CMO Spotlight | Steven Cragle - UnitedHealthcare Global
The CMO Spotlight is a chance to get an inside look into the minds and journeys of high performing marketing leaders.
Setup CEO Joe Koufman virtually sat down with Steven Cragle, the CMO and CCO of UnitedHealthcare Global, to talk about his career path, the importance of humility, values of a leader, flexibility in the workplace, and more.
WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW AND READ THE RECAP BELOW.
Q1 | Tell us about your career path.
Steven Cragle has worked at UnitedHealth Group for about five years. In the past year, he worked and oversaw Marketing Communications and Consumer Experience for the global business. For the four years prior, he oversaw the same functions for the Medicaid business and the Dual Special Needs business.
His career began when he worked for a city in California as a Policy Analyst as well as a Public Affairs Officer. During that time, he ended up doing radio shows and having to do advertising, learning about and enjoying communications. After six years in that position, he moved into agency work and it was there that he decided to focus on Healthcare. Cragle then joined one of his clients, Medtronic, in California until he joined corporate in Minnesota. He then left to work at Merck for four years in the Pharmaceutical industry, and then decided to come back to Minnesota soon after.
Q2 | What is your superpower?
Cragle prided himself on his candor and being authentic. “It creates humility, and it kind of disarms people.”
“People to the greatest degree possible should really strive for a work-life integration, so they can be authentic and the person that they are at home just as much as they are in the office. It’s just a more efficient way and a more human way of interacting.”
Q3 | Is there a piece of advice that you would like to pass onto other marketers?
A big focus for Cragle is to be “Channel Agnostic.” He finds when someone has experience in multiple arenas, they are better developed and prepared to help clients. He loves to think broadly and strategically.
“I always tell people to get themselves into an environment where they have lots of opportunities to experience lots of different things, and don't ever become too siloed and too focused.”
Q4 | What values are important to you as a leader?
Cragle believes his job is to build the highest performing team possible because if he builds a strong team, they do better. In order to do that, there are a number of values he looks for in people and leads with.
Accountability
Availability
Empathy
Compassion
Humility
He mentioned that empathy and compassion are two sides of the same coin, and that they’re always critical. “I don't think you can be a good marketer if you don't practice and cultivate both of those skills because we're essentially here to get inside the heads of our customers and if I can't walk a mile in their shoes, I'm not going to know how to engage them...I'm not going to be very effective.”
When it comes to humility, he added, “No one has all the answers, and the only way to get answers is to really approach your work and to approach life with that kind of mindset.”
“Be relentlessly curious, and acknowledge that there are great smart people who, if you give them the opportunity, will be able to provide you with answers that are likely a thousand times better than you could come up with.”
“People derive meaning from their work, and the only way to derive meaning is to be able to contribute in a consistent and measurable way. I really regard humility as kind of undergirding the ability to create that sort of environment.”
In the full conversation, Cragle detailed his experience working with agencies and how he proves marketing’s value to his company. He emphasized that marketing is “not a cost center, we're a growth driver.”
For more marketing leadership advice and a view into the mindset of marketing executives in various industries, be sure to watch the full interview with Steven Cragle, and keep an eye out for more thought leadership from our CMO Spotlights.
Setup CEO + Founder, Joe Koufman, spoke with Ben Boyd, the Chief Communications Officer at Chobani, about designing your own career path, the importance of empathy and understanding as a leader, and more.