In her new role as CEO of Global Health Corps, Daniela Terminel is facing the greatest leadership challenge of her career. However, she feels well prepared because of her participation in the Program for Leadership Development—which she credits with helping her advance to the corner office. In this brief interview, she describes some of the insights she gained and how they have guided her through the early months at the helm.
PLD has transformed me as a leader. This program definitely changed me as well as those around me in terms of both hard and soft skills, and overall it made me a stronger leader. During my PLD journey, and even after it, my coach, Heather Andersen, was absolutely awesome! She has been helping me along the way, always making time to talk—she genuinely cares about my development. I highly recommend her to other PLD participants.
PLD was instrumental in helping me secure my new position as CEO of Global Health Corps, which represents a big step forward in my career as a leader. What I learned has been key during my first months in the role. Beginning with the interview process, I have been applying many of the lessons I learned, such as developing my professional narrative, building self-confidence and self-awareness, managing change, establishing trust, thinking strategically, analyzing trade-offs, working in a global organization, and understanding the role of the CEO. At Global Health Corps, we develop leaders by focusing on authentic and collective leadership, systems thinking, and design thinking—concepts that I feel much stronger about after attending PLD.
I've already recommended the program to several friends and colleagues. In the first session, Professor Tushman said, "This will transform your life." I was a bit skeptical when I heard this, but now I know that he was totally right.