Office Adventures

I went into the office today instead of working from home.  I had to provide a customer presentation in our Customer Briefing Center (CBC), and I wanted to attend a kick-off session for a new leadership group at the Richardson campus, The Women’s Action Network (WAN).  It’s a networking group for female employees, and it’s supposed to be a forum where women can share best practices for leadership, mentoring, overcoming challenges, and career advancement. 

The executive sponsor is a sales VP and a friend of mine (we used to work together at Nortel).  She’s great, and I wanted to hear her speak.  During the meeting, she told her success story of how she evolved from a typist to a vice president.  It was inspiring and educational.  I could easily relate to many of her experiences. 

While I’m happy with my career, it did make me think that I may need to take more risks, especially if I want to move to the next level.  She surveyed a number of female executives on what they would go back and change if they could.  Most of them said they would take more risks — and do it sooner rather than later.  Roxann talked about the risks she took during her career.  She said if it didn’t give you a knot in your stomach, you probably weren’t going to learn anything new.  In the end, her risks paid off.

Looking back on my career, I’d have to agree with her.  The jobs that were the most frightening were also the most exciting.  Those were the experiences that taught me the most.  They were also the ones that brought major advances in my career.

Normally, I’m not too much of a risk taker, but it’s definitely something to consider.  You never know where the next risk could lead you or the adventure that awaits. 

Who knows…it might be worth the journey.