Welcome to With Grace. This week, we feature Ashley Burnstad, Head of People at Obvio, an AI-powered traffic safety company backed by Bain Capital & Khosla Ventures. Ashley is known for building high-performing teams at top venture-backed companies, with notable tenures at Roostify, Skillshare, and Level Home. Some of the qualities she admires, and reflects back into the teams she builds, are candor, poise, and radical accountability. Her perspective: “I highly recommend assuming good intent and being relentlessly curious about people around you.”
What's your superpower?
I think my superpower is candor. I’m not great at running a hidden agenda; I think I’m mostly the same person in every room. On the flipside, I struggle to have a corporate poker face, but I’d rather be a little exposed than to feel like I’m not being real with people.
What's a quality you respect in the people around you?
Magnanimity and poise. Absorbing chaos and reflecting back grounded calm energy. Exercising restraint and composure. Never allowing personal ego to detract from the larger mission. Consistently elevating others. Radical accountability.
Who's the best mentor you've had?
My manager, John, when I was a Recruitment Consultant at Robert Half. I was at such a pivotal point in my early career; I needed to get my butt kicked, to learn a stronger work ethic than what had been modeled for me, and to grow up professionally. He was the embodiment of tough love, and he was great at what he did, so it was easy to listen to him and want to emulate how he worked. I’m really so thankful to have learned the ropes of recruiting from him. That role is what started it all!
What's the last thing you read or watched that changed how you think?
Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow. It claims that our brains are relentless storytellers that constantly swap complexity for effortless mental shortcuts. It took me down a rabbit hole of learning about cognitive bias. But want to really confuse yourself? Read this book, have your mind blown, and then go read the arguments against Kahneman’s claims.
What motivates you?
Being alive. As Mary Oliver said, "It's a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in the broken world.”
What's something your perspective has changed on in the last few years?
So much of the world is shades of grey. It’s easy to sort things into clear categories, it’s easy to have extreme views that don’t take any nuance into account, it’s easy to make an enemy out of someone rather than take the time to truly empathize with how they came to believe what they believe. I highly recommend assuming good intent and being relentlessly curious about people around you.
What's something you're getting better at?
Leaving things in my Amazon cart for a couple days before purchasing them.
How can someone make you extremely happy?
When someone I deeply care about has a breakthrough moment. Maybe it’s at work, or in a relationship, or in their solo personal development journey. Oh and flowers, the worst day is made better with flowers.
Who should we feature next?
Jocey Karlan. Truly one of the most impressive people I’ve ever had the honor to work with. She’s a powerhouse.
What's one request you'd make of whoever reads this?
Find a way to spend less time on your phone. We will all be better for it if we can remember how to be bored.
