Defining Moments 

Comments from Cindy Pace

Tanya comes around to my desk and she says, I need to speak with you. And that, "I need to speak with you," you kind of know you're about to get some really critical feedback that you need. But I knew to brace myself. I was very intimidated by Tanya. She was a senior leader, Chief Talent Officer, SVP—very high up. And I'll never forget the day going to her office, there was a job that was open that they were offering to me.

She was wondering why I hadn't posted for the job. And I said, “I'm not posting for the job. The job is too junior.” I was nervous to say that, but she said, well tell me more. I mean, the job is—it's what you do. I said, well, the job is something that I would've done five years ago. I'm working on my doctorate and I would love to do something that's more around leadership. She said, “well, tell me about your doctorate degree—what you are you working on, what's your dissertation topic?”

So we start talking and I give her all this background around what I'm interested in studying and who the thought leaders that I enjoy reading and all of this stuff. And she says, does anyone else know that you're getting your doctorate? And I said, “I don't know”. She said, “well, let me just say something. I don't think people know enough about you. When I asked around about this position people thought, oh yeah, she'd be OK. But there was no standout—when Cindy worked on this project, this is what I thought about her. No one had defining moments where they could talk about who you are and what you represent.” She said, “that's a problem and we have to change that.” Here I am thinking I'm going over and beyond, like I'm hitting them out the park—I'm getting the ball in the hoop and there are people, like, “oh we don't even know she's on the team.” I was like, “oh, my goodness. What have I been doing?”

First of all, I was very hard on myself—like, how could you not know this? You're just blind. But then I realized that as people always say feedback was a gift. This was the best gift that anyone could have given me, because I could just have been operating this way for another five years and had no idea. But the fact that Tanya was able to tell me that—I really felt connected in that moment. She said we have to change that. And that's when I knew this is someone that's invested in me. Because she could have said you need to change that and you need to go out and figure how to do that. But she said we need to change that. That was a turning point for me and I realized I needed to work on this relationship and I need to strengthen and build it.