Sarah Ricciardi

I attribute my success to the contacts I've made and the people I've helped over my 21 years at this organization. It's not about me being the reason they succeeded, but rather about making change and making an impact because of what I care about. I've helped others gain knowledge, and bringing people together and making those connections has meant the world to me. I've worked on so many different projects, but what really matters to me is that I've brought people together and made those connections. Many people have asked if I would go to a different company or try something different, but I've made so many amazing relationships and people along the way. Knowing that I've helped people and brought them together, and that because of what I did, I made an impact, just makes me feel great. So I think it's the people and what they've learned and my relationships with them, rather than any actual project or time savings. That impact is great, but it's the people.

I would say don't be afraid of the things you don't know, because I didn't know most of the stuff that I now know coming into this industry. My background wasn't finance, my background wasn't business, and I came into the organization just asking questions and not pretending like I knew anything. I said, I don't know none of this stuff, help me, you know, educate. Being curious is a lovely thing, and people, I wish were more curious instead of feeling like they had to put something on or feel like they have to know all the answers, because you don't. As a leader, I say that. I say, I don't need to know all the answers. There's knowledge within this organization, so just help me understand your point of view. So I would just say, be curious. It's okay not to know the answers, and it's okay not to be that expert. It's actually better to not be the expert, because you're going in eyes wide open and fresh, to be able to really make change, because you're looking at it differently, because you don't know.

One of the biggest challenges in my field is that when professionals like us come in to talk about change or what can be improved, people are scared of that because they think you're going to change something, change their job, or get rid of their job. So they see us coming and they're afraid we're going to do something that they don't want. It's really about building relationships with people, which is what I'm so proud of, because people know when I come in, I'm in the room to be there with them, to ask questions, to be curious, and not to make this big change for them, but to help them think about what they can do to change their organization. When you're in that room, you're a voice and you're talking, but you're not talking just to talk. I'm not going in trying to sell myself or tell people what they need to do. I'm listening and being a part of the conversation. I think that's really the most important thing, because I'm still going to different rooms where I get challenged on what I do and what my thought is, but I go into others where they bring me in for that exact thing because they know what I've done in the past. So it's being okay with being challenged and being okay with people thinking that you're the bad guy or the person coming in about to change their organization, when it's not that.

The values most important to me in both my work and personal life are curiosity, building strong relationships, collaboration, transparency, and making a measurable impact through everything I do.