Kate Kenner Archibald: Chief Marketing Officer, Dash Hudson

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Kate Kenner Archibald“The combination of expressing your needs and doing fewer things better is what I have learned in recent years,” says Kate Archibald, who shares on advancing in a workplace of women, creating a spherical life and managing up.

Growing as a Leader While Surrounded By Women

Having grown up in New York, Archibald idolized the big fashion house vibe. She was magnetized to how creativity and business merged together at Estée Lauder, where she spent 14 years specializing in luxury brands, including Tom Ford Beauty and Bobbi Brown, honing her career towards tech marketing. In November, she moved to Dash Hudson, an all-in-social entertainment insights marketing software platform that works across some of the most influential global brands including Apple, Amazon and Disney.

With three kids (currently, seven years, five years and ten months old) and a husband with a full-time job, maintaining her career through the family journey has been a choice she has committed to, partly because she derives great satisfaction from her work, and also because of the independence mindset she adopted early on.

“My father really impressed upon me the value of being independently successful as a woman and used to impress upon me that I could be a CEO,” she reflects, “He’s been a huge impact in my life, so being independent has always been important for me.”

At Estée Lauder, she was surrounded by a workforce of 85% women, so the vertical track to, and horizontal track across, leadership positions were well-accessible for women who wished to advance, and Archibald navigated across several cross-functional leadership positions.

“I was encouraged and enabled, and there were opportunities,” she says. “You still have to know that nobody is going to hold your hand, and you are the owner of your destiny. But it helps to be in a place where the growth mentality as a woman is appreciated.”

Now at Dash Hudson, Archibald enjoys the mix of professional and personal life supported by the tech-like atmosphere and culture while still leveraging the leadership experiences she gained through her tenure in beauty and luxury.

Creating a Spherical Life and Reserving Family Time

“I am very direct in terms of what we’re trying to accomplish and what we need to do to achieve our goals. I try to get to the root of the problem and reduce the back-and-forth,” Archibald says, accrediting her need for work-family balance for the acute focus. “I also enjoy creating an environment of collaboration by enabling people to see outside of their silos, and to understand how the piece they are contributing is interrelated and contributing to the other teams. I’m a huge proponent of creating a structured collaboration framework and connecting the dots.”

Archibald has recently been inspired by the novel approach her CEO takes to hiring and culture at Dash Hudson: “The mentality is people first. Let’s find the best, smartest, most amazing people and figure out where they can add the most value. The strength of the talent and the true belief that diversity makes us stronger creates an incredible culture. The level of support felt between peers and teams is a real shift for most people when they join the company. Especially in a hybrid environment.”

Within a mostly female environment for over a decade, Archibald has had the benefit of sharing lots of honest conversations with successful women. She has often sought insight on managing professional and family demands, even the basics of keeping a household running. A recommendation she received along the way was to think of your life as a circle or a pie graph that includes everything that is important to you:- family, work, health, friends, spirituality, etc.

“If one part of the pie gets more dominating than you want it to be, you have to consider how to make that part smaller so you can ‘right-size’ your family life or your spiritual life, for example,” she says. “That has really helped me to compartmentalize what I’m doing and how it impacts the other parts of my life.”

As a traditional Jewish family, Archibald and her family observe Shabbat every week, reserving Friday night and Saturday strictly for time with family. Honoring this has been fundamental in helping manage her time, and because that time is a weekly fixed date, it’s also helped her feel more peaceful during the week when she needs to work. Additionally, it ensures that she is aligned with her partner on their collective family goals.

“I think a lot of parents feel guilty if they don’t have dinner every night with their family,” she says. “But for me, every Friday is a guaranteed dinner together with all the family and Saturday is family, all day. No exceptions. It has given me a supportive structure in my life.”

In addition to being influenced by her father’s outlook on independence and her supportive husband, Archibald attests that her mother is the hardest working person she knows. While Archibald went off to first grade, her mother went back to school and obtained her PhD in Neuropsychology. Inspired by her, Archibald wishes to model to her daughter and two sons that a woman can have a career and still be present for her family.

Managing Up and Knowing Your Own Expectations

As she’s grown more senior in her career, Archibald has found herself getting better at reinforcing her own brand of executive presence and managing up: “The transition over your career is toward managing up, and ensuring that you get what you need. I learned this the hard way when faced with health challenges, when I was doing too much and not telling people what I needed. I really have come to see the importance of don’t take on too much and do fewer things better, both of which I pass on to women just starting their career.”

When it comes to mentoring, she also tells everyone, but especially mothers with young children, that if you’re not happy at home, you’re not going to be happy at work.

“If your work is really impacting your home life, take that step back to figure out what and how you can fix it. Push for flexibility, which is becoming more common, or figure out what the issue is,” she says, “But if you’re not satisfied with how much time you have with your family, you’re never going to be happy at work, no matter how much money you’re making.”

Archibald advises women to go back to the sphere and consider the balance across areas and really understand “what does good look like, for you?” which is different for everyone. She says, you have to be able to manage life in a way that works for your expectations for your family and work life ― and honestly, check if your employer is willing to support that for and with you.

Changing Jobs Amidst a Remote Workplace

Having joined Dash Hudson well into the pandemic, and in the middle of her crossover maternity leave, Archibald has yet to meet her new colleagues in person. But in this exceptional context of our times, she has hugely valued a strong and communicative organizational culture, which has supported her onboarding and becoming part of the team.

Together, her family loves skiing in the winter and swimming in the summer in the Hudson Valley, where she loves being outdoors and active in nature. She has a real passion for ice cream and swears her ice cream place in Tivoli, New York is verifiably (just check Food & Wine Magazine) the best in the world.

By Aimee Hansen

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Renee Connolly: Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

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Renee Connolly“I am retrospectively conscious, but not retrospectively critical. I learn from the past, to move me forward,” says Renee Connolly, based in Massachusetts. “I am prospectively thoughtful that the decisions I make today have consequences: so do I have the right facts to make those decisions?”

Connolly talks to why language matters, going for greatness, learning from the past and having the right resources.

From Communications to DEI

Connolly spent her career facilitating understanding in healthcare-related communications, until last August: “For 25 years of my life, I helped to make complex science and life sciences simple and understandable, so people could better support their lives, families and needs.”

As a college senior, Connolly lost her mother (lifelong non- smoker) to lung cancer and was compelled to enter communications in the burgeoning pharmaceutical biotech and life science field.

“I thought to myself, if I could help people on a journey, similar to ours, to better navigate that maze of specialist talk and treatments, then that’s making a difference.”

In taking on her evolved executive role, she agreed to turn her part-time advocacy of DEI into a full-time opportunity to transfer her skills.

There’s still so much to understand in the deep rootedness of what it really means to help people feel they are heard, included, and really belong,” says Connolly. “Language matters and impacts people in different ways, and DEI is a lot about language and the use of words.”

Listening and Language Matters

Now in her DEI remit, Connolly is facilitating how people better understand each other. She collaborates with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany’s many stakeholders including advising senior leadership, partnering with recruiters, engaging with employees at all levels of the organization and importantly partnering with Employee Resource Groups (ERG’s), to tell their stories and amplify their voices. Working in this space internationally requires her to keep her “ears wide open.”

“It creates constant awareness to be truly open-minded and to not put on blinders, to not put defenders up, and to really listen, wholeheartedly,” she says. “We’re creating an environment where people feel they belong and are nurtured and where we are nourishing our business for top-line growth.”

Connolly notes that her role requires emotional, mental and physical muscles every day – leading with empathy. She feels like the right person in this critical moment for our company and communities, with the right balance of skills and experience to take DEI to the next level for her organization.

Going For Greatness

“The world could be imploding around me, and I have a mantra of ‘It will be great’ or ‘I stand in a place of believing in an outcome filled with ‘greatness’,” says Connolly. “It’s not just positive mindset. I actually believe that even if the journey to get there is full of hard lessons, I’m always looking for greatness.”

When told something is impossible, a discerning question she asks is: “It couldn’t be done? It shouldn’t be done? Or it wouldn’t be done?” And depending on the answer, she may turn to how to make it possible.

The loss of her mom left Connolly with resilience. While she feels every scale of her emotions, she still tends to be a “glass half-full” person who considers herself fortunate and brings positive energy to those around her. She does what she says and says what she does, rallying her team when she commits to a vision.

“I’m a big believer that it’s the team, not the individual, that drives success. It is the collective good of many,” she says. “I love DEI because it drives progress when we realize – in some way, shape, or form – that we’re more alike than we are different.”

That emphasis on “team” has been instilled throughout her life from playing many organized sports. Connolly was a college athlete, and her entire family (including her three teenage sons and her 8 year old daughter) is athletic. She loves observing the parallels between business and individual and team sports. That spirit of healthy competition has gifted her great skillsets as well as a deep appreciation for excelling and accelerating her own growth.

There are many “dominoes” in teamwork that make you have a successful win or loss. In business, Connolly applies this and has come to find that “there’s a wisdom in knowing what you don’t know” and you don’t have to be the smartest person in the room.

“Earlier in my career, I thought I had to be the one with the voice. Now, I realize what I have to do is give or encourage or support the voices that have the information required, not always be the voice,” she says. “That’s the muscle you develop with maturity and by realizing the amazing contributions that many voices bring to a conversation. That’s the muscle you develop when you embrace the diversity of thinking in a team to drive forward.“

Retrospectively Conscious, Not Retrospectively Critical

Cultivating patience for herself and others is perhaps a skill Connolly built up by raising four children, as this year she has one in elementary, one in middle, one in high school and one in college. Talk about patience. Each age, experience and interaction requires you to be patient and that has mattered for Connolly as a leader.

“In a field like DEI, you see so much potential right away. But it’s necessary to have the patience to realize there are steps to get there, and you have to do those steps well. You can’t run before you walk,” she says. “Patience is not weakness, as I may have seen it before. It’s a virtue of understanding that you must work towards goals in a methodical way to make sure that you’re iterative enough to get the best possible outcome.”

Aware that she makes her own decision based on current knowledge—and that there will always be more to learn, Connolly tends to not focus on criticizing how past decisions were made, hers or others: “I try to learn from the past, but focus forward. Especially now, every day brings new circumstances and we use our best judgement, and most of us have positive intent.”

This makes her retrospectively conscious, not retrospectively critical, as she puts it – focusing on her responsibility today.

Why You Don’t Need “More”

When Connolly was leveling up from doing to managing others, she used to say she needed “more” to get it all done, but one of her mentors changed her entire frame of thinking: “Your problem is not getting more people or more money or more resources,” he told her. “It’s getting the right people, the right money, the right resources.”

Other words she lives by as a communications professional is to treat every opportunity like opening night: “It doesn’t matter how little or big the engagement is, respect and know your audience. Realize that people are spending time to listen or talk to you so make sure your message lands.”

She values the advice to be true to your purpose: “When you’re often counseling senior leaders, do you want to tell them what they want to hear? Or do you want to be true to yourself?” While a job may require different approaches at different times, it’s important to keep a purposeful essence in how one approaches everything (for her, a spirit of greatness and creativity).

Guiding Others and Serving a Mission

Mentoring young talent fulfills her soul. It reminds her of her younger self, looking for guidance after losing her mother. She loves instilling in young women to have the confidence that they can do more than they thought possible. As a mission-centered person, she sits on several boards, from the Massachusetts Conference for Women to the Home for Little Wanderers (child welfare to American Cancer Society (New England). One of her most prized awards was entitled: “Service above Self”—it is this she uses to guide her commitment to share her talents, treasure and time to help those who are in most need.

She emphasizes the importance of having fun. At her best moments in her journey, she was enjoying the work, serving a mission, or making something better.

By Aimee Hansen

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Jessica Jones: Managing Director, Head of Asia, PGIM Investments

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Jessica Jones“There are not many people that are willing to take on that challenge of being in a new role and different geography,” reflects Jessica Jones. “I was very open to this change, and put myself forward early in my career. I made sure that my managers knew, that while focused on my current role, this is something that I would be interested in, if the right time came.”

Working in Asia

Born in the UK and raised in South Africa, Jones became comfortable with change, adapting, and being the new person in an environment from an early age.

Jones worked for Goldman Sachs for 17 years, where she headed diversified businesses across Europe, Australia and ultimately in Asia. She took a Hong Kong-based opportunity with PGIM, a top-10 global investment manager after completing her second maternity leave last September.

“I have had a very rewarding and dynamic career with another exciting chapter ahead. Because I’ve had such supportive managers and sponsors, I’ve had fantastic opportunities to step up, and have had the privilege of covering a number of regions and countries from a very early moment,” she says.

After visiting Hong Kong during her gap year, Jones became fascinated with Asia and kept her eye on opportunities in the region. She eventually made the leap ten years ago, taking a Head of Asia-Pacific role based in Australia first, before moving to Hong Kong. As the APAC asset and wealth management industry continues to grow exponentially, driven largely by China, the number of high-net worth clients has grown, and global private banks have sought to expand their footprint–making it an exciting region to work in.

She’s had the privilege of watching her client counterparts move around too: “It’s been incredible to develop these long partnerships with clients who are also moving in their roles all the time. It has helped me to understand the global businesses that our clients are in, so it’s fantastic perspective.”

Immersing in a Culture Through Passion

Accustomed to being the ‘outsider’ who doesn’t speak the local language, and often the only woman in a room, Jones is passionate about getting to know a new region and has found her clients enjoy the different perspectives she can bring to the table.

“I am building teams who are local experts in their regions, who are Cantonese- or Mandarin-speaking in Hong Kong, and who can get much closer than I ever will to the relationship managers or investment counselors,” she says, “They bring the local perspective and the ability to converse and steer me in the right direction. That’s a fascinating aspect of my role–to adapt and enjoy the cultural differences.”

Located in one of the most restrictive quarantine regimes over the last two and a half years, and having yet to meet her PGIM team or clients in an office, Jones still has a feeling of “going through it together.” In Hong Kong, there’s been a rebirth of popularity around the traditional 19th century Chinese tile-based strategy game named Mahjong–involving 144 tiles placed on the table and four players. Having begun playing regularly during semi-lockdown and mostly with women, she’s a self-confessed enthusiast, and highlights language happens in many ways.

“You put these tiles out, shuffle them, and basically try to create order out of the chaos,” she says. “It’s been really fun, and with everything closed, that’s been our chance to network and support each other. It has become a bonding opportunity and stress reliever.”

Jones’ passion for the culture has helped her open new doors and develop great relationships. “The game is about luck and skill, but also has become a way of honing in on my local cultural skills. My clients are amazed I know how to play, although I still have so much to learn. I can’t speak the language, but I can speak the language of Mahjong,” she says.

Jones is emphatic about becoming a part of the region: “I have my residency and both my children were born here, so I’m very much rooted here. This is home for me, and I’m committed to Asia, and so my clients tell me they have adopted me as a local.”

Raise Your Hand and Stretch Your Limbs

Jones attributes her career success both to raising her hand early to say she was open to new opportunities, and a willingness to take on stretch roles as they came up.

“Don’t just assume that people know what you want. You need to make sure that your managers and your stakeholders know that you are interested in other opportunities,” she says. “Don’t be scared to let them know. It’s not like you’re going to be fired because you’re driven and want to move and grow.”

For anyone else who feels the call to get out of their comfort zone, she emphasizes you don’t need to have been there before or know the language to thrive: “If you have the right attitude, being outside of your comfort zone makes you stronger and stretches your mind, and it makes you learn at a very fast pace.”

As the years have accumulated, Jones’s steady base is her product and business acumen, with new regions and new types of wealth management presenting opportunities to stretch. Learning on the job has taught her a lot about herself and how she adapts.

Being brave and taking risks are two traits she feels have supported her journey: “It’s always tempting to stay in the safest option, because you’re scared of making a mistake or damaging your professional reputation. But being open to trying new strategies, new areas, new growth and new innovation are a great way to progress your career. Risk needs to be calculated, but take those risks early.”

She recommends building a strong network from the beginning, and is amazed how much the relationships she has built over two decades help her to stay in touch with lessons, inspiration, opportunities and innovation from different regions.

You Cannot Communicate Enough

“My advice to anyone going into a new leadership role is you can’t communicate enough. There is no such thing as over-communication,” says Jones. “Good communication helps us be connected, engaged and understanding where we are all trying to go.”

As she’s become more senior, Jones has had to get even better at communication.

“As a leader, you need to constantly be communicating your vision–the goals, the purpose of the team, the roles that everyone has and responsibilities. You need to keep communicating the progress that’s being made, within your team but also to stakeholders,” says Jones. “Especially being so far from headquarters, you really need to communicate and advocate for your team, and be the PR agent for your team, your business and the opportunities in the region.”

She’s learned the importance of tailoring your approach: “There’s different communication for different people and learning styles, so I need to keep thinking about how my messages may be coming across. Do I need to adapt the way I communicate to my team and to different stakeholders? Some people want a lot more analytical data, others want the big picture strategy, and also there’s the consideration of different cultures and perspectives–all influence how someone wants to be updated.”

People Want to Work With Others They Like

Blessed with wonderful mentors who championed her growth and her dreams, one of the best pieces of advice Jones has received along the way is that people want to do business with people they like and enjoy working with–and that translates to all regions and parts of life.

“We’re all very busy, so people want to work with people they feel they have a good connection with,” she says, “You want to develop relationships where you become their best business friend or partner, and where you also enable your clients to look good in their role by bringing the best investment advice, research and ideas. I advise my team that we cannot control the investment products or the market, but we can control the relationship we are building with our key partners in the region. Every opportunity you have, make sure to develop a great relationship with impact, and over time that builds a great partnership.”

She also advises women to leverage being the memorable person in the room or the social event or the pitch: “Rather than being intimidated, use it to your advantage because you don’t realize that you are going to be memorable. People are perhaps not going to remember all twelve guys around the table, but they’re going to remember you, so remember you bring a different perspective.”

Above all, she iterates the importance of enjoying what you do, and feeling a sense of purpose and passion.

“For me, living and working in these different cultural environments has broadened my horizons, perspective and experience, personally and professionally, and I feel I have a dream job,” she says. “I get to work and live and travel in such an exciting region of the world and call it my home and it still fascinates me every day.”

Stand Where You Are

If there’s anything Jones has discovered in being unable to leave Hong Kong in the past two and a half years, it’s to take advantage of the place you are living. Before this time, she mostly traveled off to another country for a spectacular beach or to see family or friends, and realizes now she had not been as present in the moment and enjoying where she lives.

Since embracing “staying put,” Jones and her family have been appreciating incredible hiking trails and island beaches and other parts of the surrounding area, right on her doorstep, that she never knew existed.

“No matter where you are in the world,” she says, “it helps to realize how lucky you are, and to take full advantage of the present and the place that you are in to get more inspiration.”

By Aimee Hansen

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Dr. Sarah Carrier, MD: Emergency Physician, JH Quillen VA Medical Center

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Sarah Carrier“Medicine is both an Art and a Science,” says Sarah Carrier, MD. “The science is knowing what kind of disease the patient has. The art is knowing what kind of patient has the disease.”

Carrier speaks of the call to become a doctor, establishing herself as a peer among men and why soft skills matter especially in her profession.

Heeding the “Burden” to Pursue Medicine

Carrier did not come from a medical family (her parents were in engineering and real estate), but recalls being drawn from an early age. After being a volunteer “candy striper” in high school, she began to think of a career in medicine. Her mother’s solid advice was to get her foothold in nursing before seeing if she wanted to invest her study and finances in becoming a doctor.

“I spent ten years in nursing. But there’s an expression in this part of the country that people are ‘called to preach.’ They have a burden to preach, meaning they can’t not do it,” she notes. “Well, in my case, I felt called to medicine. I had a burden to be a doctor and it would not go away.”

What catalyzed the decisive moment to embark on becoming a physician, as a thirty-year old working nurse with small children four and six years, was the shock of losing a good friend in a car accident: “When she tragically died, I thought we never know how much time we’ve got on this planet, so I really don’t want to go to my grave without having tried to do what I felt I was called to.”

Despite the bewilderment of her friends, she spent a year preparing for the MCAT entrance exam and then entered medical school while raising what became three children, still practicing nursing during some of her summers.

From Nurse To “Female” Doctor

Having been a nurse before becoming a doctor gave Carrier a kindred respect for nurses: “I think first being a nurse made me a better doctor, because I know what their job is like and I’m there to work with them. Whereas a lot of physicians come in acting like the boss, it’s a different demeanor and often more of an ego thing. I knew first hand that the nurses you work with can either make your job easy or they can make it hard. You should never forget that you are on a team. You may be the Captain but it is still a team. Everyone matters.”

Working in the South, in a generally more paternalistic culture, Carrier admits that the medical environment still carries a bit of pecking order about it, though there are many more women in emergency medicine than when she began. Nonetheless, she has had to regularly “out” herself as the doctor to her patients.

“When I started, I’d go into the room and patients would presume I was the nurse. I realized it was up to me to let them know that I was in fact the doctor,” says Sarah Carrier. “In my line of work, you are meeting people on the fly. No one comes to the ED because they’re having a good day, so that’s where we start. You have to get good at gaining trust and confidence.”

Carrier has never felt she is competing against male peers in the medical field, but she has organically developed tactics to quickly establish herself as a peer, especially when doctors are calling each other up to transfer patients or get patients admitted into specialist departments, and there is just her voice to go on.

“I want to make sure they know that I’m the doctor, not the transfer coordinator, so I use their first name to create more of a level playing field. Instead of saying ‘Dr. Smith’ for example, I’ll say ‘John, this is Sarah Carrier over here in the ER’,” she notes. “I’ve found the conversation comes more collegial with that small, simple thing.”

One mentor Carrier remembers was a chief surgeon at John Hopkins who exhibited tongue-in-cheek confidence. She would walk through the hallway announcing, “Okay, the girl doctor is making the rounds.” She advised Carrier to not take nonsense from anyone and importantly, to not expect perfection from herself.

Carrier has observed the peer dynamic between female physicians is surprisingly more supportive than she experienced as a nurse. She suspects that being fewer in number relatively increases camaraderie and forthcomingness to support each other.

It’s actually outside of the hospital, when working with other women on volunteer projects, that Carrier has felt her role as a physician can seem to affect the way women relate to her, and she might hold back on that detail when first connecting as friends.

The Soft Skills of Emergency Medicine

With a range of patients from pediatrics to geriatric, women are usually involved in emergency visits, from caregivers to mothers to spouses. Carrier has found that women seem to relate better to other women in these contexts of vulnerability, so being a woman is often an asset.

“Generally speaking, I think men will more often stand with the clipboard and take care of business. In my experience, they don’t tend to try to make the emotional connection as often,” she observes. “Whereas women tend to sit down in the room and talk to people and make the emotional connection.”

She notes, “You don’t have to spend a lot of extra time, but to just sit down and ask, ‘are you under a lot of stress?‘ or ‘what’s been going on besides the baby being sick?’ is enough to let them know that you identify with their situation.”

Carrier often has to speak transparently about health to patients she’s known for only five minutes before the tests, and while she values telling it like it is, she also says that in any profession there’s a delicate line to observe: “I think patients appreciate the fact that you’ll sit down and say, ‘I’ve got some things I’ve got to tell you. Some of them are going to be hard to listen to. Some are good. Some are not so good’. You can be honest, but you don’t have to be brutally honest. You don’t have to say,’ ‘you’ve got a lung mass and it’s probably cancer’. But you can say, ’there’s something there that doesn’t belong there, we need to get some more tests and here’s the five things that might be.'”

Seeing Her Role as Education

Carrier encourages questions and educating people in a way that empowers them in their own health. She has appeared on Discovery Channel’s “Untold Stories of the ER” four times, and while the show dramatizes the emergency room, it also allows her to educate people. An episode in which she throughly explains a heart attack, around a situation where a patient was resisting the diagnosis while going into cardiac arrest, has been viewed over 500,000 times and could save lives.

“I’m basically explaining the physiology of a heart attack, which is something I deal with nearly every day. But the average person doesn’t really understand how they get from feeling fine to being literally at death’s door,” notes Carrier. “So that particular episode where I could explain in very simple terms how a heart attack works matters.”

Appreciation and Presence

Working in a 24/7 emergency situation requires calm in navigating chaos. Carrier has learned how to compartmentalize and switch gears from an urgent situation to a more standard injury, while being present to each patient. Being an emergency physician during Covid has definitely stretched her stamina.

More than anything, her job is a constant reminder of the relative nature of problems, and to appreciate her life. Since returning to school with young children, preserving quality time with family mattered more to her than achieving perfect grades. And it still matters to make that time.

She enjoys being involved in organizations where she can work beside other women outside of the medical field, such as in volunteer groups and, presently, an art commission.

By Aimee Hansen

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Bessie Kokalis Pescio: Vice President, Global Internal Communications, Philip Morris International

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Bessie Kokalis Pescio“You are stronger than you think,” reflects Bessie Kokalis Pescio on the best piece of advice someone gave her as she embarked upon a new hobby of cold-water swimming last fall. “What a true statement. Perseverance and resilience apply to swimming as well as work.”

The pandemic she believes has evoked progress in the workplace as it pertains to creating more access and interaction between senior leaders and employees, creating opportunity for careers to flourish. She comments on how interesting it is that employee habits changed so quickly and how things shifted when the traditional working environment went remote.

“The pandemic created a democratization of communications. How much easier is it to get in touch, to send a message to a senior executive now than before? Even the CEO is accessible in a way that wasn’t possible until recently. Throughout his inaugural listening tour we had 15,000 people interacting with him, asking questions and sharing their perspective.”

She is passionate about connecting people and letting them tell their stories. She is excited to see the electronic PMI platform, called One PMI, let people connect in a way that wasn’t used as optimally pre-pandemic. She cites that when you combine the right types of tools, it helps connect people to others and to their communities with pride and dignity as something that is energizing her at work right now.

“We have a unique opportunity to facilitate a dialogue between senior leaders and employees. A two-way conversation to learn what people want to talk about is now possible with technology and intent.”

In fact, this idea of a two-way conversation between managers and employees is at the heart of the PMI’s internal communications strategy and exploring what success, growth, and belonging looks like for each person is the central tenet for this year. She adds that the three main questions that occur are around how to be successful, how to grow and what can people contribute to be part of a community. This came through time and time again, and giving people a range of ways to connect and relate to each other, from podcasts to panels, is at the heart of the progress plan.

“People are tired of slogans and campaigns and want to see how the workplace is experienced. Who doesn’t? You have got to be straight with people and transparent. You have to do what you say you are doing to make work ‘work’ for people today.”

The Path to PMI

Kokalis Pescio grew up in a bilingual home and originally planned to follow an academic career as a French language professor. It was in an entrepreneurial environment while working as a linguist that she realized she loved learning about business, the customer, work habits and continuous learning itself. Flash forward to an MBA and DC-based consulting work in healthcare later, she joined PMI (Phillip Morris International) and now is the Vice President, Global Internal Communications, based in Switzerland. She recalls entering the firm sixteen years ago completely compelled by the mission and continues to be fascinated by the operational and culture change that is happening at PMI, noting that the best part is that the company has really put its money where its mouth is for the change work involved in creating a smoke-free future.

“People at PMI feel aligned to the same incredible mission. Change isn’t easy, but we have had such a clear idea of where we are going and watching the company be successful in taking a legacy product to fund a new and innovative product, upskilling people, and operationally transforming at the same time has been a great journey to be part of.”

Career strategies

Kokalis Pescio believes the most important thing to do is to know yourself. Her advice to her younger self would be to try to self-aware, to have the sensibility to ask yourself where you are truly with relationships, and to know the parts of your personality and traits that show up.

“Knowing where you are and who you are can enable self-correction where appropriate and also allow you to be authentic.” She believes that knowing this information about yourself can help you to take advantage of opportunities in your career and help you capitalize on your strengths and partner with others who can either teach you or be partner experts in doing the work that they are good at also.

“Figure out who can help. You cannot be a master of everything, nor should you be. Get a distributed style of management to get further, faster. Ask yourself who do I know and what do I need to learn?”

Kokalis Pescio is passionate about mentoring women and is doing so as part of PMI’s gender-focused employee resource group, Women’s Inspiration Network (WIN), and externally as part of her alma mater, Babson College’s F.W. School of Management. She admits that she didn’t have a formal mentor as she was coming up the ranks and reiterates that with or without a mentor everyone, not just women, should stand up for themselves.

“Have the courage, dignity, and self-respect to understand your boundaries, this will make you confident and comfortable. People make tradeoffs, those compromises, if you go too far, can make you lose a little part of your soul. It is important to stay within your boundaries.”

When asked what has surprised her most on the journey? She replied that she was surprised by how much she can learn constantly from the people around her.

“I have learned to not be afraid to do something new, no matter how large or small the task. While I have worked at a large corporation for 16 years, my career path is far from traditional. This aspect of my career, working not only across many different divisions, but also with employees from and located in numerous countries, has taught me to continuously be open to trying different things. Some are harder than others, and some efforts are more successful than others, but I am always ready to try something different.”

By Nicki Gilmour

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Leveraging a Bicultural Background and “Celebrating” Diversity: Akiko Koda’s Story

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Akiko KodaThe chief of staff for Japan discusses her time at Goldman Sachs and shares career advice in the latest edition of The Glass Hammer.

“I have a bicultural background – I lived in Queens, NY until I was 10, and then my family moved back to Japan, where I have lived ever since,” shared Akiko Koda, chief of staff for Goldman Sachs in Japan. “I was motivated to apply to Goldman Sachs due to my prior experience growing up in both the US and Japan – I thought I could contribute in a unique way to a global firm and serve as a facilitator between both cultures.”

Koda joined Goldman Sachs as a campus hire in 1994, initially within the Equities Division, as a member of a sales trading team. She gained seniority and held numerous roles within Equities, before moving to the Financing Group within the Investment Banking Division (IBD). In 2008, Koda joined the IBD Advisory Group, and then transferred to the Executive Office in the midst of the financial crisis. At that time, she began her current chief of staff role, and now also serves as co-chief administrative officer for Japan and head of Human Capital Management in Japan.

“My day to day role is focused on ensuring that the Japan office is running effectively and efficiently in all aspects,” Koda said. “Looking ahead, the office will be moving to a new building in the coming years, and we’re excited about further growth in the region – particularly following the launch of the Goldman Sachs Bank USA Tokyo branch earlier this year.”

As the new year begins, Koda shared that she typically selects a word to help lead and rally her team around, noting that for 2022, she selected “Focus.” “I believe that by focusing and prioritizing our work and the output, we can continue to make progress,” Koda said. “Given we have now entered the third year of the pandemic, I think it is important to focus on what we can control, rather than what we cannot, and focusing on what is important to you and on what brings you joy during this challenging period.”

Supporting Goldman Sachs’ Focus on Recruiting, Retaining Talent

Commenting on the firm’s focus on recruitment, Koda shared: “Our Japan entity was voted the ‘Best Financial Firm to Work For’ by both potential campus hires and former employees.

This is an incredible recognition of our business over the last 45 years.” She added: “The firm has a long history of hiring campus hires who go on to lead the business – several members of the Japan leadership team are campus or MBA hires.”

Koda noted that her own experience at the firm has included extensive, firm-provided coaching. “I was a member of the firm’s first class of VP LAI, or Vice President Leadership Acceleration Initiative, in 2004. Participating in the program helped me to understand how I could be a better leader,” she said. “Throughout my time at the firm, I’ve asked Pine Street, the firm’s leadership development group, to help me evolve my leadership style, and received a lot of helpful and candid feedback from my coach.”

She noted that during her time at Goldman Sachs, she has aimed to pass along the guidance she has received over the course of her career by serving as a mentor to others, both to individuals based in Japan, as well as those in other countries. Koda notes that she regularly reminds junior professionals of the importance of soliciting feedback and guidance from a variety of mentors: “Think of your mentors as your Board of Directors.”

Koda also shared that mentors, managers and colleagues have all helped her progress throughout her tenure at Goldman Sachs. “I haven’t come this far in my career without the help of many people – I’m incredibly grateful to those who have helped guide and support me throughout my time at the firm.”

Finding Time For Herself – and Her Community

Koda shared that after being at the firm for several years: “I burned out in 1999. I needed to take a break, and left the firm for a year, and then returned to Goldman Sachs.” She
reflected on guidance she received later on in her career, which has continued to shape her approach to work: “A mentor advised me to be ‘relentless about managing my schedule, and to feel empowered to make my schedule my own.’”

“That advice has stayed with me, and I would recommend others really understand their limits and priorities. You need to take control of your calendar to prioritize what is important for you at each moment. For me, that’s my family,” shared Koda.

Throughout the pandemic, Koda has focused on spending time with her sons – who are aged 8 and 10 – and training their new Pekingese that they welcomed during the pandemic. In addition, she has a “green thumb” and tends to several orchids that call her office home. “When I became a board member of the firm’s Japan entity, I was gifted several orchids from clients – I’m lucky that they continue to bloom each year and remind me of that important
accomplishment.”

Outside of her day to day responsibilities, Koda is also a managing director ally of the LGBTQ+ Network. “When I lived in New York, there were only a handful of Asian students in my school – I was different,” she said. “When my family moved back to Japan, even though I looked like my classmates, I was labeled as a ‘returnee’ and considered not Japanese enough. To fit in, I tried to hide the fact that I grew up overseas.”

Koda noted: “I know firsthand how hard it can be to be considered different. I continue to be an ally to the LGBTQ+ community because it’s so important for each individual to feel comfortable bringing their authentic self to the workplace, and to be welcomed.”

She described the progress the firm has made in fostering an environment where all diverse individuals can succeed, and highlighted as one example the variety of events the firm’s LGBTQ+ Network holds each year, including celebrating Pink Friday. “As a Japanese woman, who grew up in the US and became a devoted ally of the LGBTQ+ community, I feel my own identity and experiences touch on so many aspects of diversity. I want to celebrate them all.”

Learn more about Goldman Sachs’ recent awards and recognitions and the firm’s diversity and inclusion efforts. Listen to an Exchanges at GS podcast, in which Koda discusses the evolution of LGBTQ+ rights in Japan and companies’ efforts to create more inclusive environments.

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Danielle Arnone: Chief Digital & Technology Officer, Combe

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Danielle Arnone“In times of uncertainty, the focus has shifted from seeking answers to raising questions and building relationships to lead through the unknown,” expresses Danielle Arnone. 

Arnone speaks to leading through disruption, the value of listening and encouragement and the importance of taking risks as the stakes rise.

Be Willing to Challenge, Even as Stakes Rise

“Each step along the way has offered me an opportunity to learn and develop my leadership style. From a career perspective, I continue to challenge myself to push ahead in order to grow,” says Arnone, about her twenty plus year of working in technology, digital and e-commerce across various industries – and most recently, in beauty, health and wellness.

With tech at the center of every business, her work is about leading enterprise change “from the inside out and the outside in.”

Early on in her career, she felt she brought a different perspective to problem solving and would regularly test the status quo. Often the only woman in the room, as she began to move up the ranks and the stakes rose, it began to feel riskier.

“It’s a double whammy. You’re challenging the status quo and you represent change in just who you are,” says Arnone. “I’ve had many moments where I had to remind myself – you’ve got to stick with it – because I believed in what I was fighting for.”

She continues: “I won’t say it’s not hard, because in my opinion, it’s unnecessarily hard for women in STEM and why we lose so many and particularly those with high potential. At a certain stage, I decided I didn’t want to be another of those women.”

Being in a male-dominated industry can amplify self-doubt, but being aware of that has often helped her to overcome it.

While many hurdles are systemic and the pace of change is very slow,” Arnone says, “I realized that I’m the only one that can get me unstuck and that is powerful.”

Navigating Uncertainty through Vision

Despite the challenges during these pandemic years, Arnone has focused on leading long term change. While the emphasis in tech has often been to develop the next innovation as quickly as possible, today she stops and asks at every critical decision point: “Where do we ultimately want to go? Not just in the next twelve months but what do we want to envision in five or ten years time? And are the things we’re focusing energy on now truly in service of that long-term goal?”

“The circumstances of the last two years have made me a different leader. I had to take a step back and ask: what did I do in this time? And take the necessary steps to hopefully be proud of the answer,” reflects Arnone.

If there’s one thing Arnone has confronted as she rose, it is getting comfortable with uncertainty. She’s found that by letting go of the notion that you need to have answers, you can come together with curiosity and openness as a team, and arrive at better results.

Speaking to vision and prioritization, she says, “You have to conserve energy to focus on what’s really important, knowing that can change in a moment’s notice.”

“I’ve had to get comfortable with ambiguity. We often don’t know the target or the rules of the game to hit the target,” says Arnone.

Listening and Fluidity in Thinking

“The leaders that I admire most have the ability to listen deeply and surface the question behind the question, without putting people on the defensive, and in a way that takes the conversation to the next stage,” says Arnone.

She feels that listening is key and that an analytical approach can be useful in managing conflict and problem solving. “In an emotionally charged situation, I will encourage the team to tease out the facts, take the personalities out of it and then listen for what is not being talked about.”

When it comes to what she brings to the table, Arnone is adept at absorbing new and broad ideas and loves encouraging the exchange of ideas around the table.

She also enjoys the invitation to step out of linear thought and indulge her penchant for abstract thinking, in which perceptions move and change shape, which is not unlike the leadership skill of having the flexibility to navigate uncertainty.

She will often step away from work to get in the zone so that she can reset and let ideas pour in. These days, she’s exploring artistic outlets. She also jokes that if you saw her many playlists, you wouldn’t even believe they belonged to same person.

Encouraging Others Towards Their Best

Arnone finds leaders who encourage others towards their personal best in service of a greater mission to be the most inspiring. She feels it is rare to encounter, but she has had the fortune to have supportive mentors along the way that have greatly impacted what she values most in her life and in her work.

“Encouragement can be an antidote to self-doubt and frustration. It’s as simple as saying, ‘I see you struggling – what’s going on and how can I help you’.”

She wants to be known for her work to develop people and is especially passionate about helping women succeed. She observes that women coming into the workforce today have a strong sense of what they expect from employers beyond a paycheck.

“I want to see this generation of women keep the momentum going. They are demanding more equity, more balanced and fulfilling lives and holding leaders accountable. To me, that is progress.”

By Aimee Hansen

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Erica Klinkowize: CBNA Treasurer, Citi

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Erica Klinkowize“It can be intimidating in finance when you’re fresh out of college, but I would encourage anyone to not discount their own opinions or gut instincts,” says Erica Klinkowize. “It’s important to differentiate early on between this is who I am and this is who my company is.”

Klinkowize speaks to developing gut instincts, the shorter- and longer-term journeys of networking, and intensive listening.

Hone Your Personal Gut Instinct

After working a short while at Prudential Securities, then at Goldman Sachs for over a decade, moving to Bank of America for seven years, and then to Citi last summer, Klinkowize observed that she, early in her career, internalized a gut instinct that was highly influenced by organizational viewpoints.

She found herself consistently asking what would the company do? While a valuable perspective, she realized it was important to differentiate her own gut instincts as she grew as a leader, so as to discern different perspectives, including what was her own intuition.

“Something would pop up, for example, in a meeting or conversation, and I’d have a negative feeling,” says Klinkowize. “I’d often quash it or question it until I came to a rationalized conclusion or the whole thing dissolved, which is not the same as listening to your gut instinct.”

She intentionally learned, with the help of executive coaching, to develop her gut instincts, recognizing that her emotional responses are often held in her upper stomach where her ribs meet, around her solar plexus: “You should know where your emotions strike you.”

Learning to discern, trust, and develop her gut instincts has been a core component of her leadership journey: “First, you need to be able to identify it: I’m having a feeling. Then you need to name the feeling and ask yourself: What is driving that feeling and is it worthy of speaking up for? Then you ultimately need the self-confidence to speak up, be potentially willing to engage in a disagreement, and simply not question it too much. The more you question it, the more likely you are to miss the appropriate moment to say something, or to lose the feeling entirely. As you move through life, your gut instinct is one thing that stays with you, no matter what you choose.”

Enrich Your Leadership With Exposure

Her background is largely in Treasury, but Klinkowize spent over two years partnering to head up a trading desk for Global Markets at Bank of America before joining Citi and returning to Treasury.

“It’s like riding a bike coming back to Treasury, in that things don’t change that quickly, but I found that I was different,” she observes. “Every experience changes you. Every risk you take, every career move you make, each one enhances your perspective on things, provides you with moments to improve your ability to hone your gut instincts, and increases your understanding of human beings. How you respond in situations changes, and you learn to do things better for everyone around you.”

Klinkowize attributes her recent move to Citi once again to instinct. She loved her team and trading desk journey at Bank of America and the rich connections she made. But when an unexpected opportunity came, along with an interview journey full of sparks and connections, she heeded the call on what was right for her development.

Along with diversifying experiences, she takes inspiration from other leaders and mentors to catalyze her growth.

“I spend time observing the people who I feel are ‘ahead of me’ in a way that I feel matters, and I ask myself what are they really good at – I watch people in meetings, noticing mannerisms, how they sit, how they dress, the speed and cadence of speech, the way they organize a deck or argument. I also note what characteristics I would not want to adopt,” she reflects. “That practice has helped me bring out a wider breadth of traits and abilities within myself.”

Klinkowize feels a big part of her own value as a mentor is her willingness to share openly all kinds of experiences including the most challenging moments of her career, such as going through pregnancy with an unsupportive manager at a previous employer. She sees mentorships as mutually beneficial and useful for reflecting on her own growth.

“Everyone looks at people who they consider successful and thinks it was a straight shot up,” she notes. “But it’s been a very up and down experience. I’ve constantly tried to remind myself that perception is reality and ask myself what am I doing (or accepting) that I need to change, which comes back to gut instinct.”

Network Early and Broadly

While at Columbia working on her MBA, Klinkowize was given the challenge to draw her network, which turned out to be very closed relative to her fellow professional classmates.

“It didn’t really register with me until I got to business school that I needed to network beyond my group and then beyond my organization,” she admits.

A latecomer to networking, initially more comfortable with keeping her head down and doing the work, Klinkowize is now its biggest advocate. She emphasizes the importance of networking early on and broadly – beyond formal programs, beyond your company, beyond your direct area of work.

“When I look back, I saw my (performance) equivalents at Goldman getting promoted faster than I was and only later did I realize that I had done a bad job at networking,” she realizes. “I had done a bad job at those things that felt hard and that I didn’t want to do.”

Klinkowize notes that while she was well-liked, she hadn’t cultivated the professional connections who would be pounding on the table for her at promotion time. Later, she gained that level of sponsorship and really felt the difference in support and validation of having someone put their name and reputation on the line for her.

Getting over her resistance to networking required having patience with the journey: “There’s a short-term experience and a longer-term experience to doing what is hard to do (for you),” notes Klinkowize.

“I’d walk away from a networking session exhausted and needing to recuperate, yet I would have learned new things and heard relatable experiences,” she reflects. “Then, it’s like a butterfly effect. You don’t exactly know how, but every interaction you have with someone makes you feel a certain way and changes your trajectory. It can be five minutes that simply reminds you of something that you forgot about yourself, and it’s revolutionary. Or it’s the fact that you’re now top of mind with that person when the next unexpected opportunity comes up.”

“On the other side of doing the hard thing (networking), you see both how your trajectory changes,” says Klinkowize, “and how it becomes more natural to you.”

Model Presence and Perspective

Klinkowize emphasizes the importance of intensive listening: “It’s about deep breathing, calming yourself, listening and not getting caught up in the chaos or the transactional nature of things but instead sitting back and observing the whole thing.”

She feels team members look to leaders for broadness and expansiveness, and embodying yourself in a meeting as a leader sets a tone for the team in terms of moderating stress.

Klinkowize feels intensive listening also helps her hear people on many levels beyond their words, and she tries to “hear with her gut” – for example, catching that moment when someone on the team suggests an idea and she knows intuitively, that’s it.

Despite days of back-to-back meetings, Klinkowize has stopped multitasking 75% of the time, noting that while her days may take a little longer, her stress levels have plummeted.

When with her daughter, her practice is to be fully present and immersed. She has come to appreciate, and actively chooses to spend, more time outdoors, along with their dog, Ash.

By Aimee Hansen

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Pamela Peace: Principal & North America Client Management, PGIM Fixed Income

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Pamela Peace“The world is different now and leadership looks different,” says Pamela Peace, “Today anyone at any level should be afforded a trusted space to have a dialogue with their manager about the support needed to be successful.”

Peace talks about the values she holds dear, lessons learned throughout her career and how she has developed as a leader in ways that feel true to her goals, ambitions, and most importantly authentic to who she is as a person.

As a Senior Client Manager for PGIM Fixed Income, Pamela recently expanded her role as a leader within the organization, taking on responsibilities as lead manager for PGIM Fixed Income’s North America Client Management team: a role which she notes is intentionally focused on creating valuable partnerships for clients and opportunities for teammates in Fixed Income to deliver excellence in client relations.

Pamela reflects on driving change and rising above dissenting voices. “It is vital to perform well at our core duties to be viewed as credible and effective. What makes an individual a true leader? One who motivates and inspires others to perform well at their core duties, has the courage to push for change, and holds the unique ability to cultivate diverse perspectives.”

Her perspectives as Co-Chair of PGIM Fixed Income’s Culture Council highlight her commitment to amplify the organization’s cultural values.

Values She Holds Dear: Diversity of Perspectives

Having worked in fixed income and asset management for over twenty-five years, and with PGIM Fixed Income for the past seven years serving international clients in several regions of the world, Peace thrives on interacting with a range of people and cultures, from language to food. Even more, she loves experiencing the diversity of perspectives that come forth, and she learns broadly from every interaction in her job.

“We are a global organization. When we think about different investment strategies, we must consider every aspect of the world. We must take in various inputs – we must look at the world holistically, make decisions based on our analysis, clients’ expectations, what the markets are doing, geopolitical climate, regulatory, etc. These are just a few of many inputs that go into framing our decisions,” she reflects. “As a Client Manager, for a global asset management firm, I bring a wider awareness into everything I do. I believe it is core to my job and how I live in a global society.”

Peace is motivated by watching the people she leads develop uniquely in their skillsets and the legacy her commitment to talent will leave. “I’m so excited to see how the PGIM Fixed Income North America client managers, which consist of different generations, experiences, and cultures, are going to come together to bring forward new ideas for client engagement,” she says. “Our team embraces the view, ‘we can do hard things for our clients’, and if we believe we can do hard things together, that means we’re all thinking and bringing in ideas, and that’s going to be an exciting adventure.”

Lessons Learned: The Values of Humility, Constant Learning and Service

On advice for those developing their talents, she is open about her own path of development, “Trust me, I have made a lot of mistakes where I have had to say, that was not a good decision. Now, how can I actually take that and learn from it?” says Peace. “Humility allows me to understand where I am in my learning journey and acquiring more knowledge has been something I’ve had to own and develop personally.”

In her very first job at a naval base, she worked under an educator, who was a computer scientist, who imparted upon Peace that she could learn anything once you accept your ability to learn it. That woman, she noted, looked like her. Long before that, her mother, who raised eight children spanning twenty-two years as a single mom after becoming widowed, showed her the merits of hard work.

Combining those influences, Peace is a self-confessed constant learner who takes night courses to stay abreast on new topics in management and leadership. She’s presently taking courses to continue to improve on being an effective leader, as well as pondering the EMBA journey. Early on in her career, she learned there was value to admitting what you don’t know and being receptive to educational opportunities was essential – and that has stayed with her.

“I think vulnerability was important to getting me to this level in my career at PGIM, “she notes. “Also, having grace, humility, determination, and the curiosity to learn at any point in life are key attributes everyone should channel.”

She would add that being in service of others is a core value that has carried her through work and life: “My job is to serve others, and I wake each day reminding myself of that fact. In my job it is – PGIM’s clients first, the people working alongside me and those that I’m responsible for.”

In her personal time, she volunteers with aged people in underserviced areas and learns deep lessons from the elders she serves.

Lessons Learned: Leading as a Partner in Growth

A few years back, Peace had the experience of leading the London team and realized a lot about adjusting her communication and leadership style. Through that experience, she recognized the value of “meeting individuals where they are” to take them where you see they can go. This required adjusting her approach as a leader. When it comes to supporting her team now, Peace seeks to collaborate with those she leads on their development goals.

“The discussions I have with the individuals that work with me directly are very much: I am your advocate. I am your support. Let’s talk about what you need and where I think you need to grow. Then we’ll work together,” she says. “It’s an intellectual dialogue about development and being a partner and advocate in the space. It’s more of a leadership of equals as opposed to that of a hierarchy. Let’s come along as a partnership, and we’ll both get there and grow together.”

Every year in the annual reviews, Peace asks her direct reports to tell her one thing they want to learn or develop during that year, and she helps make that happen.

“They are accountable and feel as though they have ownership of their careers and development,” says Peace. “I’m there as a guide, support, and bumper when needed. That’s a valuable leadership skill that has worked for me.”

Not only does she see her own role as being supportive, but at this stage in her journey, Peace sees it as important to communicate to her own bosses what support she is going to need from them to be successful. Having the direct conversation cemented their willingness to commit that support.

“It’s important to be able to trust and communicate to your leaders: here’s what I need from you and what I need you to help me with,” she says. “That has made the difference for me in my career. And that is not wisdom that one must wait until they are well into their careers to acquire anymore. Remember, what I said at the outset of this interview, the world is different now, and leadership looks different.”

Both parties must agree and hold each other accountable but creating the space to have the conversation matters: “I know, it is a hard thing for some people to understand and accept – I must trust you enough to say, here’s what I’m looking for and here’s what I need. As managers, we must work to create the space for trust, and be ready to receive and act on the needs request.”

Developing as a Leader: Promoting Inclusion and Inspiring Women

Peace wants her team members to feel she brings positivity, openness, inclusivity, and a space of trust, where they can bring their best talents forward.

Inviting inclusion daily might mean giving people, who do not always get the opportunity to speak up on a call, a direct invitation to share their opinion or to lead a discussion. It is also being interested in her team as individuals outside of work. As Co-Chair of the PGIM Fixed Income Culture Council, she’s responsible for executing the values of the organization and creating a safe and inclusive environment built on collegiality, trust, and an unwavering commitment to clients among other positive attributes.

“Part of my responsibility, as a Co-Chair, is to model those values,” says Peace, “which includes bringing together our differences. Valuing people with different backgrounds and different skills to create diversity of thought to execute our mission, which often involves making a lot of subtle connections.”

Going back to her early career before PGIM, Peace lived the experiences, as a black woman, of being the “background individual,” there but not getting the opportunities, not receiving the speaking role, being trivialized. “Having had these experiences, I can say to young women who are coming into their careers, including my own daughter, you don’t have to take it. You do not have to shrink to the biases or comments that make you feel less than – change the norm and the direction of conversation,” she states. “Challenge the behavior appropriately – Ask the question, what does that really mean? Express when you’re offended and why, be prepared to have the conversation, receive the apology and extend grace if appropriate.”

She notes that she usually gives the benefit of the doubt and in most cases, believes there is value in having the hard conversations, because those questions often expose blind spots and lead to achieving a wider, more compassionate understanding of other’s lived experiences.

Developing as a Leader: Embracing Who You Are as a Person and Professional

Taking up distance running after age 40, Peace has completed four marathons and several half-marathons, and considers running outdoors to be spiritual.

Growing up in the middle of eight children gave her early life lessons in responsibility, navigating different personalities, taking care of each other, collaborating and valuing family – including her husband, adult son, and daughter.

She’s animated by new food, great wine with friends, the house she and her husband are remodeling, and she loves to dance. Peace recently cherished a holiday moment of karaoke and dancing with her daughter for the first time since her daughter was a child: “She is definitely smarter and has more rhythm, and that’s okay with me.”

It’s Pamela Peace’s lived experiences both inside and outside of work that define her as a leader and more precisely as someone who motivates and inspires those around her each day in service of PGIM’s clients.

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Geline Midouin: Chief People Officer, Shearman & Sterling LLP

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“As you arrive to a real senior level, you will start to understand that people are going to have a hard time disagreeing with you. They tend to give you filtered information,” advises Geline Midouin. “If you know that, you can be much more deliberate and intentional in terms of how you ask questions, to make sure that you’re getting the real story and understanding different perspectives.”

While energetically pacing at her standing desk, where she prefers to work in the mornings, Midouin talks to valuable lessons she’s learned at entry, mid-level and executive level positions in her journey – and the excitement of sitting in a people-oriented seat amidst the talent and inclusion challenges of today.

Joy of Purpose

Born in Haiti, Midouin came to the U.S. at three years old. Her Caribbean family consisted of doctors, nurses and medical professionals, so when Midouin shared she was going to pursue a liberal arts bachelor’s degree in psychology, her mother asked her how she was going to eat. Her family believed getting an education was about job security and thought obtaining a non-tangible degree wouldn’t help.

With a master’s in Organizational Behavior from Teachers College at Columbia University and having held several leadership positions across industries in the field of people and talent – from consulting to broadcast media to healthcare advertising to big law – Midouin feels inherent joy in how she approaches her work.

“I have a sense of purpose in really helping people to bring out the best in themselves to serve the greater good, whether it’s business, our clients or our community,” she says. “I’m motivated by purpose and doing something beyond myself to create a legacy.”

Midouin has always been curious by what motivates people and why they do things – and she loves driving impact and innovation, which catalyzed her move into Big Law a year ago with Shearman & Sterling, in the new post of Chief People Officer. In this position, she’s charged with having an umbrella oversight and influence on all people-related functions at the firm.

An avid reader, she is a curious thinker who draws inspiration from many places to look at issues from different lenses. She emphasizes that in today’s shifting world, it’s important to stay curious: “I ask a lot of questions. I don’t want to hear ‘I can’t’ from my team, but rather I want us to ask, ‘well, why can’t we?’”

“We’re moving away from managing structures and instead focusing on helping people manage their expertise and their careers, so they grow both personally and professionally,” says Midouin. “How can we not just provide information, but actually engage people and then measure the things we’re doing in terms of impact, so we can prioritize?”

Part of Midouin’s mission is to continue to thread diversity and inclusion through the firm’s culture: “Like the head of the orchestra, you’re able to see how things work from a more holistic view. That becomes a secret sauce in working in a more inclusive way,” she says. “You have to integrate inclusion through recruitment and professional development, so having it under one umbrella enables me to bring the key people to the table to have the right conversations and access to resources, to work in a more cohesive manner and make changes that move the needle.”

Early On: The Confidence To Speak and Go For It

Having been the only woman and/or person of color in the room often, Midouin has learned to not be intimidated by the perception from the room that she speaks for all black women or people of color (which she notes is impossible as not all individuals of any group think the same).

“I’m one person with one point of view. So I’ve had to make sure, whether I’m the only woman or only person of color, that I’m comfortable with myself so that I can share my authentic voice,” says Midouin. “You don’t want to waste that opportunity to speak, and you also want to make sure that you share a point of view that reflects authentically who you are.”

Midouin calls her confidence to speak up a learned behavior, as very early in her career she had a critical moment where she diminished her own voice. Two weeks into a new company as a junior employee, she walked into a meeting and the CEO asked what she thought. Taken aback, she caveated her response because she was new, and he replied that he asked her because he wanted a fresh perspective.

“I never did that again because I was questioning my right to give an opinion,” she reflects. “If you’re in a meeting, you’ve earned your right to be there. People are bringing you there for a reason and they want to know your opinion. And people may disagree with you too, and that’s okay, as that’s part of what gets you to a variety of views at the table.”

Noting that we often learn the most through mistakes, Midouin also recalls hesitating to go for a position because she lacked a couple of the qualifications, while watching a male colleague who possessed only a couple of them go for it. When her manager pushed her to apply, she got the position. She now realizes the “confidence gap” was at play for her.

“After I got the position, they told me it wasn’t necessarily about what I knew. It was that I asked the right questions and showed that I’d be able to figure it out,” she recalls. “Sometimes we talk ourselves out of a risk or putting ourselves out there, because we feel like we’re not good enough or that we have to be overqualified. I really encourage people to have the confidence to push themselves and take more calculated risks.”

Mid-Level: Managing People Who Are Different To You

Another key learning moment in Midouin’s earlier career was shifting from an individual contributor to a manager. The transition from being measured for your individual results to your ability to motivate the team was a wake-up call for her when a 360-degree performance review arrived: “The people who were on my team that thought more like me, loved me and my style, but the feedback from the people who were not like me was very different.”

Midouin learned that she had to pay attention to individuals and adjust her management style depending on what they needed. While she is a problem-solver who can deal with ambiguity, bring chaos to order and prefers not to be micro-managed, she realized others need structure, a more methodical agenda and more “touching base” time to flourish.

“People tend to begin by managing people how they like to be managed. You have to learn to be thoughtful and intentional about managing people that are not like you,” says Midouin. “And then, it’s not only making sure you’re hiring varied people of different styles, but also asking yourself if you are catering to all types of styles that you have on your team. Or, are the only people that are excelling, the people who are just like you?”

Executive Level: Leading with Self-Awareness

When it comes to success in the C-suite, Midouin emphasizes the value of self-awareness – including knowing what you’re good at, not good at and surrounding yourself with a team complementary to your skills.

Midouin also notes how critical it is to not surround yourself with people that only validate your viewpoint, but rather those who have the courage to disagree and give an authentic view. One time she said something intentionally ridiculous, observing that people try to be agreeable to senior figures. After no one disagreed with her, she gently chided her team with “come on.”

“I will purposely invite my team to play devil’s advocate and give me a contrary point of view, because that’s what you need in an organization. Let’s argue the opposite point of view – the one we’re not looking at,” she says. “If you’re in a team where you’re not getting dissenting points of view, you should be worried because you’ve probably hired too many people just like you and you’re looking at things in a one-dimensional way. If that is happening, ask yourself if you are creating a safe space where all people can really share their point of view, or do you need to help pull out some of the less expressed views?”

Motivating in Today’s Context

In these times when inclusion is in demand, and the Great Resignation has led to talent wars, it’s a unique moment to be in Midouin’s seat, with an increasing focus on retention and reducing turnover.

“The biggest difference is about motivation – historically you’ve competed against other organizations and now you’re competing against ideology and alternate careers and lifestyles and priorities. Because of the pandemic, people are rethinking what place work should have in their lives. Then you have generational shifts too,” she says. “Now we have to think about how to attract and retain a workforce that wants something different. What is that difference? How does that fit with your employee value proposition? And how do you shift that?”

As one example of alternative approaches, Midouin notes how Shearman & Sterling is leveraging its alumni as recruitment ambassadors, as research shows that when you hire people through a referral, they tend to stay longer than other types of hiring. Therefore, the recruitment strategy is already incorporating a consideration of retention. In addition to a direct payment, alumni also have the opportunity to gift their referral to one of a dozen charities.

Giving Back Where It’s Needed

Midouin’s family passion is tennis. In order to teach her youngest son, who is on the autism spectrum, tennis, she and her husband were driving 1.5 hours to Queens, NY to have him participate in Aceing Autism, a program that uses the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) method to teach tennis to children on the spectrum. When Midouin discovered that New Jersey, where she lives, had the highest per capita representation of autism, she and her husband introduced a six-week clinic through the tennis club in their local community, which they run twice per year. Midouin is also on the board of directors for MJHS, one of the largest not-for-profit health systems in the region.

“It’s about impact, and how do you leave the world a better place?” she says. “Finding a way to give back is actually more pleasurable for me.”

By Aimee Hansen

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