Young Professionals Advisory Council
Stephen Powell
Membership Information:
Member Since: 2022Contact Information:
Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephendonpowell/Employment:
Job Title: Chief of Staff for Global SolutionsCompany: Cisco
Expertise:
- Employee Engagement
- Stakeholder Management
- Change Implementation
Biography:
Bio
Wanted to go into investment banking, worked for Royal Bank of Scotland, loved competitive nature, but started discovering he was more attracted on work of shifting company culture of throwing under the bus, to lift where we stand and work as a better team. Let's start teaming and have a strong sense of trust instead of seeing people as your enemy, started implementing changes in the bank, then saw I could do this as a consultant. So Went to school and got my MBA, thought I would go back to finance industry and do change management, that was initial intent, had offers from financial firms then I met Greg Tasamale, he jumped from one raft to the next and tackled me, and introduced me. Hearing from him about the impact you can have on the business and hearing about Cisco's culture transformation made my shift from Finance to Tech an easy transition. I came to Cisco and worked in compensation, working in culture change and management and employee experience over last five years. Cisco does development program with 3 different types of rotations, towards middle rotation a SVP approached me to become his Chief of Staff, asked me to run his Global Sales and Marketing HR Team, that was my first Chief of Staff role, then he left and another SVP asked me to be her Chief of Staff. In the process of deciding what to do next.
How Can You Give?
"Being transparent with people, painting a real picture, coaching them through getting into roles, what type of career to go after, One of my strengths is coaching. A huge part of my role is consulting and coaching them, helping them get to a conclusion vs. making that decision for them. A deep question, letting you pause and reflect at what you are really trying to get at. Think through all their options, if it doesn't play out it's not the end of the world. There are a lot of other options, where 2 years down the road you would be a junior consultant in PWC and we can get you in a different company where you align with your passions."