Sabrina Terrell Loreti

I attribute my success to a general fear of failure - but that translates to me being extremely organized, being a great people manager, being a great communicator, and the ability to find an area where I can use that as my expertise. I think a lot of specialized careers are fantastic and necessary, but with communication being the base of my career so far, I've been able to pivot from a program management background into a managerial and leadership role. Communication is the foundation of my career.

The best career advice I've received so far is to communicate frequently, to be available for my teams, and to encourage and praise those teammates regularly in order to foster trust. Being a great communicator allows me to be a guiding light and a trusted source for the teams that I work with.

Shift from waiting for things to happen to shaping things into happening, and do that by defining what is known versus what is assumed versus what is still open.

Try communicate frequently with your teams, and from there, you can learn a lot. You can understand if team members need you to act as a hands-on manager or a more relaxed manager, and you'll start understanding where risks lie and how you can help mitigate those risks and shape outcomes.

Challenges come up often in the world of program leadership. One of the biggest challenges I've faced recently is navigating the remote workforce and really trying to be a pillar to foster communication and trust and hard work through managing remote teams. Things can be difficult when you've got team members in different parts of the country or in different parts of the world and you're trying to keep the details on track and the communication and knowledge flowing between teams in a remote environment.

Aside from that, I would say just getting your foot in the door somewhere great, where you can be championed and that you can champion is hard these days. I've been very lucky to have worked for some really great companies, including the company I'm with now, and getting your foot in the door is definitely the hardest part. Once you are in, you can really shine and show your commitment to greatness within organizations, but as we all know, that is very hard to do at first. Be persistent and open to feedback when it is given.

Trustworthiness and reliability are two really big ones for me. I strive to be a trusted partner for the teams that I'm guiding, and reliable for those team members.

Being a student is also a value that I hold close. I try to always take into account that something more can be learned, and that subject matter experts are great wealth of knowledge, and that I can always be a student in my professional career.