Battle Scars

You have said that when you interview people for a job you asked about their battle scars it's part of your strategy for building a team what do you mean by that and and what are you looking for?

When I ask the question what are your battle scars? What I always say as well is I don't care if you actually did the right thing or the wrong thing in the moment I'm really interested on what you went through and what you learned and the reason I asked the question is I think that it is invaluable to have people on your team who have learned from some other painful experience so they can apply those learnings to make this organization a better organization when I think about the lessons I learned from the financial crisis I think they make me a better leader because it helps me think through what are the next couple of chapters that potentially could happen and how must one think about it and I think each one of us brings that brings something in life whether it's professional or personal they'd better make us a stronger leader colleague decision maker and so that's I'm trying to get out as what made you the strongest that you are today.

So what would you say is the top one or perhaps two lessons that you learned in your own life that made you a better leader?

I think we've hit on them today I think the financial crisis and all the lessons from the financial crisis really go to one important point which is it is easier to prevent them to fix so for any company in any industry focus on ensuring that you're as strong and well-positioned today you don't want to have to fix things later so it's all of the lessons in and around that and then I think the personal lessons and how one can make a difference.

You know for me I think it took far too long to realize that even as a young vice president I had an impact on younger women growing up in the organization and the role that we each play as leaders is one of the most important things to realize the impact that you can have on people's professional development on their lives and whether it's the cancer experiences which sadly so many people I feel we touch aren't going through it in one way or another family friend colleague or the personal journeys how do you think about how one has the life they want while they're going through the career they want those types of experiences all make you stronger.