their advancement beyond junior and midtier positions.
“Sometimes I feel like there’s an expectation for women to get to a certain level and that’s it, or to not have the same expectation in terms of career advancement,” she said. “There could be more confidence-building, really deliberate career-pathing.”
