This story is part of the 2018 Profiles in Power awards, honoring influential women leaders in Austin. Go here to see the rest.
Autumn Manning is described as a culture champion. Her forté: human capital management, specifically the way businesses and employees interact and engage.
Earlier this year, the company she co-founded in 2013 and runs now as CEO — YouEarnedIt Inc. — graduated from venture capital to private equity via a deal with investment giant Vista Equity Partners.
YouEarnedIt offers a platform through which managers can reward employees and employees can reward each other with items from a day off to getting coffee with the boss to having a Nerf gun fight in the office — or even wearing pajamas to work. It has more than 400 customers, including Whole Foods Market Inc. and Bazaarvoice Inc. and Fortune 100 companies, and all of them report increased employee engagement, YouEarnedIt boasts.
For the first three years of business, Manning was the lone executive and grew YouEarnedIt to a successful business with more than 250 customers. Since 2016, she has spearheaded four initiatives to help the company scale: build the executive leadership team, update the product platform, define the strategic growth plan and fundraise. This year, Manning expects to grow her team from 90 people to 150.
What has helped or hindered your career? My mother was a single mother who worked a lot, so I played a big role in helping to raise my three sisters. At an early age, I learned how to quickly size up a situation, figure things out and problem solve. Being able to adapt to changing environments and situations has helped me get very good at looking at risks or problems as an opportunity to move forward and achieve more.
People can learn from anyone, or any situation, if you are willing to listen and apply.
What advice would you give to women trying to achieve leadership roles? Find mentors. Identify early in your career the model of what success looks like to you and seek mentors who represent that model. Be sure to keep adding to your mentor list — and seek out diversity. Getting advice from a variety of advisors will give you the benefit of different perspectives and more people to offer help when you need it.
Also, remember that knowledge is power. Know that there is enough research out there today that can empower you. Immerse yourself in data that shows that your skills, experience and background are valuable and make those data points your new mantra.
Finally, for leaders today, of any gender: It’s up to us to create a culture that is inclusive and enables employees to bring their very best selves — skills, experience, ideas, and performance — to work. Know that you must actively manage this as a leader and across the leadership team. Strong cultures don’t just happen. It’s true what they say: It starts at the top. Research on employee engagement backs this up: Engagement and inclusiveness are intertwined, and it’s impossible to have one without the other.
What is your community involvement, both within and outside your business or organization? In my spare time, I volunteer for causes focused on working mothers, females in technology, and underserved children in need.
In addition, the YouEarnedIt platform has helped our employees — as well as our clients’ and partners’ employees — make an impact by giving back to the community and to causes they care about, such as donating to the Las Vegas Victims’ Fund and Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.
Who have been some of your mentors? Early in my career, I met a woman at a large retail organization who was very, very senior. I shot way high, in seeking her to be my mentor. But if you don’t ask, you don’t get. I asked her, “Can we meet once a month?” She agreed. Those meetings became a safe place to ask questions like, “How do I kill it in the boardroom?” but also be able to say, “I’m outta here at 4 p.m. because I need to be there for my kids.”
My co-founder, Kenny Tomlin, is another mentor of mine and is my biggest cheerleader. When he was CEO of Rockfish, I used to meet with him monthly. After years of mentorship and friendship, he said to me, “You need to come run this company, YouEarnedIt,” which I ultimately did. I led the spinoff of YouEarnedIt from Rockfish Labs, the startup incubator arm of Rockfish and co-founded YouEarnedIt with Kenny.