In this episode of the Revenue Builders podcast, our hosts John McMahon and John Kaplan talk to Articulate’s Chief Revenue Officer Jaimie Buss. Jaimie’s vast experience as an engineer, seller, and then sales leader shows her ability to adapt and overcome challenges, despite learning a little bit differently and having a different educational background from her peers. Jaimie talks about the importance of nurturing new leaders with adequate support, recognizing that there is no one correct career path for everybody, and knowing when you’re ready as you’ll ever be for the next stage in your career.
Additional Resources:
HIGHLIGHTS
- Hard work + adequate support always trumps natural talent alone
- Why Jaimie left engineering and jumped into sales
- People learn in different ways
- Providing support for new leaders: The Rising Star Program
- Not all excellent individual contributors want to be leaders
- Focus on being fair, not on being equal
- An inside look at how Product-Led Growth organizations operate
- Overcoming impostor syndrome
- Be unapologetically present whether at work or with family
QUOTES
Why Jaimie is passionate about supporting new leaders: "A lot of people make the transition into leadership. Maybe they should, maybe they shouldn't. And then even if they should, I feel like there's not a lot of support for people moving into that role."
Jaimie's opinion on companies that force individual contributors to lead: "I think that it's very shortsighted and unfortunate that companies are that way. For folks that are in an individual contributor role and feeling this sense of stigma because you don't want to go into a leadership role, I would say that it sounds like your company's issue, not your issue."
Jaimie's advice for female leaders: "When they talk to me about being nervous to be ready, I tell them, ‘You're never going to feel ready.’ What I'm telling you is, you've been at the top of your game for two years at what you're doing. You've been through this program. You're as ready as you're going to be. You're going to have to go in and you're going to have to figure it out. But that's the same as everybody else."
Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064
