Gabrielle Pike

I attribute my success to a combination of intrinsic motivation, lifelong learning, strong role models, and the people who have invested in me along the way.

I was the first person in my family to go to college, and that shaped how I saw opportunity from an early age. I grew up in a small town where there was a fairly traditional path expected of many women: go to school, get married, start a family, and stay close to what was familiar. I knew I wanted to pursue education first, and that decision created a deep sense of internal drive. I learned early that if I wanted a different path, I had to be willing to build it.

A major influence in my life has been my mother. She was a single mother for part of my childhood, had only a high school diploma, and worked her way from office manager to vice president of marketing and sales for a company where she spent more than a decade building her career. Watching her career taught me that growth is not always linear, credentials are not the only measure of capability, and barriers are often invitations to become more resourceful. She modeled resilience, adaptability, and the belief that when something feels impossible, you find the possible inside it.

That mindset has carried into my career. I believe almost every challenge can be solved in some way. It may not always be fixed perfectly, and the answer may not be obvious at first, but there is almost always a path forward. That belief has shaped how I lead, how I design learning systems, how I approach transformation, and how I support others through change.

I also attribute much of my success to mentorship, sponsorship, and guidance from leaders and industry thought partners who have challenged and shaped my thinking. People like Megan Torrance, Lou Andruzzi, Nicole Casa, James Gallagher, Bill Hickox, David Heden, Kevin Wren, Brooke Erickson, Maggie Mitchell, Josh Cavalier, and many others have influenced how I think about leadership, learning strategy, business impact, technology, and organizational growth. Their guidance has helped me refine my voice, expand my perspective, and continue pushing myself beyond the role I am in toward the leader I am becoming.

At the center of all of it is a genuine love of learning. I have always believed that growth is a responsibility, not a destination. My career has been built on curiosity, problem solving, persistence, and the willingness to keep learning even when the next step is uncomfortable. That is what continues to drive me.

The best career advice I ever received came from a mentor early in my corporate career. She told me, “Go say the thing.”

At the time, I was transitioning into the corporate world and learning how to navigate not only workplace politics, but what I often think of as workplace weather: the unspoken dynamics, shifting expectations, power structures, and confidence it takes to move from being a strong individual contributor to becoming a leader with a voice at the table.

I was in an industry where credibility is often shaped by tenure, technical experience, and, candidly, who has historically been invited into the room. In construction and commercial hardware, you are often surrounded by people, primarily men, who have spent 10, 20, or even 30 years building their expertise. As a woman newer to the industry, I sometimes questioned whether my perspective carried the same weight.

My mentor’s advice was simple, direct, and exactly what I needed: say what you are thinking. Put the idea on the table. Ask the question. Offer the perspective. The worst that can happen is that someone says no or chooses not to act on it. But the best that can happen is that your idea makes someone pause, reconsider, or see the problem differently.

That advice has stayed with me throughout my career. I still think about it when I am sitting in a meeting and feel that familiar hesitation before speaking up. I remind myself: go say the thing.

It has also become advice I pass on to the people I mentor. Leadership is not just about being invited into the room. It is about contributing once you are there. Your voice does not become valid because someone else confirms it.

It becomes powerful when you use it with clarity, courage, and purpose.

I would give two pieces of advice, because I sit at the intersection of two fields: learning and development, and the construction and security integration industries.

For young women entering learning and development, my advice is to stay connected to the designer inside of you. In this field, you will be asked to move quickly. You may be challenged by stakeholders who want a course, a checklist, or a compliance solution without fully understanding what it takes to create meaningful behavior change. There will be moments when the business pressure is loud, timelines are tight, and the easiest answer is to simply build what was requested.

But great learning professionals know how to pause, diagnose, ask better questions, and design for performance, not just content completion. Trust that instinct. Return to the principles of good design, adult learning, accessibility, learner experience, and measurable impact. Your role is not only to create training. Your role is to help people perform, adopt change, and build capability in ways that support the business.

For young women entering construction, commercial hardware, or security integration, my advice is this: do not confuse being outnumbered with being outqualified.

These industries are still heavily male-populated, and that reality can affect how women experience credibility, visibility, and voice. You may find yourself in rooms where others have longer tenure, deeper technical history, or more traditional industry pathways. Respect that expertise, learn from it, and build your own. But do not allow the makeup of the room to convince you that your perspective is less valuable.

Your voice matters at the table. Your questions matter. Your observations matter. Your ability to see gaps, connect people, challenge assumptions, and offer new ways of thinking matters.

As Chair of CBX Solutions’ Women’s Business Resource Group, Co-Chair of the Women’s PSA Committee, and a woman leader in a male-populated industry, I believe part of our responsibility is not only to enter these spaces, but to help reshape them for the women who come next. That means speaking up, building credibility, creating community, mentoring others, and refusing to shrink in rooms we have earned the right to be in.

My advice is simple: learn the business, build your expertise, find mentors and sponsors, and say the thing. You do not need to wait until you feel fearless to contribute. Confidence often comes after courage, not before it.

The biggest challenges and opportunities in my field sit at the intersection of technology, workforce transformation, and knowledge transfer.

From a learning and development perspective, one of the biggest shifts right now is the advancement of agentic AI. Many people hear “AI” and immediately worry about replacement. I see it differently. AI is not replacing the need for human learning leaders, designers, facilitators, or strategists. It is changing what our roles require.

AI is very strong at analyzing information, identifying patterns, accelerating production, and helping teams work more efficiently. But data often tells us what has already happened. Human creativity, judgment, empathy, ethics, and strategic thinking help determine what should happen next. That is where learning and development professionals become even more important.

The opportunity for L&D is to move beyond being content creators and become architects of human performance, responsible AI adoption, workforce capability, and organizational change. We have to help employees understand how to use AI well, where human judgment must stay in the loop, and how emerging tools can improve performance without removing accountability, creativity, or trust.

In construction, commercial hardware, and security integration, one of the biggest challenges is knowledge transfer. These are trade-centered industries, and a significant amount of experience is beginning to leave the workforce through retirement. When experienced professionals retire, organizations do not just lose employees. They risk losing judgment, field knowledge, customer history, technical expertise, and the problem-solving instincts that only come from years of hands-on experience.

That challenge is also an opportunity. For people entering the industry, the trades offer meaningful, valuable, and successful career pathways. Not everyone’s path has to run through a traditional four-year college degree, and that is not a lesser path. The trades create opportunities to build expertise, earn credibility, solve real problems, and contribute to industries that keep businesses, communities, and infrastructure moving.

My advice to anyone entering these industries is to build what I call your own mission control. Find mentors. Learn from experienced technicians, project managers, detailers, estimators, sales leaders, and operations professionals. Ask questions. Build relationships across functions. Create a network of people you can call when you need perspective, guidance, or help working through a complex challenge.

The future of our industry will depend on how well we combine new technology with existing expertise. We need AI, automation, and digital tools, but we also need apprenticeship, mentorship, documentation, and intentional knowledge sharing. The organizations that do both well will be the ones best positioned for long-term success.

The values most important to me are transparency, respect, and teamwork.

Transparency matters because trust cannot grow in confusion. To me, being transparent does not mean being harsh or careless with your words. It means being clear, honest, and consistent. It means communicating expectations, naming challenges, sharing context, and approaching problems with integrity. In my work and leadership, I try to be transparent in how I show up, how I make decisions, how I solve problems, and how I support the people around me.

Respect is equally important. I believe deeply in servant leadership, and that means my role as a leader is to remove barriers, create clarity, advocate for my team, and help others do their best work. But servant leadership only works when it is grounded in mutual respect. I respect the voices, experiences, strengths, and perspectives each person brings to the table, and I believe people do their best work when they feel seen, heard, and valued.

Teamwork brings those values to life. I do not believe meaningful work is accomplished alone. The best outcomes happen when people with different perspectives, experiences, and expertise come together to solve problems. Someone else may see a risk I missed, offer an idea I had not considered, or bring experience from a similar challenge that helps the team move forward faster and smarter.

For me, transparency creates trust, respect creates safety, and teamwork creates impact. Those values shape how I lead, how I collaborate, and how I measure success.