How to Be the Most Authentic and Empowered Leader You Can Be with Valarie Gilbert

In today's episode, Massimo is joined by Valarie, the Founder and CEO of Valiant Coaching.  Her coaching practice includes supporting chief counsels, university deans, as well as senior technology leaders in the  hi-tech industry.  Valarie seeks to empower her clients to be both resilient and confident, helping them to develop leadership and communication skills that build high performing diverse teams that are deliberately inclusive.   Prior to starting Valiant Coaching, Valarie held VP positions at Marriott International, S&P Global, Slalom Build and leadership roles at Cisco Systems, Dell EMC and AT&T Bell Labs.  She has managed projects ranging from the development of Marriott’s Bonvoy mobile application to Cisco Systems’ use of machine translation to deliver multilingual support sites. Valarie holds a Masters in Mechanical & Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and a Bachelors from Carnegie Mellon University.  She serves on a number of advisory boards that focus on the empowerment of young women and people of color; Girl Scouts, Nerdy Girl Success and TY-Education.  She is gleefully married for 35 years and the mother of two amazing women; an attorney and UX designer.

Highlights from today's podcast include:

• Her experience being the first African American female to graduate in metallurgical and mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University
• Where her drive came from to keep going when she could have given up and what it means to be resilient 
• The challenge in accepting compliments and the impact that has on owning one's role as a leader
• The missteps in diversity and inclusion efforts where we undermine the unique needs of each group.
• How people can define success and be proactive about their career
• Valarie’s mission for her coaching company and how she supports minorities

Connect with Valarie:

Website www.valariegilbert.com

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/valariegilbert/