Rebecca Palasek

I would say my leadership is what I attribute my success to. I hear feedback from my team and my leadership routinely about my personal leadership style and how I curate teams and develop teams that want to stay with me. They don't necessarily want to leave because they really enjoy my leadership style and working on my team. They appreciate that I push them to continue to grow and learn and to promote, even if that means promoting off my team. It's not that I don't want to lose any of my team members, but I always want my team to have all of the opportunities that they can have. I share my knowledge and my experience with them all the time because I want them to have that same knowledge and have those same experiences and understand at that level. My leadership style is probably my most notable professional achievement.

I would say the best advice that I probably received would be to not ever allow yourself to feel complacent where you feel comfortable. When you're comfortable and complacent in a role, you're not challenging yourself, and so at that point, it may be time to look into other options. I think that that has really helped me to always be looking for areas and opportunities to continue to learn and to continue to grow, and not allowing myself to be stuck in a position where I'm comfortable because I know the routine and I know what I'm doing.

I would definitely recommend finding a mentor, preferably a female mentor within the industry. I always tell my team to never be afraid to ask questions, because when you're not asking questions, I don't know that you're actually doing what I need you to do. But if you're asking me questions, I know that you're doing what I'm asking you to do and you're seeking clarification and wanting to ensure that you're understanding. I always encourage people to ask the questions, even if they think that they may be menial, because as someone fresh in the industry, you're going to have questions. Definitely find a mentor that you can be comfortable with in those conversations, somebody that can help you develop and craft your career. I would also recommend identifying different certifications and designations that are required within that industry, because then you'll have unlimited opportunities within the industry.

Within the compliance realm, there are a lot of opportunities, and it really depends on the industry because you can go into multiple different industries and be very successful in it with compliance. One thing that I would recommend to increase your opportunities within the realm would be to find the industry that works best for you, and then identify different certifications and designations that are required within that industry, because then you'll have unlimited opportunities within the industry. I will say that the compliance realm tends to be a more female-dominated realm, and it seems to work better that way because it's very similar to running a household and making sure that everything is cohesive. Most of the world that I've worked in, I have worked with a majority of female colleagues and female leadership. We definitely are making our mark on the field as far as leadership goes, although as far as the pay, I don't know that that is equivalent to what men do making in this field.

I think in both my work and personal life, just continuing to challenge yourself is important. I always look for something new, something to add on to. As I said before with that advice that I had, never be complacent. Always look for change and always be building. Being a mom is really important to me. I have younger children who are very involved in sports, so for me, just spending time with them that is not necessarily practice time or getting them ready for anything time, just kind of quality time together. We do a lot of going to the park and walks, anything that doesn't require us to have to necessarily put in all the effort and something that can just allow us to enjoy being together.