Thasunda Brown Duckett, the President and CEO of TIAA, had a “meteoric rise” in the world of finance. As the former head of Chase Consumer Banking, and now as one two Black women who currently leads a Fortune 500 company, she realized early on that “work life balance” was a myth. Instead, Thasunda lives her life like it’s a diversified portfolio, allocating time and shifting her investment in different areas. So over time, she always outperforms. Tune in to learn how.
In this episode, Thasunda shares:
How to live your life like “a diversified portfolio”
Her secret to building relationships at work
What it means to “rent your title, own your character” at work
Why she almost turned down her dream role
What you need to know to prep for retirement
On Leadership
Thasunda: As a leader, two things can be true. I am broken, at the same time that I still strive to be joyful and to lead this company and to be a good mommy and all the other things that I'm doing. And so I just think knowing what it means to be human and being okay as a leader, not compartmentalizing it and acting as if my heart's not broken and my world has just been turned upside down, I think that's the future of leadership.
On Living Life Like a Diversified Portfolio
Thasunda: I had to acknowledge and say out loud that I only can give a hundred percent. There's no such thing as 110. I had to acknowledge that if I'm hyphenated – an executive, a philanthropist, a daughter, a girlfriend, et cetera – my children don't get a hundred percent of me.
They get like 30%. That's the truth. So once I've acknowledged the truth, then I allocate. So you write down everything that matters to you. Being a sister, a girlfriend, a wife, whatever it is, and you allocate. If everything is allocated in your portfolio, it can only add to a hundred. Here's the point. There will be market volatility. You will have to shift, like when I became CEO at TIAA had to shift my allocation much higher allocated to work. You have to respond to the market.
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