Sarah Bernstein

I'll tell you more about the career advice that I chose to ignore. Early in my career, I was told as a people leader that I needed to decide whether it was going to be a classic HR leader or whether I was going to be a transformation leader. I needed to make a decision - it was one or the other. And especially since we're focusing on women, I was told this by a man who was much more senior than me in my career. And I thought, no, I'm not really going to decide that. I'm actually going to do both. I'm going to learn how to lead large organizations as an HR leader, and I'm also going to lead transformation, and I'm not going to make a binary decision. It was a little daunting because as somebody who is a male and was well ahead of me in their career, I thought I definitely needed to follow that advice, but I did not. And actually not making that choice has really differentiated me as a leader within People Team. Facing different roles and understanding our work from different vantage points has made me stronger in my delivery. So had I followed the advice of that male leader early on, I would have missed out on having a very well-rounded perspective that I think helps businesses achieve their goals better. The other advice is just following what you're truly passionate about and doing what you love, and digging into how you can make people's lives better every day through their work. We give so much time to our work. Being able to contribute to helping people do what they love, I think is the best advice I've gotten in my career and what I try to share with others.

I would give three pieces of advice to young women entering my industry. The first is find what you're passionate about, hone your craft in what you're passionate about, and then just keep growing. Truly do what you love and then hone your craft. My second piece of advice would be start practicing AI and learn AI. See how it can create new paths for you. I would say AI is really breaking down the barrier between product vision and product creation and then getting products into the market. It will be a way that people are working in the future, so stay on the edge, lean into that learning, and understand how it can really double down on the things that you are most passionate about. And then the last thing is just stay authentic and believe in yourself. I think as women, we should always be really focused on honing our own personal inner compass and staying true to the powerful wisdom that women have that sometimes in different environments can get kind of cloudy. Being true to that internal compass and really honing your ability to listen to your internal compass is a powerful thing as a woman.

I think the biggest challenges and opportunities for many of us in our field right now is actually navigating the pace of change with AI. Things change every week, or every three weeks, I like to say, with AI. We don't have all the answers to how that's going to shape the future. So I would say that's one of the biggest challenges - just the shifting landscape with AI and how it comes on and changes the nature of work.

My highest values are health and respect. I would say health, respect, kindness, and helping people achieve their aspirations, either in their career or for the business. Staying true to those values regardless of the phase of business we're in, regardless of challenging or amazing opportunities within any business context is important to me. So I would say kindness, being clear on and staying connected to your values, health and respect - those are my top values.