A It starts with self-awareness. For
some people it’s the right decision
and for others it isn’t, given their
circumstances. But it’s a question they should ask themselves
every year because circumstances
change. People can also do it by the
assignments they take. They think,
“If my job isn’t changing, I’m not
making progress,” but if you work
on important, difficult projects and
assignments that broaden your
view and bring you into contact
with other people in the organization, those can be some of the
most valuable career experiences
you can have.
Q What role has mentoring
played in your career?
assisted by people who have more
experience, more perspective and
can give counsel and guidance.
You have to look at yourself and
determine what’s important to
you and your family. Are you
willing to pay the price associated
with different assignments and
progression paths?
Q How do you make people from
underrepresented groups feel that
Aetna is a company where they
can reach their full potential?
A It starts with having a leadership team that is diverse and gives
everyone the opportunity to see
themselves, or someone who is
closer to themselves. It’s also about
placing diversity as one of the criti-
I know people in here have really
invested a lot in things, like how
we structure the talent pipeline,
making sure that we’re putting
people in early in their career who
represent a diverse talent pool.
It’s about making sure that you’re
managing the talent-development
process in a way that ensures there
is diverse representation and that
people [who come from a variety of
backgrounds] have an opportunity
to show their ability to produce
results. There are lots of people
who are one level, two levels, three
levels down, many of whom have
the potential to achieve very executive senior-level ranks who will
eventually emerge as a chief executive officer of corporations.
“EVERY YEAR you should be 15 PERCENT BETTER than
you were the year before. If you’re not doing that,
you’re really not reinventing yourself and living
up to your potential.”
A I really didn’t have a lot of role
models. When I was starting out,
the only diverse candidates you
would see in companies might
have been someone who was
an equal-opportunity officer.
“Community relations” was the
other euphemism that was used,
so there really wasn’t a generation
of business executives who were
running corporations or major
divisions. So I tried to learn
from everyone that I worked
with. My experience was that
you could always benefit from
the exposure that you had from
senior executives. Mentors can be
extremely helpful, but the person
really has to take responsibility
for managing their own career,
cal elements. That means bonus
funding for the company is in part
dependent upon how we do in
achieving our diversity objectives.
It’s also important that we define
diversity broadly, not only in the
context of employment but in the
context of vendor relationships,
how we think about serving our
customers and that we view it as a
business imperative that will help
us be successful.
Q What do major corporations
have to do to ensure senior
black executives reach their full
potential?
A I believe the ranks of senior executives within corporate America
will become increasingly diverse.
Q What would you like your
ultimate legacy to be at Aetna?
A My focus is on making Aetna
a constituent-preferred organization, with employees as a critical
constituent. We want to be the
place where high-performing
people want to grow and develop
… [and] be in a positive, tough
environment where you’re held
accountable for producing results.
When you don’t produce results,
it doesn’t make you a bad person,
it makes you someone who may
not be in the right assignment. It’s
about winning in the marketplace
and winning the war for talent and
attracting a very diverse and able
work force that produces superior
results for our customers.
