Her Story
About Izabela
My background in global leadership has led me to work across the globe with a wide range of industries and companies, where I learned very quickly about the common challenges and issues they're dealing with, and how everything is interconnected. I recognized the importance of defining not only the culture, but also what each of these companies I had the opportunity to work with are focusing on. From these engagements and opportunities, I recognized very quickly how not only leadership is important, but also their visibility, as well as the opportunity to truly lift and lead others and create opportunities for them internally through development and through the right range of projects. For me, it was always about where can I make the impact and deal with some of the most challenging and complex issues. This opened the doors and opportunities to interact with C-suite executives and their talent across the globe, delivering keynotes for Google, interacting with Microsoft and IBM from the technology side, all the way to some major healthcare and pharma companies, as well as phenomenal NGOs that are doing some really great work across the globe. On the nonprofit side, I spent over a decade working with people from over 120 countries, being recognized as someone who restored dreams for people that went through horrible events and really felt there was no way they could rebuild or ever be where they were. That was my biggest achievement - through the work and facilitation, I was able to influence not only youth but also seasoned seniors who felt like this was the next stage of their lives, and showing them it is possible to turn things around. From the corporate side, I've had the opportunity to really champion people and be a people champion, which was a title I was given and was more meaningful to me than any other titles or achievements. Those two things, even though they're from different sectors, are the same in many ways because they allowed me to really deep dive into the human aspects and behavior, to really extract the essence and the best, and move that forward.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Izabela
01What do you attribute your success to?
When you mentioned perseverance and foundation, the walk from home to work plays quite a bit of role, but ultimately it is what you are trying to achieve yourself. When you find proper mentors, advisors, and support, and have the willingness to ask questions and roll up the sleeves and experiment and fail - one of the biggest reasons of my success is my relentless willingness to fail and to face the fear head-on. I threw up so many times, but the fact that I would figure it out maybe a different way, or try one more time, or read, or ask, and maybe fine-tune a little. Perseverance is a component of it, but then that cannot go alone. Sometimes we aim on the larger circle, but in reality, having a very small circle and very trusted inner circle is also crucial in times like that.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
It's very important to know who you're looking after, who you want to model after. It's very important to understand yourself and be self-aware and know your mission, and if you're not clear, to be able to have the opportunity to try different things and then fine-tune that. Create your own voice in that process. Because there's so many shiny objects, there's so many things that so many young women, specifically here in the U.S., aim at, but in reality - is it really the social norm, or is it truly something that you are very passionate about or wanted to do on your own? Self-awareness and understanding, I think, is very crucial in that process, and stepping up in that desire to move forward to find out what that is. When I was running my podcast for 4 years and interviewing so many people across the globe, people would always ask me who are the legacy leaders and why are certain individuals on your podcast. I think it's important to really understand why certain things are what they might be appearing to be versus what they are. A lot of discernment, a lot of collaboration - and fortunately, even still to this day, women don't necessarily collaborate very well with each other, and it's a great opportunity to really be shining an example of how that also can be changed and improved and demonstrated.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
What really ties to what we're dealing with right now across the globe, specifically when we focus on the audience in the United States, is that we have the lowest trust in leadership. Everybody can step up and lead regardless of their title, but the ones with the title are not as trusted based on demonstrated behavior and action. We see how this is impacting not only morale but performance, desire to grow, as well as lack of opportunities and devaluation of the biggest asset that I was always highlighting for decades before it became trendy - that every organization's biggest assets are their people. The question is, when you look at people aspects, treating them not only because there's a cliche now with everybody using being kind and compassionate, but really being a true human, treating people with respect. I find that respect, integrity, and also willingness to be transparent - those three elements are the foundation, not only for everything that I do, but foundation that I think can really move the mountains in any situation. Either we deal with fragmentation on the team or any complexities when we see a lot of struggle, if we have those three intact, then so much will be much more different and much more easier for everyone.
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