Career Advice for Aspiring Executive Directors at City of San Francisco
Linda's most significant career lesson is "knowing who you are" and building strong, trusting relationships. This proved invaluable during the COVID-19 pandemic, where Linda leveraged "good friends and relationships" to secure essential resources like vehicles and personnel, contributing to San Francisco's low death and high vaccination rates.
Networking, Executive/Leadership, Overcoming Challenges, Relationship Building, Teamwork
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Linda Yeung
Executive Director, Leadership Development Program
City and County of San Francisco
University of California, Berkeley
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Masters of Law and Diplomacy
Spanish & Other Languages, Political Science, American Studies
Government & Public Sector
Human Resources (HR)
Honors Student, Scholarship Recipient, Immigrant, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Building strong relationships based on trust is crucial for career success and collaboration.
2. Networking and maintaining connections throughout your career can provide invaluable support and resources during challenging situations.
3. Effective leadership involves understanding your own strengths and leveraging your network to achieve shared goals and make a positive impact (as exemplified by the Covid command center response).
Transcript
What is one lesson that you've learned that has proven significant in your career?
The most important lesson I've learned is knowing yourself. It's crucial to ensure that the people you work with understand who you are and to develop those relationships so that trust is built.
Some of my most challenging relationships were with people who approached things and saw the world very differently from me. But ultimately, if I could foster those relationships, they became mutually beneficial.
For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when I served as Logistics Chief and Unified Commander, I had to reach out to my city contacts. I needed to find people in Fleet Services to secure vehicles for transport to back sites.
I also needed to connect with individuals in the HR world to acquire disaster service workers from other departments. These relationships, built over my career, proved invaluable in accomplishing tasks for the city.
At the COVID command center, our early focus was understanding the disease and then distributing vaccines and tests. This effort resulted in San Francisco having one of the lowest death rates and highest vaccination rates.
When I consider vulnerable populations, like the elderly, we served them well. This was partly because I had many good friends and contacts throughout the city that I could rely on for help.
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