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Leah Thelen with Shiseido (Canada) Inc.
Let us introduce you to Leah Thelen with Shiseido (Canada), who will be our 3rd speaker at teh April 21st "“Beyond Beauty - Innovation, Leadership and Resilience” virtual webinar.
What are you most passionate about?
I'm passionate about delivering positive, impactful results and finding ways to innovate. While this may sound like something you might read on a resume, my passion for making an impact goes beyond my work. I feel the pressure of limited time and I believe if I'm going to dedicate myself to something, I want to have a positive impact, push boundaries achieve something new.
Who is your greatest role model?
I can't point to a single person as my greatest role model. However, I am lucky to be able to point to numerous women in leadership roles who have mentored me throughout my career. Collectively these women not only acted as sounding boards for me when I was making difficult professional or personal decisions, but they also modeled for me different ways of achieving success. They showed me that the path to success isn't a straight line, but a series of zig zags, mistakes, preparation and seeking out of opportunities. Through their mentorship I was able to develop my own authentic leadership style and carve out a professional path that worked for me.
What is your greatest accomplishment in your career trajectory?
Successfully transitioning from a traditional sales role to a digital marketing role. This was a big risk for me at the time because I had carved out a clear career path for growth through my company's sales organization. While I couldn't see where it would lead me at the time, moving to a digital role enabled me to learn a new set of skills that accelerated my career and afforded me access to exciting projects.
What advice would you give to women who are building their careers?
Decide for yourself what your values are and set your professional ambitions. Don't rely on your organization to carve out a path for you. Instead build your network, be curious, learn to how navigate your organization and create the path for yourself. Many of the opportunities that came my way as my career developed were the product of me offering my support on a project that was outside the scope of my role. I found this to be a useful way to learn about new areas of a business while simultaneously building my network. Because of this extra curricular work, I was often top of mind for new opportunities and could gage my fit with different teams through my experiences working with them.
What do you think is the biggest challenge for the generation of women behind you?
The next generation of female leaders are a force to be reckoned with. They bring resiliency and a voice for their beliefs that will not be ignored. As long as they hold strong to their values and work to lift each other up, they cannot be stopped.
How do people get in contact with you? Please provide any social channels links (LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, etc).
I can be reached via LinkedIn and would love to hear from you!
Thank you for sharing, Leah. We look forward to discussing more from you, Louanne and Elaine during the event on April 21st.
Be sure to register for this amazing event where inspiring top leaders at Shiseido Canada share their leadership journey and insights along with what they are doing to support the growth of women's advancement at Shiseido in our exciting speaker series event.
To learn more about the event and to register, please go HERE.