Leaders Unscripted

Conversations with leaders about the challenges they’ve faced and what they’ve learned.

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26: Etsy’s Jenn Clevenger on Navigating Leadership Through Covid and a House Burning Down

Episode cover image

Leaders are humans too, and Etsy’s culture has given Jenn Clevenger the opportunity to lead through remarkable adversity.

In her 8 year tenure, she’s become VP of Engineering, tackled a pandemic, and stayed her course while her house burned down.

It’s the staggering story of a remarkable leader and a resilient human, one which we delve into on episode 26 of the Leaders Unscripted podcast.

This Episode Covers:

  • Jenn’s ‘zigzag’ path to leadership
  • Leadership lessons learned from Etsy’s culture
  • Our ‘nonsense buckets’, and how to make space in them
  • Taking time to breathe, do nothing, and be self-empathetic
  • Advice for leaders tackling headwinds, both external and personal

Episode Highlights:

“You never know where the opportunities are. The things that you think might have been a failure, you never know what kind of connections you're gonna make that are gonna totally change the course of your life.” - 8:30 - Jenn Clevenger
“Our nonsense buckets are full to the top, so everything that makes your nonsense bucket overflow is exhausting.” - 13:25 - Jenn Clevenger
“Tragically, I think dealing with death does change your perspective. I hate the word resilience, but it gives you something - a perspective, maybe? It changes things because leadership is a hard thing already, but it gives you something different.” - 18:00 - Suzan Bond
“There are always things you could help out with if you were an octopus - you can keep an eye on them, but tackle things one at a time.” - 23:55 - Jenn Clevenger
“Life is hard, and you need to make space for that. That doesn't mean that you only make space when something dramatic happens. It means you always make space for it. ” - 31:00 - Jenn Clevenger

Links & References:

Constellary: https://www.constellaryhq.com/

Suzan Bond: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanbond/

Jenn Clevenger: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennclevenger/

Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/

Etsy (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/company/etsy/