Ep. 12- Authenticity Online with Peter McKay

Narrator:

Welcome to Digital First Leadership, the podcast that focuses on helping leaders and teams understand how to master the language of social media in today's digital first world. In this episode, Richard speaks with Peter McKay, the current CEO of Snyk, a network security company currently experiencing tremendous growth. Peter and Richard talk about the experience Peter has had with this concept of being a digital first leader, and how he's leveraged it for the impressive success of his company, and the strides he's made with his own personal brand.

Richard:

Peter, thank you very much for joining me today.

Peter McKay:

Great to be here. Good to talk to you, Richard.

Richard:

Now, Peter, you and I have known each other for quite a while, and you've been leading Snyk during this time, as a CEO. But the thing we wanted to talk about today was the experience that you've had, basically being this concept of digital leader, because you started off, this isn't how you started and now you've been able to really leverage it for Snyk, and I guess COVID changed some things, but it didn't. Help the audience understand your position when it comes to how Snyk is structured and how that's had an impact for you from a digital standpoint.

Peter McKay:

Yeah, I think early on, the company was a very virtual company, a virtual organization, where we have hubs in different parts of the world, in Tel Aviv, in London, in Boston, in Ottawa, in Zurich and different places, but it's been fairly virtual. So yeah, when COVID happened it was very quick to, everybody moved to work from home and got out of all those hubs and we haven't really missed a beat. And so it's allowed us to continue to work and operate very effectively as now, almost a 600 person company all over the world. So it's been an interesting transition.

Richard:

Now for you, as you've done that, because you're in Boston, a lot of the folks are in London, as you said, Tel Aviv, Ottawa. How have you been able to take advantage of your online digital presence to be able to wield that kind of influence? And also in the market, Snyk has been in the news, acquisitions and partnerships and that type of thing. How have you used your online presence to be able to kind of extend that voice?

Peter McKay:

Yeah, it's a great question. And I think I under appreciated it many years ago, when I thought about it. You're in the software world for so many years and you don't appreciate the network and the people that you've met and worked with over the years. And then you start seeing a lot of these people that you're following and they're following you, and your influence starts to grow a little bit more, as you kind of move through your career. And now, when I look at, not my social presence, one for Snyk, and getting the message to all the people within our company and on different matters, internal, external, things that we're happy about.

            But what I underestimated was the impact externally, on the community and the people that I've worked with in many years from VMware and Veeam, all the way back to CA and all the way through my career. It's been more impactful than I thought. When I talk about the environment, or talking about, as much as I try to stay away from some of the political aspects, how many people it touches. And so what I've come to realize is the magnitude of just the, I wouldn't say following, but the influence that you can have on people. And that manifests itself to just people wanting interest in Snyk and wanting to know more about the company.

            So it's been an interesting journey for me on the digital side, where I always kind of thought it more internal. And then realizing, even pre COVID, that the external is an important part of, not just for Snyk, but I think for a lot of people who want to understand maybe my take on different topics or different issues that are coming up, and my comment on something that they're doing. So it's been a good ... but I'm always learning about the magnitude of how we can be better at it.

Richard:

I mean, I think back on the story and you actually are in my book, about a particular story that struck me, that was one of those events where I feel like you suddenly were a little surprised, and that had to do with the story about carpeting. And if you recall, and it's been a while, but if you recall that you and I talked and you put [inaudible 00:04:53]. Right?

Peter McKay:

Oh, yes. Yeah, on the show floor.

Richard:

Yeah.

Peter McKay:

The show floor of the exhibits. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Richard:

And I share that story in my book, because one of the things that happened is, and I was surprised I happened to be at the time, remember walking beside you, and we were at the show and it was in Chicago and you said, "Hey, I've got to go over to our booth. I got to go check out the carpeting." And I got to admit, at the time I was like, "What?" And that story then, because what happened was, is that I discovered-

Peter McKay:

Never skimp on the padding.

Richard:

Right, never skimp. Because you talked about how your career as a sales person, all those years, you'd been standing on that show floor. But then you posted it on LinkedIn, and I think at the time you were surprised, because that was early on in you starting to explore this digital presence, that you were surprised at the reaction that you got from simply sharing a small little insight.

Peter McKay:

Yeah. Who cares about my feelings about carpet and padding in a show floor booth? And so, I mean, I think it just gives people that not all CEOs are these ivory tower kind of CEOs, or executives are a certain way. And we care about, I grew up in the floor, being at a booth and doing that for three days, and your back's bothering you, legs are bothering you, and these are things that you've learned throughout your career that I think it's, I don't know, important lessons you've learned along the way. But I didn't think anybody would care about it. Why would anybody care about it? I think it was probably the most read post that we did at that time, all about padding the show floor.

Richard:

Yeah. It was about how much, I mean, how important it was for you to go down and check out how much padding they had used, to make sure that they had the thickest padding for your team. And it got tens of thousands of people viewing that, commenting.

Peter McKay:

Commenting. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Richard:

And it did surprise you. Because then I've noticed that, because then last year as COVID hit, you and I talked about a post that you wanted to put out and that you ended up putting out about, several. One was the mental health day for Snyk, but the other one was, what was it? It was the, don't waste your time.

Peter McKay:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't waste the opportunity.

Richard:

Don't waste the opportunity.

Peter McKay:

It's interesting because, and to be honest, I probably should do more of it, because this whole COVID period has been a challenging time for everybody. And it's not like the COVID period, because COVID period is like five different phases along this journey. And it started with holy cow, now everybody's working from home, and then people go through this period where they overworked, and now people are burning out. And you think of all the phases that people have gone through over this year plus, and I started to comment on the different phases I was going through, and thoughts that were going through my mind at these different stages. And I just thought, if I'm feeling it, maybe others are, and so I just posted them. Here's what I'm feeling along the journey. And it wasn't related, it's just like, hey I'm feeling the same. And it gave people a forum to comment, and say, "Yeah, I'm feeling the same, what are you doing about it?" And here's what we did along the way.

            Because I think we were probably, I think Snyk was pretty, I mean, everybody talks about how they adjusted, and they were quick, things like that. But I think we were very fast to adjust to different things that we were sensing with the team that we had, teams that we have in place all around the world. Because the dynamics are different in Israel than they are in London, and everybody's going through different things. Parents with kids at home, and not, it's a trying time.

Richard:

It is a trying time, but here's an interesting thing that I have observed, and maybe you have as well, as you bring up the kids and the family, is that traditionally we would work, whether it was remote or in person, and there was a clear delineation between personal and professional, right?

Peter McKay:

Yeah.

Richard:

You came to work, you were at work. If you had to take time off for the kids, it was kind of a, not that it was a strain, but there were some challenges. Now, my team did a training this morning for a client, it was very early this morning, but we know that at a certain hour, one of my trainers, a member of my team, her three of her four children go off to school. And so they know, perfectly comfortable to walk into that camera while their mother is presenting, and she clearly interrupts and says, my kids are going off to school, excuse me for a moment. She turns around, kisses each one of them goodbye, they all wave to the camera and off they go. And I have never had a client ever show anything other than appreciation and enthusiasm to wave back. And how interesting that personally, we are inside of each other's lives, that a year ago, if you talked about ...

Peter McKay:

Unheard of, yeah.

Richard:

Unheard of.

Peter McKay:

Yeah. The dog in your room, or the dog coming up and jumping on your lap in the middle of a call. I mean, everything's on the table now, everything's acceptable. I really believe. I mean, you look at the way people dress, the people coming in and out, it's just, it's okay. It's okay. It's not a big deal anymore.

Richard:

And do you feel that your preparation, that you got yourself kind of into this mode of being comfortable online, has helped you then in this transition to be able to feel comfortable communicating, being out there being actually have a voice without worrying too much about, oh, am I saying the right thing? Am I doing it the right way?

Peter McKay:

Yeah. I think that's true. I think we've evolved our thinking and our approach, and I've been much more open. I was very, very private, there was a fine, strict wall between work and my home life and opinions and all that. And that's kind of the way we were brought up really, and there really wasn't the vehicles that you had today, 10, 15 years ago. And so, I've found that, hey, certain things that I've learned over the years, lessons that I've learned, mistakes that I've made, if I can share some of those experiences with people, so they don't make the same mistakes that I've made and they can learn from me, at this point in my career, it's about the legacy you leave.

            Someday, I'm going to go off and retire and hang out down in Cape Cod and try to figure out how to golf, and all you'll have is good memories of impacting. I always hated people that I worked for, that I work with, managers. I say, think about the person in your life, other than your parents, that had the most impact on you, a teacher, a coach, a boss, think about the person who's impacted your life the most, and remember that person. And then I ask them, now think about how many people would have you as that person? How many people would have you as the one who impacted their life?

            And that's what I try to think about, is how many people's lives can I positively impact? And that's what, I mean at this point, this is kind of what I'm, I've learned a lot, I'm still learning and I still got a lot to learn, but for me, the joy, the passion that I have, is around seeing the things that I've been able to, how I've been able to help and mentor and grow and share different things along my journey, to help make people better. And that's what motivates me. Yeah.

Richard:

And now having that digital presence has allowed you, as I've watched your career ...

Peter McKay:

To share it.

Richard:

Right. You've been able to be comfortable sharing those things, like you said, nobody cares about my opinion about carpeting. Well, guess what? Tens of thousands of people care.

Peter McKay:

Yeah, they do. You know what's funny? It's almost like, I was just on an interview with someone from the UK and they said, look, I listened, I read all your LinkedIn and I was on one of your podcasts. And they just kept on reciting different things that I said in a podcast. And I said, I don't even remember that podcast. It was on, you posted on LinkedIn a year ago, and I kind of read it or listened to it. So it has the impact, much more than I ever thought. And so, yeah, I'm humbled, I'm honored, I'm appreciative of just being in a position where I have anything to say that anybody's willing to listen to. Which is pretty cool.

Richard:

And so, as we wrap up, that's an interesting thing. What would you say to an executive who's listening, maybe who's either coming to work for you, or maybe is in another field, completely unrelated to what you're doing. What would you say to them from advice of just that? To put themselves out there to take advantage of these tools, and what happens if they fail to heed that advice? What happens if somebody hesitates to put themselves out there and get online and become a digital?

Peter McKay:

I think, today it's so, I mean, I think it kind of encourages people to get out there. I think the downside is not as much as it was before. I mean, I don't know, I just encourage people to take the step, and I push my executives at our company and the teams, and you're doing some work to help some of our teams at Snyk get more of that voice out there, and impact. Go. Take the step.

            I don't know about, I know you're similar to me, in that I'm always learning, I'm always researching, I'm always trying to see what best practices are out there. So I'm always on LinkedIn, I'm always looking for an interesting article, but I do it from people I respect. And I look for, if someone says, "Hey, this is an article that I think is worth it," I'm going to read the article, because it cuts through all the noise. You focus on the people you think you're going to benefit from, and it makes me better at what I do. And so I'm always learning, and now I am far more aggressive in how I share more outbound, than kind of keeping everything close to the vest.

Richard:

I think that's great advice to a lot of them who are hesitant to make that step, so I certainly appreciate you sharing it. Peter, thank you so much for your time today.

Peter McKay:

Anytime, Richard.

Richard:

I know you're busy. This has been great. Thank you so much.

Peter McKay:

Great to be here.

Speaker 1:

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