Imagine taking on your first role as a new leader, excited at the opportunity, only to uncover one leadership challenge after another. Not only are you leading your former peers, who are more experienced than you, but two members of your three-person team go out on medical leave and eventually quit. This leaves you with one highly motivated but inexperienced team member to do the work of four people. Oh yeah, and when you ask for support, you’re told “You’ve been through worse”.

How well would you do in that first-time leadership role? Podcast guest, Stacy Vega, is here to recount how her first leadership experience made her feel like a complete failure.

Stacy Vega is the Director of Strategic Planning and Governance for Government Marketing at Elevance Health, where she leads the practice and forum to orchestrate communications to the Medicare population. Stacy is passionate about bridging brands and audiences through compelling storytelling. Outside work, Stacy is a mother to two sons, Ciani and Chancellor, and a dog mom to Nugget.

In this episode, Stacy shares how she landed her first formal leadership role and what drove her to accept the promotion. She describes how she managed with a one-person team and the impact on her mental and physical health. Stacy walks us through what happened when she asked for support and how she recovered. She explains how the whole dumpster fires of an experience made her a better leader and leaves us with wise words on allowing people to be human at work.

Key Highlights

• There are many incentives for taking on a leadership role. A truth Stacy shared was her motivators – more money, visibility, and doing more of the work she enjoyed.
• Leading people with much more experience than her resulted in imposter syndrome.
• It’s not always about experience! Stacy looks for determination, grit, and resourcefulness in team members.
• If poor performance isn’t documented, it’s like it never happened.
• When Stacy didn’t get support from her leader, she had to prioritize on her own and create her own path.
• Her experience set her up to lead during COVID.
• If you show up at work and only have 40% to give, that’s your 100%.
• Change your language from manager to leader. Take the word manager out of your vocabulary.
• You don’t have to give up your humanity to be a leader.
• “Running for president” – you’re who everyone else wants you to be.
• If you’re going to lead formally or informally, you have to figure out who you are first.

Links Mentioned

Stacy’s Tedx Talk

Connect with Stacy on LinkedIn

Full Bio

Stacy Vega is the Director of Strategic Planning and Governance for Government Marketing at Elevance Health, where she leads the practice and forum to orchestrate communications to the Medicare population. 

Stacy is passionate about bridging brands and audiences through compelling storytelling. With a psychology degree from Penn State and a certification in brand strategy from Level C, she strives to impact her field and those she meets.

Outside work, Stacy is a mother to two sons, Ciani and Chancellor, and a dog mom to Nugget. She enjoys mountain retreats and a disciplined fitness routine.

Connect with Stacy to explore the power of storytelling and brand strategy in today’s marketing landscape.