Erika Gude

I attribute my success to a lot of good support from family and friends, and then just the drive to do better for myself. I definitely put in the hard work, so I'm always interested in learning. I'm a very curious spirit. I like to tell my friends a lot that I'm about solutions.

The best advice I've ever received came from my mentor, who I met while at Deloitte. She was a Naval Academy graduate who served as a Navy officer for many years and was in her third career at Deloitte as a senior leader. We got laid off around the same time, and I was very disheartened because I thought I was building a career that I could continue with for the next 20 years and then retire from. I was especially frustrated because I had gotten an award right before this, and then in the same month, I got a layoff notice. She told me: don't let someone else's negativity affect your view of yourself or self-worth. She gave me that clear example that just because something ends doesn't mean I'm less me. It doesn't mean that I'm less in value, or I'm doing wrong. That perspective really helped me understand that these kinds of things happen, and it's not about value when you experience a layoff. There's just some kind of a sauce in the numbers, some kind of recipe that they're following.

Be unapologetically yourself. The watered-down version of you isn't gonna be as effective as the true you. If you disagree, say so. If someone's being inappropriate, overbearing, disrespectful, or dismissive, say so, and be prepared to take the consequences. You're the resource, and you're the support, and if there's something else that's better for you, then just listen to yourself and have confidence and trust in your own opinions.

The biggest challenge in my industry right now is the flight of good talent due to bad management. I work with the government, and that is the kindest way I can say it. But the biggest opportunity is small business empowerment, financing, and success. There's a lot of people with entrepreneurial spirits with untapped abilities that could really just change the game on so many levels. There's a lot of opportunity that's not being utilized because people think they have a blocker in their pathway. Entrepreneurs aren't betting on themselves to bring a new product or a new way of doing business. With the return to office mandates, I hope that's gonna create some people being like, I can do this better on my own. I've seen so many people pulling 16-hour days because it's all full of meetings during the 9 to 5, and they have to get actual progress done outside of work hours. There's a lot of flexibility and potential there, and we need to move away from the traditional American first shift work hours. I can do the same work and have it submitted on the cloud ready for you tomorrow, whether I do it between 9 to 5, or I do it between 4 and 7 while I'm waiting for my kid to get out of the pool at swim practice. And I'm talking 4 a.m. to 7 a.m.

In my work life, I take a sense of pride in what I do. I may not be curing cancer, or saving babies, or putting out fires, but I do know and take pride that I'm helping people in some kind of way, in some kind of modicum. I take pride in that, and I try to share my positivity with those that I work with and colleagues. I definitely don't have that subordinate leadership mentality. At home, I just try to be beneficial to the world around me, make the world better places I can. My leadership style reflects these values - I wouldn't ask of someone else anything that I wouldn't do myself. Communication is paramount. Sometimes you do have to say, this isn't the best situation, but this is what we're dealing with, and client service or client delivery is our main objective. I believe in allowing people to do the work that they're experienced in doing, but also letting them know why decisions are being made.