Learn how to build self-advocacy skills and win support from mentors, coaches, and sponsors to advance your career.
Recruiting and Talent Acquisition Cornell Certificate Program
Human Resources Essentials Cornell Certificate Program
No one will hand you your dream job, but you can cultivate advocates who will champion you when you’re not in the room. In this Keynote, experts in talent strategy and career development will demystify advocacy: what it is; how it differs from mentorship, coaching, and networking; and why it’s essential for driving your career forward. You will discover how to treat self‑advocacy as a skillset — from crafting a concise elevator pitch to confidently sharing your achievements — and learn how to win the support of internal and external stakeholders who will go to bat for you.
Join Cornell faculty expert Dr. JR Keller and Melody Kelleher, Vice President of Talent Empowerment at Baker Hughes, as they explore how organizations can create cultures of advocacy and highlight the benefits these cultures offer through stronger connections, greater trust, and higher engagement. Whether you’re advancing in your current role or navigating a career transition, you’ll gain practical tools to increase your visibility, deepen relationships, and open doors to new opportunities.
Cornell partners with Baker Hughes to provide Executive Education as well as other research-based learning solutions to drive impact within their organization.
What You'll Learn:
00;00;01;21 - 00;00;28;15
Keynotes Intro
On today's episode, we're joined by Cornell faculty expert J.R. Keller from the ILR School and Melody Kelleher, vice president of talent empowerment at Baker Hughes. J.R. and Melody demystify the concept of advocacy what it is, how it differs from mentorship, coaching and networking, and why cultivating champions who support you when you're not in the room is essential to driving your career forward.
00;00;28;17 - 00;00;45;07
Keynotes Intro
Much of what they discuss relates directly to coursework taught in Cornell's Human Resources Essentials certificate program. Check the episode notes for more details. And now, here's our interview with Cornell's J.R. Keller and Melody Kelleher.
00;00;45;09 - 00;01;13;28
JR Keller
Welcome to Cornell keynotes. I'm your host, J.R. Keller, and I'm an associate professor and faculty director of the executive Master's in Human Resource Management program at the Cornell ELR school. Today, we're discussing advocacy in action, how to cultivate and maintain relationships that enhance your visibility, deepen work relationships, and open doors to new career opportunities. I'm very pleased to be joined by Melody Kelleher, who is vice president of Talent Empowerment at Baker Hughes.
00;01;14;00 - 00;01;38;23
JR Keller
This is our second keynote in our Future Ready Workforce series, and today's program comes to you as a result of a production partnership between the ILR school, the center for Advanced Human Resource Studies, and our friends at Baker Hughes. Viewers were interested in hearing from you today and will take your questions. Please submit them in the chat and heads up for resources, tools, and links to several online courses that I've authored in the chat, as well.
00;01;38;25 - 00;01;49;06
JR Keller
Okay, let's get into it now. Before diving in, I would love to hear more about your background and experience at Baker Hughes.
00;01;49;09 - 00;02;12;05
Melody Kelleher
Hello and good morning. Good afternoon everyone. It is such a pleasure to be here. So first of all, thank you so much for the invite. I always enjoy our conversations together. As you said, my name is Melody Kelleher. I work for Baker Hughes, which is an energy technology company. We are in 120 countries and we make energy production safer, cleaner and more efficient for people and the planet.
00;02;12;05 - 00;02;34;19
Melody Kelleher
And so I've been with the company for about 15 years, but my background is in the air. And so I've been in air around 18 years of my life, and lived in four different countries. Outside of that, I'm a mom of two, so I have a seven year old and a nine year old as well. And I'm currently living in Houston.
00;02;34;21 - 00;02;51;08
Melody Kelleher
J.R., I know today, you know, this is a topic that you and I are both very, very passionate about. I'm very curious. From your side, how do you explain advocacy? And is it the same or different in terms of mentorships and sponsorships?
00;02;51;10 - 00;03;12;26
JR Keller
Well, it's a great question. You know, I think there's a there's a lot of overlap and a lot of terms get sort of used, to mean similar things. But when I think about especially mentorship versus advocacy, I see two main distinctions. And you can correct me if you feel a little bit differently. But when I think about mentorship, I think primarily about teaching.
00;03;12;29 - 00;03;39;06
JR Keller
So if you try to find a mentor, you find somebody who might help you get up to speed in a new job, to learn a new program, to really understand the politics or unwritten rules of the organization, to give you advice on what job you might take next, or who you should meet, or whatever it might be. But it's really about a person kind of teaching you how to navigate the organization and make some good decisions about your career.
00;03;39;08 - 00;04;02;15
JR Keller
When I think of advocacy, which I think is very similar to sponsorship, you know, advocacy, what it's really about what happens behind the scenes, right? So, you know, if somebody is advocating for somebody else, really what they're doing is they're talking about them when they're not present. Right? They're the one really championing them in performance review meetings or talent collaboration meetings.
00;04;02;18 - 00;04;27;08
JR Keller
They're proactively talking you up in other conversations that you're not a part of. They're actively making introductions on your behalf or finding opportunities that might be of great interest for you, either for your development or your for career, and then bringing those back to you. But it's really like it's a much more active, external facing role than mentorship, which I think is more focused to the person I don't know.
00;04;27;08 - 00;04;29;19
JR Keller
Does that make sense? Am I missing anything?
00;04;29;21 - 00;04;48;25
Melody Kelleher
Yeah. No, I do agree with you. I think with mentorship it's usually somebody that has walked a mile in those shoes, right? Somebody maybe that's in a role that you aspire to be in, or who has a level of experience or subject matter expert, knowledge in a particular area that maybe you're learning, you know, you want to learn about.
00;04;48;25 - 00;05;09;15
Melody Kelleher
So I fully agree with your your definitions there. And then on the advocacy thing, you know, it's usually people that, have a tendency to like to see others succeed. They're the ones that are talking about colleagues or people they work with in a positive way. A terminology that I recently saw I really liked was like a culture.
00;05;09;15 - 00;05;18;18
Melody Kelleher
Kariya, people that really believe in others and want to see them succeed. These people advocate for others because they believe in helping others to succeed.
00;05;18;18 - 00;05;39;29
JR Keller
So yeah, I love that. I love that term culture carrier. And I think it's probably pretty, pretty clear from this back and forth that almost everyone would benefit from having an advocate. But I'm curious, you know, as an individual, like, how would you advise somebody to identify and approach a potential advocate?
00;05;40;02 - 00;06;02;13
Melody Kelleher
You know, I think there's the obvious advocates that we just talked about where it's people that maybe you've seen or observed, speaking positively about others. These are great people to, you know, talk to and get feedback from, and also start talking a little bit about what your aspirations are. So people naturally in organizations on those sorts of people.
00;06;02;15 - 00;06;23;23
Melody Kelleher
You know, there is also people that maybe you work on projects with or peers or colleagues that you interact with frequently that could be advocates for you. You know, asking somebody to be an advocate for you is one thing, but I think more of the focus should be on how you're turning up on a daily basis.
00;06;23;23 - 00;06;43;00
Melody Kelleher
And, you know, I always think about these three are it's relationships, reputation and results. You need to be doing all three of those things. Otherwise people are not going to advocate for you when you're not in the room. If you're really good at building relationships, people may like to work with you. They may enjoy conversations with you.
00;06;43;03 - 00;07;08;23
Melody Kelleher
But then if you're not delivering results and performing at a high level, they're probably unlikely going to recommend you for a project or a bigger role or more scope. On the flip side of that, if you're really good at delivering results like you have high, say, do ratio or you're an execution that you always deliver, but you don't have the greatest reputation, and maybe you don't have the best relationships, that's only going to get you so far.
00;07;08;23 - 00;07;27;26
Melody Kelleher
So you really need to think about all three of these things and work on them. And that way when you're asking for an advocate, it feels you know that person doesn't mind putting their name behind recommending you for things. And you'll probably find that people will advocate for you more naturally without you even asking because you're doing these things frequently.
00;07;27;29 - 00;07;54;25
JR Keller
That makes a ton of sense. You know, it does strike me, though, that if you're, you know, like, if I'm an individual in an organization and I'm thinking that I could maybe I don't have an advocate or I'm not, I don't realize that I have an advocate, and I'm searching for somebody, and I want to approach them, that there could be, like, a fine line between being seen as genuinely asking for support versus being seen as self-promoting.
00;07;54;27 - 00;07;58;17
JR Keller
Does that sound right to you? Is that a tension? That makes sense?
00;07;58;20 - 00;08;25;23
Melody Kelleher
Yeah, it definitely is. And I love this question. Because for a lot of people, this is a real thing. There's not a lot of people that love to put themselves out there. Maybe they're, you know, more on the quiet side and, you know, that feels uncomfortable. And then you have the flip side of that where if you take it to the extreme and you're constantly talking about how much impact you're having and what your desires are or your ambitions are, it can be seen as entitled.
00;08;25;23 - 00;08;46;02
Melody Kelleher
So there's a balance between being ambitious and finding advocates, advocates for you versus, you know, also being humble and patient. Things don't happen overnight. And so a lot of people that will reach out to me and say, Mel, I'd love for you to advocate for me when I'm not in the room, I'm always like, okay, let's have a conversation.
00;08;46;02 - 00;09;09;27
Melody Kelleher
Like, what is it that you're looking to do? What is your North Star? And then this may take some time. So what are you doing to position yourself to be considered for these roles? And it goes back to those three hours, right. Building relationships, delivering results. So I think it's about showing humility, patience and then looking inwards of what am I doing outside of asking people to advocate for me?
00;09;09;27 - 00;09;20;05
Melody Kelleher
Am I turning up every day and showing people that, you know, I would be a great addition to their team? You know, whether it's through my behaviors or through my results?
00;09;20;07 - 00;09;52;24
JR Keller
Yeah. Now, I think what I kind of build on that a little bit is that, you know, when I think about the three hours, which I love, I love the way that way of thinking about it. What do you think about reputation and results? Right. Like those both take some time. Reputation takes a little bit of time to build, and results take some time to build a track record and deliver and I think certainly one thing that I see, or at least I see sort of managers maybe complaining about a little bit with sort of younger workers a little bit is like there is, yeah.
00;09;52;24 - 00;10;18;28
JR Keller
I think there's this natural tendency to start a job and then already be thinking about like, well, what's the next job? Like, how do I get promoted from this job? And I think often if you're if you come into a job with that mindset and are already sort of asking people to think about you for this next role before you've had a chance to develop a reputation or show results, I think that's where it maybe crosses that line into where you feel like I'm really looking at.
00;10;18;28 - 00;10;24;01
JR Keller
The perception is you're looking out for yourself and not necessarily trying to deliver for the organization.
00;10;24;07 - 00;10;57;18
Melody Kelleher
Yeah, I agree with you. And I think we're in this in our era of being in a hurry to get places. You know, we have access to information right at our fingertips. We can do multiple things, travel and grow and learn continuously. It's created this expectation to constantly be moving and growing. And I think there's a lot of value in staying in a role for two years or even longer, and marinating in that and becoming an expert in an area, or at least gain the experience.
00;10;57;20 - 00;11;17;20
Melody Kelleher
I think of all of the roles that I've had in my career. I've spent at least a year or three years in those positions that have then led me to the role that I'm in today. Had I bounced around quickly, I would know enough, but not enough, if that makes sense. And so sometimes we need to just take a breath and slow down a little bit.
00;11;17;22 - 00;11;35;29
Melody Kelleher
You know, there are going to be times when you move fast, but it's okay to stay in a role for a bit longer. And it goes back to this, this question of, you know, being seen as maybe entitled or or wanting to move too quickly. Things do take time. There's a great saying also, you know, all good things come to those who wait.
00;11;36;06 - 00;11;53;24
Melody Kelleher
It's true, you know, if you have multiple advocates for you and they're talking about you when you're not in the room, the right role and opportunity will come. You don't have to jump at every single thing that comes your way. Be really thoughtful about what it is that you want to do and then, you know, take those opportunities that will help you grow.
00;11;53;24 - 00;11;56;29
Melody Kelleher
But don't rush all the time to do everything.
00;11;57;02 - 00;12;14;02
JR Keller
Yeah. And I think, you know, when you when you're approaching people to be an advocate for you, you know, I think part of what you want to be able to do is help them make the case for you and you're not there. Right. Like, you think about this, you know, anybody who's ever asked somebody to write a letter of recommendation for them, right?
00;12;14;02 - 00;12;34;01
JR Keller
Like it always helps if you can say, like, here's some of the really nice things you could potentially say about me, or hear some of my accomplishments to make it easier on you to make a good case for me. And I think part of maybe one of the ways to think about it is it's better to start seeking out those advocates, or at least initially, like when you have a case, right?
00;12;34;01 - 00;12;47;17
JR Keller
Like, do I have something that I can bring to the table? So it's not that I don't think I don't think either of us are suggesting that you wait and kind of hope that people make the case for you, or that you need just need to stick around in the same job forever. But there is like, get to be really thoughtful.
00;12;47;19 - 00;12;48;25
JR Keller
Yeah, I think about what.
00;12;48;25 - 00;13;09;03
Melody Kelleher
I've seen work really well. And you just made me remember this actually is when you ask for feedback. So if I was approaching you, seeking you to be an advocate for me and I started it off with J.R. I've known you for a while, I'm really looking to grow personally. What is your feedback for me? Do I have an opportunity to to grow?
00;13;09;03 - 00;13;29;09
Melody Kelleher
Are there other gaps that maybe I'm not seeing? And you start to have this very humble, grounded conversation of what your perception of me is that does two things. One, it tells you I'm open to hear your feedback, and I care about what you think. And two, it's telling you that I really want to grow, and I'm seeking ways that I can do that.
00;13;29;09 - 00;13;47;04
Melody Kelleher
And so I think people really value, people that approach it that way because and it's not saying, I want you to do this for me now, and I see myself on a pedestal. I'm asking you to help me grow. And I see you as somebody that can do that. So I really like that approach. It's worked for me in the past.
00;13;47;06 - 00;13;49;19
Melody Kelleher
Hopefully it can work for some of our listeners.
00;13;49;22 - 00;14;17;10
JR Keller
I think so. And, we have our first question from the audience from Eric B. And I think I really like this one. You know what, if your tenure over the past few years has been relatively short because of a cultural mismatch or extenuating circumstances beyond your control, you know, when you go to talk to somebody, how do you explain those circumstances without coming off as jaded or placing the blame on somebody else?
00;14;17;12 - 00;14;42;24
Melody Kelleher
Yeah. It's a great question. And and realistically, I think we've all, at some point in our careers, maybe had to make those decisions. People that are doing the interviews, whether it's talent acquisition or hiring managers, they don't expect everybody to be at a company for 15 plus years anymore. I think there is, a level of understanding that people are moving around much more frequently now, especially kind of early to mid career.
00;14;42;24 - 00;14;59;23
Melody Kelleher
You'll see a resume where people have bounced around a lot. When you're explaining these moves, I think the best thing to do is highlighting the things that you've learned. So, you know, here are some positive things about this role that I just did. You know, maybe you learned some new skills or competencies. Maybe it was a global company.
00;14;59;28 - 00;15;19;10
Melody Kelleher
Highlight the things that went well. And then you can say, look, it wasn't a fit for me. Some seeking a way to find a company that's better aligned to my values. So read between the lines. They may ask you some follow up questions, but I think being honest is is fine. You know, we're all we all know that there are some companies that just don't fit for certain people.
00;15;19;10 - 00;15;21;06
Melody Kelleher
Some.
00;15;21;09 - 00;15;46;22
JR Keller
Yeah, I totally agree. Totally agree with you there. I think it's really interesting. Eric, this is just like a side note for our audience to my, colleague Rebecca Kehoe and some colleagues just finished finished up a study. Super interesting kind of looking at people who have had multiple jobs over a short period of time. It turns out one of the advantages is that it's really eas much easier to adapt to a new culture if you've done that in multiple times before.
00;15;46;22 - 00;15;51;29
JR Keller
So think about how you can sell sell that as part of a as a story.
00;15;52;01 - 00;16;11;20
Melody Kelleher
And, you know, you said something really important as well that in a lot of ways it's very positive to get a lot of experience from different industries and different roles because you bring a fresh set of eyes into an organization where some people may have been there their entire careers. So I don't think one is better than the other.
00;16;11;20 - 00;16;33;28
Melody Kelleher
I think you need a mix of both in an organization, so you have your people that have been there from day one, and then you have your people that have come from multiple backgrounds and maybe different geographies, and both create a lot of value for organizations. So, you know, the big thing is being proud of who you are and what you can contribute to the company, regardless of where you've been in the past.
00;16;33;28 - 00;16;56;17
Melody Kelleher
It's what can you bring to the table that makes this organization a better place. So, you know, Joe, you said something as well. I'd like to ask you a question. You've spent quite a lot of time studying how individuals build careers within organizations. Are there any insights from your work that shed light on how advocacy shapes careers?
00;16;56;19 - 00;17;25;05
JR Keller
Yeah, it's a that's a tons tons of really good insights here that I think are really interesting to note is one is that moving around inside organizations is a way to naturally collect advocates over the course of your career. Right? So obviously, you can spend a lot of time working for one particular manager. You can develop really great relationships with them, but eventually either you're going to be ready to move on or they're going to move.
00;17;25;07 - 00;17;39;20
JR Keller
And, and you're going to want to think about what opportunities are next for you. Right. And really, what you want in an organization is ideally right. You have a great advocate, but ideally you have a series of advocates throughout the organization. Because if you're at a place like Baker Hughes, right. How many employees?
00;17;39;20 - 00;17;43;19
Melody Kelleher
Baker Hughes actually we're close to 58,000.
00;17;43;21 - 00;18;11;28
JR Keller
Okay. So you know, even if I it's 58,000 employees, even if I know you super well and you're my advocate, like, you're not going to know every opportunity that's out there. But if I've been open to taking on projects or moving laterally across the organization, all of a sudden I'm going to have people in different geographic locations and different functions at different levels who are going to be aware of me and be having conversations about me, and that's going to open way more opportunities.
00;18;12;01 - 00;18;34;03
JR Keller
And I think, you know, strikes me back to one of my favorite studies of all time, done by Adam Klein. I'm at Dartmouth, who was one of the first people to study like email exchanges in organizations, and found out that, the people who ended up with the best career networks in organizations. So think about collecting advocates were those who had what they called sort of misfit careers.
00;18;34;05 - 00;18;55;17
JR Keller
So careers that don't necessarily look like a typical career, where you're moving up a single ladder in a single function, in a single location, but when you're sort of ping pong across the organization, you're learning new skills, you're developing leadership skills, but you're also collecting people, right? And the influence network across the organization.
00;18;55;19 - 00;19;14;00
Melody Kelleher
I love that so much because I actually wrote a book recently about, networks and it talks about surrounding yourself with different people as well. If you have everybody that looks and sounds the same as you, then you're only going to go so far as soon as you start to branch out. Like you said, your ping ponging around you meeting different people.
00;19;14;02 - 00;19;21;19
Melody Kelleher
It expands that network so much further. So I really love that. That's that's great insight.
00;19;21;21 - 00;19;43;14
JR Keller
Now I do want to ask you, you know, being inside a large organization, right, that really cares about advocacy. You know, how can organizations help ensure that advocacy opportunities are relatively equitably distributed? You know, because I worry a little bit that there might be some individuals who are less likely to seek out these types of relationships.
00;19;43;14 - 00;19;52;01
JR Keller
So you can think about introverts, remote workers, anyone that may not see others that look like themselves in the organization.
00;19;52;03 - 00;20;12;08
Melody Kelleher
Yeah. Look, I'll, I'll I won't sugarcoat it as well. I'll tell you. You know, the real truth is I think for a lot of companies, it's very relationship based. Right. You know, if you think about, for example, succession planning and a lot of very big organizations, it tends to be the same 50 names on these succession plans because it's like, who do you know?
00;20;12;11 - 00;20;29;23
Melody Kelleher
There's that, another I love my sayings. Right. Another great thing is it's not what you know, it's who you know. And I think we've all heard that at some point. The good news is that with AI and automation and the systems and the tools that we're using today, it creates a lot more visibility of talent at scale.
00;20;29;23 - 00;20;54;26
Melody Kelleher
And so when you work for a company like Baker Hughes, we actually invest a lot into that. So we we really want to create more transparency of talent. When you do have an organization that's very big, there's no way that I can no close to 58,000 people. I would love that, but I just it's not possible. Right. So I need a way to see what are people's development opportunities, what is their performance at the end of the year?
00;20;54;26 - 00;21;15;10
Melody Kelleher
What are their goals? What are feedback that they've maybe received from their people, leaders or peers? So using the tools to make better informed decisions about our talent is where we are today. So that's the good news. But there's still work on your side as a person, right? So you know that the tools are working. You need to trust the process and keep them updated.
00;21;15;13 - 00;21;48;20
Melody Kelleher
But on the other side is if you are an introvert and you're somebody that is more on the shy side and you don't like to tell people about your life story and what you're motivated by, I would encourage you to start small and talk to the people in your close circle. So peers, your leader, people you're working on projects with, maybe somebody in HR, or if you have a talent management team, these are great, great people to talk to about what you're what you want to achieve, or get some feedback and advice.
00;21;48;23 - 00;22;10;01
Melody Kelleher
You don't need to be the loudest person in the room to get an advocate, and you don't need to go and shout from the rooftops. You know everything that you desire. I think you just need to be very thoughtful about who you have in your circle and then start to approach people in, you know, explaining who you are and what you do and what you're passionate about.
00;22;10;03 - 00;22;27;14
Melody Kelleher
You know, I know we'll talk a little bit about this, Jared. Having a good elevator pitch is so important because you just never know who you're going to meet. You know, you could jump into an elevator and there could be a hiring manager, and they say, J.R., pleased to meet you. What do you do for the company?
00;22;27;16 - 00;22;48;01
Melody Kelleher
And if you kind of freeze and don't say anything, you've missed that opportunity to say, you know what? I work in sales and commercial, and I absolutely love working with different customers. And you know, that two minutes intro can be very memorable if you just get used to saying it and practicing it. So, you know, it's those two things.
00;22;48;01 - 00;23;02;13
Melody Kelleher
It's trusting the systems and companies, that we are looking at ways to create more visibility and more fairness to moving people around, but then also doing your part on how you turn up and how you speak about yourself.
00;23;02;16 - 00;23;25;25
JR Keller
Yeah, I'm kind of kind of related to that. So we got a great question that came in from CPA Guy handle that I love is speaking of like, like being in sort of challenging places, like, how can you create new advocates when you are in a powerful but maybe a more isolated or unpopular position in the organization?
00;23;25;27 - 00;23;48;18
Melody Kelleher
That is a that's a tricky one, right? Because you might be in a, in a role where maybe it's like governance or legal or maybe finance or even it HR, by the way, or sometimes the bearer of bad news. So you used to be a joke. When you see HR turn up, everyone closes the blinds. No. You know, I think there there are ways to change people's perception on the roles or function.
00;23;48;18 - 00;24;11;21
Melody Kelleher
And you again, going back to what I said earlier, people really like to work with people who are passionate about what they do. You know, it doesn't matter what the role is. If you're an approachable, friendly person, people will will see through maybe what the the the challenging role is or maybe the, the difficult message that you need to deliver.
00;24;11;24 - 00;24;31;03
Melody Kelleher
So it goes back to that reputation and relationships. I would probably just think, why is it that I feel I'm in a role that is, you know, hard to be an advocate for? And get some feedback. Feedback is like the greatest gift. I would ask people, hey, I'm thinking of getting some advocates. What is some feedback for you?
00;24;31;03 - 00;24;44;22
Melody Kelleher
What are some of my challenges that maybe I can consider? Is there a way that I can start speaking about some of the more positive things versus, you know, had this perception of me that's this way, and it's not necessarily true. So I'd ask for feedback.
00;24;44;24 - 00;25;03;18
JR Keller
Yeah, I really love that. And I do think it comes back to this idea of like, if you really want to get comfortable, I think whether you're an extrovert or an introvert, this idea of an elevator pitch that you came up with to have this first conversation and we have a we had a follow up question related to this, so I'll toss this over to you.
00;25;03;20 - 00;25;17;19
JR Keller
From KR, who says I love the insight about starting small is and sometimes the hardest part is making the first step right to approach somebody. So what are your suggestions to build a memorable elevator pitch.
00;25;17;21 - 00;25;45;19
Melody Kelleher
Yeah. And again I mentioned I earlier. So for those of you who are playing with ChatGPT and copilot, you know you could write yourself a full page of just download in your thoughts and ask it to summarize it into a few sentences. That's obviously the quick way if you have access to tools like that. But I would just pick somewhere between, you know, 5 to 10 sentences, something personal as well, not just work related, you know, where we're people two.
00;25;45;22 - 00;26;06;11
Melody Kelleher
So you want to create these hooks for people to connect with you that are on a deeper level than just on melody and talent, empowerment. I work for Baker Hughes. You know, we were chatting before, about this wonderful podcast that I listened to during the pandemic, and it really stuck with me for years. I really, really loved it.
00;26;06;11 - 00;26;27;14
Melody Kelleher
I would say it feels like a thousand light bulbs went off in my mind because it makes total sense. And the whole message in this podcast was about luck and lucky people and unlucky people, and the experiments and the research that they did was to try and understand if this is a real thing. Are they really lucky people and are they really unlucky people?
00;26;27;16 - 00;26;49;23
Melody Kelleher
And the outcome of these, different experiments was not that people unlucky or unlucky, it's how you turn up in the world. So you asked me to introduce myself at the beginning of this call, and I told you a little bit about myself. I'm a mom of two. I've lived in four countries. You know, I, I'm not just a person at Baker Hughes as a person as well.
00;26;49;25 - 00;27;06;03
Melody Kelleher
What I've done is I've given you multiple ways to connect with me. So, Joy, you may be like, oh wow, I've also got kids. We have kids the same age. What sports do they do? What are they doing for summer camp? We should get together. You know, I've also lived in four countries, and I'd love to go to South Africa.
00;27;06;03 - 00;27;31;21
Melody Kelleher
Maybe you can give me some ideas on that so people will find ways to connect with you on that level. So for your elevator pitch, when you're writing it, think about who you are professionally, but also who you are as a person. And that way it shows that vulnerability. And there's tons of research into when you're vulnerable. First, it builds trust really quickly because they see, oh, wow, okay, he's telling me something about himself.
00;27;31;21 - 00;27;47;15
Melody Kelleher
Maybe I can tell something about myself. And it just builds a really strong relationship quite early on. So, practice your phrases as well, because the more you practice, the easier it gets. So it will become easier. Jay, I have a question for you now.
00;27;47;18 - 00;27;48;08
JR Keller
All right. I'm ready.
00;27;48;14 - 00;28;05;18
Melody Kelleher
Great questions from the audience, but I would love to hear your thoughts on this as well. You know, we've talked a lot about finding an advocate and what that can do for your career. But I'd like to know, on the flip side, what does it mean to be a good advocate for somebody else?
00;28;05;20 - 00;28;28;16
JR Keller
This is a really it's a really great question. You know, I think in some ways the, the specifics or the way you enact this might look different from person to person, but I think the, you know, the idea is really like making sure you're part of it's a mindset, is that you have the individuals that work for you or you're advocating for or you really have their best interests at heart.
00;28;28;16 - 00;28;51;12
JR Keller
Right? So you're not advocating on your behalf to make you look good, but you really want to sort of sing their praises. And really, it's just it's it's, it's really thinking about what what can I do to help develop this individual or help them advance their career. Right. And so I think a couple of practices that are super helpful here.
00;28;51;19 - 00;29;16;22
JR Keller
So one is making introductions. Right. And so making introductions to other people that could be helpful for those individuals. So that could be people, you know. It could even be people in the organization that you don't know as well. But it'd be really hard for them to sort of cold email somebody three departments over that. They've never heard of, but an email from Melody, like smooths that transition and suggests, I think, that you should meet.
00;29;16;22 - 00;29;44;05
JR Keller
So I think that's a piece. I think it's making sure that you are very vocal about the skills and performance that those individuals have. Right? So that's again, like we talked about the beginning, like talking them up in performance reviews, making sure that they come up in succession conversations. Big part of this is making sure that you are not trying to sort of, if they're work for you, that you're not sort of holding on to them is great talent, but helping them, flourish.
00;29;44;05 - 00;30;03;29
JR Keller
And then the other thing is just giving them visibility and credit. Right. So thinking about if you're maybe it's somebody that you are working with or worked on a project with, making sure their name goes up on a title slide or that you are shouting them out, maybe an executive team, even if they're not there in the room.
00;30;04;02 - 00;30;15;22
JR Keller
But it's right. It's constantly sort of mentioning this individual, right, as much as possible to other people. I know those are the things that that primarily come up in my mind. Am I missing anything?
00;30;15;24 - 00;30;37;14
Melody Kelleher
I really love everything you said. The way you articulated that was so great. I lost a little bit when you say about hoarding talent because nobody wants to lose a great talent on their team, right? This is your superstar. It's somebody that delivers results and they're great to work with. Maybe they're super engaged, but holding people back is definitely not a great leadership.
00;30;37;16 - 00;31;00;29
Melody Kelleher
You know, quality. In fact, at Baker, I'll tell you, part of our, you know, our training and our development of leaders, even when we interview for promotions, we'll ask, how can you give us an example where you've had maybe somebody you had on your team that you've helped to succeed in other parts of the organization, or have you seen them grow into more scope and more responsibility?
00;31;00;29 - 00;31;22;00
Melody Kelleher
So a lot about a lot of focus on being a good leader is about building a good succession plan and helping develop others. And so there's a big focus on that. I agree with a lot of what you said about being an advocate. There is a responsibility to highlight some of the good qualities and contributions that people make.
00;31;22;02 - 00;31;50;20
Melody Kelleher
The connections point. You said I think, is one of the most underutilized tools in big organizations because, you know, six degrees of separation, somebody will know someone in the organization who can help you or mentor you or answer your question. And sometimes you just have to ask, you know, that's the scariest part of raising your hand and saying, I don't know, the answer to this, or I really want to be in a part of the organization I don't have any experience in.
00;31;50;22 - 00;32;11;27
Melody Kelleher
And finding that person that says, I don't know the answer, but I know someone who does. Let me introduce you to them. It's such a powerful way to build a good culture in a company, you know, a culture of camaraderie and, high levels of trust is when things like this happen on a daily basis. You know, I love that you walk in.
00;32;12;00 - 00;32;33;06
JR Keller
And I guess one thing that I would add to that, is that, you know, if you want to practice being a good advocate, I think when we often think and kind of I think conceptually we think of advocates as being people, like multiple levels above us. Right? Somebody who has more influence and can open more doors and make the case to to folks that we might not have immediate access to.
00;32;33;08 - 00;32;55;22
JR Keller
But you can be an advocate as a colleague, so you can practice this in a department team meeting and recognizing somebody who's helped you put together a slide deck or help you with a difficult customer call. And like recognizing contributions that are often invisible, right, that don't show up in, you know, might not be captured by any of these AI tools, right, that help us capture performance.
00;32;55;22 - 00;33;17;10
JR Keller
But, you know, if you have if you're fortunate to be one of these organizations that has like, like a buddy reward system, right? You can kind of get points, etc. so making sure that you practice doing that and actually thanking people and making sure that that becomes recognition again, I just want to know, like, you can advocate for your friends and colleagues that are more at your level.
00;33;17;13 - 00;33;21;12
JR Keller
You don't have to wait until you're in an executive role to become an advocate.
00;33;21;15 - 00;33;46;14
Melody Kelleher
Yeah, yeah, you're spot on. And you also said something about, you know, giving credit where credit's due and exposure and opportunity for people. Again, that's not just at the executive level. I think all of us that are working on projects just saying, you know what, I didn't work on this, spreadsheet or this presentation was J.R. that put a lot of work into this gives the visibility where it should be.
00;33;46;14 - 00;34;11;19
Melody Kelleher
You know, this is the person that's really rolled their sleeves up and done a lot of hard work. You know, I, I have to also admit, I work for a company where we have a very good culture. You know, I'm very proud of the culture that we have. If you work for a company where maybe the culture is not like that, let's say, for example, everyone's competing for the same role or, you know, there is this culture of taking credit for everything when actually there were other people that worked on it.
00;34;11;21 - 00;34;38;14
Melody Kelleher
You know, we can't be naive to think that it doesn't exist. It does. There are there are companies like that, but it takes 1 or 2 people to change that. And it is very, contagious. So if you as a person are seeing this happen around you, be bold enough and courageous enough to say, you know what, I'm not going to be like that, and I am going to help others rise because you rise by lifting others, and people will know this about you.
00;34;38;20 - 00;35;06;01
Melody Kelleher
And it goes back to what we said at the beginning relationships, reputation and results. If you behave that way, people will gravitate towards you because they see you as a leader. Was no title, and they're going to want you to be on their team and they're going to want to work with you. So, you know, it's a pretty deep conversation because there's lots of factors of culture and what your people leader is like, or there's somebody that is a good advocate themselves.
00;35;06;03 - 00;35;36;27
JR Keller
Yeah. Now, you know, I think because you have such a great culture of advocacy already at Baker Hughes, you know, aside from sort of individuals and just engaging in the behaviors that they'd like other people to see, you know, are there any other organizational conditions or trainings or reward practices or something that if folks are in organizations that maybe aren't currently supporting this culture, are there bigger picture things that organizations can do to sort of build up a culture of this?
00;35;36;29 - 00;36;03;14
Melody Kelleher
Yeah, I mean, I would encourage anybody that's a decision maker in terms of hiring, promoting building teams or creating opportunities for others to always look around the room and see who else should be in this room. You know, you don't want to surround yourself with people that look and sound the same as you, and that will agree to everything you're you think you want to have people around you that are going to say, you know what, I think you're missing this.
00;36;03;14 - 00;36;25;11
Melody Kelleher
And why don't we consider this person on the team? Because they might bring something different to the table. My boss actually does this really, really well. Whenever we're talking about different talents and, you know, moving people internally around the organization, he will always ask the same question, which is, what else can they do? We are not just one thing.
00;36;25;11 - 00;36;54;15
Melody Kelleher
You know, like we said at the beginning, do we have many transferable skills. And so just asking yourself, what else can that person do? What else could I do? What, you know, could I be on a project or in a different forum really helps to bring that visibility and opportunities to people in an organization. So I think for for that specific question, my advice would be, if you are somebody who can influence and have an ability to help others rise, start asking yourself these questions.
00;36;54;15 - 00;37;14;20
Melody Kelleher
Who should be in this room? That's not here? What else can people do? And let's give them an opportunity. We have the slogan called Stretch beds, where somebody is a good employee. Maybe they don't have all the experience, but I'm willing to take a bet on them and give them a stretch bet, meaning I'll put them in this role.
00;37;14;22 - 00;37;28;01
Melody Kelleher
I know they'll be successful because they have all of these great behaviors and some experience, but they might be a big learning curve for them. But I'm willing to do it. So you know that some other things that we do as well that work well.
00;37;28;03 - 00;37;48;02
Melody Kelleher
I have a question for you. Are we talking a lot about internal advocates? Right. And you touched on it a little bit through the conversation, but what are your thoughts on finding advocates outside of the organization? Is it worth the time? And what are some unique benefits that they could bring to to you?
00;37;48;04 - 00;38;10;29
JR Keller
Yeah, I think, unequivocally, yes. It's worth the time and energy to, to find advocates that are not just in your current organization. Think you talked about this way at the beginning, is that oftentimes, you're probably not going to be at the same organization for a really long period of time. So one is advocates outside the organization can help you find other opportunities, right?
00;38;10;29 - 00;38;50;20
JR Keller
Not in your organization, for careers for the future may even be aware of other training programs or degree programs or other opportunities that might help you develop your skills and find your passion. You know, I think it's also worth thinking about the fact that, you know, when we think about careers, I think certainly early on, and certainly in my corporate career early on, I'm sure early in your career, I think often we think about getting promoted, like it's really kind of the natural thing, like, I want to advance, I want to move up, I want to promotion, I want the next title because you get further a little bit further on in your
00;38;50;20 - 00;39;10;15
JR Keller
career. You start to realize that it's not necessarily just the next promotion, but it's like, what am I interested in? Where can I show my skills in different ways? What opportunities? So it could be like, you want to serve on a nonprofit board, right? Or you want to be on a school board or, you know, any one of a million things?
00;39;10;18 - 00;39;29;29
JR Keller
Maybe you want to be at a corporate board. Doesn't have to be boards. I know I just gave three different board examples. But those are different ways to both gain new opportunities, gain visibility, sort of stretch your skills in more interesting ways, keep you engaged and interested even if you're kind of, like, maybe a little bit plateaued in your current role in an organization.
00;39;30;01 - 00;39;41;29
JR Keller
And I think those things are super valuable, and you can't necessarily count on individuals in your organization to be looking for things outside the organization for you.
00;39;42;01 - 00;40;04;20
Melody Kelleher
Yeah. You know, you're you're, reminded me of something really important, actually. Somebody was recently asking me this, so I'm like, how do you know so many people? And I was like, I, I didn't really think that. I didn't know so many people, but I think it's a lot of what you just touched on. If I think about how we ended up here today, you know, you and I were in a, in a totally different meeting on a totally different topic, and we started talking about advocacy.
00;40;04;20 - 00;40;23;07
Melody Kelleher
And, you know, we both share this passion for the topic. And, you know, fast forward a few months and here we are talking about it with lots of different people tuning in to to hear these insights. So having these connections outside of the workplace are really important. And it can be through charities. It can be through boards like you mentioned.
00;40;23;07 - 00;40;43;17
Melody Kelleher
It could be through these different institutions that maybe you associate yourself with. And it is again about building relationships and networks around do that. If an opportunity comes up that I know now to think of J.R. It's like we had this great conversation. It was really engaging. So now any time something pops up, I will think of you.
00;40;43;17 - 00;41;07;29
Melody Kelleher
And that's how natural advocacy really works is. Are you going to be a person that people remember so that when something comes up, I know to mention your name, you know, and I think that thinking about it that way will also encourage you to think about who you have in your circle. And maybe if there's a gap, you can go and seek to fill that gap.
00;41;07;29 - 00;41;24;22
Melody Kelleher
So being with charities or churches or institutions or boards or education, colleges and things like that, it really it's up to you how you go out and approach that. But you just never know what doors can open unless you put yourself out there a little bit.
00;41;24;24 - 00;41;42;25
JR Keller
Well, I have a I have a follow up question that pairs naturally, with what I think is great advice. From Kimberly. Is there a limit to the number of advocates one can have? What is the ideal number? How do you think about how do we think about that.
00;41;42;27 - 00;42;11;23
Melody Kelleher
As love that I don't know if anybody has ever seen the YouTube video called The Lone Dancer. If you're in front of your computer after this, put in YouTube dancing alone or a lone dancer. And basically the gist of this is there is a person at a music festival and he's dancing by himself. And at first everybody's looking at this person and they're laughing and they're filming them because there's this one person in a field of people dancing alone.
00;42;11;25 - 00;42;36;24
Melody Kelleher
But slowly, one by one, people start joining him, and eventually it is a huge crowd of people dancing with this lone dancer. And so the message is, you can create a community or a movement by just starting. I don't think there is a secret number to having X amount of advocates. You know, I think it's about having healthy relationships and also about giving back as well.
00;42;36;24 - 00;42;53;19
Melody Kelleher
And and I really loved what you said. Your advocacy is a two way street. I might be advocating for somebody when, not when they're not in the room, but they're going to be advocating for you as well because they're going to be like, you know, I reached out to J.R. I asked for advice. He gave me great career advice.
00;42;53;21 - 00;43;16;04
Melody Kelleher
He knows where I stand. He knows what my ambitions are. But I really value him as a leader because he thought about me when there was a project that came up. This is something that gives back as well. And so don't only think about it as one sided, think about advocacy is how many good, healthy relationships do I have out there that really know what I can contribute, and also how can I help them as well?
00;43;16;07 - 00;43;27;10
Melody Kelleher
I hope that helps. It's a great question, Kimberly, but I definitely wouldn't put a number on it. I think being actively building relationships is is the goal.
00;43;27;12 - 00;43;47;18
JR Keller
Yeah. Let me let me throw out a slightly different question for Maria. It's a little bit of a career advice question, but I think it fits really nicely into the conversation that we've had. But she says that she accepted a role that turned out to be much different than it was presented. Not super surprising. Happens to happens to a lot of us over time.
00;43;47;21 - 00;44;11;08
JR Keller
How do you position yourself, for the next step when your title doesn't reflect your skills or the level of work you've actually been doing? So I think part of that may be thinking about your elevator pitch and how you talk about things, when maybe you feel like you're, you know, you know, I'm in talent enablement, but really you actually do 18 different things.
00;44;11;08 - 00;44;16;04
JR Keller
A Baker Hughes, like, how do you. Yeah. How do you build that story.
00;44;16;07 - 00;44;36;29
Melody Kelleher
By the way? That's the challenge of job descriptions today because there's always that like lost sentence that's like not limited to this because there's always going to be things that maybe come to you that are not necessarily part of your job description. I think without knowing the actual situation in detail, I'll give you my thoughts. But of course, having the full background really helps.
00;44;36;29 - 00;44;58;29
Melody Kelleher
But you know, if you're hired into a role and that role substantially changes like more than 30% has completely changed, then I think it definitely warrants a conversation with your with your leader. Right. You know, I don't know, a lot of organizations do talent management processes where you have like mid-year reviews and end of year reviews or frequent conversations.
00;44;58;29 - 00;45;17;02
Melody Kelleher
And I would use one of those to say, look, you know, I'm really enjoying my role, but I've noticed over the last, you know, several months that things have changed a little bit. And it could be that maybe the organization has evolved, maybe the team has changed, has somebody on the team left the company, and now you're picking up the slack?
00;45;17;04 - 00;45;36;01
Melody Kelleher
Is it that you went through an acquisition and there's a new company in the mix, so there could be lots of various things that have happened. But I think good communication with your leader on the role that I thought I was in is changing. That's fine. Let's talk about it. But at a point in time I would like to think about what's next.
00;45;36;03 - 00;45;58;11
Melody Kelleher
You know, I'm happy to deliver in this role. I'm not going to leave you hanging, but I'm also ready for my next challenge or I'm ready for a change. Or maybe this isn't the role that I thought it was like just I think the relationship with your manager in this situation is really, really important. And just coming at it with just transparency, but also remember the humility and the passion.
00;45;58;13 - 00;46;20;16
Melody Kelleher
If you are loyal to the company and you enjoy the company and you're like your manager in the team, you want to phrase it as, look, I like what I'm doing. I'm not complaining. But I also recognize that things have changed. So help me understand from your side what's changed. You know, it's just permanent is a temporary. Do you just need help short term, or is this actually what the role is?
00;46;20;16 - 00;46;25;17
Melody Kelleher
And maybe I misunderstood the job description.
00;46;25;20 - 00;46;45;05
JR Keller
Now I have a question for you that I didn't ask you to prepare for, so I'm gonna throw one I think is is a good one, but but I think it happens in reality. So you're part of the reason that people will often seek out advocates or, you know, may actively is because they don't necessarily have the best relationship with their direct manager.
00;46;45;11 - 00;47;05;16
JR Keller
I mean, ideally, you have a great manager because with all the research says, and I think most people's experiences probably are is, you know, your direct manager can have a tremendously positive influence on your career, your development, your level of engagement. Like if you have a great manager, right, say thank you because you're really lucky and it can really, really help.
00;47;05;16 - 00;47;29;19
JR Keller
And we all probably have a somebody in our career that we can remember is kind of that that leader that we aspire to be like, but if I don't have a great manager, right. And I want to find an advocate, but are there any sort of politics somebody should think about in terms of like building kind of an influencer network that doesn't necessarily include the person that you report to?
00;47;29;21 - 00;48;09;21
Melody Kelleher
Yeah. This is a spicy question, but it's an important one because you're right. In some cases, it's because you feel your manager is not advocating for you, and maybe you're almost stuck. And I would then think to some of those trusted sources that you have, if you have an HR team or person who supports you from an HR perspective, always really good to have a conversation with them if it's not them for you, and maybe you don't have a great relationship with them or they don't exist, then think of maybe a colleague or a peer or somebody else that's trusted in the organization to have a conversation was, you know, as uncomfortable
00;48;09;21 - 00;48;34;18
Melody Kelleher
as it is, I would always encourage clear communication with your leader as well. You know, I if it takes a little bit of courage, but again, if you if you have the right words and you come at it from a calm and humble way, you could say to your manager, look, I, I really love this company. I really care about what we're doing and the work that we're doing.
00;48;34;21 - 00;48;57;27
Melody Kelleher
I feel like I'm a little bit stuck, and I want to know from your side, is there anything I can do to position myself for another opportunity? More challenge? More scope, more responsibility? A promotion, and whatever the, the goal is or whatever the want of the individual is, I do always say try to build that relationship with your manager.
00;48;57;27 - 00;49;21;23
Melody Kelleher
It's the relationship with your manager is really sour. Then that is it's challenging, right? There has to be somebody in the organization you can talk to, you know, a friend or someone. But I would start small and go that way where it starts to get a little bit political. And to your point, where it's a little bit of friction is if you go above the leader and speak to their boss, I've seen where that can be seen as, wait, hold on a minute.
00;49;21;23 - 00;49;35;16
Melody Kelleher
Why didn't they just come and talk to me directly instead of going to this person? I mean, these things happen. People do things, you know, the the follow up question to that could be, what if I have a better relationship with my boss's boss?
00;49;35;18 - 00;49;36;08
JR Keller
Yeah.
00;49;36;10 - 00;49;51;15
Melody Kelleher
You know, hopefully I have a strong sense of confidentiality in the company where you can reach out to some of these trusted advisors and and just ask for advice that. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure those, those scenarios do exist.
00;49;51;17 - 00;50;09;26
JR Keller
Yeah. I don't know if I have great advice, a great answer to my own question. But I do think it is it's worth being thoughtful, right, about thinking about the trade offs in the politics. It's also why I just think it's really like back to your early advice about, like, having an elevator pitch sort of being reciprocal.
00;50;09;26 - 00;50;37;06
JR Keller
When people come to you for advice and ask questions is you're going to like this is an easier situation to deal with when you already do have kind of an existing network, because then you're not, like, kind of stuck on your own and then trying to find somebody else. But I do think, you know, if you are in a position like that, like you do have to like if you don't reach out and ask somebody to advocate for you at some point nobody's going to do it and you are going to be stuck.
00;50;37;06 - 00;50;41;15
JR Keller
And so there is a point where you do need to think about who to who to go to.
00;50;41;18 - 00;51;05;05
Melody Kelleher
You know? Yeah, it's part of the question you asked before. I'm sure there are also situations where individuals may feel like maybe their, their leader is not advocating for them because they feel they may feel threatened by the person that can. Maybe that's because they want to take their job or, you know, are you asking for more scope because you want to take my role?
00;51;05;05 - 00;51;39;09
Melody Kelleher
I'm sure that exists, right? Humans are humans. We we have emotions. We have reactions. And those are not easy situations to navigate as a as a professional, regardless of how senior or if you're early career, mid-career, if you have a situation like that, it's challenging. But there will always I'm a big believer that it doesn't matter the size of the company, there will always be somebody that you can build a relationship and talk to, you know, and do it in a way that can hopefully help your situation and get some good advice to navigate.
00;51;39;09 - 00;52;02;15
Melody Kelleher
But, you know, hopefully a lot of our listeners don't have to go through a situation like that. But being real, you know, they do exist and you just need to go back to the three hours and think about the relationships and the reputation that you have. We all play a role in how people perceive us. You know, if my leader doesn't necessarily think highly of me, why is that?
00;52;02;15 - 00;52;30;23
Melody Kelleher
Where is the communication breakdown? Am I not delivering results? But yet I'm very entitled and want to be promoted. Those two things don't go hand in hand. Is it that I am delivering results? But I'm maybe really quiet in meetings and I'm not contributing, so therefore they don't know that I'm actually really ambitious. There's always a reason behind people's perceptions, so sometimes getting feedback and looking at how you are turning up can help as well.
00;52;30;26 - 00;52;54;02
JR Keller
Now I think feel like give it a bunch of great advice to folks who, that advice to me and advice to everybody that's, that's listening right now, I am curious, since we have been talking about the value of receiving advice, anything you want to double down on that you've talked about, or any additional pieces of advice or guidance that you've been given in your career that you have found especially useful?
00;52;54;05 - 00;53;19;11
Melody Kelleher
I would say if there is one thing I've said today that I hope our listeners go away with, would be is the elevator pitch. It's so important in your career. It's so important. Was making friends outside of work and introducing yourself? You know, I always feel really bad when I'm in a room and somebody gets asked, what do you want to do?
00;53;19;14 - 00;53;46;04
Melody Kelleher
Oh, tell us a little bit about yourself. And people freeze or they say, I don't know. That is your opportunity. So just, you know, spend some time today or this week or this weekend and put pen to paper. If you like to write or type and write down a couple of sentences of who you are. And if you were to meet a stranger in an elevator, how would you introduce yourself and then start to polish that up and practice it and and then revisit it as well?
00;53;46;05 - 00;54;01;02
Melody Kelleher
You know, that elevator pitch may change as you grow and your roles change and your experiences come, but have that in your back pocket because it will help you. What about you? I would love to hear your advice. Is there anything that you you can share?
00;54;01;05 - 00;54;23;09
JR Keller
You know, I think the best piece of advice I got is I'm trying not to tell everybody exactly how old I am, but 20. About 25 years ago, when I first started out after college, I was actually in kind of a long, winding road to get to where I am today. But I started out in corporate finance, and I started out, at Johnson Johnson, which is a company that I still love.
00;54;23;09 - 00;55;02;01
JR Keller
I had a great experience there. I was in this leadership development program for financial leadership development program, and I started off with this cohort of 70 people. Right. So most of us sort of finance or accounting, some MBA, some undergrads. And we were in this two year development program. And I remember that piece of advice I got from the CFO at like at this one particular company within Johnson Johnson that hired me said, when you start this program, you have two ways to view all of your colleagues, and you can view them as competition for becoming a future CFO of the company.
00;55;02;01 - 00;55;28;09
JR Keller
Or you can view them as your people, like your network, your colleagues, the people that are going to champion you and that you were going to champion for the rest of your career. And he's like, I'd much prefer that you go the second route and not think of this as a zero sum competitive game, and that if you're all supporting each other, you're all going to move up faster and build more lasting connections, and you're going to have a better career.
00;55;28;11 - 00;55;44;16
JR Keller
And better relationships. And I think that that sort of that mindset has really served me well. It's something I've tried to carry forward, which is the more that I help advocate for other people, they're going to advocate for me, and everybody's going to be better off for it.
00;55;44;18 - 00;55;58;12
Melody Kelleher
Yeah, I love that advice. I received very similar advice in my career, and I agree with you. It serves you well because that's how you turn up as a colleague and a peer and then a leader. Eventually. So I really love that. Thank you Joe.
00;55;58;15 - 00;56;16;21
JR Keller
Well, Mel, it's always a pleasure to connect and speak with you. I want to thank you and our enterprise partners at Baker Hughes for the production partnership. I also want to thank our audience for joining us. Thank you so much for the great questions, but that we'll see you next time on Cornell keynotes. Thank you everyone.
00;56;16;23 - 00;56;29;13
Keynotes Outro
Thank you for listening to Cornell Keynotes. For more information about this subject, check the episode notes for details and enrollment information for future Cornell keynotes. Subscribe to Stay Connected. Thank you for listening.