Imagine being fresh out of college and being hired in your first leadership role. You fly across the country for a three-month training stint, excited about your new job and ready for the challenge. Four weeks in, you get some upsetting news – you’ve been replaced by someone more experienced.

What would you do?  Today’s podcast guest, Karen Suchsland, tells us how she reacted to that exact situation and how it influenced the rest of her 20-year leadership career.

Karen Suschland has 20 years of experience successfully leading high performing teams across multiple industries and disciplines. She’s known for fostering collaborative team environments that allow team members to learn, grow professionally and successfully deliver on company objectives while having a healthy dose of fun. 

In this episode, Karen recounts her bumpy entrance into the world of corporate leadership, when she was taken out of the role she was hired for and reslotted into a special projects role. She shares how that felt, who she leaned on for some honest feedback, and how she recovered. Finally, Karen offers some advice on what to do when your career gets diverted into a new direction.

Key Highlights:

• Karen’s experience showed her early on, that things can change in an instant. You have to be flexible and see where in the company you can add value. Raise your hand, make yourself available, and don’t be afraid to learn.
• She had a chip on her shoulder, which made her work harder.
• Karen can look back and realize they did the right thing for the company. Her boss saw the better fit for both her and her replacement.
• The special projects role she was given was a blessing in disguise. It helped her grow into project management, where she got to know the business. She ended up enjoying the wider view of the company. Also, it was a great training ground for leadership.
• Make yourself open to opportunities. Keep your eyes open for opportunities and/or verbalize it.
• Be honest with yourself. Know what you’re good at and what you can bring to the table. Leverage your strengths.
• Karen’s boss delivered the news directly and timely, which made all of the difference. Sometimes you have to deliver bad news – be direct, clear, and kind.
• You’ll learn from all your leaders – both the good and bad. Decide what you want to take from the leaders you work for and what you want to change.

Full Bio

Karen Suchsland has depth and breadth of experience successfully leading high performing teams across multiple industries and disciplines. She is known for fostering collaborative team environments that allow team members to learn, grow professionally and successfully deliver on company objectives while having a healthy dose of fun. She is a certified Project Management Professional and has a MBA from Meredith College.