Journey to the Top: Racquel Moses on Career Success

TLDR: Racquel Moses, CEO shares key career success factors from her journey to the top and related advice: use every job to pick up skills that aren't necessarily your strengths - especially business, financial and strategic acumen.

Well, hello, wonderful woman. Over the next months I'm bringing you a four part, series of conversations with the  incomparable Raquel Moses, host of the Getting to the Top podcast.

Raquel has had a storied career that you'll read about below. Currently she's CEO of the Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator, where she works with key stakeholders in governments and the  private sectors to co develop and agree on strategies to drive investment projects across the Caribbean. at scale.

I met Raquel when I was a guest on Getting to the Top. We had the most amazing conversation during which I grabbed onto some steps in and experiences from her career journey and success that will be important to you.

You will find Raquel on LinkedIn and via her Getting to the Top podcast and you will find links below.

Susan: So, Raquel, when I was a guest on your podcast, you explained how you gained your business financial and strategic acumen. Can you quickly summarize the job experiences that got you there and one piece of advice you would pass on to other women?

Racquel: Yeah, you know, it was so funny because , when I watched your TED talk, I was blown away and realized that somehow I had literally fallen into the experience that I needed to propel me to the top. And before you had explained it, I really didn't understand that those were the things that set me apart, but it made it completely clear that those were the things that were my superpowers. 

The first sort of experience that I had that got me into it was that I was temping on the merger between SunTrust and Wachovia that happened a million years ago. And working with the project management team and they talked a lot about strategy and managing the strategy of the merger of the two banks. And so that really got me thinking strategically because you had to manage all of these tasks that related to the combining of the strategy of those two banks.

And then I worked for JP Morgan Chase and despite the size of that bank, they were very good about talking about Why we were doing what we were doing, and it was very clear that we had a challenge with customer service, and we needed to get customers more tied into the to the business in order to move us forward and to give us more time to resolve customer service issues, and that was exposure not only to the strategy of how we manage our small business customers, but also the financial goals. of those small business customers and how that related to the overall financials of the bank.

Susan: Well, that's so interesting. One of my husbands ;-) used to say, people who know what will always work for people who know why. You were getting the whys really early in your career.

Racquel: Yes. And then I also worked for a startup that was doing transitions for law firms in advance of year 2000. That was a big thing. There were fears that tech couldn't  handle the shift from dates beginning with 19 to dates beginning with 20. Fear that planes were gonna be falling out of the sky! This is why all the law firms had to transition their IT systems.

This was the beginning of Microsoft. So you were  transitioning people from WordPerfect and Lotus123 into Microsoft. And because it was such an easy sale, I'd like to say that I was an excellent salesperson, which I was, but it was a really easy sale because you were like shooting fish in a barrel

I sold my quota within the first three months of the year. And then they were like, well, do you want to go home for the next nine months? Or do you want to start  implementing the projects? And I was like, . Let me implement the projects. And so you, you start getting so much exposure.

 Not only to the financials of the business, but also the strategy of the business , because I was like, , why don't you just implement more? And they're like, listen, this is how it works. This is how long it takes to get the engineers , on hand and, and all of these things and our capacity, we can't expand that quickly  to be able to take on any more business.

So we have to grow  in a moderate pace to take up this business.  You're going to have to do something else. So I taught, I project managed,  that breadth of being exposed to businesses from so many different perspectives. I remember one of my guests talked about it as which room you're looking out of, and she's like, think about yourself in a high rise building and whatever window you're facing, you are going to see something completely different from somebody else. It may look similar, but depending on where you are in the building, you'll see something different. 

Susan: It's fascinating to me because you almost have an inverse career experience to what most women have.  Often women start out in sales which brings you right into the heart of the business. and then they have the opportunity to branch out into other experiences that give them a broader view of their company or take them toward looking at strategy development, and execution.

So Raquel, when you reflect on those experiences how would you translate all of that into actionable advice for listeners?

Racquel: My advice for women would be this, and this is different from what I think you will hear from others. There are two completely different schools of thought.

One that says focus only on your strengths and go deep on strengths and ignore your weaknesses because ultimately what will cause you to be successful is how good you are at the things that you are good at.

And then the other school of thought is shore up your weaknesses, make sure that you completely overcome your weaknesses because those are the pitfalls that you're going to face.

My advice is somewhere in the middle.

Make sure that you double down on the things that you are good at and you face those you develop those completely, but also figure out the things that you need to know that you are weak at and do not run from them. Know that it is the most challenging experiences that will help you to develop in those capacities.

I have led so many women who are afraid of financials. And I think  that is the missing piece that is going to help more women to get into leadership roles.

You can't run from it even though we are socialized to think that we are not good at financials. But when you look at who's  running family budgets and the role that women play in consumer buying, we are naturals at numbers. Don't allow anyone to make you believe anything else.

And what you need is more exposure to those numbers, to make sure that you are growing in your comfort and your capacity. Because the more you move up, the more people you manage, and the more that you need to understand their what so that your why can tie into that. This enables you to ensure that you are helping them with strategy, direction, purpose, and understanding how what they're doing fits into the entire puzzle.

So it's really important to absolutely focus on your strengths, but figure out business, financial and strategic acumen. How do you shore up those pieces to make sure that you have the complete picture and are the complete leadership package?

Susan: That's wonderful advice about the combination of both your strengths and your gaps and coming from the successful career as you've had,

And of course I love the fact that you focus on the financials because yes, it is an area that many of us shy away from.  

Racquel: One of my favorite books is Ursula Burns, Where You Are is Not Who You Are. I got an opportunity to meet her and  I thought that the way that she explained how she picked up these these different skills like breadcrumbs moving around the organization and was willing to be challenged so that she grew in her capacity and the magnificent work that she did at Xerox. I think absolutely, if there's something that could help to guide you, Ursula Burns, Where You Are Is Not Who You Are is such a great book.

Susan: I agree. Okay,  wrapping up this part  I look forward to our next conversation.  Raquel, thank you so much...

Go Deeper Links

Link to Racquel's podcast: Getting to the Top

Link to Racquel's interview with me.

Connect with Racquel on Linkedin

Link to What You Do Is Not Who You Are by Ursula Burns