Summary:

What do you do when your first leadership role comes with a nightmare boss, a team looking to you for protection, and zero playbook for managing up? Elda shares how she learned to “zoom out” instead of “head down” her way through the storm and why finding allies, mentors, and perspective is the real career insurance policy.

Chapters:

00:00 – When your first leadership role comes with a nightmare boss

03:10 – The pressure of managing peers and managing up

06:45 – Why her old strategy stopped working as a manager

09:30 – The turning point: realizing she needed allies

12:15 – Building relationships beyond your department

15:40 – The mentor she wishes she’d had

18:20 – How “zooming out” changes your career trajectory

21:00 – Staying power in one organization for 20+ years

Host Dr. Jim Kanichirayil: linkedin.com/in/drjimk

Guest Elda De La Pena: linkedin.com/in/elda-de-la-pena-86ab7416

Executive Producer Jim Kanichirayil: linkedin.com/in/drjimk

Music Credit: "Lost in Dreams" by Kulakovka