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How Leaders Lead with David Novak

#275: Ania Smith, CEO, Taskrabbit – Take risks that teach you something

How Leaders Lead with David Novak

David Novak Leadership

Business, Management, Entrepreneurship

4.8596 Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2026

⏱️ 56 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When Ania moved to the US from Poland at the tender age of 12, she didn’t speak a word of English. Today, she’s the CEO of Taskrabbit, after building her leadership chops at Walmart, Uber, and Airbnb. You don’t get that kind of career trajectory by playing it safe. In this episode, Ania shares how taking bold risks has helped her succeed, and why she’s building a culture where people are encouraged to be bold, experiment, and learn both from what works and what doesn’t. If you want to move faster this year, this episode will get you going!  You’ll also learn: How to be your own customer What no one tells you about agile companies One strategy that keeps long-term thinking front and center A unique framework for balancing life, work, and family Take your learning further. Get proven leadership advice from these (free!) resources: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The How Leaders Lead App⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: A vast library of 90-second leadership lessons to stay sharp on the go  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daily Insight Emails⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: One small (but powerful!) leadership principle to focus on each day Whichever you choose, you can be sure you’ll get the trusted leadership advice you need to advance your career, develop your team, and grow your business.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of How Leaders Lead with David Noback.

0:05.2

Today we've got Anya Smith on the show. Now, she's CEO of TaskRabbit, but she moved to the

0:10.6

United States from Poland at just 12 years old and at the time didn't speak a word of English.

0:17.1

That didn't stop her, though, from creating an incredible life and an incredible career.

0:21.6

She's worked her way through leadership positions at Walmart, at Uber, and at Airbnb.

0:26.4

And from Airbnb, she took her entire family to Argentina for a gap year

0:31.1

so that they could enjoy one another and grow together as a family.

0:35.6

She moved back to the States, took over as CEO of Chask Rabbit,

0:38.9

and in today's episode, you'll hear how Anya's focus on taking bold risks has helped her succeed.

0:45.6

You'll also learn why every leader should be building a culture where people feel encouraged

0:49.8

to be bold. Enjoy this conversation between David and Anya, and I will see you at the very end of the

0:56.0

episode for the debrief. It is about being bold. It is about feeling safe enough to really try

1:03.9

a lot of things that may or may not work and knowing that it's okay because that's the only

1:09.8

way you can learn and actually try and do better next time.

1:18.6

Anya, I have to start with this. You know, most executives, they take a vacation every now and then.

1:25.4

But when you were at Airbnb, you took your whole family,

1:30.6

not on a couple week trip. You took them on a gap year in Argentina. What did your kids teach

1:37.1

you about leadership on that trip? Well, I think the first lesson is how very different each one of them is I have three

1:47.3

kids and they couldn't be more different. And just like the teams that I work with and the individuals

1:52.6

that I work with, whether they're on my team or, you know, further in the organization, it's very

1:59.5

clear that everyone is very different and what motivates

2:02.9

people is really different. I think that the second thing that was really insightful is

...

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