Hillary Benson believes there’s one value that’s fostered through “thousands of moments” in time.
Trust.
It’s the key to healthy relationships, both at home and in the office. In fact, a Harvard Business Review study revealed that people at high-trust companies report 74 percent less stress and 40 percent less burnout.
That’s why Benson, VP of product management at GitLab, considers trust to be the backbone of her leadership philosophy, informing the ways in which she helps her direct reports evolve while driving progress. From clear communication to accountability, there are many values Benson considers critical to her role as a leader, and she strives to instill each of them in her teammates every day.
Benson said her approach to professional growth is rooted in the understanding that no two career paths are the same. To ensure all of her direct reports have an equal opportunity to thrive, she builds strong relationships with each of them to understand where they wish to go with their career — and help them get there.
So what does this empowerment look like in action? According to Benson, this motivation is currently driving her team’s efforts to evolve how the company’s customers understand and act on security risk, which marks a “critically important shift” in how the company serves organizations.
This impactful work, along with every other facet of what her team accomplishes, reflects what Benson described as a wider truth about GitLab’s culture: the company enables its people to make an impact on a global scale.
“It will challenge you in ways very few have experienced,” she said.
Below, Benson shared more about the culture at GitLab, how she empowers her direct reports to grow and leave their own mark on the company, and what makes the organization a truly special place to work.
About GitLab
GitLab’s AI-powered DevSecOps platform enables teams to deliver software more quickly while deriving insights through visibility across the software delivery lifecycle. The company’s platform also offers built-in security and compliance and enables organizations to embrace a multicloud strategy.
What does culture look like at GitLab, and why is that important for the work that you do?
Culture is ultimately about defining and holding fast to the values that you believe should guide your behavior. It’s about setting expectations for how we treat one another, the kind of product we build and how we build it, and the promises we make to our users and customers that we hold ourselves accountable for. Culture is an exceptional tool for driving organizational alignment that is rooted in core beliefs and shared understanding.
I focus on building trust with my team. Trust builds over time via thousands of moments that demonstrate consistency between what you say and do.
“I focus on building trust with my team. Trust builds over time via thousands of moments that demonstrate consistency between what you say and do.”
How do you help your teammates grow their careers? What tools and support do you offer to allow them to stretch their skills?
Career growth can look very different from one team member to the next. Things that are key for one are immaterial to another. So, to help team members grow, it’s critical to understand what their near- and long-term goals are, the current relative strength of the expertise and skills they need to reach those goals, and the menu of opportunities you have available to you to put in front of them.
Ultimately, being connected to your people — knowing them and understanding their motivations and their desires in life — is what is key to helping them grow. This awareness, combined with active effort to maintain awareness of opportunities for training, development, stretch assignments, network connections and so on, enables you to support them in their growth.
3 Principles That Guide Benson’s Leadership Vision
- “Ensuring that the basic needs of my people and the business are strongly aligned: When this alignment exists and relationship incentives are clear to both sides, it’s easier for each to trust that the other will carry their weight. These basic needs include things like compensation, location and schedule flexibility, expertise and skillset, and organizational goals.”
- “Clear communication and transparency: I try to provide my team with maximal context so that they are empowered to make good decisions for the business. Information is power. When you go out of your way to share, it usually instills a sense of confidence in your team about your intent.”
- “Instilling a strong sense of responsibility and accountability: Handing important things to your team telegraphs that you trust them to deliver. Holding them accountable instills trust in other team members that you are fair. Holding yourself accountable instills trust in everyone that they have top cover if something goes sideways.”
What’s something exciting that you are currently working on with your team?
The slice of my team that looks after GitLab’s security and compliance functionality is on the precipice of a critically important shift in how we’re addressing customer problems. They’ve worked hard for years to deliver a lot of the table-stakes requirements for this area of the product, but now they’re entering a new phase in which they’ll be better positioned to capitalize on the value of the underlying GitLab platform as a tool for contextualizing security risk. There is massive untapped potential to evolve how organizations understand and act on security risk. I am massively excited about what this body work will mean for the team, the company and the value we’re able to deliver to our customers.
What sets GitLab apart as an employer? What impact does working there have on someone’s career?
GitLab is a special place. It presents an unparalleled opportunity to influence how enterprise software is built and deployed. It will connect you with people you feel so aligned with that you’ll remain close friends years after you part ways with the company. It will challenge you in ways you’ve never experienced. It will allow you to adopt a lifestyle you didn’t think was possible to have alongside a hard-charging career.
GitLab is unlike anywhere else you’ll ever work and is guaranteed to make an impact on you, your career and your life.
