Becoming an effective leader is not something that develops in a short amount of time. It requires perspective and experience across various facets of life that play a role in a leader’s personal and professional development. SMU Continuing and Professional Education (CAPE) instructor Kara Schillaci understands the complexities of people development more than most after dedicating her entire career to it.
“Leadership is a journey, not a destination. The journey starts with your ‘why?’ Identifying your purpose as a leader is powerful for you and those around you. Being a life-long learner makes us better leaders. There are many ways to learn via feedback, courses, reading, listening, engaging, and doing. Individuals, teams, and organizations look to leaders to be strategic and to transform to meet every changing expectation and to imagine the future.”
Schillaci is the Vice President of Talent Management and Transformation at Rexel. Prior to Rexel, she was an executive with PepsiCo serving in many roles including leading the global learner experience, North America leadership development, talent management and functional capability building. Before her work at PepsiCo, she served as a consultant supporting large and small organizations.
Nurturing Talent in Tomorrow’s Leaders
Schillaci’s background is deeply rooted in global talent development and transformation. She is passionate about creating future-ready leaders to help guide organizations through dynamic and shifting business landscapes to meet their goals and needs. Doing so requires being able to identify and nurture talent that is present in everyone.
“I love elevating women and developing leaders,” says Schillaci. “I believe everyone has more potential to unlock. My goal is to build talent by sharing leading research, my experience, and by providing an engaging format for our students to learn from each other.”
Schillaci believes SMU’s Women in Leadership: Influence and Impact Certificate program can provide professionals and individuals with perspectives, skills and knowledge to tackle the leadership challenges of tomorrow. Schillaci teaches the Leadership Starts from Within module, which covers how to increase your growth mindset to help you continually learn and evolve as an individual and leader.
“Every time I teach the program, I learn from the students and am inspired by the conversation,” says Schillaci. “The live discussion is my favorite part of the program. It provides a forum to wrestle with topics, discuss what makes them hard to implement, and challenge ourselves to apply new approaches. I too learn from the live discussions and am delighted to discover the variety of experiences, identities, professions and perspectives from each of the students.”
Enhancing the Student Experience
The online Women in Leadership program is designed to empower women leaders of tomorrow to define who they are as leaders and leverage an academic curriculum tailored to enhance their career potential.
“The program is designed with the latest research in leadership development with a focus on women leaders. It provides an opportunity to interact with an impact partner in one-on-one settings, instructors who are experts in their fields, and provides a live and online forum for learning,” Schillaci says.
Schillaci believes an online format can be effective for professionals seeking to boost their career prospects or personal development. She offers some key advice for online participants of the program:
“Go one level deeper in your responses. As you write, ask yourself ‘Why? How do I want to change the narrative? What’s next?’ Explore comments from other students to broaden your perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask questions!”