hello Victoria welcome to all ears English how are you today I'm awesome thanks for having me
here oh I'm so excited I love interviewing guests on our show and I'm just going to introduce you
for a second here to our listeners so listeners today I have Victoria Peltier on the show Victoria
is a 20-year corporate executive 20-year plus corporate executive and board director who is
currently a managing director at Accenture and has worked at the leadership level for
IBM and American Express she was nicknamed a 2022 top 30 most influential business leader
in Tech by CIO look and she's been nicknamed the turnaround Queen by former colleagues and
employers because she inspires and empowers her team and clients to change their mindsets to go
ahead and drive growth for business leadership and culture welcome to the show again Victoria
it's quite a bio we have a lot of things to talk about here today you've done a lot of great things
in the corporate world and then she achieved an incredible level of corporate success we're going
to talk today about this idea of turning things around so it starts with your story of things that
you went through as as a kid growing up adversity overcoming adversity what is your story where did
you start in the world to eventually get to where you are today what can you share with us
well what I'll tell you first Lindsay is probably 10 years ago I would not have
shared the story this broadly but the reality is as I was coaching and mentoring others and
trying to get them to understand how to achieve and overcome obstacles I couldn't I realized I
couldn't do that authentically if I didn't share my own story yeah and so the the turnaround Queen
does start as you know the turnaround child so I'm born to a drug addicted teenage mother who
is exceptionally abusive to me and was in and out of the child welfare system I am however one of
the fortunate ones who was adopted and you know to parents who loved me very much but so economically
were a little lower on on the scale and my my dad was a School Janitor and my mom a secretary
and at one point I think I was 11 or 12. my mom said Tori you need to do better than us and she
meant you know pursue my education and make sure vocationally I was achieving more but that is my
why if you want to you know Simon Sinex yeah I start with why this this is mine she she never
had to say that to me because I was determined I would be better than biology or circumstance and
and pro at the time I thought it was about proving to the world that I was better than all of that
and so I knew I was going to drive super hard and that's that's my why and that's where I've
been so driven from a career and subsequently a little less about career and more about the
broader impact that I want to have oh I love it I love it so important to have that why we talk
about this on the show a lot for our listeners you know I think our listeners are really going to be
able to relate today we all have our own personal struggles and our listeners have an additional
challenge of doing business in English in a second language which is quite challenging but it is so
important to have that why so I want to kind of dig into your story a little bit more and ask you
a few more questions but I would love if you have for our listeners today Victoria three tips on how
to turn things around how do what did you do like what were the key things if you can think back the
three key things that you did that let you achieve this incredible level of corporate success you
know leadership level at IBM Accenture Amex these are huge global companies how did you get there
and how can our listeners do it too well the first thing somewhat related to that story of having
this great adversity was learning how to have what I call a healthy level of resilience I wouldn't
say I was always healthy you know building up walls protecting myself from getting hurt that's
not the healthy version so learn how to do that and being really grounded in self-awareness when
I had an emotion or a reaction or action um to suffering so that would be one how to deal with
that a much healthier way and process some of those things and just by the way take one step
you know one foot in front of the other and making progress towards whatever goal or objective I had
I love that yeah let me stop you right there so how did you get this so a healthy level of
resilience resilience is a huge phrase that I think definitely comes up in when we're talking
about success anyone who's achieved any level of success in any aspect of life is resilient how
did you learn that skill to be resilient was that something that was that you trained yourself on or
did it just come through having these experiences I mean do we have to have such difficult
experiences to eventually achieve that's it what do you think what are your thoughts there I
um I I I think it's a it's a combination of a couple of things and so much like nature
nurture so I think there's some kind of a DNA in me that has you know allowed me to be my
my best friend is nicknamed me Turtle you know perfect Superior I can shoulder a lot but I'm
quite marshmallow inside and all soft right yeah so that's a bit of the DNA I've just built that
way but I do I think I it's like a muscle also I had to learn some things and there were a couple
pivotal moments for me one on the personal front around relationships and I remember a partner
that I had said you know you need to let me in you need to bring down your walls so that one
and it is you know I learned I had a nickname of the Iron Maiden and I was shot like kind of
crushed me going back to the turtle I'm like all soft and marshmallow I cry at the Humane Society
commercials I wasn't showing up that way at work I thought I needed to wear this mask
because I was I was fearful and and insecure and a little bit of an imposter syndrome I was also
young I was the only woman I'm part of the LGBT community so there was all these reasons I thought
I had to show up a certain way and so I had unlearned I had to lean into something that
made me really uncomfortable and that was being vulnerable that was sharing my story
showing up in a much more authentic way so all of those have contributed to this better way of
being resilient and handling challenges that come my way I love it it is really interesting when we
we start to understand how people see us from the outside when sometimes it is completely different
from how we see ourselves fascinating so all of these factors so it's not just any one thing it's
a combination as you said it's a combination of kind of the learning and the DNA what's already
inherent inside of you which created that healthy resilience I love it so that is kind of the first
tip for our listeners here is develop that healthy resilience right have models have people that can
reflect back what they see but also have a good sense of being in touch with yourself
right Victoria and who knowing who you are yeah yeah 100 yeah okay what would be the second thing
that our listeners could think about if they want to overcome their own adversity what do you think
uh I think you know adversity whether it's an obstacle or a challenge put in front of us I
think we have the opportunity I often tell people you are the CEO of brand U and so you you take
charge completely do not put whether it's your career let's just focus on career for a second
like do not put that in the hands of someone else so if you aren't successful in achieving the the
role that you want or you know get getting that next job at a certain company then I say that's
an opportunity to look really um inwardly around that and also talk to others and so this is where
the importance of networking and having mentors from a variety of different places is really
important but that comes down to you know our own commitment to ensuring our skills are really
relevant and we are perform High performing in those skills and it's really interesting I've
seen over these last couple of decades the shelf life of skills shrinking dramatic when you think
about technology and how um you know the future of work looks like now not just where it's getting
done but by whom and how yes oh fascinating I love it and so these skills that we're building so it
sounds like you're saying you know don't wait for for example your employer to teach you something
or force you to learn something on the job we're out there gaining those skills understanding what
our gaps are is that right absolutely I think you need to make yourself relevance learn the skills
that are appropriate to be successful in your current role and Lindsay I'll tell you one of the
most important things I think is when you start in any role or organization is be really clear
in understanding how success is measured what does success look like how will my performance
review be you know formulated at the end of the year and making sure that you're aligning your
skills and performance specifically to those one and that's for for future and for now today but
also the relevancy for future so being connected to where's the business moving what kind of skills
might I need in the future and how do I develop those without waiting for them to your point
for someone to drag you along to those training courses yeah it's so good I think often we have
a tendency to kind of you know often you'll ask someone how did you get your job you say I fell
into it I don't love that answer because it kind of it it signifies a sense of you know passivity
in in our career just kind of moved this way and I fell into it right even if we're not working
for ourselves there's still a certain level of control we can take over where we're going and
that's exactly what you're talking about here Victoria so good so learn the skills we need
figure out what they are and I love what you said at the end make sure you understand how success
is being measured it might be pretty different from what you think right exactly exactly okay
is there a fine I mean we've already gotten tons of value here this is fantastic is there a final
tip our listeners should keep in mind of how they could overcome their own difficulties whether it's
language or another scenario in life anything else I think there's an incredible opportunity
um to Pivot and recognize that it is it's okay for us to make change so whether that's you know
someone who's a new immigrant to the country and is learning different language they might
have to do some different things as they gain work experience and go forward I think a lot about this
as I talk to people around personal branding yes I needed to Pivot I was known as The Iron Maiden and
that was not the kind of leader I would want to work for it actually wasn't who I was but clearly
that was people's perception so when overcoming that obstacle I needed to Pivot I needed to do
something very different to rebuild my brand in the way in which I wanted people to know
who I was you know I think like personal brand is what people say about you when you're not in the
room yes and so I I think your listeners should recognize that when there's adversity in whether
it's this new situation they're stepping in or in my instance where I had to Pivot make a change in
terms of the way I was being received that again I built a plan around that I needed to be recognize
who my audience was make sure that the message was resonating with them I was consistent and I was
showing up not only with the Advent of online and Linkedin and I'm an early LinkedIn adopter you can
show up one way online but there you know my kids will joke I need to start saying IRL in real life
like there's a way you need to show up as well and so I would tell your listeners that you know
they they can pivot they can make a change they can be really strategically intentional
about what that change is based upon adversity or new circumstances that they're dealing with
are yeah so we're never locked into being defined by what people see us as right it may not be true
if we decide that's not how we want to be seen we can always pivot and I love that word it's
so reflective of how technology pivots nowadays and how we can in our careers in the way that
we're seeing if we as you said you set up a plan for Success you knew exactly what you were going
to do and how you were going to do it this is awesome well this is a really nice sneak peek
I feel like our listeners would love to hear more from you Victoria of what you're doing it
sounds like you're doing a little bit of public speaking can you tell our listeners where to find
you online to learn more yeah well I've been really intentional around my branding so you
could Google me and I'm the majority of the first mini pages that come up but the best way honestly
is through I have a personal website which is Victoria Dash peltier.com it can take them to
any other social platform that they wish and public you know all the content I publish tends
to go there and get pushed out perfect I love it well thank you for coming on the show today our
episodes are nice and short but this is I feel like we've gotten a ton of value and advice I
think our listeners are definitely going to be inspired to look at their you know their scenario
what challenges they have ahead of us and we all have those challenges and how can we turn things
around and have an incredible uh career of success congratulations on what you've done in your career
thanks Lindsay thanks for having me on thank you so much have a good one foreign [Music]