Building High-Performance Teams Starts With Culture
Dan Wright has worked for, founded, or been part of fourteen different teams at Rokt over nearly ten years. He's currently a Vice President in the Operations and Solutions team. That breadth gives him an unusual vantage point on what makes Rokt work.
Someone who's moved through fourteen teams has seen a lot change. For Dan, that's exactly the point. "What I'm really proud of and always have been over the last ten years is what hasn't changed," he says. "That's the culture and the people."
That consistency shapes how he hires. Dan has built his teams around one principle: hire your next boss. "As I hire people, I try to hire the person who's better than me," he says. "Building a team of people who frankly you think are stronger than you in many, many aspects builds a great team."
Four years ago, he hired Jon Humphrey as a Director of Solutions. Six months in, sitting in a performance calibration with the executive leadership team, Dan started Jon's review with a joke: "I think I've just hired my boss." The room laughed. Dan didn't walk it back. "I went, no, I'm serious. I think Jon within the year is going to be my boss."
He was right. Jon became the VP of Operations & Solutions within a year, and is currently the SVP of Operations & Advertising. "He's just absolutely skyrocketed," Dan says. "For me, I think it's one of the proudest things I've done at Rokt, being involved in Jon's success."
That's how Dan measures his own performance as a leader: not only by his output, but by what the people around him go on to do. "Most of my work and focus as a leader has been in trying to make the people in the team successful. I love seeing people come into a team that I'm managing and go on and succeed. That's our job as leaders, bring in great people and set them up for success."
Dan Wright
My name is Dan Wright. Currently work on the operations and solutions team. I've been at Rokt for almost ten years now. I have worked for, founded, or worked in fourteen different teams at Rokt.
We're really proud of being a high change environment. There's a lot of innovation that gets produced out of changing a lot. But I think what I'm really proud of and always have been over the last ten years is what hasn't changed. That's the culture and the people.
And that's why I love working here. It's that core culture that hasn't changed, is actually really unique. I've been told over the years that as a leader, one of the things you should do is try and hire your next boss. And I think I've always tried to do that as I hire people — hire the person who's better than me.
Building a team of people who frankly you think are stronger than you in many, many aspects builds a great team. And I think most leaders have that attitude at Rokt. We tend to hire people that are better than us at many different things. I hired Jon Humphrey three or four years ago now.
He was incredible — right from the start, I knew I wanted to hire him. And I remember six months in, we were sitting in a performance calibration room with the whole ExCo team and I started Jon's review by joking and saying, "Well, I think I've just hired my boss." And everyone giggled and had a little laugh and I went, "No, I'm serious. I think Jon within the year is going to be my boss."
And lo and behold, he's just absolutely skyrocketed. For me, I think it's one of the proudest things I've done at Rokt — being involved in Jon's success.
Most of my work and focus as a leader has been in trying to make the people in the team successful. I actually love seeing people come into a team I'm managing and go on and succeed. And I think that's our job as leaders — to bring in great people and set them up for success. And it just breeds a really high performance culture.
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