Kate is an international authority on business relationships. On the podcast, she discusses what it means to have a “career,” which is defined not by your title but an accumulation of skills to help you meet your goals. When it comes to meeting those goals – whether it’s building strong business relationships, achieving a career milestone or learning a new skill – it's important to understand that success isn’t a straight path, but a series of sideways movements and sometimes even going backwards.  

 

Key Takeaways

• Kate’s advice to up-and-coming professionals is to disregard the notion of a career ladder; she talks about “career surfing” and how to connect with people who will help you ride the ultimate career wave.
• Kate believes the best leaders have a multitude of skills and are not just subject-matter experts in one niche area. She discusses how to engineer your goals to build a wide range of skills.
• Your goal is really about the accumulation of your skills. Every day you should be doing something that gets you to your goal and sometimes that means taking a step backwards.

About the Guest:

Kate Vitasek is known for her award-winning research and Vested® business model for highly collaborative relationships. Vitasek, a faculty member at the University of Tennessee, has been lauded by World Trade Magazine as one of the “Fabulous 50+1” most influential people impacting global commerce. Her pioneering work has led to six books and her work also won the APICS/Supply Chain Council’s Academic Advancement award for advancing the business. She is internationally recognized for her practical and research-based advice for driving transformation and innovation through highly collaborative and strategic partnerships.