Because ‘she can’ and other Revelations!
Because “She Can” and other Revelations with Mary Oliveira | The Executive Hustle Podcast
In this episode of The Executive Hustle Podcast, Mary Oliveira and Kirsten dive into a ‘decade of discovery’ and what that can mean for a leader in transition. Mary has an amazing story from a history banking, to being a living organ donor, to a non-profit leader – she will hit home with just about anyone in the #hustle.
We explore the ‘emotional elevator’ that can hijack so many young leaders, we share our mutual journeys of learning how being friendly as a young boss is not the same as being a friend and finally Mary offers her current secret sauce to success, an intention of curiosity. Don’t miss this episode!
MARY OLIVEIRA BIO:
Mary Oliveira, President and CEO of Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts, leads Central PA's innovative STEAM education hub. Previously COO of Color & Culture and VP at PA Chamber of Business, she drives strategic growth and accessibility initiatives. Named to Governor Shapiro's Advisory Commission for Women and Central Penn Business Journal's Power 100, she actively serves her community and women of all ages.
For more info on Mary:
Below is an AI generated transcript of the podcast (may contain errors).
@10:19 - Kirsten Yurich
Welcome to the Executive Hustle Podcast. Our guest today is Mary Oliveira, president and CEO of the Whittaker Center for Science and Art.
But I know that you also introduce yourself as a recovering runner, I think, and also a living organ donor.
Two things I want to be sure that we touch on today. Other things I feel like I've learned about you in the time we've spent together is that you have experience in banking, marketing, business development, and now something near
dear to my heart you are a nonprofit CEO. There is a great story in there I know. Welcome Mary.
@11:07 - maryO
Thank you so much. Very excited to be here this morning.
@11:10 - Kirsten Yurich
Oh we're so happy to have you. So one of the ways I opened up many of my podcasts thus far and I actually had a listener comments on it because I didn't do it one time and she made mention so thank you for that.
Does I ask the question did the seven-year-old Mary want to be sitting where you are today?
@11:30 - maryO
Absolutely never fathomed it most likely.
@11:34 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
I grew up in a very challenging childhood scenario for the first 13 years of my life and as I emerged from that with family members who transplanted me here to Central Pennsylvania that I think put on a sheara cape that to this day maybe is more of the invisible cloak on my shoulders but it was about wanting to reset
the lungs of the world and so my intentions as far back as I can remember was to actually get a degree and go work for the United Nations and save the world.
That's all.
@12:11 - maryO
Yeah.
@12:14 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Wow. And so how did you end up here today?
@12:18 - maryO
How did I end up here today? I have been blessed with what I consider in hindsight, not always necessarily every step along the way while it occurred.
@12:27 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
A very building block type of career and I think that both personally and professionally, as they say, fates and the stars aligns to get me here.
@12:40 - maryO
I cannot say honestly that I ever went to look for the role of a CEO.
@12:45 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
think it found me and it found me at the time when I had capacity, energy and opportunity between work and family commitments to be able to step into a role that daunting.
@13:00 - maryO
Absolutely not insurmountable by any stretch, so I think it found me just when we were both ready for each other.
@13:06 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
So a perfect fit right now for you where you are.
@13:11 - maryO
It's definitely an interesting fit as we continue to navigate settling in year one and having many conversations with colleagues at different levels and certainly other CEOs as they say the air at the top of the mountain gets thinner and thinner so I'm learning a lot where previous roles had me as part of executive or leadership teams and contributing greatly now certainly being at the helm of the ship has a completely different perspective on things.
@13:42 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah so I can relate completely to that. Last couple statements both about the air and I've never heard that one I may have to steal that one.
Lonely at the top is one that resonates with me as well which is certainly why I do what I do on my day job.
Tell me a little bit. A bit about stepping into this, I did notice recently what I could just celebrate it's 25 years.
this is a legacy organization that's been around. It's done wonderful things for the community. were coming as a new CEO, first time CEO.
Tell me about those challenges, personally, professionally. Many leaders I'm sure that may be listening are in their first role like this, like you stepping into a company with a rich history.
How did you approach it? What are you still challenged by?
@14:30 - maryO
Let me unpack all of that.
@14:32 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
don't ask any questions.
@14:34 - maryO
Travel back in time to early last spring. And I received a phone call from a recruiter that the position was available and my name had been brought up.
And fortunately, with more than 25 years of leadership experience, mostly centered here in the Harrisburg Capital Region, I would like to think I have built up a professional reputation amongst all the different roles that I've played for the different.
organizations that I've worked with and for. And that's what prompted the call from the recruiter. I was a little tentative at first.
I knew Whittaker personally. My children have attended field trips, and I've been the chaperone. We have memories pop up on Facebook, and when we came to see the nutcracker siblings that I have who are in the arts performed here.
So there's definitely a depth of connectivity to Whittaker that spans its entirety.
@15:28 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
My husband and I moved back to Central Pennsylvania with our six-month-old son, the weekend before Whittaker opened its doors in 1999.
So that's when I think that first seed of interweaving myself with Whittaker probably got planted, and it just took those 25 years for us to come together.
@15:47 - maryO
After a thorough search that was done, I was offered the job mid-September last year. having become empty nesters two years ago with our youngest heading off to make her way.
world. I promised my husband and myself that this would be my decade of discovery. So it would be my time to say yes for me as the first thought of will this work, will this not work, while still gauging the family needs, but really being able to put myself first.
And it was exciting for me to step in as the first hired president and CEO, female president and CEO in Whitaker history.
And I say that not for my resume or my ego. I say that for my 21 year old daughter.
I say that for the four or five young female professionals who are part of team Whitaker. I say that for every young woman including that seven year old who never thought that the letters CEO would necessarily be on her business card.
So another crack in that ceiling to pave the way to lead by example that you make it your own path and get there if that's what you want to do.
@17:03 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Those were all critical reasons as to why I said yes to this role. Yeah, well, that's a an important message, I think, both in terms of how you're personally approaching it, but how you're sort of providing that example for the important people in your life.
Yeah, that really resonates. So, decade of discovery, love that you've given it a name.
@17:27 - maryO
So, that did not escape my listening here.
@17:30 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Tell me how that is showing up across your day to day, across your different facets of your life besides just saying yes to this role.
@17:41 - maryO
So, there's a lot of content out there about the first daughter syndrome, and I fit most of it to a key, you know, responsibility, accountability, a tight personality, I tend to, you know, always lead with that yellow lens of let me think about it, let me plan.
for it to let me make sure I have plan A, B, and C in case something goes awry before actually stepping up or stepping in.
And so wanting to give myself permission to maybe tackle a little bit more of that red, you know, be a little bit more daring, a little bit more of a risk taker, intentionally wearing orange today as I blend my yellow and red together.
@18:24 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
It's definitely not my plan and execute from A to Z, you know, in a very well-intentioned manner. And so giving myself permission and that decade of discovery was hitting the tender age of 50, three years ago.
So it kind of went hand in hand with, you know, it's a different phase of life, again, the empty nest or time frame and the opportunity to just approach life's pathway with a different lens.
@18:57 - maryO
And so it's been exciting. It's been scary. It certainly has led me, you know, in places that I didn't expect to go, but I continue to challenge myself to not fall back too much into that pattern of let me think it through and, you know, in all of the consideration and not enjoy the actual action, so.
@19:16 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Right, so we're saying yes a lot more, is what I think.
@19:19 - maryO
Yes, a lot more.
@19:20 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah, yeah, saying yes. Well, as a kind of improv, that sounds like a lot of fun for me. Saying yes is a big, is a big deal there.
Tell me about, you've had a lot of leadership roles over the years and you've mentioned a few of them already.
What do you wish you knew about leadership then that you know now, having gone through so many different, you know, wonderful roles that you've mentioned?
@19:50 - maryO
Um, I think that it is a fine line. I actually had this question come up recently when I was speaking
a group at a lunch and learn. You know, how do you maintain that balance of your leadership position, but building a cohesive team to reach the goals that you're trying to reach?
And it took me longer along my leadership journey to recognize that you can be friendly and it doesn't who leads with her heart, certainly, and someone who is a we were in her top 10 string finders assessment.
Again, those are things that I've had to conscientiously learn how to, I wouldn't say separate necessarily, but make sure that they're in alignments in, know, ways and called upon.
So, you're having to make decisions, you're having to incorporate policies, you're having to execute initiatives that They not always sit well with everyone, and I think someone recently said to me, if you took this job to win a popularity contest, you did it for the wrong reason.
And so again, the wooer in me struggles with that, but understanding that everything I do, regardless of decisions, initiatives, et cetera, policies is always done through the lens of positive intent for the greater good in the mission, that I am tasked with serving and leading first and foremost.
So that's probably been a shift over the years that I have seen come out in different assessments of my leadership style and values as well.
@21:42 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
So positive intent for the greater good, that is your North Star, your guiding mission.
@21:48 - maryO
It absolutely is. It absolutely is.
@21:51 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
So how does having come to find that you have to have that as your guiding star regardless of how that may
I mean, you have friends or don't have friends on the team. How does that make you a better leader?
@22:06 - maryO
I think it's allowed me to be able to separate the personal and professional when called upon to do it.
And when the situation really will benefit from it.
@22:18 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
An example comes to mind of a previous role that I was in where I had to release a team member from their position.
@22:26 - maryO
And at the end of the conversation, and we had worked through some coaching and development methods along the way till we got to what was the inevitable conclusion.
@22:36 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
At the end of the conversation, he thanked me.
@22:39 - maryO
He thanked me. How many supervisors, managers, leaders have ever released the team member from position, a.k.a.
@22:47 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
had to fire a team member, and then thanked at the end of the conversation.
@22:53 - maryO
And for you recognized what I couldn't see, not only for the organization, but for what I need to know.
And this was not comfortable for either one of us, but it was necessary. And so for that, I thank you.
that's still with me, and that was goodness gracious, five or six years ago. Clarity of the conversation, him sitting across from me in my desk.
@23:20 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
And so I bring that with me in ways that I both try to role model and then also try to disseminate with my leaders and my emerging team members who are stepping into those types of roles so that they too can have that ripple effect on developing people to be comfortable with the truth, with charity, opportunity, Yeah, yeah, I've read the radical camera work.
Kim Scott's work around, you know, clear as kind. think it's the way Brene Brown says it.
@23:55 - maryO
But, you know, that truthfulness with compassion.
@24:00 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
you know of being upfront with somebody about what is reality but with that level of kindness and we don't do that you know honesty without compassion brutality right so there's a quadrant of that where we can really go in a negative way but on the opposite way sometimes I've seen leaders because they think they're trying to be so kind her her word for this you know I don't tell you the truth because I think I'm being kind by not telling you is called empathy and I think that's just a brilliant way of you know if you had let this person linger you know what would have been created in the in the team or in the organization and this person never gets the opportunity to grow or get feedback and you know when they don't know what they don't know you know they're not given an opportunity to get better and that's the absence of leadership and I think that's that is far from being kind I would agree and I think that's where that
@25:00 - maryO
Positive intent for the greater good is where by having that as my North Star, it does allow that separation.
Yes, I will always be friendly. That is the type of culture and environment I want any team I'm a part of to be able to feel they're their best self doing their best work every day.
But in mantra, I learned very, very early on in a career that I stepped into my first leadership position and was having to say, I am not paid for you to like me.
At the end of the day, I will try to create an environment where that's the case because of who I am as a human being.
@25:39 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
But it is not why XYZ organization is paying me here.
@25:47 - maryO
So it's a slippery slope, but I think that's a tenant I can comfortably say. I learned very early on, and it has been a part of my toolkit of leadership, hammers, and uh...
@26:00 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Pliers and nails. I mean I think it's a I'm so glad I came out in our conversation because it's such a valuable lesson for leaders to learn early You know, I think I had my first leadership position at 22 21.
I don't know. I try not to think that far back And you know so many of the people around me were a my age and b had just been my peers and friends Right and so to not have that lesson to not know those things or not have something to to mentor you through that um the fear of offending your friends or You know moving into that phase where you are now their supervisor and not their friend That's really challenging for somebody so young without training And so I'm really glad that came out because I think the more we can get that message out to new managers and new leaders the better it is For honestly for their employees Exactly Themselves for sure
for sure. So you learned a lot of great lessons early, tell me what you find to be one of your biggest mistakes as a leader.
We learned a lot from our mistakes.
@27:10 - maryO
We do, we do. I think having gone through some recent mentoring myself because I believe I'm a lifelong learner at heart and always try to instill a culture of coaching going in every direction.
So receiving it from my direct reports and team members as well, but recently going through some team coaching and recognizing that strategic is my number one strength has always been in my top five in every position but has changed in its placement as I've grown in executive roles.
I sometimes fail to truly explain the method to my madness is the best phrase I can think of. So I feel very
blessed to be able to stand at the starting line and see the finish line and know all of the obstacles that I might encounter have to overcome along the way to get there.
@28:10 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
And I can map it out and can formulate plan and I'm off. running, hence that recovering runner in many different ways.
@28:17 - maryO
Yes, I still have been running. And I would love to think that I motivate and encourage, the team to join me on the journey.
And I think they do without always necessarily understanding the methodology behind how I can see it going us from A to Z.
And so learning how to communicate that more clearly at the beginning. So maybe someone has a better way to overcome a particular hurdle or to sidestep a particular pothole that we may encounter if they understand what the journey includes to get that destination point.
@29:00 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
a little more clearly at the beginning of it. So that's something that I'm working on at this stage.
@29:07 - maryO
Probably not necessarily at this stage.
@29:09 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah, yeah, right. So he who speaks first appears right as one of those phrases I try to remember and not.
So even though we can kind of see the end as the leader letting other people share first, often changes our perspective like, oh, well, maybe maybe that's okay too, right?
And even if it takes us little left or a little right, their involvement sometimes is the goal, even if it takes us off the path for a little bit of time, right?
@29:40 - maryO
If it's not that expensive, not that off the path, right?
@29:43 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Because involving that team can be pretty important. Yeah, so one of my questions was, where are you still growing?
It that that's it right there.
@29:53 - maryO
It is, it is. I always, you know, try to give myself and others that I'm coaching and developing verbal
cues that can help kind of reset that moment of growth because sometimes behaviors and habits are so organic, you know, that you have to be mindful of them.
@30:10 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
And I catch myself with this off-use phrase, trust the process, please just trust the process.
@30:17 - maryO
And the minute I start to feel that coming out of my mouth, I know that that's my practice, the pause moment, because they may not understand what the process is yet.
So how can they trust it? so I'm working, you know, through that very diligently and knew that I was using that quite a bit in my first year stepping into this CEO role and hoping to hear it less and less as we continue to move forward.
@30:44 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
that became a warning flag. Yes. I'm saying this, that means I'm not doing actually what I want to be doing.
@30:51 - maryO
Exactly. that a prompt, a cue. Yeah, it's just a little it's a little prompt.
@31:05 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
When you hear this, that's your your kind of trigger warning, you know, like hold on, you're about to go down, you know, you know, pathway that you know you need to, you know, pedal back on and reroute yourself, so.
Yeah, so that's a trigger of sort of a road you don't want to go on. You've talked to me in the about a practice you have that I think would just be great to share around in your in your trigger conversation triggered me of this practice that you have around grounding yourself.
What does that look like? Because it it sort of reminds me of this. Oh, that's right. I'm here and I need to be here.
How do I get back here? And I think that leaders need more and more strategies of catching themselves when they're going down the the sliding board of
demise, you know, in a meeting when they're maybe getting emotional or starting to defend something or there's all kinds of ways that as leaders we can sort of derail the team approach that we actually want to have happening.
And I think you've got to really clever what that I'd love for you to share.
@32:18 - maryO
I again learned everything I know along the way from someone else and just again put them in my little tool belt.
Very early on, as mentioned, I was fortunate to step into a role with a corporation that very much invested in leadership developments.
And I went to a session that taught you about not your emotional roller coaster, which is a phrase we probably, you know, gravitate forward a little bit more because that's the ups and the downs and the rounds and, you know, the stomach clenches.
@32:51 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
But it was actually thinking about your emotions on an elevator.
@32:56 - maryO
So ideally, we all strive. We stay Hey, know, at the Hilton Hotel or any other hotel we choose to stay at to get to the Penthouse level.
You know, everybody wants to get to the Penthouse.
@33:07 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
You feel great if you're staying in the Penthouse. It just imbues this, you know, of happiness and excitement and achievement.
So very, very positive.
@33:16 - maryO
Nobody wants to stay in the basement, rarely have ever. So the lesson I learned, and this is literally a 30 year, you know, component that I take with me personally and professionally through life is choosing to have my ground floor when I'm pushing that button each and every morning to go about my day to start my ground floor at curiosity.
The me curiosity is that mid-point between whether I go up or go down. Curiosity is what does the day have in store for me?
What am I going to learn? What am I going to teach? Who am I going to meet? curiosity is having maybe challenging meetings or scenarios pop up in the day and rather than go down to the basement because who wants to be down in the basement staying curious and may not be exciting or happy or any of those other positive emotions was staying curious about why the conversation go that way.
@34:19 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
What was going on in that person's world today that prompted a different tone than experience with him before and so just why to me is one of I think my favorite words in the dictionary why and I think being curious is my starting point emotionally and always asking why is other stars you know in the constellation along with that north star positive intent that just leads me through every day yeah well that intention so you know intentions come before actions and
I think we get in trouble with people as leaders when we act without intention and so what's so beautiful about what you're talking about, whether people use an elevator or rollercoaster as their metaphor, it doesn't matter that the intention that you choose to start with is going to guide your actions.
But if we start from action and then reverse to intention, we're always sort of going to be working from a place of repair versus pro-action and discovery.
And so that's why I think what you shared is just so beautiful and I'm sure has served you well in these 30 years of using it.
@35:38 - maryO
I think it has allowed me to build my empathy toward others and certainly probably helped me to keep my blood pressure down.
It's really resilient. It's just necessary, you know, and just take that step back. You know, I think I use this phrase earlier and not that I'm one for, you know, the clutch phrases, but I think my journey over the last, I would say, six years in true executive roles and learning from some amazing leaders ahead of me has been about practicing the pause.
And I am definitely a get it done type of personality that a plus perfectionist. And so learning how to give myself the pause in speech, in action, and in thought, I think is something I'm looking forward to continue learning.
@36:37 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah, yeah. Well, you can't be curious and furious at the same time.
@36:41 - maryO
Exactly.
@36:42 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
I practice that quite a lot at home. So, you know, as a working pair with four kids and we'll go into how many pets, things like that.
There's a lot going on. lot is coming at you and you can be, you know, triggered pretty easily. And so that's...
intention of getting curious what is this moment and you know have for me in this moment why am I in this moment what can I bring to this moment just getting curious about anything is going to shift your mindset yeah so that's a great that's a great lesson big takeaway right there for me thank you so much for sharing that if I can shift gears with your chair oh my gosh I'm so interested to know about the the organ donation aspect of your life there are not many people who walk around as a living organ donor and this is a community you are part of it I could only imagine this is an important aspect of your life and want to give you an opportunity to share that if you'd like to I would this is probably where your listeners may have to give me a little grace in space because it's a hard story to share without emotions but if we all remember in March of 2020
money, what happened to our worlds.
@38:03 - maryO
Imagine being a 23 year old young woman going in for an eye appointment to be told get to the emergency room as soon as possible.
One year out of college, having already battled kidney disease for a few years was going into acute failure, probably about five or six years earlier than that level was thought to be a hurdle for her to face.
This was a friend's daughter and so several months later with the world being under the pandemic cloud, much more challenging for them to deal with this health crisis than they would have otherwise.
I'm driving in a car with my own 17 year old at the time and I get a text from this friend, the group text, a few of us, and the words were please help, I'm a mom trying to save her daughter.
that's probably where that invisible share a cape on my shoulders, you know, really felt very heavy. I went home to my husband and they said, how would you feel if I donated a kidney?
I mean, there was no, there was no, even telling stories sometimes. want to do this, how do you feel and what do you think?
And he had to have some conversations to get him on board, but sharing the who and the why. was fairly a quick, quick, you know, marital moment.
And make it short, fast forward from August of 2020 to the Friday before Martin Luther King Day, January 2021, when I got the call that I was approved.
Wow. It took that many months, medical, rotting and poking and, you know, I got to call my friend, who knew I had stepped up to be tested, but they encouraged me along the way.
to not give false hope. And so I hadn't given her any updates since that initial, you know, put me in, I'm going to try.
The only thing I can do is try and step up and get tested for compatibility. I have always had the sticker on my driver's license, you know, since 16 years old and getting the capability saying, you know, should I not need use of my own organs, please feel free to give them That's very different than what you're talking about right now.
Correct. Sharing with my children, my parents, you know, that this was a path I was, I was heading down.
I got asked why a lot and I couldn't put it into any other phrase other than because I can.
@40:42 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah.
@40:43 - maryO
why not? Because I can. I'm looking at my own 21 and 17 children and I would shudder to be their mother needing to save them and not be able to and have someone in our life who could, who wouldn't at least try.
So on March 17th of 2021, I donated my right kidney, we actually did what's called a paired exchange because our physiology was different.
So while I was healthy enough, they wanted to find a kidney that truly would fit her needs. so we went into a national database and we actually triggered four different matchings in the database.
So in addition to my friend's daughter, three other patients in need of kidneys were able to get theirs as well.
And we are all here three and a half years later, living healthy lives.
@41:36 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
She is living her best life as now a young 27 year old woman should going from four years ago, being on dialysis hours a day, days per week, to coaching basketball, pursuing her career, living, laughing and thriving.
That's an amazing story.
@42:02 - maryO
It's one that I feel honored to have been having the opportunity to step up and do, and I've become an advocate for living donor education and just encouraging people to learn more about it, and you can live quite comfortably with one kidney, as I'm demonstrating, and somebody else out there can't.
So I recently shared this story, as I mentioned, The Luncheon Learn, which was about acts of selfless kindness. It didn't seem like it to me at the time, you know, it wasn't, it wasn't, where's the rest of prostate in this?
There was none.
@42:47 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
What in the mama bear mode?
@42:50 - maryO
Mama bear mode, exactly, again, that sheet of tape. If I can't save the entire world, if I can help save one life, and it ended up being four with
that particular scenario, um, then, then, you know, because I can, that's all, just because I can, I was able to.
@43:09 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah, that feels like maybe your tagline because I can. For many other things that you've shared today. Because I can.
@43:26 - maryO
Oh, Christian, you're getting me on that one.
@43:30 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Because I can, you're, you're stepping up, stepping in and feeling, feeling what's needed, doing what growing yourself, right? And because you can, you can, changes over time.
One of the things I noticed as I was preparing today, the background on your LinkedIn profile. When we know better, we do better.
That's been a phrase that I've said for decades. I've never seen it anywhere else.
@44:00 - maryO
Where does that come from Again, twisting and turning the personal and professional development because it's also intricately interwoven, you know, some of my, know, strengths being, you know, a strategic-minded leader, being a wooer, so that great blend of both, you know, the tactical and the human relational components needed for success.
Learner has always also been one of my top 5s through all three decades of my career pathway, and when we believe we know it all, we get in our own way, and I think when we learn more, we're responsible for doing more and sharing and influencing.
And, you know, trying to create a ripple effect through that, to me, that is a responsibility that I feel I have, so.
@45:10 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
As big as you can.
@45:12 - maryO
Because I can.
@45:13 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Yeah. Wow. Mary, I don't know what else to say. People would be watching us say tears and other liquids falling here.
This is probably as good as it's going to get for me today, Mary, this was a fabulous conversation.
@45:36 - maryO
Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for allowing me to share a little bit of me with your listeners and your circles and for always in every conversation that we have had to date giving me something else to take away from it that will allow me to learn more and do more.
@45:54 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
Oh, well, that's a such a compliment, thank you for that. I took away, speaking of takeaways. Wow, where do I begin?
Well, I'll begin with discovery. So this is your decade of discovery and I challenge anyone listening, what is this your decade for?
Maybe it is discovery, maybe it is recovery, maybe it is renewal, maybe it is fill in the blank, but labeling it is powerful, naming is framing my friends and if we don't have intention, then our actions are endless.
And so Mary's decade of discovery has turned into new letters behind your name, a new legacy to invigorate and create with the Whitaker Center.
Your positive intent for greater good as a North Star as a leader is something that all young leaders should be thinking about and listening to because
Friendly is not friend, and that is such a big takeaway for folks who struggle with being liked. That fear of not being liked as a young leader is so strong.
And I think showing folks that there is a path out of that is a real takeaway today. And our intention of curiosity, that emotional elevator is really just a great visual.
Thank you for sharing that today. And Mary, because you can, I just keep coming back to that. I'm just so blessed that you were here with us today.
If people want to follow up with you, learn more about the Whittaker Center, where should they go?
@47:41 - maryO
Well, I'm certainly available on every social media channel you can find, and hopefully you will see reiterations of everything we talked about today that I am what I say, what you see is what you get, and then WhittakerCenter.org, our newly minted website that is just so
@48:00 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
people use a friendly and exciting and we want to be a destination of choice for our community. Welcome and inclusive to all.
So we hope to see some of your listeners in to visit us soon. Outstanding and they will find your smiling face there.
@48:15 - maryO
Beautiful.
@48:16 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
All right. Thanks for being here today.
@48:17 - maryO
I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
@48:19 - Kirsten Yurich (kirstenklyurich@gmail.com)
All right. you too
