I was traveling for a client project when I first heard about the Next Generation Leadership Team (NGLT) through my coworker. Comprised of 26 passionate individuals, to mirror the number of people on our global Publicis Sapient Leadership Team, the NGLT is a unique two-year program for team members at the Manager career stage and below. The team is dedicated to solving various problems within our business and helps create inter-generational learning amongst groups within the company to deliver the best experience possible for all Publicis Sapient employees.
Just as Publicis Sapient once took a chance on me almost 5 years ago after I left the print industry, I knew that this was my chance to help create something great, while directly having an impact on the company as a whole. I jumped at the opportunity as I collected a letter of recommendation and submitted my application.
On the day I was accepted into the program, I remember receiving a call from a random number. Thinking it was spam, I hastily answered. Turns out, it was our CEO, Nigel Vaz, personally calling me to let me know that I was chosen out of almost 300 candidates to join the 26-person Next Generation Leadership Team.
Yes, I almost hung up on Nigel Vaz! Looking back, I appreciate that he called to congratulate each one of us personally. That speaks volumes about how important the program is and shows that he really counts on us to make a difference within the organization. Fast forward a couple of weeks and the newly formed NGLT had a meetup with Nigel where we informally spoke about challenging norms for our business by thinking differently about being the voice of Digital Business Transformation for our people as well as our clients. We were encouraged to tackle problems through disruptive thinking.
