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Barbie Brewer boasts a prolific career in people and culture. For six years, she championed the HR initiatives at Netflix, overseeing a team dedicated to sustaining the culture and values for over 1,500 professionals, and she was pivotal in launching its international branches. Moving on to GitLab, she stepped into the unique role of chief culture officer, emphasizing the company’s commitment to transparent operations and remote work. Later, Barbie’s expertise shone through various leadership roles, from Marqeta and ClickUp to LG Ad Solutions, demonstrating her skills in strategic human resources leadership and career development. Presently, she’s contributing her vast experience to Safe Security, a front-runner in cybersecurity, as its chief people officer, where she is steering the company toward achieving its ambitious mission. Always generous with her time, Barbie shares her best advice she’d give to a startup leader today.
Editor’s note: This is the eight in a series of guest posts where people from all walks of life share their best advice in times like these. A big thanks to the leaders who volunteered to share their life experiences. Reflection on the past is a deeply personal exercise. The willingness to share it with the world, especially in the written form, is a commendable act of vulnerability. For this alone, they have my deepest gratitude.
My Best Advice
Her best advice comes from her book, Lead and Let Live: Leadership Lessons for the Future of Work:
“Knowing when to redirect and course-correct isn’t giving up. It’s demonstrating resilience, flexibility, and discernment. Of course, these leadership skills will strengthen within you over time, since the skills deepen and evolve as we ourselves deepen and evolve as humans. This is an important lesson to impart to new managers and those at the beginning of their leadership journey: we get better in due course.“
