24. How to Find Your Voice in Corporate America with Asfa Malik, VP of Learning and Development at Addison Group

“Never stop learning. When you join corporate America, learning never stops especially when you're in your early career.” - Asfa Malik Who do you turn to when you need to learn how to excel at your role? Who do you contact when you need to exceed your leadership and followership objectives? Who is going to help your employees help grow your business? Well, the head of Learning & Development, of course! Asfa Malik, VP of Learning & Development at Addison Group has spent the better part of her 27 year career helping others achieve THEIR growth goals. Not only is she responsible for developing talent, but also making sure they feel involved and heard as she builds out their Diversity, Equality and Inclusion strategy. Asfa’s won a few awards for her leadership in developing people, and has learned many lessons along the way. The biggest one? Her own fear of failure. So much so that she walked a super straight line avoiding it. It took her a long time to figure out that facing fears will actually lead to more success, not less! Being a woman of color is not a journey for the faint of heart – it means having to grow taller (she’s only 5 feet tall!), speak louder (she’s an introvert) and stand out (she loves her camo)! Let’s get to failing it! Links from show discussions: improve it! Workshop Asfa’s LinkedIn Asfa’s Instagram About the Host: Erin Diehl is the founder and Chief “Yes, And” officer of improve it! and host of the failed it! Podcast. She’s a performer, facilitator and professional risk-taker who lives by the mantra, “get comfortable with the uncomfortable.” Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin has created improve it!, a unique professional development company that pushes others to laugh, learn and grow. Her work with clients such as United Airlines, PepsiCo, Groupon, Deloitte, Motorola, Walgreens, and The Obama Foundation earned her the 2014 Chicago RedEye Big Idea Award and has nominated her for the 2015-2019 Chicago Innovations Award. This graduate from Clemson University is a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional as well as a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater, and The Annoyance Theatre. When she is not playing pretend or facilitating, she enjoys running and patio dinners with her husband and son, and their eight pound toy poodle, BIGG Diehl. You can follow the failed it! Podcast on Instagram and facebook , and you can follow Erin here on Instagram . We can’t wait to connect with you online! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .