I believe that each of us should celebrate and be celebrated for our strengths. In that spirit, here are some of the qualities I bring to the table:

• Relationship Development | I recently watched an interview with a beloved, former boss and her words resonated with me: “the power of authenticity is connecting with the other person.” The trick, she explained, is to find the authentic part of you that connects with the authentic part of another. In whatever position I have held, be it marketing, development, team leadership, or communications, my natural approach is to listen for what matters to someone. By honoring their values, I find a pathway to authentic connection between us and then build from it to establish true partnership. My ability to build an alliance with most anyone — from external and internal stakeholders, to senior executives, to staff — is my strong suit.

• Curiosity | My name is Madeline Marina Robbins and I am addicted to asking questions. In my recent role at the Rockefeller Foundation, I was given the feedback that my curiosity was one of my greatest assets. My critical thinking skills and inquisitiveness have helped my teams understand problems from multiple angles and have pushed us to find and evaluate new, collaborative solutions. Questions ground the team in shared knowledge, highlight gaps, and reveal opportunities.

• Ambassadorship | “Your passion is contagious.” That’s what my friends tell me. When I believe in something, everyone is going to hear about it…and often they end up following suit. It’s not just for the products I am devout to (Thinx, bkr Bottle, my iPad, my Chevy Bolt). At both General Mills and London Bio Packaging, I started my roles with no prior knowledge of organic farming or circularity. Once I joined the team, I learned everything I possibly could, quickly became an internal expert, and then shared my passion (read: obsession) with the world around me in communications content, client meetings, internal presentations, and at dinners with friends (sorry friends!). It’s one of my favorite things about myself. It’s what makes me great at what I do.

• Presentation and Storytelling | What part of your job brings you the most energy? For me, it’s everything about public speaking: researching an audience, finding the best storyline to convey a message, designing a well-thought-out (and beautiful) deck, and sharing and adapting the story based on its reception in real-time. The task of generating mission-driven enthusiasm – and then action – in an audience is one of the most rewarding aspects of my work.  

• Program Management | I have never met an organizational system I didn’t like: lists, color coding, spreadsheets, Monday.com, agendas, pre-meeting, debrief meeting, post-meeting notes, deadlines. These tools help ensure that when I lead a program, the entire team is clear about our goals at every stage. It is important to me that the team and I hold each other accountable and remain agile to face whatever curveballs come our way.

• Strategic Thinking | As any seasoned puzzle-lover (such as myself) can tell you, the most effective way to complete a puzzle is with a good strategy. I am skilled at creating detailed and comprehensive step-by-step plans to tackle any challenge. I love to meet a challenge, interrogate it, and build a plan to resolve it. Then, in the process, when inevitable surprises come up, re-think, re-build, and re-organize to keep us going toward our strategic objective.

• Leadership | I like to think of myself as both a leader who follows and a follower who leads. I believe a leader’s role is to set vision and direction and then empower and support the team to find their own best way to get there. Because the team holds the expertise, their full engagement is vital to success. The leader facilitates their success by providing accountability and direction. My approach as a leader is to center my team by motivating, challenging, and driving us forward together as a unit.

In each step I take, my hope is to develop these from strengths into superpowers. I have some big ideas about what I hope my next steps are – read more here.