Back Pocket Advice from Three Leaders at On

Bianca Pestalozzi-Houchangnia , General Manager EMEA 

“Truly caring for the people around you is a superpower” 

Throughout my career, every feedback I ever got, I’ve been told to speak up more, assert myself. And, given I wanted to excel at my job, I used to try to ignore what others thought and push myself to speak more directly about what I wanted.

Until somebody on my team made me realize that the fact that I always listened to them before speaking – the fact that I had their best interest at heart, not my own – was in fact not a negative, but the biggest positive in my approach as a leader and as a colleague.

That said, I still try to be more assertive at times. Leadership and communication need to be adaptive to situations and people. But I'm also religious about keeping, in the words of a good Chinese friend of mine, that "young heart". That genuine curiosity, the active listening, the eagerness to take every conversation as a learning opportunity - it has never let me down, and it's helped me to build, what I believe is the foundation for all of us in business... trust in people. So if there's one thing I'd like to pass on it's this: don't mistake a humble & caring approach for weakness, use it as your superpower, it will make you a better colleague, a better coach, a better leader 

Britt Olsen , General Manager North America

"Where your attention goes, energy flows"  

I've only learned to understand how important it is to master this skill much later in my career and now with my family life as a new mom. I haven't mastered it yet by the way – I just understand how important it is to be on that path to mastery.

Everyone and everything seems to want or need something from you that's a very finite resource. If I'm not meticulously careful about where I put my attention and energy, then I actually visualize robbing something else that is more important to me, in my life or my work, to give it to something probably less important.

By simply taking a pause and asking yourself where your attention is going and challenging if it's aimed at the right things is a nice step in at least having an awareness of whether or not you are actively architecting the life you dream of living. What's equally as important is to give whatever you are focusing on your full, undistracted attention. When I am a mom, I try to be fully a mom and not be distracted by work. When I am at work, I try to be fully giving my attention to work and the team. 

Rebecca Cai , General Manager APAC

One piece of advice that I carry with me is to make sure you're surrounded by people who will share their honest opinion, and who oftentimes challenge you.

When I first started leading teams, I associated leadership with having all of the answers – many of the leaders I had looked up to had always come with the plan.

However, after a few instances where expectations were not met, I began to wonder what I could be doing differently. Fortunately for me, I had a leader at the time who asked me how I had made these plans. Had I asked for others' opinions or brainstormed with the team?

I've now found that in all aspects of life, both professional and personal, I look to surround myself with people where we can question and challenge each other openly in the spirit of making better, and more creative decisions.