Speaker 1:

From the library of the New York Stock Exchange at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets in New York City, you're Inside The ICE House, our podcast from Intercontinental Exchange on Markets, Leadership and Vision and Global Business, the dream drivers that have made the NYC an indispensable institution of global growth for over for 225 years. Each week, we feature stories of those who hatch plans, create jobs and harness the engine of capitalism right here, right now at the NYC and at ICE's 12 exchanges and six clearing houses around the world. And now welcome Inside the ICE House. Here's your host, Josh King of Intercontinental Exchange.

Josh King:

Back in June 2018, just a few weeks after being appointed the 67th president of the New York Stock Exchange, Stacy Cunningham appeared on Inside the ICE House to talk about her career and what lay ahead for the Exchange. Now approaching a year into the job, Stacy was a guest on A Call to Lead, a podcast from NYC listed SAP to talk about her leadership style and what it takes to helm a 226-year-old institution. A Call to Lead began as an event series founded in 2016 by Jennifer Morgan, SAP's President of the Americas and Asia Pacific Japan, and the first American woman to sit on its executive board. Jennifer launched the podcast in January 2019 to bring the conversations about what it takes to be a successful leader that she was having with executives and scholars from business, media, academia, politics, and culture at A Call to Lead events to a much larger audience through the podcast world. Stacy's episode can be heard by subscribing to A Call to Lead on your favorite podcast app. But today we're bringing you a part of that conversation. That's right after this.

Speaker 3:

Our mission is to bring the world together through live experiences. We're focused on building a technology enablement platform for event creators, lower the friction and cost of creating an event, and increase the rate of success for event creators all over the world. We're a global inclusive company in 11 different countries. This really marks a new chapter for Event Bright, and it feels like the starting line. Event Bright, now listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Jennifer Morgan:

You and I have talked a lot about leadership and how much we love our companies and feel so fortunate to be able to lead great teams. But we also have talked about when you were appointed to this job, a lot of the press did focus a lot about first female president in wanting to know more of the personal side of you. And it's interesting because you and I have discussed the kind of that balance of, well, sure you want people to know who you are, you're an authentic person, but would it be the same if it was another male president, as an example?

Stacy Cunningham:

It definitely would not be the same as another male president. I mean, I get questions about my personal life, which I think you just don't typically see for men. And I think a lot of that comes from society, and what society expects of men and of women is not exactly the same thing. And so when a woman is elevated, they naturally go to the place they go to for women. It's like, "Okay, well, tell me about your home life." And it's like, "Really? That's where we're going to go now?" But what I do think is important is for other women to see senior executives that are women. I think it's important for people to just see that it's okay to be an authentic person and to-

Jennifer Morgan:

Yourself.

Stacy Cunningham:

Yeah, and to be yourself. It's much easier to be yourself. And, if you have to go do this job, if I can do it in my own skin, that's much easier. And I think society is becoming a little more welcoming to that, to people not putting on the air of exactly who they [crosstalk 00:03:59].

Jennifer Morgan:

Whether you're a man or a woman.

Stacy Cunningham:

Yeah. Whether you're a man or woman. I was at an event recently where David Solomon, the incoming CEO of Goldman Sachs said he thinks it's important to be vulnerable and to make sure that the team knows you don't have all the answers and you're working on it together. And I feel that way when I think about our organization. I know I don't have all the answers. We need to get the answers. So how are we going to do that, right? When I think about the skills you have to have as a leader, you don't have to have them all within yourself, but you have to have them within your team. Right? So I look at, okay, what are we missing and what do we need to fit in to make sure we're well rounded so that we can go out and tackle all the things that come our way?

Jennifer Morgan:

Yes. And would you agree with the statement, you want to hire people who you think are better and smarter than you?

Stacy Cunningham:

A hundred percent.

Jennifer Morgan:

It works, right?

Stacy Cunningham:

I think you should never waste a hire. I think you should hire the best player you can get on the team. And I think you always want to hire somebody that's better than you. If you're given that opportunity, take it.

Jennifer Morgan:

Absolutely.

Stacy Cunningham:

Never turn that down. And for lots of reasons, it also opens you up to be able to go do new things. Very often you hear people say, "Well, if I..." Or you see people operating, you think that they're nervous about hiring somebody that's better than them because it might make them look less-

Jennifer Morgan:

It might expose them or expose something they feel.

Stacy Cunningham:

Yes. Or they're less valuable. You can replace me or you can rid of me. For me, I've always thought it important to have a strong team and I will every the time hire someone better than me. And it's frankly left it open for me to go do new things. And I say it to people on my team today all the time, "Make sure that you're not such a key critical person that I can't give you a new opportunity to go do something new because I can't take you out of the job that you're in. So make sure your team can do the job you're in so I can give you something new to go do."

Jennifer Morgan:

That was one of my lessons as I was coming up the ranks is understanding that I was being judged not on my own abilities, but on my ability to build a great team who could do exactly what you just said, right? Scale, do more so that we could lift the entire organization. Because, when you hire people who are better than you, it lifts you up. It lifts everybody else up. And when it's the opposite, it pulls everybody in.

Stacy Cunningham:

Yeah. Whether this is at work or anywhere else, if you surround yourself with people who make you a better version of yourself and you're doing the same for them, we're all going to be better off. And I think that's just a good way to go through life.

Jennifer Morgan:

That's so well said. So you and I talked a little bit earlier and I brought up the words imposter syndrome. You know what that is?

Stacy Cunningham:

I do.

Jennifer Morgan:

Did you ever suffer from imposter syndrome as you were coming up through your career?

Stacy Cunningham:

Yeah. I'm still [crosstalk 00:06:30] it.

Jennifer Morgan:

Is there a cure for it?

Stacy Cunningham:

Yeah, I think there's... Imposter syndrome is you walk into a room and you think everyone in there knows more than you do. And it's most common when you start a new job or you go to a new company and people are throwing acronyms around and you can't figure out if that's something you're supposed to know or if it's specific to just that team. And what I find really interesting about that is it doesn't take all that long before you realize, wow, one, I know more than I thought I knew. And two, they don't know quite as much as they seemed. And they're figuring all of this stuff out too, and you get comfortable. But then you look at the next group and you think, "Oh wow. They know so much more than I know." And you don't end up learning from that prior experience that everyone's in this and everyone's working their way through it and they're probably feeling the same way you're feeling in those settings. It's something that I think you just need to get past. And you do get more comfortable the more you put yourself into those [crosstalk 00:07:29].

Jennifer Morgan:

Uncomfortable. Yeah.

Stacy Cunningham:

Yeah. The more you live in an uncomfortable way, it's easier to do it.

Jennifer Morgan:

You flex that muscle, right?

Josh King:

That was just a small taste of New York's Stock Exchange President Stacey Cunningham's conversation with SAP's Jennifer Morgan. To listen to the rest of the recording, I encourage you to download the complete episode by searching for A Call to Lead on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Play, or Stitcher. If you like what you heard, please rate us on iTunes so other folks know where to find us. And if you've got a comment or a question you'd like one of our experts to tackle in a future show, email us at [email protected] or tweeting us @icehousepodcast. Our show is produced by Pete Ash and Theresa DeLuca with production assistance from Ken Abel and Ian Wolf. I'm Josh King, your host signing off from the library of the North Stock Exchange. Thanks for listening. We'll hit you with a full length episode next time.

Speaker 1:

Information contained in this podcast was obtained in part from publicly available sources and not independently verified. Neither ICE nor its affiliates make any representations or warranties expressed or implied as to the accuracy or completeness of the information and do not sponsor, approve or endorse any of the content here in, all of which is presented solely for informational and educational purposes. Nothing here in constitutes an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy any security, or a recommendation of any security or trading practice. Some portions of the proceeding conversation may have been edited for the purpose of length or clarity.