Advice Received Early On Lasts a Lifetime

Early in your working career, if you’re lucky, you encounter a person who offers advice so profound and sensible it sticks with you for the rest of your life. And when that advice is paired with an environment where you’re empowered to share and lift one another up, you’re able to flourish. That was the case for CSC leaders Kim Andras, Sharee Dorsett, Daria Genovese, and Ally Lewis, who shared the wisdom they received when asked about their leadership experience.

“The best career advice I received was about letting go and enabling others to do what you were doing,” says Kim, senior director in product management and product ownership with the CSC compliance team.

“You have to let others take on the responsibility and delivery on things that you have held near and dear for so long,” she says. By doing so, she adds, you’re giving someone else an opportunity to learn and find value in the work they’re doing, which is exactly what people did for her. “They recognized that I had skills, talent, and a passion for the work, the company, and for the people. The best advice I’ve ever received is to make sure to do that for others,” says Kim, who has been with CSC for almost 24 years. The ability to not only work together, but to recognize when to collaborate with teammates, is a consistent trait among successful leaders at CSC. The company is built on teams and CSC actively encourages crossfunctional collaboration that allows us to produce results that are superior to individual efforts alone.

Sharee learned early on to own her career journey. “Don’t default to blaming others if you’re not where you want to be. And I live by that every day,” says the CLS training leader. “If I don’t like my life or something that’s happening, I don’t automatically start blaming others—I look at what I’ve been doing to get to that place,” says Sharee, a nine-year CSC employee. Launched in 2019, CSC’s Grow Your Career campaign has been actively empowering employees and leaders alike to take ownership of their career journeys. Through a robust amount of LinkedIn Learning course offerings, peer mentorship programs, and more, CSC provides the resources and support necessary for employees to set their own paths.

Sometimes the advice is pretty basic. “I remember being told not to be afraid to ask for help,” says Daria, a senior service manager. “I know that sounds simple, but I think it’s also really powerful—especially for someone in a leadership role,” says the eight-year CSC employee.

“When you ask for help, you demonstrate to your team that you’re human and you have limitations,” Daria says. “I’ve learned so much about people and their strengths and abilities that I might have missed had I not asked for their help. Asking for help will also broaden your perspective and enable you to determine the best possible solution.” Having direct, open, and honest communication about your needs and expectations has helped tremendously in moving careers forward and helping teams to reach new heights. It’s also a value that permeates the company as a whole.

Ally, a CLS service team leader, said she was advised about the “circle of influence” concept. “Don’t waste your time, energy, and effort around things that are outside of your control,” she says. “You need to focus your energy around things within your control that you can actually influence.

“I initially learned this concept back when I worked in retail,” Ally says. “They refer to this as ‘controlling your controllables,’ but I like ‘circle of influence’ better. It makes sense in all contexts, personally and professionally, and is definitely the best advice I ever received. Stop wasting time acting like the victim, stop thinking, ‘Why do things happen to me?’ and start thinking about what you’re going to do about it. You have 100% control over your response to it. So what do you do at that point is entirely up to you,” she says.

At CSC, the success of one is the success of many. We create an environment where you’re empowered to share advice, coach others, and support their growth, while also developing your own skills and competencies. We have the resources and programs to help you thrive in your career and are committed to helping you meet your professional goals.