Lydia is currently Executive Vice President Strategy and Development at Signature Consultants, where she’s been the past 10 months. Lydia spent the first 15 years of her career in staffing with Adecco, headed over to Remedy, then WorkforceLogic. Then, after being away from Adecco for 13 years, got called back as an Executive Vice President for their MSP and RPO division, Pontoon.
With Lydia being the middle child between two brothers, she grew up with a competitive streak. She obtained her first recruitment job through a print ad for Adecco when they were hitting about $500M in revenue, and then went on to achieve $28B in revenue during her tenure. Talk about significant growth! Her competitive spirit played a huge role in her own success, as well as Adecco’s.
While onboarding for her newest role as the first female executive for Signature, she found herself listening more than ever. She took the opportunity for what it was: a way to understand the why. She allowed her team to get to know her personally, which in turn softened them to her ideas and put resistance on the backburner. Lydia acknowledges that the background to her success comes from her past experience, “It’s like reading a book for the second time” she says. Although she finds this to be true throughout her day-to-day life, she also realizes that she makes completely different decisions based on the company she’s working with.
As their conversation continues, Lydia shares her opinion on the importance of continuing the conversation about gender in the workplace. She shares that her personal mission is to give women and people of color a voice and a path, while also giving them a way to pay it forward. Lydia stresses the necessity of challenging our own ideas and being more inclusive.
Leslie and Lydia also discuss the power of unapologetic working mothers, surrounding yourself with people who support and challenge you to be better, and the gift of confidence.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed