Rania Succar started as an Investment Banker in the US , moved to become a Business Analyst in Dubai, then a leap to Director of brand solutions & innovation in Google and now she is Vice President in Intuit in charge of QuickBooks Payments and Capital. She has 330 employees under her and still, individuals point to her as the best boss possible. How does she do it?
How did you leap and who helped you?
Rania grew up in Michigan but her family came from Suria and she believes just having them so driven played a big part in the foundation of her ambition. She started with the most prestigious role she could get - Investment Banking in Merrill Lynch. The pressure and sheer feeling that she is never good enough made this extremely tough but she believes that persevering through these rough times made her stronger.
Over time she started thinking about what would make her happy and saw that impact played a big role. So instead of continuing to private equity or investing as she was expected, she decided to follow her heart. She also focuses on giving back in various non-profits which she says also taught her leadership in different capacities.
She left Google years later for the same reason - she wanted accountability & ownership. As Rania says "The better you connect to who you are and what you love - you will feel more alive and excel in what you do.
How are you Empowering individuals on your team?
First of all, Rania says, her team feels how excited she is about what she is doing. Excitement is contagious and brings out the best in people.
Then as a leader, you also need to recognize the special talents on your team. You need to listen carefully and notice what makes each person tick.
Surround yourself with experts so that they can become the source of all the great ideas.
What are your tips for Career Leap?
Surround yourself with great leaders that you can truly learn from and establish a growth mindset. Observe everything they do from 1-on-1s, what integrity means to them, how do they stand up for employees, run rapid experiments in the business and more. Learning leadership from great leaders is absolutely the best way.
Also as you climb up the ladder, you need to transition from an operator to an empowering leader. This is tough for many because they used to be hands-on and now need to back off. The better they will be at this, the stronger their team will become.
Of course, as a leader hiring great people, mentoring them and retaining them through empowerment is key.
My goal is to help professionals who feel stuck in their job or feel they want to do more, reinvent their career, so they can leap to leadership, land the job of their dream or start a business, building a reputation in their field and creating the impact, growth, pay and lifestyle they want for themselves. My dream is to inspire people to become the best version of themselves.
I had to reinvent myself countless of times: Engineer-> Technical Sales-> Product Manager -> VP Technical Operations -> Founder & CEO -> Investor -> Board & General Partner -> Forbes Business Contributor -> Public Speaker.
I realized that I used the same technique again and again and promised to share it with the world. Since then I gave dozens of keynotes and workshops and saw individuals and careers transform. This is the basis of Career Leap. If you are not already subscribed to my newsletter join me here Signup for Career Leap 60 days online course starting mid-January for a leap in 2020! More Info.