Speaker 1: A great piece of advice can be powerful. It can
Speaker 1: set you on a whole new trajectory, land you a
Speaker 1: new job, or even prompt you to make a big
Speaker 1: career change. So, through the many interviews I've conducted for
Speaker 1: this show, I have asked a lot of the leaders
Speaker 1: that I have had on for the best career advice
Speaker 1: they have ever received. And today I want to share
Speaker 1: with you four pieces of advice that have set them
Speaker 1: up for success. My name is doctor Amathew Imba. I'm
Speaker 1: an organizational psychologist and the founder of Behavioral science Consultancy Inventium,
Speaker 1: and this is how I work a show about how
Speaker 1: to help you do your best work. So, for Wendy Stops,
Speaker 1: who is a non executive director on the board of
Speaker 1: Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the largest bank here in OZ,
Speaker 1: the most fundamental piece of career advice she gives to
Speaker 1: people is to do your job well. And interestingly, Wendy
Speaker 1: says that people's first reaction to this advice is well,
Speaker 1: that's obvious, to which Wendy replies, it's not. I mean,
Speaker 1: whatever you're asked to do, do it and do it well.
Speaker 1: So if you're asked to go and photocopy two hundred
Speaker 1: pages show them that you're the best damn photocopier that
Speaker 1: they have ever seen. And Wendy also recommends not whinging
Speaker 1: about the boring or tedious parts of your job, because
Speaker 1: every job has good bits and bad bits and you.
Speaker 2: Just have to do them all well.
Speaker 1: Now. Another piece of advice that Wendy had been given
Speaker 1: is that she has been through plenty of hard times
Speaker 1: in her career, such as being on the board of
Speaker 1: Combak during the Royal Commission into banking in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: and Wendy believes that the bad times are actually the
Speaker 1: best times for development because of how much we learn.
Speaker 1: So what Wendy shared with me on the show is
Speaker 1: she said that bad times make you a better person
Speaker 1: for the next job. So for her, sure, the Royal
Speaker 1: Commission was tough, but she learned a lot as well,
Speaker 1: and she's a big believer in learning from the bad
Speaker 1: times and not just bailing, like actually sticking it out,
Speaker 1: because you will learn so much and you will come
Speaker 1: out the other end much stronger and much tougher and
Speaker 1: be in a much better position to.
Speaker 2: Move your career forward. The next piece of.
Speaker 1: Advice I want to share it comes from Kendra Banks,
Speaker 1: who is the managing director for Australia and New Zealand
Speaker 1: at Seek And if you don't live.
Speaker 2: In Australia, you will not know what Seek is and.
Speaker 1: It's essentially the largest online job board are in Australia.
Speaker 1: So Kendra has spent the last two decades rising up
Speaker 1: the ranks in the digital sector. And advice that Kendra
Speaker 1: received early on in her career is to be in
Speaker 1: sectors and businesses that are growing. So she told me
Speaker 1: that where there is growth in a sector or a
Speaker 1: business that creates opportunities and you can grow along with
Speaker 1: that business or sector. And for Kendra, having been in
Speaker 1: digital for two decades, that's been a big part of
Speaker 1: her story in cementing her career and rising right to
Speaker 1: the top.
Speaker 2: Now, for Alison.
Speaker 1: Watkins, who when she was on the show was the
Speaker 1: group managing director of Coca Cola Amatol, she told me
Speaker 1: that she started her career as what she described as
Speaker 1: an insecure overachiever. So Alison had a level of insecurity
Speaker 1: that she said made her somebody that wanted to please
Speaker 1: and this makes you very vulnerable to the judgments of
Speaker 1: other people. Alison eventually realized that exposing yourself to the
Speaker 1: judgments of others puts you in an untenable position because
Speaker 1: some people who pass judgment may not actually have particularly
Speaker 1: good judgment. So for Alison, during her career, she has
Speaker 1: become a lot better at accepting that not everybody is
Speaker 1: going to agree with the choices that she makes or
Speaker 1: the things that she does, and she's learned to value
Speaker 1: the judgment for those who were well placed to be
Speaker 1: wise and considered, and for those people, their feedback is
Speaker 1: really important to Allison, and then she tries not to
Speaker 1: leave herself vulnerable to the judgments of less informed people.
Speaker 1: So essentially, remember that not all feedback is created equal.
Speaker 1: Now finally, some bad advice, and this comes from some
Speaker 1: advice that Kendra received in the form of parenting and
Speaker 1: career advice. Someone once said to Kendra, now that you're
Speaker 1: having your second child, you probably want to come back
Speaker 1: to a job that's a little less demanding. But fortunately
Speaker 1: for Kendra, she didn't take that advice, and she finds
Speaker 1: that there's a lot of assumptions made about how parents
Speaker 1: want to drive their careers, which can be very detrimental.
Speaker 1: And for her, it's not that slowing down is the
Speaker 1: wrong choice, but it's to assume that slowing down is
Speaker 1: the choice for everybody that is the wrong thing. So equally,
Speaker 1: to assume that staying in a similar career path is
Speaker 1: the right decision for everybody is also wrong. So what
Speaker 1: we need to do is enable people to look at
Speaker 1: what's really important for them and make choices that work
Speaker 1: for them and avoid making assumptions about what is best.
Speaker 1: So those are four pieces of advice and one not
Speaker 1: so good piece of advice to take on board to
Speaker 1: help you in your career.
Speaker 2: That is it for today's show. If you are enjoying How.
Speaker 1: I Work, why not share the show with someone else
Speaker 1: in your life that you think might enjoy it too.
Speaker 1: That is one of the ways that How I Work
Speaker 1: has grown and recently ticked over two million downloads. So
Speaker 1: thank you for listening and I will see you next time.