OYP Episode 05: Alyssa Altman
Alyssa, North America Lead for Transportation & Mobility and Consumer Products at Publicis Sapient, talks about the importance of optics, visibility, and building a strong network of champions in the pursuit of achieving your potential.
Interview
Peter Szczerba - Welcome to the Own Your Potential Podcast, where you'll hear stories from leaders across the globe about how they've taken control of their career growth and lessons on how you can't too. I'm Peter Szczerba. And this is Episode Five with Alyssa Altman, live your purpose. Alyssa, tell us a little bit about your career journey.
Alyssa Altman - My name is Alyssa Altman and I am North America lead for two industries within our organization, transportation and mobility and consumer products. And I'm from our Chicago office. I have been with the company 20 years. And prior to that I worked at Ernst and Young and as in strategy, and I worked at Thompson Financial Services, in marketing and in between Thompson and Ernst and Young. I had the opportunity to go get my MBA at the University of Chicago, I had an opportunity to help Ernst and Young build their e commerce practice and e commerce capability before people really even knew what Amazon was. And once I came to Sapient, I worked a lot in automotive for Alcoa, John Deere, I also had a stint in Atlanta with the team there on UPS, and then spent quite a time in Detroit with General Motors, then on to FCA and building the team that we have today, I also had a wonderful opportunity to lead a region in 2013, coming out of running the Detroit office and building the FCA team. And I ran a region in Canada and in parts of the US Midwest. That was great because the international experience and really the opportunity to bring know a lot of different people together to do great things across North America. And which brings me to the opportunity I'm in today where I'm an industry lead across two different industries that the one thing they have in common is that they both don't go direct to the consumer. So there's a lot of opportunity around how we can help our clients. As I've said, you know, throughout my career, I've just had a lot of different opportunities that have really brought me the chance to think differently, play different roles, everything from strategy to learning about technology, and really being able to help our clients chart out their digital future.
Peter Szczerba - Alyssa, what strategies for self advocacy or self promotion have worked well for you in your career?
Alyssa Altman - So over the last 25 years that I've been in consulting, I found that the best way to be an advocate for yourself is to work with as many people within the organization as possible. And as many of the leaders, I think it's good for your career in terms of what you learn. When I was at Ernst and Young, I wanted to get promoted to senior manager. And what I made sure I did is I worked for eight of our ten partners in our group over a period of two years. So I kind of charted a course to find ways to interact with them, even if it wasn't on a project just so they got to see who I was and how I worked. And then when I was at Sapient, about seven years in, I wanted to get promoted to VP and I apparently had been up a few times without a whole lot of feedback coming back to me and was just concerned that I didn't have a future at Sapient. And so I went and I talked to my manager and I asked them if there was an opportunity for me to get promoted to VP and what were the kind of things that I needed to do that I wasn't already doing to put me in a position to be promoted. And very quickly, they jumped into action to help me chart that that path. So I asked in a way that created mutuality between the conversation where it wasn't as if I came with an offer saying, you know, I got this great offer to be a VP somewhere else, more money, etc. I actually wanted to, you know, work with the company to figure out what that path needed to be. And I was very confident and comfortable in the fact that if they came back and said, You're really not someone who we see as a VP that you know, I would be able to find other opportunities, but obviously it turned out differently, thankfully, very grateful for that and learned a lot through that process of how I handled it and continue to grow based on that particular experience.
Peter Szczerba - So how have your self promotion motivations and skills evolved throughout your career?
Alyssa Altman - So early days, I was very focused on getting the work done putting my head down and just making sure that I was providing value to the client. And I didn't take the time to really craft, how I can showcase what I was providing the client to people around me, so they could learn from it, as well as also showcase my capabilities. So it took a little bit of an evolution for that. And I think the other piece that was an unlock for me as I started to get in leadership roles was that allowing myself to be myself and showing the kind of connectivity I like to have with people and how I really like to bring out the best in everyone, instead of just expect everyone to fit a certain mold. And I think that helps me bring out the very best in myself.
Peter Szczerba - Also, what have you done to own or control the narrative around your personal brand and story throughout your career.
Alyssa Altman - One thing that I've done over the years is make sure that I'm communicating with people on a regular basis and connecting with people. And at all levels within the organization, I think it's important for people to know what you care about, and what you want to give back to the organization. I also think from our professional services role in the ecosystem of business that from a client perspective, it's also really great for your clients to know who you are and what you're what you're purposeful about, and in creating the opportunities for yourself and for others on your team. You know, those are the types of things that I've found have helped me over the years as I've really had to spend time thinking about each individual on my team and what I think would give them the greatest opportunity. And ultimately, that creates a collaborative of opportunities that, you know, bring people together and then allow me the opportunity to grow and learn from the people on my team, as well as my peers within the organization. I think the best advice that I can give folks from my experience has been that as you spend time doing the work, really enjoy the work and make sure that you find purpose and the interactions you're having with people and purpose and how you're delivering the work.