Last year, I was invited to speak to a group of high school girls about celebrating success and how to toot your own horn, humbly. It is a topic we do not talk about nearly enough, especially with young women who are just beginning to discover their strengths. We tell them to work hard, to be grateful, to be team players, but we rarely teach them how to confidently recognize their own accomplishments without feeling like they are bragging.
So, I shared my own journey. I talked about what I have learned in corporate America and how I had to grow into a leadership style that balances humility with self-advocacy. And I read them the speech below. It reflects the path I have walked, the lessons I have learned, and the pride I have learned to stand in.
Here is the speech I gave.
Speech: Celebrating Success and Tooting Your Own Horn, Humbly
Good afternoon everyone,
and thank you for the opportunity to share a bit of my journey.
When I look back on my career in Corporate America, what stands out to me is not just the big milestones but the learning that came with each step. For a long time, I believed that if I simply worked hard and stayed focused, the results would speak for themselves. And sometimes they did. But many times, they did not. I had to learn that sometimes the work needs a voice. Sometimes you have to speak up for your own contributions so others can truly see the impact you are making.
That is where I learned the art of celebrating my own success while also lifting up the team around me. It is not bragging. It is not being the loudest in the room. It is acknowledging the truth of your efforts and the difference they created.
I am proud that I launched the first vendor scorecard at my place of business. That scorecard allowed us to move from assumption and storytelling into fact-based conversations with our third party and fourth party vendors. It created transparency, it created accountability and it strengthened our operational relationships.
I am proud that I completely rewrote the roles of the first line, the second line and the third line of defense. I built out a playbook that helped each group understand its purpose and stay within its swim lanes. That clarity changed the way we worked together, and it protected the organization in meaningful ways.
I am proud that I stepped in and took a leadership role in ISO 20022. During conversion weekend, our preparation and teamwork allowed a successful integration with SWIFT. It was complex work, it was high pressure work, and the outcome reflected strong collaboration and calm decision making.
And most of all, I am proud of my leadership style. I am proud of my ability to stand firm when senior management pushed us to move faster, and to report back with a steady, fact-based risk lens. Leadership is not about reacting to pressure. Leadership is about grounding decisions in what is responsible, what is true, and what supports the long-term health of the organization.
Through all of these experiences, I have learned that celebrating myself does not diminish the team. It actually honors the work we accomplished together. Every win was possible because of the people around me. When I share what I achieved, I am also celebrating what we achieved.
Humility is not silence. Humility is standing in your truth without exaggeration and without apology. And when we celebrate our successes openly, we show others that they can do the same. We create cultures where people feel valued, seen and motivated to grow.
So today, I stand proud of my contributions and grateful for the teams that helped make them possible. And I encourage all of us, especially the next generation of women leaders, to celebrate your wins boldly, to celebrate your teams generously and to never be afraid to let your work speak through you.
Thank you.
Sharing this message with those high school girls reminded me that confidence is a skill we build, not something we wake up with one day. If we can teach young women to honor their achievements early, to speak proudly about what they bring to the table and to do it with humility and gratitude, we help create a future where their voices are not only heard but expected. My hope is that each of them walks forward knowing that their success is worth celebrating and that their story, just like yours and mine, deserves to be told.
Happy Thursday lovelies,
-srt
