Leadership Development at MetLife

Leadership development is at the top of the agenda at companies such as MetLife looking to take emerging leaders, women and employees from diverse backgrounds to the next level. This week, the emerging leaders network IRISE and the Women Business Network co-sponsored an onsite Red Shoe Movement event in which close to a hundred very engaged employees took part in person and through the phone line.

After a forty five minute passionate presentation by Mariela Dabbah entitled: Career Crossroads: Own Your Career, Key Strategies to Create Your Own Success, which focused on leadership development and establishing a personal definition of success, she and Annerys Rodriguez, Senior RSM Ambassador,  facilitated two rounds of two-Mutual Mentoring Circles. That’s where participants had a chance to share their knowledge and experience in two key topics: Negotiating Strategies and Leveraging Social Media to Fulfill Your Company’s Goals. An exciting exchange took place among people from all different backgrounds and in a wide range of positions within the company.

Photos from the Leadership Development event

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May Moy and Lucida Plummer, both MetLife employees, noted the key takeaways from the discussions where participants alternated their roles of Expert and Explorer in the different rounds. Here are some of the Key Insights:

Negotiation Strategies

• Know the requirements of the position you’re negotiating for
• Know your value, assets and accomplishments before you start negotiating
• Be aware of timing when negotiating: How’s the market doing, what’s the company situation, future plans, etc.
• Be aware of your own reputation within the company before reaching negotiating table. Ask for feedback ahead of time
• Discuss required steps needed to reach the position you seek so you can prepare before the opportunity arises

Leveraging Social Media

• Be aware of all the social media the company already participates in
• Use social media carefully: Keep your personal things on Facebook and professional on Linkedin
• Keep in mind that employers can easily get to anything you posted
• Many different platforms available besides Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. Become more aware and learn how to use it to amplify company message

Throughout the event participants were encouraged to meet others as a way to continue their leadership development beyond this particular event. Now that they had identified some contacts who could help them prepare for the next round of negotiations or to use social media take their careers to the next level, it made sense to develop those relationships further.