At WSJ.com, Pernille Spiers-Lopez cited her key success factors as strong leadership skills, self-awareness and understanding; being a people person and knowing the business. She shared lessons from her rise to President of IKEA North America.
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- Be a leader who enables others to execute.
- Consider a stint in HR, it could be a great developmental experience and a springboard to C-suite opportunities.
- A good leader (and a good manager) balances hard work and personal time.
- Work from a place of no fear, it is much more relaxing!
- Follow your passion and live your values.
If we delve deeper into Spiers-Lopez career, we learn that she trained as a journalist, was a reporter who loved writing but became disenfranchised with the career path to land a prized feature writer position. So she switched career focus and started to sell furniture out of her car, then worked at a furniture store, which set up for a management role, where she supervised several stores.
Many a time, my clients and friends, lament about the haphazard nature of their career progression. How do you make sense of it all? It’s all about your story. The first step is to reflect. If we were to rewind Spiers-Lopez story a few years back, we would learn about different aspects of Spiers-Lopez rise. An article at womensbiz.us sheds light on a medical scare, which probably catapulted Spiers-Lopez out of denial and forced her to incorporate work-life balance. It’s all about your story. What’s your story? Recognizing that we cannot change your story so far, how can you use your story, to enhance your story going forward?
Tags: career progression, career switcher, CEO, IKEA, Pernille Spiers-Lopez
