With over 25 years in global high-tech marketing, Michelle leads demand generation and go-to-market strategies as CMO for Maersk in Latin America. Formerly with AWS, she excels in driving growth, managing diverse teams, and fostering innovation across multiple sectors. She is Passionate about customer-centric leadership and achieving financial goals.

Over the past more than 30 years, I have been fortunate enough to hire, lead and mentor hundreds of people. My career was primarily built in global high-tech organizations, where I managed cross-functional teams around the globe and wore multiple leadership hats. When you lead large organizations, one of the critical roles you play is hiring and developing people, bring the best out of these individuals and help them grow while meeting organization goals. Part of the leader responsibility is to develop not only their own employees but also extended teams from the entire organization. In most corporations there are operational systems where leaders gather to discuss, review and calibrate talent, taking the best decisions to advance their careers and setting them up for success. By actively participating in talent review sessions over the last decades, I have gained important insights into the critical factors that are essential for every professional, regardless of their role or level of experience, as well as behaviors that can erode trust and ultimately ruin careers. It doesn’t matter if you are an experienced leader, an individual contributor, an entrepreneur or just at the start of your career. These are pieces of wisdom gathered throughout these years to help you reflect, take action and progress your career.

Winning Attitudes

People often think that being successful is rocket science, but in reality, it involves also taking some steps that you can control. Obviously, it is undeniable that possessing technical skills and maintaining ethical standards are essential for performing your job with excellence. This is not in question. We all also recognize the importance of leveraging technology in today's globalized world, as well as the value of understanding data and numbers thoroughly. But what I can’t underscore enough is the hidden power of behavior in career success. These are the unwritten rules, the things that are not listed in a job description but are expected and desired for everyone that wants to advance professionally and make an impact. First and foremost, doing a great job is not enough. Behaviour is vital since it influences how you build your relationships, navigate the workplace and manage your support networks. It may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised to find that it’s actually quite rare. Always show up with great attitude. Don’t let your environment, other people’s opinions, busy calendar or long to do list make you lose sight of what really matters. Business is solely composed by people: your team, peers, shareholders, managers, partners, vendors, investors, resellers, your customers and so on. Hence, knowing how to master relationships and to communicate is essential. Building relationships requires time and effort. It involves engaging in multiple conversations, asking thoughtful questions, listening attentively, following up consistently, delivering on your commitments, and ultimately building trust. When engaging into these conversations, it is highly recommended that you put yourself in the other person's shoes and deeply understand what matters most to them and what they are trying to accomplish. Then, determine how you fit in and how you can collaborate to help achieve the goals - together. Remember that your role, function or department can never win alone. By working together, you increase the likelihood of your company's success, which benefits everyone. I can guarantee you will follow in love with the process and learn as you never imagined. The vast majority of people I have witnessed advancing significantly shared these similar characteristics: they were willing to roll up their sleeves, listened to understand, supported others, showed curiosity, investigated in detail, remained polite, fulfilled their commitments, stayed humble, proposed solutions, were agile, maintained themselves calm and positive in the face of challenges and never stopped learning. Additionally, they were open to be wrong and to change their minds. They understood that they could always learn something new and eventually could come up with much better solutions and ideas than their own. By acting like this, they kept developing themselves and innovation was always coming their way. Imagine a person who is “always right” and has a list of arguments to prove it. They shut down people with different opinions and end up stuck in their own silos. The top-tier players were also genuinely invested in their continuous development, the success of their teams, their customers, and the organization. Sometimes, this meant making decisions that did not favor their own function, but it was for the overall best. It demonstrates the importance of zooming out of every situation, seeing the big picture, thinking long term and preparing for tomorrow. Many organizations claim to innovate, to be people and customer centric but very few really walk the talk. Make the difference.

Career Detractors

On the other hand, I've observed brilliant individuals fail miserably due to poor behavior – or lack of the winning attitudes. Despite delivering outstanding results, they hindered collaboration and created a negative work environment. No one wanted an achiever who disrupted the organization's harmony. How you achieve results matters just as much as the results themselves. For example, if something is not working, don’t gossip nor complain – it is a recipe for disaster.  Instead, be proactive, suggest solutions and help implement improvements. Your time must be devoted in advancements and being constructive, no time for distractions.

Don’t wait for your next job to deliver your best work and to show the best version of yourself. Start now. Your future self will thank you!