Described as both a bulldog and a warrior, Intuit's VP of Marketing Patti Newcomer-Simmons built her reputation by seeking out the difficult challenges most mortals try to avoid. One such challenge was to dramatically improve departmental performance at a company that was already filled with "happy campers." To do this, she first focused on the getting the metrics right. Rather than dwell on how satisfied employees were they with their jobs, she focused on employee engagement, a metric that corresponds with answers to questions like, "Would you stay with the company even if you received a higher offer from somewhere else?"

Ultimately, through a series of actions, including adding new hires, moving team members around and aligning around core goals, Newcomer-Simmons helped drive a 30-point increase in employee engagement. In case you were wondering, that is a very big jump, especially when you consider that Intuit already enjoyed a very high employee retention rate. So, if you're wondering how you can get your marketing team operating at a higher level, this is definitely the right episode for you.