Getting to know Linkage’s Jillian Maver Ihsanullah

We’re proud to announce that our own Dr. Jillian Maver Ihsanullah has been named to Profiles in Diversity Journal’s Women Worth Watching^® list. Jill’s passion and drive for her work is contagious. Her client engagements take her all over the country week after week, but she is never too busy to recognize her colleagues and share valuable words of wisdom.

Our favorite response from her recent interview with Profiles in Diversity Journal? When asked the one thing she’d do differently in her career knowing what she knows now, Jill responded: “Realize that accomplishing work with and through others will always have more impact than long hours trying to do an A+ job alone.”

Please join us in congratulating Jill on the incredible legacy that she has built here at Linkage over the last 20 years. Get to know her better by reading the full transcript of her recent interview below.

PDJ: What was your first job?

JMI: Sales clerk at a clothing boutique and intern at a think tank.

PDJ: What are you reading?

JMI: The latest research on methods for developing social awareness in autistic children. I hope to adapt and incorporate highly effective strategies to the field of leadership development.

PDJ: The most important quality a woman leader should have is?

JMI: Perception. To understand so deeply that you can see through another’s eyes. It is critical for both self-awareness and influence.

PDJ: What is the career advice you’d give your former self?

JMI: If you have come to the right answer, you are only halfway there.

PDJ: What are the words you live by?

JMI: Make it memorable.

PDJ: What’s the one thing you’d do differently in your career knowing what you know now?

JMI: Realizing that accomplishing work with and through others will always have more impact than long hours trying to do an A+ job alone.

PDJ: When you really need to focus on a project, you?

JMI: Listen, ask questions, and absorb.

PDJ: Your biggest career leap (and what you learned from it) was?

JMI: Moving from academics to the business world at age 26. I learned that expertise is good to have, but your approach to work and life is much more important.

PDJ: Being a woman in your profession has been?

JMI: An opportunity to lead.

PDJ: You’ve learned that failure is?

JMI: Staying in a job or relationship where your very best qualities are not brought out and celebrated.

PDJ: You maintain a healthy personal life by?

JMI: Getting involved in my husband’s and children’s activities, reading travel magazines, and planning vacations more than a year in advance.

PDJ: When did you know that your present career was what you wanted to do?

JMI: When I was 16 years old on a family trip touring a cave. The tour guide was not well matched to the job. I couldn’t stop thinking about my desire to help him find a career more suited to his strengths.

Congratulations, Jill! Thank you for all that you do and for inspiring each of us every day.