Tag Archive for: authentic leadership

Strength in Vulnerability: How Asking for Help Elevates Your Leadership

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asking for help leadershipAs today is Halloween, a time when we delight in confronting our fears, it’s worth reflecting on one fear that many leaders can find particularly daunting: asking for help. Much like navigating the eerie unknowns of a haunted house, the vulnerability tied to asking for help can be intimidating. The fear of appearing weak, of losing control, or of being judged can make the very thought of seeking assistance seem like an insurmountable challenge.

But just as Halloween encourages people to face their fears head-on, effective leadership requires confronting this deeply ingrained hesitation. Asking for help is not only necessary—it’s a powerful act of courage that enhances leadership by fostering trust, empowerment, and communication. The ability to embrace vulnerability does not make you less effective; in fact, it strengthens relationships, builds resilience, and opens opportunities for both personal and team growth. Leaders who embrace vulnerability by seeking support not only improve their own leadership effectiveness but also inspire others to do the same.

Why Is Asking for Help So Scary?

One of the main reasons asking for help is so difficult is that it requires vulnerability. Leaders are often expected to exude confidence and have all the answers, and admitting uncertainty can feel like stepping into the unknown—uncertain of what lies ahead. There is a deep-seated fear that showing vulnerability might erode credibility or cause others to question their capabilities. This fear is driven by societal expectations and an outdated view of leadership as a solo venture. However, in today’s collaborative work environments, leadership is about connecting, communicating, and being authentic. By confronting the fear of asking for help, you not only show that you are self-aware but also model the kind of openness and vulnerability that fosters a culture of trust and collaboration.

In fact, research shows that vulnerability is at the heart of effective leadership. In her book Dare to Lead, Brené Brown emphasizes that embracing vulnerability allows leaders to foster trust and deeper connections with their teams. Far from diminishing authority, showing vulnerability strengthens relationships and builds psychological safety.

The Value of Asking for Help

Facing the fear of vulnerability and seeking help has benefits for both leaders and their teams. By stepping into this space of openness, you create an environment where psychological safety can flourish. When people feel safe to express their thoughts, ask questions, and offer help without fear of judgment, creativity and innovation thrive. This sense of security begins with those who demonstrate that vulnerability is a strength, not a weakness.

  1. Modeling Vulnerability and Psychological Safety
    When you ask for help, you send a powerful message to your teams: it’s okay not to have all the answers. This willingness to be open and seek input creates a culture of psychological safety, where team members feel comfortable sharing their own challenges, offering ideas, and seeking support. Amy Edmondson, a professor at Harvard Business School, has shown that psychological safety—where people feel safe to take risks and ask for help—drives higher team performance, creativity, and innovation. Leaders who model vulnerability create a space where others can speak up, admit mistakes, and contribute their best ideas.
  2. Empowering the Team to Step Up
    Asking for help isn’t just about lightening your load—it empowers the team to take on greater responsibilities. When you seek input or delegate tasks, you give team members the chance to step up and showcase their strengths. Research has found that empowering leadership boosts creativity and job satisfaction, as individuals feel more valued and engaged when they are trusted to contribute in meaningful ways. By asking for help, you give your team the opportunity to shine.
  3. Building Trust and Strengthening Relationships
    Trust is the foundation of strong teams, and it’s built through openness and mutual support. When you ask for help, you build trust by showing that you value the input and expertise of others. Research shows that authentic leadership—where vulnerability and transparency are key traits—is directly linked to trust within teams. The act of asking for help signals to team members that their contributions are important, deepening trust and strengthening the overall bond within the team.
  4. Preventing Burnout
    Leaders often carry significant responsibilities, juggling multiple priorities and making decisions that impact both their teams and the organization. Attempting to shoulder these burdens alone can lead to exhaustion and burnout. Asking for help—whether by delegating tasks, seeking advice, or simply admitting that additional support is needed—can prevent this. Sharing the load allows you to focus on strategic initiatives without becoming overwhelmed by day-to-day demands.
Who Can Leaders Turn to for Help?

You may wonder where to turn when you decide to face the fear and ask for help. There are several options, each providing unique support and insights.

1. Your Team, Peers, Mentors

While the importance of turning to your team has already been emphasized, it’s worth reiterating just how impactful it can be. Seeking help from team members not only fosters collaboration but also creates opportunities for them to step into leadership roles themselves, reinforcing a culture of trust and shared responsibility.

Beyond the team, peers and coworkers offer a fresh perspective. They understand the internal dynamics of the organization and can provide insights that help break through roadblocks. Collaborating with peers strengthens networks and promotes a culture where leadership is shared, not siloed.

Mentors, on the other hand, provide a broader, more seasoned viewpoint. Their experience allows them to guide you through challenges they’ve likely faced themselves, offering personalized advice. Mentorship is rooted in trust and respect, giving you the confidence to explore new paths, tackle difficult decisions, and grow with the support of someone who’s been there before.

2. Executive Coaches

Sometimes, asking for help means seeking guidance beyond your immediate circle. Executive coaching offers leaders a personalized approach to growth, providing one-on-one support that can transform both leadership skills and personal development. Coaches help you ask the tough questions, explore vulnerabilities, and create customized plans for improvement. This tailored guidance accelerates growth and empowers you to make informed decisions, overcome obstacles, and advance more quickly.

By seeking help from a coach, you not only invest in your own development but also model the value of vulnerability and continuous learning for your team. It’s a proactive step toward long-term success. If you are ready to take that step, consider an exploratory coaching chat with Evolved People Coaching, the leadership coaching arm of theglasshammer.com. You can book that session here.

How to Make the Ask

Asking for help, while daunting, can be done thoughtfully and effectively. Here are a few strategies to make the ask easier:

  1. Be Clear and Use the SMART Approach: An acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound, being SMART when approaching someone for help lends clarity to the kind of support that is needed. Not only will the conversation be more productive, but having a framework for the ask can help alleviate any anxieties about imposing on someone’s time and attention.
  2. Frame It as Collaboration: Asking for help doesn’t need to feel one-sided. By framing the request as an opportunity for collaboration, you create a more balanced exchange. For example, instead of saying, “I don’t know how to do this,” try “I’d love to get your perspective on this challenge.”
  3. Show Gratitude: After asking for help, acknowledging the time and effort others put in is crucial. Expressing gratitude not only strengthens relationships but also encourages future collaboration.
  4. Be Open to Feedback: When asking for help, it’s important to remain open to different ideas and solutions. Embracing diverse perspectives can lead to more creative and effective outcomes.
Embracing Vulnerability for Stronger Leadership

Asking for help is a powerful leadership tool as stepping into vulnerability allows you to grow and strengthen your teams. By seeking support from coworkers, teams, mentors, and executive coaches, you can foster a culture of collaboration, trust, and mutual empowerment. Far from diminishing leadership, asking for help demonstrates the courage to evolve—both as a leader and as a person. By learning to embrace vulnerability, you build stronger connections, create more resilient teams, and lead with authenticity.

By Jessica Robaire

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Lauren Uranker: Managing Director, Head of Workplace Advisory Client Business, Goldman Sachs Ayco

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Lauren Uranker“Having that part of yourself where you have to navigate the if, how, and when to share it with people, you soon realize that everyone has pieces of themselves that they have to decide how and when to show or not show on an everyday basis,” says Lauren Uranker. “Acknowledging that everyone has a story creates empathy.”

As a leader and an openly lesbian executive, Uranker has built her career on a foundation of empathy and understanding. In her roles as the head of Workplace Advisory Client Business for Goldman Sachs Ayco and the co-head of the Americas LGBTQ+ Client Engagement Pillar at the firm, she navigates the complexities of leadership with a unique perspective shaped by her personal and professional experiences.

“When you spend time figuring out who you are as a person, what that means in the context of your life and your relationships with family and friends, it prepares you to do it professionally. It prepares you to give a lot of thought to how you show up as a colleague and how you show up as someone who supports clients. It gets you comfortable with constantly evaluating who you are as an individual, and how you’re growing and changing as time goes on.”

Uranker reflects on what she attributes to her success, highlighting her authentic leadership style, commitment to mentorship and diversity, and openness to taking on roles that broaden her experience and skillset in different ways.

“I haven’t always looked up to the next thing. Sometimes, by looking laterally and across, you accumulate diverse professional experiences that make you well-rounded. This can eventually lead to being seen as an expert or someone sought after to be a part of the team.”

For Uranker, being open to a lateral move is what put her on the trajectory to the leadership role she is in today.

“I was on the path to become a financial advisor, but a mentor of mine said, ‘There’s actually an opportunity on the institutional sales team.’ I took that leap. It felt like a diversion at the time, but it set me on an incredible path. From the sales team I then joined the relationship management function and even though that was a lateral move, having those two diverse professional experiences helped me get to the seat I’m in today.”

How Finance Became a Career Path

The story of Uranker’s path to leadership at Goldman Sachs Ayco connects back to a difficult period of her life when she suffered the loss of her father at the age of sixteen.

She remembers, “what really stuck with me were the people who came to help us. One of them was my neighbor, who sat down with my mom at the kitchen table, helping her organize her finances and navigate her new financial reality.” Years later while contemplating a career pivot, she recalled her neighbor’s kindness and decided to reach out, discovering that her neighbor worked at Goldman Sachs Ayco. “That’s how I found my way here, a little over a decade ago and I was proud to be named Managing Director in 2021.”

In addition to leading with empathy, she attributes her success to her competitiveness, strong listening skills, and sense of humor.

She explains, “as a former college basketball player, that competitive instinct has always been embedded in me and certainly helps professionally.” Coupling that competitive spirit with the humility to listen and the empathy to understand, she recognizes that, “you don’t always have to be the first person to speak. Sometimes your words can be more powerful if you use fewer of them.”

Uranker also highlights how humor can go a long way to creating connections as it can be used to “lighten intense moments and to drive home a point while building relationships.”

Mentorship and Sponsorship Across Diverse Communities

Uranker acknowledges that no leader succeeds alone and feels fortunate to have had mentors and managers who recognized her skills and potential, helping to build her confidence early in her career. She hopes to do the same for others and is excited to be a part of programs at Goldman that foster those relationships.

“Goldman has done quite a bit to establish frameworks that connect senior people to more junior folks in their career, but also paying special attention to diverse communities. I’ve had the incredible opportunity to be a mentor in our Black and Hispanic Analyst and Associate Initiatives.”

Uranker finds mentoring to be mutually rewarding as she learns from her mentee’s experiences and appreciates how their generationally different viewpoints can generate fresh ideas for improving the business.

Speaking specifically to the LGBTQ+ community, she notes that most of her mentorships and sponsorships have been informal, with people seeking her out after seeing her speak or knowing about her role in leading the LGBTQ+ Client Engagement Pillar. In reflecting on how young LGBTQ+ folks might create those informal connections, Uranker advocates for finding “someone who you want to spend time with and talk to; not forcing a relationship or a mentorship.” She also emphasizes not being afraid to ask, even if it might seem intimidating.

“There was a mentor I had who said, ‘If you don’t ask, you don’t get’. I think particularly for women it’s a great reminder to make your voice heard. Put your hand up and ask because the worst thing that can happen is, someone says, no.”

Embracing Additional Leadership Opportunities

Uranker’s approach to building leadership experience includes formal and voluntary approaches, as she is co-head of the Americas LGBTQ+ Client Engagement pillar and serves on the Asset & Wealth Management Inclusion & Diversity Council. She underscores the benefits of participating in and holding leadership positions in these groups, particularly at a large company like Goldman Sachs.

“First, it gives you a great way to meet people across the firm that you may not have met otherwise. Also, it provides people with an additional opportunity to flex leadership muscles and to demonstrate those skills in a different environment, perhaps one that might feel more natural to them and who they are as a person.”

Uranker shares how networks like the LGBTQ+ Inclusion Network foster cross-divisional collaboration and bring clients together in a meaningful way.

“We always look for interesting ways to gather our LGBTQ+ clients and regularly put together events to engage with them. We have one coming up in celebration of Pride.” She continues, “Coordinating events like that are a really fulfilling and fun opportunity to work cross-divisionally in a big organization and have the LGBTQ+ piece be the common thread. Through the network, I have had the opportunity to work closely with colleagues in other areas of the firm I don’t typically connect with in my day-to-day role including Mary Baccash, Nora Cruz, and Molly English. These are among the most meaningful partnerships I’ve formed at the firm.”

Dedicated to Community Engagement

Passionate about contributing to the LGBTQ+ community, Uranker served on the board of the Persad Center, an organization in Pittsburgh that provides scalable and free mental health access to the LGBTQ+ community.

“Like many people, I believe that taking care of your mental health is incredibly important and knowing some of the challenges within the LGBTQ+ community, it’s even more important that access to these resources exist.”

After moving from Pittsburgh to Seattle recently, Uranker continues to look for opportunities to give back and is thrilled that Goldman demonstrates this same commitment to philanthropy through programs including Community Teamworks. She explains, “through the program, employees are encouraged to take at least one day to volunteer with their colleagues in their communities. Last year, I had the opportunity to clean up some of the trails here in the Seattle region for hikers, which I really enjoyed.”

Outside of work, Uranker makes sure to take some time to decompress by practicing yoga. She also enjoys playing basketball, traveling with her wife, and reading. Interestingly, her book recommendations demonstrate that she is as much a well-rounded reader as she is leader, noting that she recently read and loved the nonfiction book, “Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention” by Johann Hari and the memoir “Crying in H Mart” by Michelle Zauner.

By Jessica Robaire

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Mandy Wan: Managing Director, Head of Markets, Co-Head of CIB APAC, Wells Fargo

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Mandy Wan“You have to put in dedication and hard work to be successful. There are no short cuts,” says Mandy Wan. “Stay true to your core principles and advancement will follow. Be open-minded to embracing new opportunities and giving them your best effort.”

Wan shares how she values learning from diverse experiences, her insights on setting the right culture in a team, and what it means to be a leader who “walks the talk.”

Finding the Right Fit on the Trading Floor

Wan learned from an early age the value of hard work and determination in pursuing her dreams. Growing up in Hong Kong as the eldest child of parents who were refugees of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Wan took care of her younger brothers and worked after school and during summer breaks to help contribute to the family. Recognizing that to build the life she wanted, she needed to find the right job to support it, Wan attended business school with a focus on accounting.

Although Wan ultimately found accounting wasn’t for her, she remained motivated to work in an environment where she could learn and meet people from different backgrounds and explore other countries. She found what she was looking for on the trading floor.

“During my final year of school, I secured a part-time role at UBS where I worked on the trading floor. It became clear to me that this was where I wanted to be. The environment is incredibly diverse, with people from many different cultures, and the fast-paced, dynamic nature of the job presents new challenges every day, making it exciting.”

Directing her energy and enthusiasm to every opportunity, Wan successfully moved up through UBS, having the chance to travel around the world to market Asian financial products. She relished these experiences as they broadened her horizons, giving her a window into how other people communicate and make investment decisions. Now as the Managing Director, Head of Markets, and Co-Head of CIB APAC at Wells Fargo, Wan channels her tenacity and drive into leading Wells Fargo’s APAC Markets business.

Shaping the Business from the Ground Up

Wan’s entrepreneurial spirit shines through when she describes her passion for leading the Wells Fargo Markets business in APAC.

“I have a full mandate to manage the client franchise in Asia. The opportunity is thrilling as it allows me to envision and shape the business we aim to create from the ground up. I love that aspect because I get to continually learn and be challenged by it.”

In addition, Wan points to the people she works with as integral to what makes her feel deeply committed in her role. She highlights the advantage of being able to recruit those who share that drive when you are in the position of starting anew.

“I always feel more energized when there are people around me who share the same passion.” She continues, “When you build a business, you have the opportunity to assemble the team, and you want to look for someone who is entrepreneurial and energetic and has the passion to enhance the business. When you get the chance to pick a team like that, people feel invested in the sense of ‘we get to do this together.’”

Setting the Right Culture

Another advantage of leading the process of developing a business and team is being able to shape the culture from the beginning. For Wan that means, “a culture of doing the right thing, of running the business, and doing what’s right for the customer and the company. The customer values partnership a lot more and are looking for a trusted party to help them really talk about how we can help them become financially successful.”

Setting an ethos of integrity not only aligns with what customers want, but it is also what members of the team want. As Wan reflects, “employees these days desire to work for a company with aligned aspirations, where they can develop personal achievements. They’re looking for meaningful goals that matter to them, and they want to work alongside people they respect and can learn from, and this particularly applies to recruiting and retaining young talent.”

As setting the right culture recruits, retains and motivates the team, it ultimately is good for business.

“A positive culture can lead to favorable P&L outcomes, as well as financial success and satisfied customers.”

Being a Leader who “Walks the Talk”

In thinking about how she creates the right culture for the business and her team, Wan points to effective communication and recognizing that you have to “walk the talk” as a leader.

“I give very candid feedback, but constructively. The team also needs to feel comfortable to embrace candor with each other in a respectful way.”

She highlights that, “this industry is all about people and the number one thing about working with people is communication. I always urge people to reflect on and improve their communication style.”

As Wan sets the tone for communication by being respectful, but constructive in her interactions, she also is purposeful in how she shows up as a leader, in some cases quite literally.

“The most important thing is that you yourself have to walk the talk. For example, after Covid, a lot of people wanted to work from home. But if you want the team to be in the office, you have to show up. You are demonstrating to them, ‘I’m here and this is why we are here: we need to talk to each other, we need to communicate, because we are on the trading floor’.”

Another example of how Wan models her expectations of others is in how she supports her team’s development.

“If you want people to really take care of junior talent on the floor, you must start with yourself. Consider how you would invest time and mentor your team members. Eventually, everyone will observe your behavior and realize that they should follow suit.”

Be Present in Everything That You Do

Wan relocated to Singapore from Hong Kong last year. Although this wasn’t the first time Wan lived in Singapore, it was the first time she made the move as a mother of three young boys. Getting a family settled while leading the APAC hub made for a busy year and Wan reflects that at times when it’s hard to find work-life balance, she puts extra effort in organizing her schedule, focusing on staying present, and engaging in doing what she committed that time to do.

“Multitasking is a myth. You have to stay focused on what you’re doing in the time that you assigned for it, and then you will find that you are a lot more efficient, therefore improving the quality of time you spend with your family and outside of work.”

Wan also prioritizes wellness and staying active and loves to connect with her kids through sports. As a family they ski, snowboard, and play golf together. She extends this passion for wellness to her work. She is a strong supporter of wellbeing and employee engagement initiatives across the region as a way to engage with her colleagues, devote time to their wellbeing, and give back to the community. Wan is the Executive Sponsor for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion council in APAC and leads with authenticity and a style that is evident both in the office and in her recreational pursuits.

“Focusing on building the right culture is important for the entire firm. That’s why it is important for me to walk the talk and show up.”

By Jessica Robaire

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Shekhinah Bass: Managing Director, Head of Talent Strategy, Goldman Sachs

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Shekhinah Bass“I found my way to my career, but it wasn’t a career that I even knew existed, or even had visions of wanting to become,” says Shekhinah Bass, Managing Director, Head of Talent Strategy, at Goldman Sachs. “No one in my family had gone to college. No one had worked on Wall Street; all of these things were completely new to me. Oftentimes people say that you can’t become what you can’t see, but you can.”

In turn, Bass champions diversity herself formally via her role and also through her authenticity. As a mother with a successful career, she grounds herself with the mantra, “run your own race.”

Upon joining Goldman Sachs as a summer analyst, Bass never envisioned her journey leading to a career in the financial services industry. Her intent was to go to law school after graduation as she believed it was the only way to add value to society. However, through her experience at the firm, she learned what she really enjoyed doing was advocating for diverse professionals which she had the ability to do in Human Capital Management (HCM) at Goldman Sachs. Ultimately, she accepted an offer to work on the diversity, equity and inclusion team and realized it was also an opportunity to make a meaningful societal impact.

Feeling passionate about engaging in the Human Capital Management space, Bass went on to build her portfolio by working in many different HR disciplines, including performance management, employee relations, and chief of staff to the global head of HCM. She now is the head of talent strategy where she oversees the execution of a wide range of talent management priorities, focusing on development, engagement and retention.

Building the Pipeline of Diverse Talent

One of the ways that Bass is making an impact on elevating and empowering diverse professionals at Goldman Sachs is through the Black Analyst and Associate Initiative, where she is one of the coaches. Recognizing that in order to see more diversity in leadership, there needs to be a way to foster young professionals and build a pipeline from the beginning, the Black Analyst and Associate Initiative creates a formal structure for engaging and providing support for diverse professionals from the earliest stages of their careers.

Bass explains, “the experience is based on the relationships. We bring together the Black analyst, their manager and also a coach that’s assigned to them. It’s a trio that works together to make sure that analyst or associate is having the best experience while giving them advice and coaching them through how to be a successful professional at the firm.”

The program has proven to be beneficial for diverse junior talent as they begin their journeys at Goldman Sachs.

“Our junior talent is having a more positive experience. And that’s because we have this more structured program versus only relying on it to happen organically. Having that structure adds more rigor in making sure that you capture that person who may be shy and not want to go to an event where relationships may form, but is still very talented, smart and could benefit from a coach.”

Another development piece in building the pipeline for diverse professionals to excel at Goldman Sachs is the Women’s Career Strategies Initiative. The program is 4-6 months and includes women who are at an associate level, nearing promotion to vice president. Throughout the program, women have access to developmental content and are invited to events where they engage with senior leaders, both women and men, across the firm. The connections that the women make with their cohort are also invaluable to their career growth.

As a sponsor in the program, Bass speaks to its impact on promoting and retaining women.

“I had about 10 high performing women who I got to spend 5 months with — getting to know them, giving them advice, talking through this transition as they were coming up on moving from an associate to a VP, hopefully. And nearly everyone got promoted to a VP, which I’m very proud of.”

She continues, “We’ve seen many alumni of the program have long and successful careers at the firm…They weren’t partners or MDs when they went through this program, they were associates, and so it shows you that we were able to really engage them, retain them, get them excited to work at the firm and feel connected to continue to grow their careers at the firm beyond the program.”

Managing Change and Taking Advantage of the Support Around You

Bass knows from experience that finding the right support can be key when navigating transitions both professionally as well as personally.

“Coming from humble beginnings to get to where I am, I feel proud, but also feel very fortunate that I had so many mentors and sponsors along my life to get to this point.”

Bass talks about the importance of recognizing that the phases of life can create questions of how to proactively manage your career at different critical points and nuanced advice is required for the challenge at hand.

“In each moment, I was always able to identify someone who, even if they haven’t gone through the same experience, had some knowledge that they could share with me on how I can navigate that moment.”

An important mentor for Bass was a manager she sought guidance from during her first pregnancy.

“When I first found out I was expecting I was excited because it was what we wanted, but when it became a reality, I got very nervous and scared. I was grateful that I had this ‘maternity mentor’ that I could go to and ask questions about, ‘How do I communicate this to the team? How do I prepare to be out? How do I operate when I get back?’”

Now a mother of five, Bass knows what it takes to transition back from maternity leave. She advocates for taking advantage of the support that’s around you and feels fortunate that at Goldman Sachs they have resources like backup childcare and lactation rooms to help support working parents. She has learned that it is important to, “be willing and open to taking on that help because I think a lot of times people feel like they need to be able to do everything. And you really don’t.”

Run Your Own Race at Your Own Pace

Along the path of her career, Bass found a mantra to keep her grounded: “I need to run my own race.” She notes that it can be easy to get distracted trying to keep up with everyone around you, but in the end, you must prioritize what is important to you professionally and personally.

“It’s fine to look to your left and look to your right, and that will give you some sense as to what might be important to you, or a goal you might want to set for yourself, and that’s fine. But don’t get caught up in the competition of it all.”

Part of setting your own pace is creating boundaries and sticking to them.

“You have to be clear on setting boundaries and priorities. Any organization is going to take all that you’re willing to give, so it’s up to you to be the person to set those boundaries for yourself. It doesn’t mean that you’re not going make sacrifices or that there will not be this push and pull constantly, but each time that happens you need to be very thoughtful about whether it’s the right trade-off.”

Showing up with Authenticity

Living her life at her own pace is an example of how Bass shows up authentically and pushes for things that she values in a genuine way.

“I’m a Black woman who is also a mother and a wife to my husband. I have all these different ways that I define myself, and I bring all of that to all the spaces that I enter.”

Bass believes it is important to show up authentically as it sets the tone for those coming up behind her.

“It’s simple things. For example, how I wear my hair at work sets the tone for other young Black women coming into the organization. I’ve had people ask me, ‘is it okay to wear my natural hair?’ I’ve never given myself the title of cultural or diversity change agent, but it is this notion of showing up authentically to the spaces that I occupy, that I hope allows this shift or change to happen naturally.”

From her enthusiasm, Bass clearly brings her whole self as much to her personal life as she does her professional. A mother of five with an engaging career, Bass admits that these days her leisure time is devoted to her family, particularly as her two eldest children play on travel soccer teams. Calling herself a “budding soccer mom”, Bass expresses joy in having the opportunity to take her children to practice and shouting from the sidelines when they play in tournaments.

By Jessica Robaire

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Tara Stafford: Project Manager, PGIM Operations & Innovation

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Tara Stafford“Don’t be afraid to be authentically you,” says Tara Stafford, Project Manager, Operations & Innovation at PGIM. “If you can do that, you’ll be surprised how your contributions can positively impact the business, those around you – and beyond.”

Making a Positive Impact – Both Personally and Professionally

Being “authentically you” at work wasn’t easy for Stafford early in her career. After graduating from Montclair State University with a degree in Business Management and Marketing, Stafford landed at the investment and wealth management firm, Merrill Lynch, as the only Black woman on her team.

“Coming into the financial services industry as a Black woman, I didn’t always have the courage and confidence to be myself because I didn’t see a lot of women in senior leadership positions that looked like me in the industry,” Stafford says.

Tara’s authenticity is most evident when she is serving others in her community. Over the last two decades, she has volunteered as a Girl Scout troop leader to high school girls and is a back-up foster parent to two children on the autism spectrum. Her parents, both educators, instilled the responsibility to serve the community and make a positive impact in it.

Tara worked hard and rose through the ranks over 12 years at Merrill—becoming a Six Sigma Blackbelt and assistant vice president in the Global Transaction division, before leaving to join PGIM’s Risk Management team. She enjoyed her regulatory oversight position, but that feeling she could do more – be more – at work wouldn’t go away.

Then, Stafford learned about an opportunity on PGIM’s Operations & Innovation’s Business & Talent Management team where there is a strong focus on including recruiting, training, employee engagement and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. She has made impactful contributions and helped launch and lead PGIM’s Neurodiversity Program, which is focused on establishing a more inclusive talent process – from recruiting, to interviewing, to training and retention, recognizing the skills of those who are neurodivergent. The program also has an education component, teaching managers and employees how to best recruit, work with neurodiverse talent and become better leaders. Stafford feels this role in project management is a natural extension of her passion and values.

According to Employee Benefits News, 85% of autistic adults with a college education are unemployed. “I had an idea of what this untapped population needs were and how to best support and showcase their many talents,” Stafford says. She took on the role and jumped right in, onboarding the first six neurodiverse cohort members last year. Four of the six earned full-time roles within PGIM, and another cohort is currently going through the program.

Stafford credits three important attributes she honed through years of volunteerism and foster parenting with helping her make the program a success: empathy, commitment and patience.

“People connect with you more and receive more from you when you are open and honest,” Stafford says. She believes that an effective leader is someone willing to learn from others, open to receiving “reverse” mentorship and is dedicated to helping others grow and thrive.

“Make sure you share your knowledge. It’s very important for people to understand that we’re not competing with each other; we’re helping each other.”

Finding Mentors and Sponsorship Outside of Your Comfort Zone

Stafford has a unique perspective on the values of mentorship and sponsorship.

“Growth among peers is not a competition, and everyone’s growth path is different. Putting egos aside and collectively pooling our talent and expertise helps ensure that our business’ goals are prioritized, enabling everyone to ultimately be successful,” she says. “At the end of the day, if support and resources I’ve provided can help develop and lift someone else as I climb the corporate ladder, no matter what level they are, I’ve done my job – and I’ve done it well.”

While she wishes she could have had more mentors with a similar background, Stafford says she learned over the years how important it is to find a mentor or sponsor who has different viewpoints.

She explains, “For me, having a white male mentor is just as important as having a mentor who is a Black woman. Your allies can share a different perspective and teach you new things. It’s very important to have mentors and allies from all different backgrounds and walks of life.”

Stafford also believes there’s value in finding a mentor organically—even if it means going outside of your comfort zone to approach someone for career advice or to learn more about their professional experience. “All relationships need to start somewhere, and in reaching out, you’re showing that you fully own your career.” she says.

“It’s also important that you’re giving just as much as you’re receiving in a mentoring relationship, so be prepared and think strategically about who you want to mentor you… especially since mentors can turn into your sponsors – the people who are champions in your corner and advocate for you at the tables where you don’t have a seat.”

Being the Change She Wants to See in the World

As if it weren’t enough to make a positive impact on her colleagues, Girl Scout troops and foster children’s lives, Stafford wanted to make an even bigger difference in her community, choosing to run for her local school board in 2019. Although she didn’t win, she gained valuable knowledge from the experience.

“I learned how tenacious and resilient I really am, and that experience strengthened my connection to my community and broadened my support network,” Stafford says.

When asked what keeps her going when faced with challenges, she emphasizes her passion for change and her commitment to working hard for the things she values. That, she says, is what is most “authentically me.”

“Your values speak to what you will work hard for. Ultimately, what drives me when it comes to making change and serving as a role model is, ‘If not me, then who?’”

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Helen Chang: Managing Director, Head of Asia Pacific ex Japan, Client Advisory Group, PGIM

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Helen Chang“Don’t be afraid to take the road less traveled, because as you do, you will find new horizons that will take you to the next level,” says Helen Chang. “Finding something you’re passionate about is important because you’ll do better than if you’re forcing yourself into a career or role that isn’t the best fit for you.”

Chang shares her journey about the benefit of international perspectives, taking on new opportunities to evolve and inspiring yourself and others through passion.

Growing Your Career from Outside the Comfort Zone

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Chang went to boarding school in the UK, attended college in Canada and then started as a trainee at JP Morgan Chase where she gained exposure to various areas of banking. She then obtained her MBA at Yale University. Living abroad at an early age, she developed an international perspective and a high degree of adaptability in connecting with multicultural people from different backgrounds.

While at Yale, Chang worked on Wall Street for a summer before returning to Hong Kong with Credit Suisse. She then decided to take a major career pivot from sell-side (lending and credits) in the private sector to the buy-side (investments and policymaking) in the public sector by joining the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) (the de facto Central Bank in Hong Kong). Eventually, she was promoted to lead the internal direct investment team, where she gained deep insight into asset management and the investment decision-making process. She also went onto work in international relations, working with central banks and sovereign wealth funds in the region. It’s safe to say that Chang built a solid growth platform to build upon with her deep knowledge of central banking over nearly a decade.

After leaving HKMA for a brief stint with Standard Chartered Bank, Chang went back to the private sector with Principal Global Investors in asset management. There, she was charged with building the business and investment profile across North Asia. In this role, she grew the business from scratch and was instrumental in raising assets, increasing headcount from one to eighteen by the time she left to take on a new and exciting role with PGIM Fixed Income in 2020. Beginning in her new role just two days before the COVID-19 pandemic, she embraced the opportunity to lead a broader regional remit.

“As an Asian, I was brought up in a culture where my parents told me to be modest. So, we’d often say we’re not very good in doing certain things, when in fact, we were,” says Chang. “In interacting with so many diverse backgrounds internationally, I’ve learned you need to believe in yourself, and you need to be open-minded and have the courage to get out of your comfort zone.”

“I was courageous enough to make many career moves even when people advised me not to make those changes,” she says. “In hindsight, I feel I’m a more well-rounded professional and person for having experienced both the private and public sector as well as both buy-side and sell-sides.”

Embracing Vast Opportunities to Develop and Grow

Chang encourages taking a long-term approach to career development, advising others to prioritize new opportunities and experiences. While there may be detours on a career path, all experiences will contribute to one’s future career trajectory. She provides two examples from her journey.

First, in broadening her exposure and knowledge base during her tenure in the public sector, Chang experienced the biggest culture shock of her journey. The long and painstaking decision-making processes and lobbying to many stakeholders were a major adjustment to her private sector background. Even though this challenged her patience, she also feels it was one of the most rewarding experiences and enhanced her ability to get to where she sits today.

Second, Chang learned about what she wanted to do when she took on a new role at Standard Chartered. In what she now judges as too early, Chang says she took on a senior management role, which comprised of sitting in executive meetings, reporting progress and focusing on developing people internally. While she enjoyed parts of this role, she found herself missing her active strategic role in developing and growing the business. She had the big title. She was competent. But it simply didn’t get her heart beating or her blood pumping to be so far removed from the strategic work she loved doing, so she knew she had to move on.

“I’ve always enjoyed building business, and this is where I know I add the most value,” she says.

Using Your Voice with Confidence in Your Knowledge

Often the only woman in the room, Chang has been fortunate enough to have coworkers and mentors from diverse backgrounds who helped shape her leadership style and showed her the value of speaking up.

“Like most Asians, we can be shy and were taught that speaking up may not be courteous, but in reality, it’s not the case.” She notes, “I’ve learned from these leaders, and a lot of them have become very senior executives, in the United States and across Asia.”

Being comfortable voicing her opinions was something that happened slowly for Chang. Early on, she was more conservative about using her voice, but as she advanced, she began to realize that she was hesitating to speak when others who were unafraid to use their voices in the room simply did not possess the same expertise she had.

“You build up your confidence. Once people know you know the business, they respect you and are more open to hearing what you have to say,” she says. “But you need to work hard and know your stuff: you can’t bluff. Because once you start bluffing, people don’t believe you.”

Inspiring Others to Enjoy Work and Grow

“As a leader, gone are the days when one can be bureaucratic. When I started my career, some leaders would say, ‘I’m senior, your job is to listen.’ Things have changed. Many of my team members are younger than me and have a different mentality when it comes to leadership and management styles. Using an old-fashioned management style won’t work – nor is it beneficial to the business,” she says. “It’s important to have connectivity with your whole team, to be able to joke and laugh with them, which helps contribute to them enjoying being at work and enables them to produce a high-quality of work. We’re no longer talking about how many hours you spend in the office, but how much you deliver.”

The successful leaders who have inspired Chang are people who were never afraid to take calculated risks and knew how to inspire a team. They have a passion for their work and for making a difference with their contribution, even in the face of adversity.

“If you love and are passionate about something, you’ll be able to do well. Sometimes there are even these hidden abilities within yourself that you didn’t know,” she says. “So, when you see passionate leaders doing what they love and bringing out more of themselves, it inspires you to think maybe I can as well.”

Nurturing Diversity to Thrive

True to her own international perspective and tasked with the challenge of working across cultural nuances in building relationships with clients and counterparts in the region, her team of direct reports is diverse. She appreciates the cultural transparency in advising clients honestly on what will and will not work, and the focus on long-term business building.

“I have always believed in diversity to help the team grow and build business,” Chang says. “I encourage people to speak up. No one will get punished if they don’t speak. It’s just more engaging when the team share their perspectives and what’s on their minds.”

Having experienced various company cultures, too, Chang appreciates how PGIM is team-oriented, encourages diversity and is respectful of people, which she thinks drives firm loyalty and longer tenures. Even though PGIM is one of the largest asset managers in the world, Chang says that it doesn’t have the same grueling workplace culture that other NYC-firms she worked for has and encourages flexibility while also getting the job done.

The Importance of a Refreshed Perspective

When not traveling for work, Chang enjoys spending time with her family. She also enjoys cooking, hiking and personal travel.

Chang emphasizes the importance of recharging and taking good breaks to rejuvenate yourself to start the week with a clear head and on a positive note. Coming back with a fresh perspective is important to making a stronger impact and contributions to her job, as she continues to do.

By Aimee Hansen

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Lola Ninonuevo: International Chief Operating Officer, Wells Fargo

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Lola Ninonuevo“As a leader, it’s less about you the more senior you become. It’s about who you lead and being available, honest and authentic with your teams,” says Lola Ninonuevo. “It is a pivot to realizing you’re here to serve people and you have to make time.”

When she was twelve years old, Ninonuevo told her mother she wanted to travel internationally, see the world and become a business woman. Growing up speaking Spanish at home, she then studied Japanese while obtaining her economics degree, began her career in a Japanese bank in New York, and has spent the last 25 years working out of London in global positions, joining Wells Fargo in 2020 to help lead the international business strategy.

Finding a Bigger Reset in London

From early on, her Puerto Rican mom and Cuban Puerto Rican father impressed upon Ninonuevo the value of a good career. She was drawn to banking for the multicultural, international environment and the financial security. In 1991, she took that first trading assistant job with a small Japanese bank in World Trade Center in New York. As the only woman on the trading floor, she both served tea but was empowered early on to take on additional responsibilities such as cash management for the branch and representing the bank at industry round tables hosted by Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank. Having gained experienced in the fixed income market, she then joined BlackRock, which at the time was a start-up and small boutique asset manager, and worked with the founding partners to set up the middle office and trading support functions.

In 1996, she was approached by HSBC to help build out their Global Markets business. She was attracted to their global footprint, and in 1999, she relocated to London with HSBC and went onto work for 23 years across a variety of global roles in the Corporate and Investment Bank. London offered her international travel, a strong learning curve and new career prospects. But what London also provided was a reset and new freedom of self, supported by now being a part of a multicultural global and diverse organization.

“I had not been ‘out’ in the workplace in New York, and that was hard. It impacted my decisions and ability to bring myself to work, for example talking about what I had done over the weekend and attending corporate events with my partner,” she recalls. “I felt more at home in London where I felt comfortable to be more open about my personal life, because I could be Lola, the American woman who moved. Not the Puerto Rican woman. Not the gay woman. It was just Lola.”

Two decades later, in 2020, Ninonuevo was approached for the COO role at Wells Fargo. While still based in London, returning to a U.S. work culture has felt like a homecoming. She notes that John Langley, CIB COO and Head of International, has been a fantastic leader, support and sponsor. Ninonuevo has found a welcoming, collaborative and optimistic culture at Wells Fargo and enjoys connecting with both international colleagues from different backgrounds as well as reconnecting with American colleagues across the US.

“I can be an American advocate while bringing my international perspective to the table to help drive the Wells Fargo global strategy,” she says. “It feels like coming home, and it’s fantastic to be back.”

Creating a Brand of Speaking the Truth

When it comes to rising up to the executive level, Ninonuevo notes self-awareness is critical – including knowing what you’re good at and what you’re not and building a team that complements your strengths and weaknesses. Resilience and being a powerful collaborator are also essential.

“In banking these days, with both the complexity and risk management challenges we’ve had since the crisis, connecting the dots and bringing people together to solve problems is a key part of what I bring to the table,” she reflects. “I really focus on building relationships. I’m honest and candid in my approach.”

Her willingness to be incisive, which found a home in British culture, helped Ninonuevo to breakthrough to the C-suite in 2012. When HSBC was in a crisis with compliance issues, she stood up and spoke truthfully about what was going well and what was not going well. That became a turning point in her career, catapulting her into a global role leading the firm wide compliance transformation across 60 countries.


“When I came in and talked to the board and the regulators, they knew they were going to get honest and balanced feedback. And that became my personal brand – a person with integrity that got the job done. In my opinion, since the crisis, the role of women in banking has become very important in C-suite jobs. Because I personally think we are more inclined to ask difficult questions, be honest, and not just go along for the sake of going along. And that tribal mentality of going along was a pitfall in the industry.”

Pivoting to a Collective Leader Mindset

“In my opinion, being a true leader is not just about managing up anymore or trying to get the next job,” says Ninonuevo. “I genuinely think I should be judged based on the teams I build and how I encourage and empower them.”

This involves a greater level of willingness to let go and let learn.

“When I was progressing through my career, a lot of it was about me and developing my technical skill set: I’ve got to manage up, I’ve got to manage sideways. I’ve got to manage down. All of those facets still exist,” she says. “But that’s the big leadership pivot people don’t realize: You don’t have all the answers. You’re there to listen. You’re there to serve and support others to be successful.”

Visibility has been the major factor that distinguishes the C-Suite from other levels of leadership, and again asks one to evolve.

“The visibility and impact you can have as a C-Suite leader are multiplied. It’s so important to be aware of how you behave, how you treat people, and how you react under stress.”

The Obligation of Being a Voice

“With all the learnings on how important it is to have diversity and diversity of thought around the table, and often being the only woman in the conversation, I feel it’s my obligation to ask those difficult questions and make sure we’re challenging ourselves to do the right things and to hold ourselves accountable,” says Ninonuevo. “So I’ve used the difference as an opportunity to have a voice, to be honest and to say it like it is.”

Ninonuevo has reflected with compassion, too. “When firms are in crisis, they are driven by fear. And when you’re afraid, you basically hire in your own image because you trust it and it’s what you know. Taking risk is hard when you’re in a crisis.”

When it comes to managing your career, Ninonuevo emphasizes to be your own advocate, communicate your ambitions to your stakeholders regularly, focus on your transferable skills and don’t be afraid to go after challenging roles.

“As Citi’s Jane Fraser has spoken to, your career is over decades. It’s not the be-all and end-all. There’s periods where you can really lean in and put 100% into it, and there’s periods where you can’t, and that’s okay as long as you stay connected.”

Why Relaxing Into Yourself Makes All the Difference

Ninonuevo admits that for years, being gay and feeling unable to talk about her life outside of the workplace inhibited her ability to relate and feel belonging with colleagues on a personal level, but that also touches upon everything else.

“In the workplace, people relate and connect by sharing things about themselves, whether it’s their family life, their children, or what they did over the weekend,” she says. “I found it really hard to share because I was self-conscious.”

If she could go back and give her junior self some words to lighten the road ahead, she would advise to be more of herself at work, sooner. But, at times, she worried about how others would react and whether it would count against her. She even got a coach to seek out help in confidence-building.

“After a few seconds of work, he stopped and told me, ‘You don’t have a confidence issue. You’re confident. You know what you’re doing. People enjoy working with you,’” says Ninonuevo. “Then, he said, ‘You just need to be yourself and selectively find opportunities to do that and connect.’”

For her, this meant becoming more willing to bring her full self to work, despite the challenges she felt. As a change agent, once she becomes aware of something, Ninonuevo starts to move forward in a more effective way.

“Before that, I’m sure I was projecting a lack of confidence. But I was just closed with that part of myself. But the more that I was myself, the more I relaxed, my body language relaxed and people relaxed around me,” she says. “I started being more approachable, people enjoyed working with me more, and I got results from that. I actually had more gravitas because I felt relaxed and confident and became a better communicator, and it all started coming together.”

Ninonuevo is a dual citizen, practices pilates and enjoys walks. She loves spending time with her six year old daughter, traveling and good food and wine. After a month in Spain, she’s been inspired to get her Spanish fluency to where it was those years ago, back when she first professed to her mother that she would become an international business woman…let alone, fill a big seat in the C-Suite.

By Aimee Hansen

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Vanessa Rodriguez: Head of Community Lending & Investment, Commercial Real Estate, Wells Fargo

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Vanessa Rodriguez“At some stage, it’s not completely linear any longer. Sometimes, you must take a step back, or move laterally, to go forward,” says Vanessa Rodriguez. “You have to leave what you’ve exclusively done, branch out, take a risk or accept a new challenge. That could be a geographical change, a different line of business, a new company or position – but generally, it’s out of your comfort zone.”

Rodriguez shares on interviewing for a senior promotion while becoming a mother for the first time, learning to show up authentically regardless of who is in the room, and her commitment to coming at life and work from a genuine and constructive perspective.

On A Mission Towards Affordable Housing

After completing her B.S. in Business Administration from the UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business, Rodriguez was recruited to join the Wells Fargo Financial Analyst program in the Company’s Commercial Banking business. In 2007, she moved to NYC to take a position in Wells Fargo’s Real Estate Merchant Banking business, jumping into the hot seat just before the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) hit in 2009.

“I had no clue as a young banker how bad it could or would get. I’d never seen a market cycle,” she says. “Being in commercial real estate, specifically in workouts, in NYC during the GFC was intense but an amazing and enriching experience. Three years felt like ten years and only elevated my interest in building my career in commercial real estate.” She began to rise in the ranks, leading teams in NYC and then back home again in the San Francisco Bay area. In the past couple years, she took the opportunity to further expand her real estate career by becoming the Group Head of Wells Fargo’s Community Lending and Investment (CLI) group.

“Affordable housing is one of the Bank’s top priorities, and this was an opportunity to lead a premier affordable housing team and large national business at Wells Fargo,” says Rodriguez. “It’s exciting to look at commercial real estate from a different angle and immerse myself in this new ecosystem – which includes non-profits, housing authorities, foundation work, government and community relations, public policy state and local governments.”

Rodriguez notes that providing a quality, affordable home to all must be a top priority everywhere in the US. In the San Francisco Bay Area, many of the families and friends she grew up with have had to relocate to attain good, cost-effective housing. Some now have 2-3 hour super commutes to work.

“It’s really sad when you become priced out of the place that you grew up, and that’s happening for more and more people across the country,” she says. “There are so many amazing things here in the Bay Area- the outdoors, the moderate climate, the diverse culture, so many top notch universities, the innovative tech industry, think tanks and VCs. But the downside is an extremely high cost of living in which regular people are forced out, breaking up families and communities, and negatively impacting the landscape. We need to work on these problems in communities across the country, and I want to be a part of that solution.”

Taking a New Role While Welcoming Her First Born

At a certain point as you ascend in leadership, Rodriguez notes that the path can become less clear. What your next step will be depends on investing in a lot of self-reflection and soul-searching around core questions: What do you want to do? How do you want to spend your time? Where can you add the most value? Because ultimately nobody else is going to be equipped to hand you those answers.

Such a moment came for Rodriguez when she was 41 years old and seven months pregnant with her first baby in 2021. The opportunity to run Wells Fargo’s CLI group came up, and she “looked away, frankly.”

“This is the value of having those strong personal and professional relationships in your life, whether they are formal or informal mentors or sponsors or ultimately over time perhaps become friends after years of working together” she says. “I had some of these people call me and say, ‘Don’t look away from this. It’s probably tough to think about a new opportunity now or interviewing for a new role at eight months pregnant, but do not check out right now.’”

So, despite how daunting it felt, Rodriguez began the interviewing process while pregnant in her third trimester, finished while on maternity leave, and ultimately returned to work in a new position. She had a second child in November 2022, and appreciates Wells Fargo for the support she’s received: assuming the role at this stage in her life has included managing her own high expectations around her career and motherhood, working hard to deliver, but speaking up where flexibility is needed. Rodriguez is inspired that while there are many things about parenthood that remain unique to women, parental matters are seen less and less as only women’s issues.

“But I will say that every day, I am forced to make decisions about where I am most needed because there are only so many hours in the day,” she admits. “I would love to get up every day and have my set routine, but my current state is more like a Rubik’s cube, where I move this piece down, pull it up here, take the lever off here, and make tough decisions about what I can and can’t do today. The truth is it’s not always graceful but tomorrow is always another chance to improve and do it better.”

Building Your Personal and Authentic Brand

“From the beginning of my career, I always focused on treating every single task like it was very important. It was all about building my personal brand,” she notes. “I tell young people: ‘You need to sweat the small things as well as the big things as you build your brand. Make your mark. What do you stand for? What are your standards on the quality of your work product and how do you approach it?’ Because if you build that personal brand and do great work for people, there is a multiplier effect where people start asking for you and saying your name in the room when you’re not there.”

Yet keeping your head down isn’t enough. Rodriguez also focused on real estate being a people business, and the importance of connecting, regardless of whether she may have initially felt like an outsider, to gain a strong network and the right visibility. Rising into that confidence to bring more of herself to the table has been immensely important to her growth.

“Twenty years ago, I entered the space focusing on being less visible. Over time, I realized there is a lot lost when you try to fit the mold, when you do not bring your full self to work, your best self to work” says Rodriguez. “We can and should bring our personal style and unique experience to work and connect in different ways. I certainly would encourage that in a sea of many, be memorable.”

Being extremely competent, authentic and walking the walk are important to Rodriguez’s sense of personal brand. As a leader, she never asks anyone to do something she hasn’t done or wouldn’t do herself. She prefers to roll up her sleeves. She values genuine and transparent communication and people feeling comfortable enough to share their unique perspectives.

“I want to bring value to people, whether it’s my clients, my team, or senior management, and what it means to bring value is going to be different for every situation,” she notes. “I hope that when I’m not in the room, people say she brings leadership value everyday, and she brings it in an authentic and genuine way – and we enjoy being in her orbit.”

Belonging, Irrespective of the Room

When it comes to entering a room where she may be the only woman, let alone the only Latina, Rodriguez says, “It starts with whether any of those factors intimidate you. I’ve always just prided myself on not being intimidated, even if there were moments I could have been.”

“When I enter the room, I focus on being prepared for the content of the meeting, on being a good listener, on finding solutions,” she says. “I focus on the principles that matter, irrespective of who’s in the room and whether you’re the only woman.”

While she’s had many moments of feeling she wasn’t part of the club and remembers once being told it was a career-limiting move not to golf, Rodriguez comes back to her confidence in the subject matter and being memorable because of her difference.

While twenty years ago, she may have gone with a strategy of blending in, today she would advise: “Embrace who you are and everybody else will be richer for it.”

Maintaining A Constructive Mindset

“There’s a moment, which is certainly an adjustment, when you’ve reached the point in your career where the buck stops with you in leadership. I’ve always been someone that took responsibility and was willing to make decisions, but when you get to the level where you have complete ownership from start to finish, it’s no longer someone else’s problem in leadership,” she says. “It’s ‘we’ and it’s ‘me.’ You’re not alone – you have peers, a whole team, a manager – but it’s embracing an entirely new level of ownership and responsibility.”

At that level, Rodriguez has embraced the advice to be vigilant with her mental approach, day-to-day and in all parts of life.

“How constructively you approach anything is going to be the difference-maker for you and for all those who work with you and for you,” she says, “When you hit those roadblocks and it’s tempting to pivot to feeling captive or negative, I force myself to remember that the only way out is forward. Approach issues constructively and that will help you rise above the challenge or circumstance, to focus on a solution.”

She continues, “I’ve needed that encouragement at times. We could waste time wallowing, but the work will be there tomorrow. So give yourself a few minutes, if you need to take a step away, do. But then, come back to it, calmly and constructively. That’s what I want to exemplify for my team, the leader I want to be. Cooler heads will always prevail.”

Keeping the Perspective of a Longer Arc

Twenty years into her work journey, Rodriguez would also advise that it’s okay to slow down and pace yourself: “If we’re lucky, the career is long. We live in a culture of instant gratification and are wired to constantly seek it. Technology only serves to reinforce and accelerate the need for instant gratification,” she notes. “But you truly have to toil away at something to really learn it, to master it, to become an expert, to unlock the benefits and skills that will propel you to that next level. The corporate ladder is really a staircase with various landings along the way and you have to play the long game. Climb the staircase…”

With two little ones at home, Rodriguez observes that “six months feels like a night” and time feels more precious than ever. Rodriguez loves spending time with her kids, husband and extended family. She’s seeking to weave back in her wellness focus and routine, and having enjoyed much travel before motherhood, muses on family travels to one day come.

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Alexandra Tyler: Managing Director, Digital Transformation Leader, Accenture Song

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Alexandra TylerRemoving my protective wall around my identity has enabled me to create deeper connections in my work and in building more meaningful relationships with my family and with my colleagues and clients,” says Alexandra Tyler. “The protective wall goes down, and it impacts everything, including being a better leader.”

Curiosity and Customer-Focused Growth

Curiosity has driven Tyler’s career. She’s come across specific job positions by asking questions. “I’ve been lucky in that I’ve been able to pave my way in making my own adventure, essentially through conversations with people about open positions they had that weren’t quite right,” she reflects, “and in which we often crafted a new position that matched the needs of the business with my expertise and interests.”

Having studied psychology, she began her career in advertising, where she learned to appreciate the power of understanding what customers want and need.

“If you understand what customers want and need at every stage of their journey and are able to fulfill those needs and desired successes, you can enable growth,” she says. “What do those customers want to achieve and how do you develop the roadmap and path to get there? That is the opportunity. That’s why I’m excited about Gen AI and other innovative capabilities to unlock and enable more insights to meet customer needs.”

Being Focused on People’s Motivations

Growing up as a daughter of first-generation immigrants and raised by a father with a disability, Tyler understood the importance of two important lessons that he imparted: in order to succeed, one must persevere and exhibit true grit. In addition, one must celebrate differences in others.

“I feel strongly about focusing on doing right by others. Ambition goes awry if you don’t have respect for individuals, and if you don’t think about what motivates them,” she notes. “I want to understand what’s important to the people with whom I work. I focus on treating individuals how I would want to be treated – including respecting their differences, talents and expertise.”

In addition to treating her colleagues and team members with mutual respect, Tyler learned the importance of inspiring them to pair their great ideas with great follow-through: “I often see people who are incredible ‘ideators’ – who come up with innovative and breakthrough ideas – but they struggle with execution,” she observes. “The devil is in the details when it comes to lighting up an idea. It takes focus, management and collaboration.”

Freeing Herself To Show Up Fully

“It took me a long time to feel comfortable as an authentic leader. Growing up in the world I grew up in, as an LGBTQ+ individual, was challenging,” she notes. Recently at a bank branch, she saw a sticker related to the LGBTQ+ community about celebrating differences. It struck her to imagine the impact that seeing that message would have made early on in her career.

“When I first started my career, I was lying by omission, often doing what LGBTQ+ people do…not using pronouns for your partner. It’s only in the last ten years that I have been comfortable enough to be honest about who I am and to bring my full self to the equation.”

What you feel you cannot say begins to grow heavy and become a burden. Tyler imagines carrying a sixty-pound barbell all those years. “When I put that burden down visually in my head, it was exceptionally freeing,” she says. “When I freed myself of that burden, opportunities in my career opened up.”

For example, at a work town hall, Tyler recently shared her personal journey and the value of bringing her full self to work. She was commended by the head of her division for showing up as her true self and was applauded for doing so, exhibiting the traits of leadership that Accenture values.

“I cannot tell you how much positive feedback I received just for being true to who I am and being vocal about it,” says Tyler. “Leaders at Accenture have been phenomenal in recognizing the power in whatever differences you bring to work and the ability to bring your full self.” And sharing her experiences of exclusion has built bridges of empathy with others who have faced challenges. LGBTQIA+ peers have approached her inspired by her authenticity and, in turn, let down their own protective walls.

Advocating and Inspiring Others

“Freeing myself up to be myself empowered me to be an advocate for others. It is important for me to pay it forward by being an advocate in my community.”

Tyler is on the Board of Be The Rainbow, an LGBTQIA+ nonprofit organization in her Long Island hometown. On their third Pride March, Tyler is excited to be opening minds and hearts to create a greater platform of equity in which all can have a voice.

In her training and at work, Tyler’s approach is comprised of experimentation and optimization. She often tests the waters, dips her toe in, tries out different messages and approaches. What she found when she ‘came out’ is that the response was much more positive than she had anticipated. She encourages others to consider who they can safely share with – a person, a group – in order to build that positivity. Tyler acknowledges that the experience of speaking one’s truth, no matter the reaction, is alone invigorating and empowering.

The Intersection of Identity and Innovation

Tyler admires that her daughter’s generation wields identity and labels quite differently. “Labels are fluid and I know that my daughter and her friends are comfortable at the same time with no labels or multiple ones: Imagine what you could do if you were not carrying the burden of the sixty-pound barbell, or invisible burden, every day?”

At Accenture, Tyler is fascinated by the intersection of innovation and identity – particularly how removing obstacles around identity frees you up to create and innovate. She considers cryptanalyst Alan Turing (played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the film The Imitation Game) who developed the ability to decode messages and the predecessor to the computer, and who was also tortured for being homosexual.

“I think about what more amazing things he could have done. He was such an innovator, even with the constraints of conversion therapy and being tortured,” she notes. “What aperture could have opened if individuals like Turing could have been safe to express their identity freely? I’m interested in that tension for any minority who is held back because of societal constraints or one they put on themselves. I’m fascinated by the intersection of how innovative you are as a thinker and the ability to free yourself up to feel comfortable to think differently.”

Why Failure Is Growth

Early on in her career, Tyler worked on developing and launching a new product that consolidated all utility bills into one billing statement. For various reasons, after two years of pretests and pilots, the project failed to launch. But her functional leader was an innovator who believed in failing often and failing fast. Instead of berating the team, he applauded the risks and innovation and threw the team a “failure party” and handed out awards. The team received their best performance reviews that year.

“I learned the importance of reinforcing that failure can actually spur innovation,” says Tyler. “I was very lucky to find leaders that encouraged failing. I know that it may sound trite but, to me, the age-old notion that failure begets growth is very true.”

As a result, Tyler encourages her teams to take calculated risks and experiment: “It’s okay to fail because you learn and those learnings bring you closer to success. Because you WILL eventually succeed. Perfection at the sake of innovation is failure in itself. You must try and also not be afraid to be curious, and that effort and curiosity are successes in themselves. ”

Tyler has two daughters, 15 and 18, a freshman in high school and college, respectively. Her wife, Beth, is a special education teacher in Queens. Recently, her oldest daughter “failed” to get into her first college choice. After the initial disappointment, she applied to an array of different schools that she would otherwise not have considered. She now feels “at home” at UNC Chapel Hill where she is thriving – an example of how failure can lead to the growth you didn’t see coming.

To be surrounded by her family and watch them grow are her greatest successes, and Tyler now embraces sharing those successes with others.

By Aimee Hansen

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Mikaylee O’Connor: Principal, Senior Defined Contribution Strategist, PGIM DC Solutions

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Mikaylee O'Connor “One thing that’s at the core of how I operate is a focus on internal versus external gratification. I tend to go above and beyond for my own satisfaction because I have very high standards for myself,” says Mikaylee O’Connor. “Everyone’s way towards internal gratification is different, but I feel that when you do things for yourself, you exude different energy and attract more of what you want.”

Moving From Her Comfort Zone

Growing up in a small Oregon town, O’Connor was put on the Montessori track with an emphasis on independent thinking and hands-on learning. She then skipped middle school, while being home-schooled and spending her time in the stables, riding horses. She graduated high school at 17 and was off to Portland State University.

As a finance graduate, O’Connor joined a local investment consulting firm, RVK, as an investment analyst. She stayed for almost 13 years, working her way up while advising clients on pensions, 401k plans, and endowment foundations, to eventually becoming Head of Defined Contributions (DC). In 2020, she craved a new challenge.

“When you feel like you’re in your comfort zone, it’s the right time to maybe see about getting outside of that comfort zone. I wanted to do more strategic thinking, be a little more creative and be part of a movement to help the DC industry forward and find better solutions for everyday people,” she says.

In the start of 2021, she joined PGIM as a senior DC strategist and, this past February, she became a principal. O’Connor enjoys the ‘think tank’ atmosphere of her team: “We’re always asking, ‘What is the problem out in the market and how can PGIM and Prudential as a company come together to solve these problems and deliver solutions?’”

Embracing the New Challenge

“In my experience, the consulting world is very much for people who like to be constantly challenged,” she notes. “Every client project provides something new – new content, new research, new ways of presenting materials, or simply, adjusting to different personalities.”

O’Connor finds that everything depends upon how you approach those challenges: getting frustrated or seeing each as an invitation to grow. Receiving the support of mentors and advocates has been critical to rolling with new challenges. As she’s become senior, providing that same support to junior associates has been essential and rewarding.

She’s also learned to stay open to what she doesn’t yet know: “If you’re constantly trying to learn new things, you have to be humble to the fact that you don’t know everything,” she advises. “It’s important to surround yourself with different voices and perspectives so that when you’re trying to solve problems or provide solutions, you have that 360-degree view instead of looking only right in front of you.”

Opening to More Possibilities

O’Connor is known to give an unfiltered view of what she is thinking and play her own part in widening the conversation in any meeting.

“I push us to think differently or to have a different view on what we’re trying to solve. I often bring the end-user to the table,” she reflects. “Let’s put ourselves in the position of the person that’s going to be using this product or solution. How would they go about doing this or that?”

Despite being in a predominantly white male industry, O’Connor had the opportunity to work under a female CEO at RVK and with many female shareholders throughout her career. But when becoming involved in industry organizations, the gender skew became salient. Her approach to being underestimated by male peers was simple: “I would feel compassion for them because, at the end of the day, that’s their own challenge, not mine.”

But mostly, she has leveraged being a unique voice in the room to help her challenge the status quo.

“I’ve always been one to point out that just because we’ve done it this way in the past doesn’t mean we need to do it this way going forward. What are we missing? What should we be thinking about differently?” she says. “Having both that fresh perspective and high conviction about thinking about problems and solutions differently doesn’t always make people feel good. But I like a good debate and being uncomfortable talking about things, because we are only going to grow more through it.”

Adapting For Your Audience and Your Team Members

“Whether it’s your boss, client or a prospect, reading the room and adjusting how you approach the situation and your communication style matters to being effective,” says O’Connor.

Being able to adapt to and apply different ways of learning and communicating has been a powerful component in her ability to meet people where they are and create the momentum that drives results. Equally, sitting on the extrovert-introvert cusp, O’Connor highly values adapting her approach to hearing all voices in the room, including considering the different ways they may need to be heard.

“You have extroverts and introverts. You have people who need more time to think and you have people who can come up with ideas right on the spot in the meeting,” she says. “In order to capture all of the different great ideas, concerns and considerations, you have to consider how to make sure that you’re getting what you need from each of them, and that you make them all feel included.”

Reframing for Confidence

Shifting her mindset to increase her confidence has helped O’Connor to take on bigger roles.

“In the past, despite being overly prepared for a client meeting or discussion, I would still feel nervous,” she recalls. “But one mentor in particular assured me, again and again, that I knew more about the topic than anyone in that room. Over time, it shifted my perspective from being the ‘victim of scary stares and expectations’ to a ‘person with important information to share.’ I shifted to see that I’m going in there as a teacher.”

Now she loves to speak in front of an audience and does so often. Another learning curve has been around the challenge of leadership.

“I can be a perfectionist and always want to do things correctly, but when you’re in charge of people and emotions, that’s a different skillset and a different realm of understanding how to deal with things,” she says. “It takes a lot of listening and stepping back to ask how you can best support each of these individuals. Ultimately, their success is also my success.”

She’s also learned to always ask for feedback and to create an environment where people feel comfortable giving it.

Meanwhile, O’Connor has recently been unlearning multi-tasking as a leader: “I’ve been working on mindfulness and there’s a huge benefit to focusing your attention on one thing at a time. I’m much more active and creative when I get rid of distractions.”

Focusing on Internal Gratification

“By focusing on internal gratification, I’ve naturally been given more opportunities without necessarily focusing on what I have to do to get to the next step or to get promoted, because those are external focuses,” she notes. “By doing what I want to do – to grow and to learn and to do it for myself – I’ve just had those opportunities come to me.”

For years, O’Connor has been doing a self-review after meetings to consider whether she could have done anything better or differently. While it can be exhausting, it helps her grow and creates internal gratification.

“I would encourage women to focus internally and not worry so much about external steps and getting to the next one,” she says, “because then you’re doing the work for someone else instead of yourself.”

Being Human, First

O’Connor appreciates how PGIM Quantitative Solutions CEO Linda Gibson shows strength in her role and humanness in her communications.

“Linda has brought a sense of ‘we’re all just people.’ We’re all trying to do the same thing and nobody needs to be on a pedestal,” she says. “She can talk to you in the office just like anybody. It’s refreshing.”

O’Connor observes that since the pandemic and remote offices, more people are breaking down barriers and hierarchy, while seeing everyone as individuals and not just as employees.

“If we want to bring out the best in ourselves, we also have to show that we’re all humans and we all have things going on,” she says. “We can normalize that. But also, how do we take that change and use it to create a more cohesive and better company? Our relationships can be stronger because I can relate to you on something I didn’t know before.”

Speaking of which, O’Connor finds travel to be good for the soul, and enjoys seeking out AirBnBs and boutique stays with her husband while getting out of their comfort zones and taking in the cultures wherever they are exploring, most recently the Swedish Lapland in the forests of the Arctic circle, with saunas and cold plunges. Iceland is another favorite. Closer to home, she likes scouting out new atmospheric spots for a great meal in New York.

By Aimee Hansen

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