Rebecca Bell ─ a leader formulating breakthrough results through communications, marketing and stakeholder engagement...
May 26, 2021 • 3 Minute Read
Updated October 2022
Rebecca Bell
Senior Director and Team Lead, Office of the President (GTM)
Zendesk
(Previously—Director, Global Sales Enablement
IQVIA)
Are you looking for a leader who is redefining breakthrough results through communications, marketing and stakeholder engagement? We know the person—Rebecca Bell.
Rebecca is the Director of Sales Enablement at IQVIA Technologies. She is a life-long lover of words and puts to work in storytelling capabilities around connected intelligence to redefine business value, revenue growth, and meaningful relationships with customers, employees and other stakeholders.
Please meet this IT Wondrous Woman™, Rebecca Bell!
Our 10 Questions for this IT Wondrous Woman.
Fun Facts
1. What’s the one thing about you that your business colleagues don’t know about you?
If I won the lottery, I would give it all up to write.
2. Before the pandemic, how many air miles/KMs did you flying annually?
Not many! Probably only 10k miles per annum these days. When I worked at Cisco it was an awful lot more but IQVIA doesn’t have that culture.
3. What is the most adventurous food you have eaten and what city/location did you eat it?
I narrowly avoided eating horsemeat in Milan. In Kenya I ate some pretty exotic meats…crocodile I think was one!
Your Career
4. What are the top two experiences, achievements or failures that shaped your journey as a successful leader?
In the same week that I got divorced and became a single mother of two young girls I also got a big promotion at Cisco. It proved to me that I could get through very hard times personally and still achieve stuff professionally. It also reminded me that we must lead with empathy, that kindness and patience towards others can go a very long way.
The other experience that has shaped me as a leader is the disappointment of realising that some of the worst let-downs and poor treatment I’ve suffered in my career have been at the hands of other women. It is absolutely our responsibility to support, nurture and celebrate one another, not to slam the door shut to prevent other women progressing.
5. Did you have a mentor in the early part of your career and, if so, what is the biggest lesson you learned from your mentor or influencer?
I worked with an amazing leader, Debbie Hewitt at RAC plc, who saw something in me. She helped me realise that I could take a non-linear path in my career, not just continue in PR and communications. Her words continue to echo in my head every time I have choices to make about what to do next.
Walking In Your Shoes
6. What is one piece of business or career advice you would give to your younger self?
Don’t limit your thinking or ambition on the basis of your experience. There are many adjacent opportunities that will stretch you that you may not even have thought of yet.
7. As a leader, how do you remain a resource for people early in their careers?
I’ve done quite a lot of school and university mentoring, interview practice etc. It’s something I make time for and it definitely feels good to see people doing well! All you have to do is ask; most people will be happy to help you.
Today’s Business Environment
8. What is the most interesting project you have worked on in the last few years?
It was in my last couple of years at Cisco, leading a team to deliver a global sales acceleration strategy for some of the company’s newer software acquisitions. It meant entering into unchartered territory to build a very different GTM for Cisco that centred around a SaaS business model. I loved the freedom and creativity of it, alongside the accountability to the number!
9. What skills are you currently developing or refining (in yourself) that will make you a more successful leader in the digital economy?
All of my team are virtual and every one of my direct reports today is based in the US. Most of them I have never met face to face and the risk is that your interactions can become rather transactional. It takes time and the right attitude to build entirely virtual relationships from scratch and break through into something deeper.
10. What is your greatest business challenge today?
Pace of change.
