a. What is the most valuable lesson you have learned in a leadership role?

The most valuable lesson I have learned in a leadership role is that any preconceived notion can be overcome by providing results. By the time I left my university, I was proven in my leadership ability. But at the college level, I was generally providing leadership to peers. Upon joining [Company 1], I quickly realized a new leadership challenge. Professionally, I would be expected to lead people on the client side, to influence people older than I am, and to manage people with more complex agendas. After working in this setting for three years, I have experienced a great deal of discrimination – typically for being a consultant or for being young. As a result, I have learned to overcome discrimination by providing my doubters with solid results.

Last year, in my role as Communications Lead for a broad strategic sourcing effort in a division of a large foreign utility, I provided direction to the client project lead, a woman twenty years my senior, on a daily basis. My role involved identifying the key stakeholders and the best ways to reach them, and this woman was the gatekeeper of this information. The client had a less than flattering perception of consultants. A prior experience had taught her that consultants claim to know more than they actually do. She only agreed to work with the other consultants and me when her boss required it, and her agenda was not exactly in line with ours in the beginning. Learning how to provide leadership in this situation was a vital part of my development. She now calls me the "Voice of the Project" and no project communication is distributed without my seal of approval.