Claude Silver: Putting the Heart Back into the Workplace
Claude Silver is the Chief Heart Officer at VaynerMedia, a digital agency founded by Gary Vaynerchuk, an entrepreneur, author, speaker and internet personality. In our interview, Claude explains that the “heart” in Chief Heart Officer means being in touch with the heartbeat of every single person at the agency. She feels it’s her job to have a finger on the pulse of who needs mentorship, who needs a chat, who needs a team change, or who needs anything really. Claude is constantly reaching out and communicating with people — through one-on-one conversations, text messages, emails, and quick phone calls. Claude and I talk about the challenges of maintaining such a high-touch job while running an HR department of an agency with 800+ employees, what the culture at VaynerMedia is really like, and why “heart" is important when running a business.