Up Close and Personal, Leaders Talk Series
A Leaders Talk Series was launched to V*Source employees this July. Having a relatively young workforce, we sure can learn from our senior leaders – their challenges and setbacks, and how they managed to overcome these obstacles.
10 THINGS ABOUT LAURA
Last July 10, right after the 2nd anniversary
program — V*Source employees got to sit
down and chat with Laura about her career
and her journey in the corporate world. The
air was light and fun as Philip and Yvonne
gamely acted as hosts of the program. The
session started with Laura giving us some details about the early years of her career. The
talk gets more interesting as questions were
pitched. After the session, we’ve found out 10
new things about Laura:
1. Laura’s connection with Goodyear is familial
– It goes back to her father and her father’s
father working for Goodyear.
2. She did not plan where she is right now –
Laura really wanted to be a gym teacher.
3. She prefers a fast-paced work environment
– She left IT and joined accounting. She had
also moved in various work roles within the
company for the last 31 years.
4. Laura is keen on maintaining work-life balance – She spends time with family, works
out, go to sporting events and read.
5. She loves challenges – So she takes in new
tasks and tries new things on top of her
regular duties.
6. She started out shy – And felt that she did
not have much to offer at a higher level. But
had overcome this obstacle by building her
network, gaining buy-in and understanding
influence management.
7. Laura did not look for promotion – It took
12 years before she was promoted to a
manager role and doors for promotion just
started opening after that.
8. She felt challenged as a female in a maledominated industry – Laura did not allow
herself to be intimidated nor allowed the
behavior of others to dictate the professional relationship that she will have with
her peers.
9. Laura believes in owning one’s career – In
finding the drive and motivation to come to
work every day.
10. Laura is not afraid to fail – for failures can
be turned into life lessons.
PORTRAIT OF A LEADER: GETTING TO KNOW JOHN HILL
The storm was raging outside. But this did not stop the
V*Source employees from coming to work early and
listen to John Hill as he shares his journey up the corporate ladder.
In his usual affable ways, John Hill recalled how and
why he decided to join Veyance in November of 2011.
At the time when John wanted to be a part of a company that drives global transformation and wants to be
reporting to a CEO who has a global imprint, Veyance
came into the picture and offered him the task of being
the company’s CIO. The rest as they say, is history.
In the beginning
But everybody has to start somewhere and John also had a share of ups and downs and acquired some scar tissue at the beginning of his career. He learned that creativity and learning happens in the doing, so he needed to
be ready to be beat up by experience. There is no going around it, even the difficult ones. John recalled how letting go of people from the organization can be such a difficult task, but he had to do it anyway. John learned that
he has to work hard, to take the initiative and continuously ask himself “Have I given added value to my client?”
And lastly, learning to communicate without creating conflict is one skill that he has to hone well. A leader who
knows how to communicate well can inspire and make things happen.
When results are looking
great, a great leader does
On Leadership
not take the credit.
Don’t be afraid to fail. In every failure
is an abundance of learning. Turning
failure into life lessons have helped
me grow.
~Laura Domchick
Laura capped the session stating that she
stayed with Goodyear and Veyance for so
many years because she believes that she can
grow wherever she is and we can give the
best of ourselves if we only seek to understand and if we are happy with who are first.
John Hill believes that creativity taps the capacity in people so he tries to inspire
~John Hill
creativity by trusting that his people can and will deliver. He focuses on the result
and not on the how. And when results are looking great, a great leader does not
take the credit. A great leader has a clear vision of his goal and purpose and should remember not to focus on the
role but rather on his people. John states that a leader must know how to listen, cut through the noise and facilitate for his people. When faced with setbacks and frustrations, John shares that as a leader, he allows things to
settle, reflect, and weeds out the questions out of the situation.
On a lighter note
John feels that he is never going to retire. In the future, he plans to take on functions that aims to make difference
on other people’s lives. He wants to have variety on what he does. As a creative avenue, he is currently involved
in photography. John also shares that he tries to spend more time with his family whenever he is not travelling. A
proclaimed home-maker, John confesses that his typical weekend involves cooking and gardening.
By: Imee Rabang