My Transformation from Fear and Unhappiness to Becoming Mentally Tough (Interview w/Amanda)

Summary: Sheryl Kline: Hey there. Sheryl Kline here, mental toughness coach, published author, speaker, and I am so excited to be here today with Amanda. Amanda is going to share a little bit today about what it's like to be a woman in corporate America, some of the successes she had, which there were many, and also some of the challenges and struggles she had. She's going to speak to how being mentally tough would have made her journey a little bit easier. So, welcome Amanda. Amanda: Thanks. Thanks for having me. Sheryl Kline: So, we're going to ask Amanda a couple of questions first. Can you tell us your position at Accenture and all of the amazing things you did, as well as some of the challenges that you had? Amanda: I was Senior Manager in our strategy practice, and I focused on procurement, operating model strategy, with different organizations, Fortune 500 companies, and government work. Sheryl Kline: What were some of the successes and challenges that you faced when you were at Accenture? Amanda: I joined out of college and it was, I really love Accenture as a company. I think it has an amazing culture and I learned so much through that process. I grew as a person, as a leader, and obviously my content knowledge really grew as I went. A lot of the wins were the ability to work with leaders that were in organizations that it just blew my mind, sometimes. I'd be walking into the client building and be sitting down, have meetings with these leaders, and I'm like, "How is this my life?" Right? Especially at my age, getting those kinds of opportunities, and Accenture did a really good job as an organization, making sure that we were ready for those kinds of interactions. The quality, the people that they hired was just so high, so I learned so much about consulting, about my clients' industries, about the subject of procurement, and about myself, in that process. Sheryl Kline: But there were a couple of bumps along the road. If you could speak to one or two of those, and also if you had had the knowledge and the ability to be mentally tough, how that might have helped you. Amanda: Absolutely. So, I like to say to my mentees that the consulting career can have peaks and valleys. Some of the valleys in my own career, one of them was around just my attitude towards work, and my attitude towards how much work. I succumbed, and this is not unique to Accenture, but in the consulting industry and in many professional industries, this expectation that you're always on, and you're always working, and you're always responsive. Sheryl Kline: I don't mean to interrupt, but isn't that exhausting? Amanda: It was so exhausting. I clocked in at about 100 hours, 120 hours some weeks. Sheryl Kline: Wow. Amanda: Very, very, very regularly. Early in my career, I even experienced some all nighters that were pretty devastating, on a pretty regular basis. I think that that level of engagement, there was nobody in the company that was saying, "Amanda, you have to work that hard," but I felt pressured to work that hard because of the cultural norms around that. Yeah, so that led to depression, that led to extreme weight gain, that led to relationship difficulties. That had a lot of ramifications in my total life. (continued on https://youtu.be/IRmL2uVrVDs)