Lifting Up: Lessons from Verizon Women Leaders

And that's a wrap (with a bow on it!) Gabrielle, Jacinda and Adriana share personal highlights from Season 6 - filled with lots of powerful collisions, varying lived experiences and embracing the power of the pivot. Including pivoting into our final episode, with Wendy Taccetta and Sonia Murray. Wendy and Sonia bring a powerful episode sharing their journey and stories of the importance of owning your own personal operational excellence, while paying it forward. Through the power of community, vulnerability, and fearlessness these ladies share how they have achieved many professional wins, while managing all the challenges and joys life brings with perseverance. "I always embrace challenges. Sometimes when I do something I'm like, Oh wow, I did that. But I know I can do it." -Sonia Murray "If you're living your life fully, you're gonna make mistakes, and you're gonna fall down. Falling down, doesn't matter. It's getting up." -Wendy Taccetta "I try to challenge myself to be in rooms where the information is new, the perspective is different, where I expect someone to disagree with me. Because I find that it helps me either clarify what I believe, or it expands what I know to be true." -Wendy Taccetta "We need to be curious. We need to be learning from each other. We need to be inspired by this next generation. Not threatened by it. We still need to learn from our elders. We need to be curious about each other. And if everyone you know thinks the way you think, you are not in the right ones." -Wendy Taccetta Wendy Taccetta Instagram: vztaccetta LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendytaccetta Sonia Murray LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonia-murray-25132576/

Kuulei Jacubczuk (Director - State Government Affairs; Tribal Liaison) and Alecs Lifschultz (Senior Director - Great Lakes Market) get real about how meaningful their work is to them, the strengths they finetuned by taking risks and breaking barriers on their journey, and the very real sacrifices made along the way. Both women share setbacks, caretaking challenges, and how they navigated it all to become the leaders who inspire so many others today. On becoming a role model: "These were women who stood up in ways culturally, but also professionally, to break barriers and to do things. And they were my role models. So that was something that I think is in the core of me, but I never realized how much it was part of the core of me until I started getting into the professional world." - Kuulei Jakubczak On being authentic to stay inspired: "So showing up and having the ability to be me, keeps me going and keeps me inspired. And hopefully by me showing up as me that inspiration is allowing others the space to show up as themselves as well." - Alecs Lifschultz Alecs Lifschultz Instagram: alecs_southsidechi LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alecsandria-lifschultz-ma-4654327b/ Kuulei Jacubczak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kuuleijakubczak/

Jenny Weeditz (Associate Vice President - Global Corporate Security Operations) and Susan Kim (Finance Senior Director) bring unending energy to this episode of Lifting Up, where they share how they have earned the admiration and credibility of the business teams they support - and so many others. Despite sitting in two very different organizations - security and finance - they are united in their focus on authenticity, learning from setbacks, and delivering value - and a vision for what is possible. On confidence: "Some of the benefits of getting older and having experience is having more comfort and confidence in yourself and being self secure. And it allows you to be vulnerable…. And so when you start doing that, I think you're just natural, and people respond to your natural authenticity, and it feeds into that self. And then you just develop more credibility, and it builds trust." - Susan Kim On collaboration: "it's a lot of negotiation, and making sure you're being the best version of you to get the best out of them." - Jenny Weeditz Susan Kim Instagram: susan_kim_vz LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-kim-b78628a0/ Jenny Weeditz LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-weeditz-7b7660184/

In this episode of the "Lifting Up" podcast, Christina Gonzalez (Marketing Director) and Adriana Dawson (Director of Community Engagement) discuss their journeys to Verizon and the challenges they faced along the way. Adriana overcame her initial fear and self-doubt by embracing curiosity and giving herself permission to step into a new career path. Christina stepped outside of her comfort zone by taking on a new role in an unfamiliar industry while pursuing her doctorate degree. Both speakers emphasize the importance of challenging oneself, having a growth mindset, and not being afraid to take risks. Quotes "I muted that voice of uncertainty and really bolstered that, hey, I can do it, I can figure it out." - Adriana Dawson Just keep swimming. - Christina Gonzales "Try me, not why me." I gave myself permission to just be curious. if I'm having a really tough day, but I have something really important. I say to myself, I just need to be great for one hour. LINKS Christina Gonzalez Instagram: @christina.gonzalez.trojanmami Adriana Dawson Instagram: @adriana_in_rhody LinkedIn: .linkedin.com/in/adrianadawson/

Ask people across Verizon who inspires them, leads authentically, and/or has given their career a boost, and you'll likely hear the names Kelley Kurtzman and Kathy Grillo. These two legendary leaders unite in this episode, and share how connection and seizing the narrative has powered their success and impact - and how the ability to connect and tell your story has never been more important. On cross-organization connections: "I think when you have someone that's in a very different part of the business, you learn so much from them" On authenticity: "Being authentic, being open, being grateful for the work that other people do is so important" On leadership: "I've always felt like if you treat people right, they're gonna treat you right. And if you show up as a real authentic person, then they're going to feel more comfortable being authentic." On organizations: "Not just people - organizations have their own dynamic as well" On broad horizons: "That external connection, I think is so important. Making sure you're connecting outside of Verizon in different ways will help you be a better leader will help you be a better person, we'll help you feel like your heart is full, because you've done volunteer work, or you've been able to bring an idea from another company into your business." On self-knowledge: "I feel like the real path to leading people well is to know yourself very well, first." LINKS Kathy Grillo, S1 E1 - Apple Podcasts | Spotify Donna Epps, S1 E2 (as mentioned by Kathy) - Apple Podcasts | Spotify Kathy Grillo Instagram: @kathy.grillo LinkedIn: .linkedin.com/in/kathleengrillo/ Kelley Kurtzman Instagram: @kellyakurtzman LinkedIn: .linkedin.com/in/kelleykurtzman/