Her Story
About Dr. Rachel
Rachel Behling specializes in IT, supply chain, leadership and transformation, and operational excellence. She has been in IT since 2021 and supply chain for six months, while leadership and transformation have defined her entire career. Behling earned a bachelor's degree in operations in 1992, a master's degree from the University of Phoenix in 1997, and a doctorate in organizational leadership and development in 2016. She also holds PMP and Agile Scrum Master certifications. In her role, she focuses on long-term strategic decisions that impact people, culture, business, finance, and customers, while helping teams understand their contributions. Behling attributes her success to a mindset that she and her team can accomplish goals regardless of education or experience, a belief that together they can learn and figure things out, and the ability to find experts when needed, including through tools like ChatGPT. She values trust that people have good intentions and respect shown through good manners in all interactions. Current challenges in her field include balancing rapid adoption of technologies such as automation and autonomous workflows with ensuring they solve the right problems, while also managing change fatigue to prevent team burnout.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Dr. Rachel
01What do you attribute your success to?
I have a mindset that I can do it regardless of education or experience. I believe in my team that we can all learn and figure it out. I understand that if I don't know how to do it, I can find someone who can, and I use tools like ChatGPT to level the playing field.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Leave it on the court - nothing is personal. If there's not a seat at the table, bring your own. Assume you are there on purpose and will bring value.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Assume you are good enough and will add value. Assume that if you don't know how to do everything, you are still qualified and will figure it out. Raise your hand and say you did the best you could even if you make mistakes.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Balancing how fast we bring in new technology like automation and autonomous workflows with going slow enough to ensure it's the right technology solving the right problems. Also balancing change fatigue so teams don't get burnt out.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Trust and respect. Trust that people have good intentions, and respect with good manners in all interactions.
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