BAM Blog | Stories

3 Things We Learned from Radhika Duggal About Leading with Gratitude

Written by NICHOLE MENDEZ | Feb 23, 2026 3:00:00 PM

Radhika Duggal wears many hats. She’s the CMO of Major League Soccer, leading the marketing department through what she calls soccer's most exciting year in North America. She teaches consumer behavior executive MBA classes at NYU, in the same building where she studied undergrad after moving to NYC at 17. And she has a five-year-old daughter, who she's teaching to order her own food at restaurants, because if you don't ask, you don't get.

When Jill and I sat down with Radhika, we centered gratitude as a leadership strategy — and why putting people first isn't just the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do over the lifespan of your career.

Here are three things we learned from Radhika about showing up as leaders.

Gratitude Makes Work Less Transactional

In a high-performing, high-pressure environment, it's easy for work to become transactional. Radhika admitted she's guilty of it herself: shooting off Slack messages asking for the 4-1-1, running between meetings, firing off questions to different people.

But carving out time for gratitude means you're able to overcome some ‘transactional’ feelings. Every Thursday, Radhika’s calendar alert reminds her to thank her team on Slack. She highlights team members' wins for the week, calling them out by name, and says thank you. This same team has created a gratitude culture where appreciation piles on. By the end of the week, there’s joy in looking through the Slack channel and reading how they all showed up for each other. Radhika also used to handwrite thank-you notes and feature them on a wall. The system has evolved, but the intention hasn't.

Why does this matter? Because gratitude signals respect and humility. When people feel appreciated, they do better work. They're more likely to speak up, take creative risks, and feel supported. In a creative discipline like marketing, you need people to feel comfortable taking those risks.

Gratitude is also contagious. It's modeled at the top. When Radhika starts Thursday mornings with thank-yous, people pile on. It creates a ripple effect throughout the team that makes work feel less like checking boxes and more like showing up for each other.

Your Job as a Leader Is to Hire Great People and Get Out of Their Way

Radhika was crystal clear about what mitigates pressure and intensity for marketers: autonomy and trust. Her job is to hire really great people and get out of their way.

That's not always reasonable in every work environment; there are layers, reviews, processes. But she sees cutting all that away as the job. Find the best person for the role and trust that they're going to do it.

Beyond that, she's intentional about two other things. First, championing the work of people on her team in rooms they're not in. Making sure leaders can connect a creative piece or an incredible digital marketing journey with the name of the person who did it — whether that person is a VP or a coordinator. Second, showing gratitude systematically. Not just when she remembers, but built into routine. That Thursday Slack reminder is designed to create consistency.

The result? A team that feels trusted, seen, and appreciated. That's how you keep people in an industry where passion runs high but burnout runs higher.

Always Put Your Team Members First

Radhika shared a story that influenced how she shows up as a leader. Earlier in her career, Radhika applied for a promotion at another company. Her boss supported her candidacy, she interviewed, and she got the job. But when she went to share the good news, her boss replied, "Actually, I think you're more valuable in this role. I don’t think you can take that job."

Radhika asked if that meant she'd get the promotion and raise in her current role. The answer? No. They didn't have the elevated headcount or budget. She was just more valuable where she was. When Radhika asked why they supported her candidacy in the first place, the response was brutal: Her boss didn't think she would land the job.

She’d never heard anything more demoralizing and left the company shortly after. Here's the kicker: That person called about three months later asking for a favor. You can imagine how inclined Radhika was to help.

Her takeaway? Always be honest with your team members. Always put supporting them first. Careers are long and the world is small. If you put people first, you're better served over the lifespan of your career — and your life. When you put someone second to something else, it feels terrible. And it's a worse retention tactic.

The Future Is Hopeful

When we asked Radhika what gives her hope about the future of work, her answer was simple: everything. She comes to work every day excited for the day, the next day, and the day after that (though she credits both her team and MLS for that).

But what really struck us was this: She has a five-year-old daughter, so when a friend told Radhika about all the things her own adult daughter had accomplished, Radhika thought, "How cool is it that I get to build, or be a part of building, the future my daughter is going to participate in?" There's so much hope in the world and so many positive experiences, and we get to create them.

After interviewing Radhika, we hope leaders are more committed to putting people first. To intentionally building gratitude into routines, not just when we remember. To hiring great people and getting out of their way. And to realizing that words matter. They can demoralize or they can lift up. They can close doors or open them.

Radhika reminded us that leadership isn't about keeping people in boxes that serve us. It's about supporting them even when it means they move on. Because the world is small, careers feel long, and how you treat people always comes back around.

Listen to the full episode of Work Made Human to hear more from Radhika Duggal about teaching her five-year-old to advocate for herself (starting with ordering at restaurants), the diversity of thought she gets from her NYU executive MBA students, and marketing MLS as fun and escape.