"An Internal Business Relationship Changed My Life"

Maria Doughty is the CEO of The Chicago Network (TCN), an organization?of Chicagoland’s?most influential and senior executive women leaders.?TCN's purpose is to empower women to lead and its vision includes achieving?gender equity in senior leadership across all sectors. In her prior role, Maria was the Director of Public Policy for Allstate where she had a?nearly?25-year career.?(Look for Part 2 of our interview of Maria on Thursday.)

Why?is having a network of business relationships so important?

"Business relationships play a role in career advancement at all stages of one's career.?So, it doesn't matter where you are in your career, building these relationships is important."

"There are two reasons for this.? First, the relationships you have could unlock an opportunity that you’re not even thinking about. Sometimes other people see strengths in you that you don’t see in yourself."

"Second, for your career to be successful, it's really important to take risks. My business relationships with people in leadership helped me crystallize what the risks were and whether the?rewards were?worth it."

"One of my key relationships was with a female leader in the C-Suite.? She called me into her office?and said,?'I want you to take on a different role.' At the time, I was in?a supervisory role, leading the claims legal work countrywide and she wanted me to step out of that role and move into a more individual contributor role."

"I?wasn’t interested in changing?positions. I went?back to her and?said ‘no, thank you’. Then she said ‘I'm not asking.?This is what you are going to do.’ Well, taking that role changed my life and the trajectory of my career. It's part of the reason why I'm sitting in the seat that I'm in today."

"The role was a very external-facing role in the organization. It enabled me to build out my external network in a way that allowed me to see paths and to play in spaces that I would never have ever?step into. I built external business relationships on industry association boards. I also started serving on more nonprofit boards."

"The internal relationships that you have could unlock an opportunity that?is not on your radar.?So because of?that internal business?relationship,?I was able to build my community?outside of the legal community, the insurance industry, and the financial services industry. And those are the relationships that helped propel me into the role that I'm in now."

"I'm so grateful to her because otherwise I would have been head down, sleeves rolled up, doing my regulatory compliance work and not realizing I could use my voice to make a bigger impact?across our community."

Why do you think she took you under her wing to mentor you?

"I think she saw me in action. Whenever I met with her, I was very intentional. I didn't go into her office just to waste her time because I knew she didn't have a lot of it."

"I was intellectually curious. I asked for advice on ‘How can I be a better leader? How can I be a better employee? How can I give back?’ It wasn't about ‘I want this promotion.'"

"Obviously, I wanted the promotion and I wanted the income that came with it. But I didn't go in with that lens. I went in with the lens of ‘how can I?improve?myself?’"