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Secrets of my success: LinkedIn's Josh Graff

Josh Graff says he was nowhere near as productive as he could have been after jumping back in the closet
Josh Graff says he was nowhere near as productive as he could have been after jumping back in the closet

Josh Graff, the UK boss of LinkedIn, discusses his early struggles in business as a gay man and becoming an LGBT role model.

What do you do?

I’m the country manager for LinkedIn UK and I also lead our advertising business across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Our goal is to level the playing field when it comes to employment, and give everyone access to the same opportunities and contacts regardless of where they’re from and who they know.

I’m also a trustee for the charity Founders4Schools. The mission is to inspire students and prepare them for the rapidly changing world of work and help get young girls into science and technology.

At LinkedIn, I’m the executive sponsor globally for our LGBT employee resource group.

I’m deeply involved in an organisation called OUTstanding, which is around giving more prominence and visibility to LGBT role models — because when I was 16 there were certainly no LGBT role models in business.

What do you like about the job?

I love the variety of the role. Every day I learn something new. One day, I could be meeting the chief marketing officer of a telco company in Dubai, helping them understand how LinkedIn can enable them to capture greater market share.

The next day, I can be sitting down with a government official in London, helping them understand how LinkedIn’s talent analytics can be used to inform their Brexit strategy.

What don’t you like about it?

Walking into rooms where I don’t know anybody, which I do frequently through client events and public speaking engagements.

I’m an introvert by nature so it doesn’t always feel comfortable. I’ve trained myself to overcome much of that anxiety over the years but it’s definitely a work in progress.

What was your big break?

I dropped out of university and managed to secure myself a role at Transworld International (TWI). Unbeknown to me at the time, they were hiring about 400-plus people in the space of a few months so perhaps their quality bar was temporarily low, which allowed me to slip through the net. That was certainly a lucky break.

In 2002, I quit my first job at TWI to set up the world’s first in-game advertising agency, brokering agreements between video games publishers and brands.

The break was signing our first client, Adidas, for a partnership at the time with a video game called Championship Manager.

And biggest setback?

I came out to my parents at 22 but like 62% of Generation Y grads, I walked into work and jumped firmly back in that closet.

As a result, I was nowhere near as productive as I could have been as a result of hiding my true self from those around me.

When I finally came out at work, my career trajectory took off. I was more confident, I established deeper relationships with colleagues and clients, my emotional intelligence increased and I became a more compassionate leader. But, most importantly, I was infinitely happier.

When I was 15 or 16, there were no serious business leaders who were out. Today, it’s a completely different world to the one I was brought up in.

The Thatcher government at the time referred to gay relationships as pretend family relationships. So it’s perhaps not surprising that an insecure teenager was reluctant to come out.

How do you manage your work/life balance?

I strive for work/life harmony versus work/life balance. I’m not great at switching off.

I live with my husband, who I have been with for 10 years. I can see him through my office window — he works at Google across the road in public policy.

When we travel to the US, we try to co-ordinate our trips so we’re in San Francisco at the same time. When we travel for work, we may go away for one, two, max three nights but it’s not significant periods of time.

I love the theatre, I’m a crazy Scrabble fanatic, I love scuba diving. Despite our work life including significant amounts of travel, we try to travel as frequently as possible for pleasure as well.

Are you concerned by the ‘bro culture’ that has emerged in Silicon Valley?

As an industry, we have work to do. There are many companies, including LinkedIn, which recognise the need to improve in this area.

The starting point is to run programmes to disperse this unconscious bias. Many of us hold unconscious biases and so the starting point is recognition of how we’ve operated in the past to be able to correct how we operate in the future.

Any tips for those starting out?

It’s about building and nurturing your network. I’m a firm believer that a strong network is a key foundation of a successful business.