Tonit Calaway on taking an unconventional path to success has been saved
Podcast
Tonit Calaway on taking an unconventional path to success
A successful career built on leveraging failure and embracing challenge
How can you achieve career success without planning every step of your path? Tonit Calaway, executive vice president and chief administrative officer, general counsel, and secretary at BorgWarner Inc., shares her unique perspectives on taking risks, learning from failures, and finding opportunities. She believes you can succeed even if you aren’t the smartest person in the room.
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Creating a thriving career based on vision and authenticity defined
In this episode, Tonit discusses how she built a successful career by taking advantage of challenging opportunities and embracing and learning from failures along the way while staying her authentic self. With a broad, cross C-suite and board experience, Tonit has flourished as a leader and change agent in senior general counsel, human resources, and administrative officer roles. Her work and life philosophy? Owning her strengths, building strong and empowered teams, and really knowing what brings her joy.
When it comes to developing teams in the next generation of talent, you’ve got to let, them fail, not career ending failure, but they've got to make mistakes. Understand you fail fast, you own it, and you correct it and don't make the same mistake.
Transcript
Lori Lorenzo: Welcome to Resilient. I'm Lori Lorenzo, Deloitte Research and Insights Director for our Chief Legal Officer Program, and co-host of the Chief Legal Officer track of this podcast series.
Failure and risk-taking aren’t usually words you associate with a lawyer, much less a general counsel. But for today’s guest, Tonit Calaway, her willingness to take risks and create growth opportunities after failure has paved the way for a unique and fulfilling career. She’s the Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at Borg Warner, Inc., as well as the General Counsel and Secretary. With perspectives that, in her own words, may be “controversial,” Tonit Calaway brings her authenticity to the podcast in ways that encouraged me—and I hope will encourage you—to consider a wider range of what success in law and life might look like.
Tonit Calaway: When it comes to developing teams in the next generation of talent, you’ve got to let them fail, not career ending failure, but they've got to make mistakes. Understand you fail fast, you own it, and you correct it and don't make the same mistake.
Lori Lorenzo: I hope you enjoyed this preview. To listen to the full episode, go to your favorite podcast app and search “Resilient.” You can listen on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Amazon Music, Spotify, or wherever you go to get your podcasts.
If you're curious about legal leadership and trends that are impacting today's in-house counsel, I encourage you to visit our Chief Legal Officer Program site on deloitte.com.
Until next time, stay safe and remain resilient.
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Lori Lorenzo
Managing Director | Chief Legal Officer Program
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