Future Shapers: Episode 2.4: Captain of Your Own Career

BRG Director Kelli Foy sits down with Rachel Gervin, assistant general counsel at NCR Voyix, to discuss: 

• what the children’s book Grace for President can teach us about representation, hard work, and “leading from the front” 
• why careers rarely follow a straight line—and the power of “trying things,” raising your hand, and owning your path 
• the difference between mentorship and sponsorship—and how leaders can actively create opportunities for people coming up behind them 

Selected Transcript Summary

[3:55]
Grace for President as a leadership lens. Rachel introduces the children’s book they bonded over as mothers of daughters. In it, a young girl notices that no woman has ever been president and decides to run herself, eventually winning her school election as the first girl president. Rachel and Kelli draw out its themes of representation, hard work, and leading from the front.

[5:38]
Being “the first.” Rachel recalls joining a major national law firm in Washington, D.C. in 1997 and learning that she was the first Black woman lawyer the firm had hired. She describes the sense of responsibility she felt to those who would follow, and why representation stayed with her as a lesson to pass on to her daughters.

[7:49]
The weight of being the only one in the room. Rachel reflects on growing up as one of very few Black children in her community and classrooms, always aware that she had to perform at 110 percent to be seen as equal. She frames the pressure as something high-performing women across the profession carry.

[9:01]
Grace vs. Thomas: how women show up at work. Rachel contrasts Grace, who campaigns tirelessly by running surveys and winning people over, with her opponent Thomas, who assumes the math guarantees his win. It mirrors a pattern she sees at work: women over-prepare and will not apply for a role unless they meet every criterion, while others are quicker to simply raise their hand.

[11:20]
“You have to try things.” Rachel built a non-linear career by trying things, iterating, and adjusting, without lawyers in her family to guide her. She tells mentees that the next job does not have to be the one they retire from: every role adds a skill, a relationship, or a lesson to their story. The career is the journey rather than a fixed destination.

[14:49]
Raise your hand. Both discuss why quietly working hard is not enough to advance. Kelli encourages the people she mentors, especially junior women, to volunteer for unfamiliar projects, and Rachel adds that you only learn how to practice law, or discover which areas are your “jam,” by trying them, which is also how you gain exposure and variety.

[18:11]
Mentorship vs. sponsorship. Rachel draws a sharp line between mentorship and sponsorship, which she and Kelli both do often. Sponsorship means advocating for someone in rooms they are not in, proposing them for a stretch project, explaining why they are ready, following through to make it happen, and then supporting them to succeed.

[19:43]
Using the moments others overlook. Rachel notes that sponsorship has long happened informally for men and that women tend to do it less. From the soccer sideline to the first few minutes of a virtual meeting, she argues that those small moments of genuine connection are where relationships and opportunities are built. Kelli adds that she is deliberate about crediting team members for their work and agrees the opening minutes of a call are real value, not fluff.

[23:41]
Measuring careers differently for women in leadership. Rachel observes that progress for women in law and technology has come in inches rather than leaps, she measures a career by satisfaction rather than a single trajectory. Having been general counsel of a multinational software company, she later chose a different direction that let her do fulfilling work while being present for her children, choices she declines to view as failure.

[26:38]
Careers are long—don’t compare your path. Kelli cautions against the milestone-by-milestone thinking and measuring yourself against a well-connected, fast-rising peer. Rachel offers her daughter’s ballet teaching as an analogy: just as young dancers each progress at their own rate, so do lawyers at the start of their careers.

[28:37]
Cover, hours, and a cobbled-together start. Rachel describes how some associates at her firm had a partner who gave them cover, steady hours, and training, while her own summer group left for another firm. She ended up piecing together work across many groups, which was great for exposure but harder on her billable hours, and admits she felt  as though she were floundering.

[30:11]
“You’re the captain of your own career.” The lesson Rachel took is that she is the captain of her own career, responsible for navigating it, raising her hand, and owning her own happiness. Trial and error is how she discovered that in-house work suited her, and none of the missteps were failures, just information. Kelli singles out the phrase as her key takeaway.

[32:02]
Rapid-fire close. Rachel names honesty and transparency as the leadership trait she values most, collaboration as the word for high-performing teams, “communicate, communicate, communicate” as the best advice she has received, and consistency as the habit that makes her a better leader. She encourages listeners to read the book.