Havas Media's Lisa Evia on Building Leaders: "It Takes a Village"

According to Evia who has had an impressive career trajectoryamp160across a variety of industries from the maledominated commercial transportation sector to the hypercompetitiveamp160fastfood arena and as a former competitive figure skater she is used to pushing boundaries and challenging herself and othersamp160 She has emboldened her team by focusing on three things democratizing leadership by embracing not only highpotential female talent but also energizing other diverse sources of leadership making her team financially astute on what drives profitabilityamp160and turning her team into mighty technologists who know the difference between Python and RubyDemocratize LeadershipIn the fastmoving and highstakes world of advertising the key differentiation for any agency is talentamp8239 Evia believes in elevating and shining a light on all underrepresented groups when identifying leadership potential amp8239At Havas Media the focus is not merely on diversity and inclusion but importantly on equityamp8239 To Evia equalityamp160is about fairness and creating a level playing field for all voices which is also a focus for Havas Group as a wholeamp160 For example this past International Women39s Dayamp160Havas partneredamp160with Facebook JCDecaux The Economist and Westfield Shopping to run the widespread She Is Now Impossible to Ignore activationIn addition to the external facing campaign Havas Group announced the launch of Femmes Forward in 2018 a program designed to accelerate the careers of women leadersamp160 Evia has further amplified the program by creating a dynamic crosspollination of talent across business areasamp160 amp160Evia herself moved from creative to mediaamp160amp160Evia names Kaitlyn Murphy and Vanessa Romann as just two examples of women from the Chicago Village who excel at their craft draw on the versatility of the media and creative platforms and have moved the business forward including recently winning a tire brand39s creative business to add to Havas Media39s current global media responsibilities with the brandAs the smallest of the agency holding companies Evia believes Havas Media needs to be highly entrepreneurial and committed to breaking down entrenched silosamp160amp160quotAct as marketers first not media peoplequot she says amp8239This goes handamp160in hand with their commitment to recruiting fresh talentamp160as exemplified by its Chicago City Colleges internship program which has resulted in a rich tapestry of diverse voices entering the leadership pipelineamp8239 Evia is passionate about seeing the quotlight go on for the first timequot when students hear that media and advertising is a viable and rewarding career optionIn addition the employeeled Diversity Equality and Inclusion team at Havas Media has become an quotorganismquot that autonomously makes decisions embraces risk and galvanizes teams to actionamp8239 One example of employee creativity is the awardwinning quotBlack at Workquot installation whichamp160for the last four years has been a provocative expression of creativity collaboration and celebration of the African American identityKnow Thy NumbersHaving led financial communications in her early career Evia is a stickler for ensuring her team has the same level of financial acumen and rigoramp8239 She applied these very skillsamp160when she first joined Havas Media as she challenged pay inequalities across the organizationamp8239 Under her leadership she effectively made the business case for adjusting significant pay gaps in some cases as high as 40 and showcasing how it would benefit the bottom lineThis zealous focus on numbers is part of Evia39s DNA as a Northwestern science major and a selfadmitted math geekamp160 quotI am outrageously transparent with my team on where we are making money and how we are making moneyquot she confessesamp160 This even extends to reminding her team what EBIT stands for during meetingsChannel Your Inner CoderTo Evia the language of business extends not only to numbersamp160but to codingamp8239 Her commitment to make everyone at Havas Media coding literate has resulted in the launch of quotChiCodesquot with a nod to Chicagolandamp160 Set up as a special internal codeamp160learning program that elevates team members from beginner level to proficient it is a critical skillamp160Evia asserts because quota lot of marketing problems are solved by codequotamp160 Evia calls attention to quotRookie of the Yearquotamp160Justin Williamsamp160who as the agency39s quotData MacGyverquot has brought the coding and data ethos to the agencyamp160 New tools like the Media Math app were also built relying on the collective tech IQ of the teamGlobal Village Moving ForwardHavas CEOamp160Yannick Bolloramp233amp160recently shared the bold ambition for Havas quotto become the most meaningful company in the industryquot at Cannesamp160amp160He also said that by 2023 5060 of senior leadership roles in the company would be held by womenamp160 With Evia at the helm Havas Media is well on the way to achieving this ambition with 50 women represented on her senior leadership team a noapologies laser focus on financial outcomes and above all a tenacious commitment to equality entrepreneurship and extraordinary client results in an everchanging and diverse global villageClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Havas Media's Lisa Evia on Building Leaders: "It Takes a Village"

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Havas Media's Lisa Evia on Building Leaders: "It Takes a Village"

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