What's your first reaction to a crisis? Is it to fight (take action right away) or to freeze (try to ignore it)? As a leader, neither is a good option. Thankfully, our guest, Jaime Beckel, has experience leading through multiple crises over the past 21 years, all while at the same company, FactSet. Jaime, who developed a survivor mentality after losing her father at a young age, shares tips that will empower you to lead effectively through any crisis. In this episode, you will learn:
How to lead with intention by staying grounded in your personal and company values during a crisis, while still being agile
How to support your team's and customers' needs during a crisis by determining what you are uniquely positioned to support
Building your network, including sponsors and mentors, so that you can support each other when times get tough
Resources shared:
About Jaime:
Jaime K. Beckel is Executive Director of Americas Sales and Customer Success at FactSet, an open data and software solutions company that provides instant access to financial data and analytics that investors use to make crucial decisions. She is responsible for the performance and growth of FactSet’s largest region working across four business units, Marketing, Product Development, and Finance. She oversees the sales strategy and retention for a 500+ organization across North Americas, Canada, and LatAm.
Jaime is an experienced leader in the Financial Service industry for 21+ years. Since joining FactSet in 2001, she has held a succession of leadership positions in sales management across Southeast, New York, and Global Asset Management territories. From 2017-2019, she held the position of Head of Global Operations for FactSet’s largest Global Strategic Clients across Asset Management and Banking where she was responsible for global governance, compensation, data analytics, and processes across Americas, EMEA, and AsiaPac.
Jaime is extremely passionate about the advancement of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) and is actively involved in the evolution of FactSet’s culture. She currently holds the position of Executive Sponsor of the Women’s Business Resource Group (WBRG) where she advises global steering committees through launching new innovative programming and partnering with recruiting across the globe to further the company’s D&I goals.
She received a B.S in Finance from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She resides in New York with her husband Dave, and three children, Connor, Abby, and Riley.
Transcript
While it's not perfect, we offer this transcription by Capsho for those who prefer to read or who are hearing impaired.
Question for you. What do you do during a time of crisis? What's your first inclination? Is it to freeze? In other words, ignore the crisis and just kind of do something else or fight? Do you move to action right away? Even more importantly and challenging, how do you lead others during a time of crisis? Because the fact of the matter is that your first inclination may not be the best for the wellbeing and performance of your team. Our guest today, Jaime Beckel, has significant experiences leading through crises, and she has the unique position of being at one company through several national and worldwide crises. She's the Executive Director of America's Sales and Stronger to Serve at FACTSET, an open data and software solutions company that provides instant access to financial data and analytics that investors use to make crucial decisions. She's been at FACTSET for 21 years and is responsible for the performance and growth of FactSet's largest region, working across the business units of marketing, product development, and finance. Together, in this conversation, we explore the skills to develop that will serve leaders well in our VUCA world. The steps that leaders can use in any crisis to lead with intentionality and how to build your network and cultivate both sponsor and mentor relationships that will ease the stress of traveling through any crisis. So if you're confident that you'll never have to face a crisis during your leadership, then you can turn off this episode now and go listen to something else. But if that's not the case, let's jump in to this value packed conversation. I'm Teri Schmidt, founder of Stronger to Serve Coaching and Teambuilding and this is the Stronger Leaders Serve podcast.
Hi Jaime. I'm excited to have you here and really looking forward to our conversation.
Jaime Beckel 00:02:24 Yeah. Thanks, Teri. I'm really excited to be here as well and to see where this conversation goes.
Teri Schmidt 00:02:31 If we could just get started, if you could introduce yourself and tell us.
Teri Schmidt 00:02:35 A little bit about what you're doing today, how you lead in your life.
Teri Schmidt 00:02:39 And kind of your journey to get there.
Jaime Beckel 00:02:41 Yeah, that's a compact question. There's a lot in there for me to talk about. I am the executive director of our Sales and Stronger to Serve team at FACTSET Research Systems. It's a team of about 500 people, and it represents over a billion dollars in revenue. One of the things that I find myself like to be very rare is that I have been at Accept for 21 years. So it's been a really long journey here, and it allows me to have maybe a unique experience of sort of why have I stayed at this organization? And a lot of that is just built into who I am as a person in my own story, in my own journey, as part of a role that I'm really passionate about, that I do with FACTSET. I'm also like the executive sponsor of our Women's Business Resource Group, and my passion there rests in some of the things that I'll tell you a little bit about my own journey to motherhood and helping other women. I have three children connor, Abby, and Riley. They're ten, eight, and three. So they certainly keep me busy and always on trying to figure out how to balance life and compartmentalize with all the unexpected things that can happen in life and keeping my priorities in check. So that stems a lot from just to your question about how I lead and my leadership and what is in my journey. So maybe I'll go into sort of that part of your question, if that works. So I would say that my leadership style really stems from my own values and they're rooted in kind of three areas of experiences that I've had in my life. The first would be my own childhood. So at a very young age, I did lose my father, and I learned a lot of important lessons that I call back upon in just how I operate in my day to day and how I leave. The first thing I've learned is that just life is short, so really try to make the most at every moment. And so that goes into kind of my leadership style for sure. And then also, no matter how hard you work, there are just some things that just might be out of your control. By being able to be resilient and having these two lessons kind of side by side for me, it helps me be rooted in my values. I have this kind of survivor mentality about me through kind of going through that experience, and I do think that is reflected in how I lead and sometimes has positive responses from people, and sometimes not everybody can relate to that, but so I try to find kind of that balance. The second area that I would say is probably the sport that I chose growing up or that I really did for most of my life, which was gymnastics. So I was the youngest girl on the varsity team. And so I kind of showing up every day having that discipline and passion through the routine that you do and always trying to raise the bar were things that I thrived on. To always try to continue to get better, always try to learn that a new routine not necessarily stick to the same things that you had always done before in order for you to kind of raise the bar. So I'd like to see that people see that in me as a leader, too, that I show up every day, I work hard no matter what the context is, and then I'm also raising the bar and celebrating others that do that as well. Because when you're in a team like that, you're really working together so that you can accomplish whatever it is so that you win as a group. So that would be the second area in terms of the values or how I lead. And the third one I would say really is about the people that I've come in contact with in my life, whether that's personal or professional. I've been really fortunate to be surrounded by amazing people and I've learned lessons about leadership the whole way, right? So to call out a few of those examples, because I do think like mentorship and sponsorship and having this network is critical to leadership in anyone's career, personally and professionally. So I would say my first boss really taught me the value of working as a team, but also knowing the business holistically and thoroughly so that you can articulate clearly and succinctly to an organization what you want to do or what you're trying to accomplish. That communication is so critical. And I learned that at a very young age. My second boss, his name is Jason, he really taught me the importance of giving people ownership and empowering them to allow them to be successful and really being that advocate and that partner for them. So that's something I think is a learned skill over time as you get more and more developed in your leadership style. I've had a lot of peers or personal friends that have also taught me a lot the importance of having kind of your go to people at an organization like your teammate. You have your peers, you have your direct reports, you have senior people, but you also need those go to people that you could just be yourself with and just know that you can show some of your more of your vulnerabilities than you might show holistically that can give you kind of that real constructive feedback. And then I would just say that you have your sponsorships and your mentorships and more of your professional relationships that are really taught, teaching the importance of building that relationship early on across an organization so that when you need to pull on them, that it's not sort of it becomes more natural. So in all situations that you encounter in any environment challenging or if the environment is going really great, you need to kind of create space for people and to create space to develop these relationships. And I constantly want to honor some of that along the way and honor the people and pay it forward. And that's a lot of what I do kind of with the women's brg and with helping out women and leading them going forward. I know this is sort of a really long answer, but I do want to talk about a little bit about sort of that women's part about it and just that passion of it for me because it comes a lot into how I lead. My passion from just how I kind of went from to the women's leadership. Executive sponsor of the Women's Business Resource Group was that my two largest promotions came when I was nine months pregnant. Interesting. Yeah. And so it shouldn't be unique, right, but it is true. And for most women in the workforce, that is unique. And so I want to share that story with people so that they can one, know that my company is a place that sort of accepts and is open and with all of that they shouldn't be afraid, but to remind people what's possible, right? And that with the right environment and with the right support around you that you can feel honored, supported and respected and can lead large organizations if that's sort of what is your passion. And so I'd like to be a product of that and pay that forward.
Teri Schmidt 00:09:50 Yeah. How did that happen? Was it a matter of just your performance and the fact that your company walks the walk in terms of respecting women and respecting you for your performance? Or was there something else that led to that promotion or those promotions coming at that time?
Jaime Beckel 00:10:09 Yeah, I think part of it is like my own drive, so my own personal drive and continue to raise the bar, to continue to be challenged, challenge status quo and continue to be confident. Right, so I think those are all personality traits. And the other part is the performance. When you're at a certain level in your career performance, you got to have the performance that becomes like foundational, right, so that sort of gets you to that interview. And so I think having the support around me of people being like, you could do this, right, and don't be afraid or put yourself out there to try to do this, was helpful because the performance was there already. They felt confident to put me forward and suggest me as an option, right. For that. So that's all with or without being pregnant, right? And then there's the layer of can I really do this now? Right? And is that mental that women go through of like, oh, what are all the things that are going to happen after you have a kid? And can I balance this? So the first thing was making sure, like, my support network at home was there, right. Understanding what any job I was going to be interviewing for would take and that we have the right support at home so I could feel confident. And so once I had those things, then it became just the best advice that I would get was like, just be yourself if you really want this job, which I did. And I felt that it was a calling for me and it was the right thing for me at that time, then your passion will come through. And I do think that that is kind of what happened in these two positions. And then I kept making jokes that the only way I'm going to get promoted is if I keep getting pregnant, which I clearly is not doing anymore. But it is something that I do find and I tell that story to others quite often because I think it's motivating.
Teri Schmidt 00:12:11 Yeah, it definitely is. And I hope all of our listeners are taking notes right now or will go back and listen if they're out there running and listening with their earbuds. And there's so much that we could dig into deeper in your story in terms of best practices for strong leaders who want to serve. And I think some of it will get into as we kind of get into the topic that we talked about talking about. But hopefully, like I said, hopefully people are just kind of taking notes because you laid out a lot of great best practices there. So thank you for sharing your story.
Jaime Beckel 00:12:51 Yeah, I appreciate it.
Teri Schmidt 00:12:52 So I know when we talked because you do have that unique experience of being at a company for 21 years, we talked a little bit about the fact that you have been through several different crises around you. I'm curious about how those different lessons that you learned in your journey have helped you to get through different crises. What made them similar, what made them different? And how did you use some of those lessons you were talking about to effectively lead through those times of crises?
Jaime Beckel 00:13:29 Yeah, it's a really great question when I was thinking through like crises and yes, with the experience, there are certainly many that have happened both professionally and personally. Right, so a crisis raised like in a time of an intense difficulty or trouble when you have to make important decisions and that happens at running a large organization and that can happen personally. Right. So even the topic we just talked about, like being a mom and coming back to work through any type of environment, there's the crisis that are more visible, right. Like the pandemic crisis that we just went through. There's tragedies that happen in people's families or there's prices that happen in different client types. I run a client facing side of the organization, so there's certainly crisis within certain segments of a business that might be experiencing something that we're selling where others are in. So I learned something new about myself in every crisis that I've gone through or in any of these situations. So I think there's a lot of consistency and then there's learning new things. So I do think it's important in any crisis to kind of seek new information. Right. Just get out there, talk to people, whether it's personally or professionally, everybody's experiencing things different, not any one person has all the answers. As you crowd source, you can really learn something that might come up or some innovation that you weren't thinking about and I try and support those conversations and make it an open and safe environment for people to share those things. So I think that's super important. Right. It's also sometimes a gut reaction for people to just change their strategy in a crisis just to address sort of that one situational moment. And I think there's a really tendency to do that for people, especially if you haven't been through one before. But I look at them as like great opportunities for us to really think about what is resilient about our business and what are things that might be vulnerable. So it's that strategic and tactical type of approach. What are some things we could adjust that won't change the values of who we are, it won't change the long term strategy. We are able to continue to invest in the areas that we feel are the right for our business or even personally what you kind of want to do in any crisis in your own personal situation. So having that intentional approach is important. Right to not panic is really critical and really practice that compartmentalizing. Things like this kind of sits in this bucket. This is a tactical, we want to make sure we maintain these values and these are the things we think we can be agile with right now to the situation. And some of those things are like, you know what, this segment of the business is not doing well in this crisis, but this segment actually could perform really well in this segment. So what does that mean for us as a business? Yeah, I think that having some of those conversations with your teammates and your leadership team is important and those are consistent through any prices. And I just think for me also personality wise, when you talk about my journey and asking, this is where my survivor mentality kicks in. This is when it's like you got to show up, right? You've got to make sure that you're able to make a difficult decision and be that leader because your community is looking to you to help guide them in those situations and so you got to show up.
Teri Schmidt 00:17:11 True. Yeah. I'm hearing a lot of great points there. Again, making sure you know who you are, whether that be personally if it is a personal crisis or a crisis that's affecting your business, but then also as an organization, knowing what parts of your strategy won't change or knowing what your company values are when you are making these decisions and then seeking out the new information and seeking out new ways of doing things that might be effective in that particular crisis. I wonder if you have a specific example that you'd be able to share of a crisis that you've had to go through and how you've used those different steps.
Jaime Beckel 00:17:53 Yeah, I would say the pandemic one is the most current one that probably a lot of listeners are reacting to or even experiencing sort of post pandemic type of situations within their own businesses or personally. And so when we did kind of go into the pandemic, there was lots of different things that came up, right? You have the hiring, you have sort of that mass exodus of people and retaining people and now, a year later, it's kind of a complete 180. Right now. We have very little attrition. So it proves the point that you got to make sure you're thinking the long term. Right? Because what is it that your employee needs for retention long term, not just at that moment? There might be some things we put into place, which we certainly did to retain talent and high potential talent. So that's where we kind of were intentional, like looking at our high potential and key people that we need to retain during a period where it could be challenging for us and what could we be agile with for that? We definitely went through those exercises, right? For sure. And that's where, I mean, that's the tactical but also the strategic side of it. Still keeping in mind that we have our values of what are we willing to be able to do as a company to maintain who we are. So there was the hiring size came into play during the pandemic for us. There was the just business side of it, right? Like, how are our clients, what do our clients need right now? That became the big focus. How can we help our clients during this period of time and how are we going to let them know that we are here to help them to make it easier? And what do we have that we're going to be marketing and promoting that are more geared towards when you're in a crisis environment than maybe you're looking at when you're not and figuring out what those things are. And so we went through and prioritized by each of our client segments that these are the things that they're going to value right now that's going to help them succeed in this time period. So we're very much a customer first type of organization. So we have our strategy is around customer and client obsession and so keeping that the focal point. Every other decision was surrounded that we made from a retention and employee standpoint, from a product standpoint, from a value standpoint, just holistically. That was the center of our attention.
Teri Schmidt 00:20:31 Yeah, I really like that because you're operating from a place where you know who you are, but then you're looking at what are the unique needs of people around me, whether those be customers or again, if we're talking about more of a crisis that's affecting you personally, it may be someone in your family. What are their needs that you are uniquely positioned to support in this particular time of crisis?
Jaime Beckel 00:20:56 Yeah, I mean, the example we gave, we sell products, I'm running a sales organization. We're not the only people on the block that are having this conversation with our clients. So how do you bring out your uniqueness and your value and then bring your whole organization to be talking about that value to your clients at that point in time? So you're getting the most out of it because these type of crisis they're situational, right? They're like how do you corral and get everyone to be thinking like minded for this period of time and get everybody working towards the same thing? And that's where being clear, concise and making decisions that the organization can understand and that want to buy into, which was really hard during the pandemic because most people, despite going through crisis, hasn't necessarily been through that type of one, right? And that was more around health, that was just a different level of emotion and vulnerability that people have.
Teri Schmidt 00:22:00 Sure. Any new crisis is going to bring different components, different elements. So what do you think the important skills or knowledge that a leader needs to develop? What do you think those are in order to be prepared for the different crises that they are likely to face? We operate in the vuca world, right? The volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous world. So how can a leader who may be new to role set themselves up well to be prepared to handle those crises?
Jaime Beckel 00:22:37 That's a good question. I think I hit on some of them. But you also added in sort of somebody who might be new, right? If you're new, I think a lot of it starts with that speaking of new information, right? Because you really want to talk to people and networking is critical, but talk to people who have been through it before, right? So there's a lot of experience around you often, right? Like either whether if you're in a small company, if it's not inside the walls, maybe you have people outside or you can reach out to other organizations and ask for guidance. I certainly have found out there's no shortage of people that want to share like here at a podcast, like who they are and the experiences that they've had and there's a wealth of knowledge out there so you've got to prioritize the amount of time that you spend doing that. But I do think that if you're new to it, talk to people who aren't so that you can figure out what feels right to you and then figure out what your priorities are during that period of a crisis and that's going to be different for everyone. The process isn't different but what you decide to focus on is going to be different and for whatever situation that you're going through and that's where it's like be intentional about it. Work with your teams and people so that you know that you're making some of these right decisions because ultimately you're going to have to present those clearly and concisely to the organization so they're following sort of this direction when they might be more panicked, let's say. I don't know if that's the right word, but during crisis people have like elevated emotions, right? And so our job as leaders is to make them feel safe and comforted that we have a plan and that we're going to work on it together. So taking care of your people is really important.
Teri Schmidt 00:24:36 Yes. A couple of things that I really liked that I heard in your answer is that yes. First, definitely seek information and advice and guidance from others and then combining that data. I'll call that with the fact that hopefully, like you mentioned in your journey, you already have tried to get as good of an understanding of the organization and of your customer as possible. So combining that all together, but then returning to yourself and thinking, what am I going to prioritize? And trusting yourself, knowing that, yes, you have advice from a lot of different people, and you can take that into consideration, but also taking the step to not just follow others advice directly, but to really reflect on it. In line with and think about your values and how you want to show up as a leader and trusting that you can make those decisions.
Jaime Beckel 00:25:32 Yeah. And that for new leaders, it does take time. So careers are really long, and that is advice I would just want to share because a lot of people, and especially people may be new to the workforce, seem very in a rush. Right. Like that you get that feeling of like, what's next? What's next, what's next? And I totally appreciate that for sure. But it's okay to take some time to get to know yourself more. Self aware. Self awareness is extremely important and it takes a while. You have to have a few different positions to figure out what motivates you, what you're passionate about, what you like and enjoy doing so that you have those components within your job. And so take the time to figure those things out so you can gain that confidence. And it does take time.
Teri Schmidt 00:26:22 Yeah, I wish I would have spent more time on that earlier in my career because I think it can just accelerate your development in so many ways if you do take that time. And in fact, that's the first phase of our leadership development model here at Stronger to Serve is really to ground yourself, to know who you are and who you want to be as a leader. Because I do believe that if you can do that early on, and yes, you're going to revisit it and it may change. I kind of say our model is like a spiral. You're going up a spiral staircase and you're going to hit the same phases over and over again. But if you can at least start by taking some time to do that, it can really make an impact on how you are able to grow effectively as a leader.
Jaime Beckel 00:27:07 100%. I didn't become so self aware, actually, of what I really enjoyed doing that would make me happy until I actually was in a job that I didn't enjoy. Even though I didn't enjoy it, and I did. I learned so much from that experience. It just was missing components that I didn't realize that were important to me and that were motivating to me. And so in some ways I loved that I got that experience because I became so self aware and had the opportunity to explore that which came later in my career. Which is fine. Again, careers are long, but it has been a journey.
Teri Schmidt 00:27:50 Yeah. It's funny how sometimes it takes experiences that put us in the opposite of where we might like to be to really kind of open our eyes to what we do value. Well, I know one other element that you've touched on a few times is around having that support network, those mentors, those sponsors. You've talked about how you lead the woman's ERG. Tell me more about the benefit that that has had in your career and in particular going through those times of crises.
Jaime Beckel 00:28:25 Yes, this is definitely something I've learned over the years. To be able to expand your network, to have different people that you can reach out to for different situations. I've been very fortunate, as I said, to have the culture, in fact, that is absolutely credible and there's amazing people that I get to work with every day. And that ranges from our executive leadership team, our senior leadership team, peers and people that have direct report. And I learned things from each one of them and they serve different purposes to network that you really can understand business. I've had a sponsor for the majority of my career, which we don't even necessarily use that name and I didn't even really know that that was sort of what I was even engaged in at the time. But it sort of has developed into that. We talk about these more and more now in the last like five years or so than sort of when this relationship started for me. But I have learned the importance of having somebody who can guide, especially as a female, and help teach some of those what it's like to have somebody at the table and what are some of the things I should be thinking about. And so that sort of has evolved and I try and pay that forward and help others in that type of way. But then just being able to create those relationships because you never know when you're going to need to phone a friend. You never know when that's going to happen in any situation, right. Personal or professional. So I use this same thing. I have mentors and people that guide me externally too, outside of work and I call on people when I need them and people situational, things that happen in my life that I need advice on, I have go to people because life is unexpected, careers are unexpected. So creating those relationships are key and it is critical in any career development and making sure that it's two ways. It's not just for me. Right. And I never think about it that way. I. Always try to make sure that I am putting whoever I'm working with in the driveway first. How can I help you and how can we make this a fruitful conversation and partnership? So there's a balance of doing that versus your day job versus your personal life, but when you prioritize the things that are important in those networks that you really want to flourish, then it's very powerful for both sides.
Teri Schmidt 00:30:57 I wholeheartedly agree. I'm curious though, your experience in terms of getting started with that. So you talked about, for example, the sponsor relationship wasn't necessarily you didn't set it up to be, oh, will you be my sponsor? But how did you get started? And did that differ between setting up kind of the relationship that someone eventually became your sponsor as opposed to, say, a mentor?
Jaime Beckel 00:31:25 Yeah, it's a very different relationship. When I had some of these conversations, I was one of the only women at the table and there weren't a lot of other women at the table. So for me, I need to reach out to the other few people that are at different tables to help guide me in situations that I just wasn't really sure and didn't have a lot of other people to talk. To that maybe understood sort of what I was going through at that time, either the balance of life and work and children, but also just the desire to keep wanting to move up and not really being sure exactly what I needed to do or if that was going to happen. And so it was a little bit of circumstantial right at that time. Right. I would like to believe at least the fact that we have a much more balance between women and men now than we did before. We're certainly not at the exact parity, but it's definitely not the same experiences that I went through. But the act of reaching out, I did proactively reach out and ask for help. And I think that people don't often do that, is what I have learned. Right. And I find that when you reach out, people are very generous and open with their time and are happy to help other people. And so in some cases, you just have to ask. And that is how I've talked to other people who have had sponsors or mentors, and they have done the same. They just said, like, I've asked and said like, will you be my sponsor? Will you be my mentor? So that's one way I think that happens, maybe more from a mentorship than a sponsorship standpoint. Sponsorship, I think, is a little bit more of a natural, longer term type of making sure that they get to know you and you get to know them. So it works sort of in both sides. It's a two way relationship right. In terms of that. And so I think that's like a longer type of process than what I have experienced.
Teri Schmidt 00:33:45 Okay, so if someone was seeking out a sponsor and maybe just even talking, if you would talk about what it means to you to have a sponsor, to be a sponsor in your definition, what does a sponsor do for you?
Jaime Beckel 00:34:00 Yeah, so I'm a sponsor to other people at this point now in my career. So for the sponsor, it's a lot of being able to share what goals and focuses that they have and what are the things that they like to do and where are some areas that they're finding it difficult to accomplish the things that they need to do and they're in their job but also in their careers. Right. So not necessarily saying, okay, you have a sponsor, so your career, I'm going to be able to promote you in a year or two. Right. Setting expectations there, but sort of putting them in a place so that they can have a little bit more empowerment in that type of conversation and know that they have kind of connected the dots as best as they could do to put themselves in the best position. And so the sponsor with their experience can help do that. Right. And then on the flip side, what I love about it is that I get to learn about that side of the business or about that person or something new in an area that might not be my own. A lot of people that are my sponsors are not necessarily in the client facing side of the organization. So they can teach me something and give me exposure to areas of the business that I might not otherwise get in a more open and vulnerable environment that's just naturally as you develop and have those conversations, they could be just really genuine and just more like open and honest and transparent.
Teri Schmidt 00:35:30 So the sponsor as opposed to the mentor is more focused on kind of setting you up career wise in terms of the big picture, in terms of what steps you may need to take in your development in order to set yourself up well to achieve your career goals.
Jaime Beckel 00:35:50 Yeah, I think that is a component of it, for sure. I do think it becomes a pretty strong relationship that you can bond that you have as well that you can achieve and obtain. Sometimes I'll go to mentors, it's like very situational. I'm going through this situation and I really need some help and guidance in this situation, whether that's I have mentors of personal life or situations as parents get older and I need help to figure out how to go through that situation or take care of parents or something. I might go to my mentor and be like, I know you've gone through this, can you help me with this personal situation? So that might be one thing that's more personal, but at work it might be, I'm going through this in my team and I can use your guidance and help if that makes sense.
Teri Schmidt 00:36:37 That does make sense. And I can see how that would be of great value in any situation. But again, getting back to the crises that we were talking about, another way to seek out new information and your mentors or your sponsor may have been through something similar, that they can provide you some advice that you can then take internally and see how that matches up with how you're going to approach the situation.
Jaime Beckel 00:37:02 Yeah. And if they don't know, then they'll connect you with somebody that they do, and that continues to expand the number.
Teri Schmidt 00:37:09 Right? Well, excellent. Well, we have a question that we are asking all of our guests because we do have a lot of new female leaders listening to this podcast. So I would love to hear from you. What is one thing that you wish you knew when you were just starting off on your leadership journey?
Jaime Beckel 00:37:29 One thing. I think I probably hit on some of them along the way, but I've learned later on that I kind of wish I paid a lot more attention to earlier on. Teri, I think you hit on it a little bit is that don't be afraid of who you are. Right. Bring your passions forward and lean into that. If you're really passionate about something, it's going to show and how you speak and how you lead. And so figuring that out, and that's where the self awareness comes in. That was a turning point in my career, taking the time to have more self discovery, and it's a constant thing, right. So you're constantly becoming more self aware. So taking the time to figure that out and working with people to help you figure that out and using the opportunities that you have in front of you, like the journey, the job that you have to be present there and learn, that is really critical. And I think people might underestimate the importance of doing that along their journey because they might just be in just such a rush right. That they might lose themselves and not bring themselves forward. So that is really critical. That authenticity is important.
Teri Schmidt 00:38:46 Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that. And I'm sure there are people that are going to hear this and want to connect with you. What is the best way for them to get in touch with you, learn more about who you are and what you do?
Jaime Beckel 00:38:59 Yes, please reach out. I wouldn't say I'm like the most active on social media. It's something that I'm certainly working on. So I am on LinkedIn though, so feel free to reach out to LinkedIn. If you want to learn more about FACTSET, interview with FACTSET. We have positions there, so pay attention to what we're doing, because if we're doing well, I'd like to believe that I have played a part in that and I'm very passionate about FACTSET and the journey that we're on and the growth that we're having, please reach out.
Teri Schmidt 00:39:32 Sounds like an excellent place to work and evidenced by the fact that you've been there as long as you have. So definitely we'll make sure that gets linked in the show notes. But I just want to again say thank you for your time today. Thank you for sharing your experiences and your wisdom. I really appreciate it.
Jaime Beckel 00:39:51 I really enjoyed this. This is a lot of fun for me. So thank you for having me on your podcaster. I really appreciate it.
Teri Schmidt 00:40:01 I hope you enjoyed that. Before you go, I want to highlight something that Jaime just said how taking the time to work with people to help you figure out the kind of leader you want to be and becoming confident to share what you're passionate about is critical to your leadership success. That is exactly what we do in our leadership coaching. We are here to help you gain clarity about your leadership values and unique brand of leadership and gain additional confidence stepping out to make the impact that you're so passionate about making. How would your days be different if you had a trusted partner to get you past the overwhelm to the full use of your leadership capability? If you're curious and want to find out, let's talk. Book a free call with me by clicking on the link in the episode description and we'll see if I'm the right person to support you. Until the end of this month, March 2023. We're celebrating the new beginnings of Spring by offering 20% off of our Leadership Impact package just for mentioning this podcast.
Again, I hope this conversation inspired you to start taking some steps to prepare yourself to lead through the next crisis as it will come. And until next time, lead with this quote by John A. Shed in mind: "A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."