Fire Side Chat with Becki Feldmann and Holly Pyatt
Beyond the Ladder: Rethink Career Growth, Talent Mobility, and Leadership Assumptions
The importance of creating multiple paths for growth.
Challenge some of the assumptions that organizations and hiring managers make about career success.
This session will encourage HR professionals to help leaders look beyond titles, career ladders, and preconceived notions of success. Growth can happen through expanded expertise, broader influence, project leadership, mentoring, cross-functional experiences, and many other avenues that don't necessarily involve managing people.
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Challenge traditional assumptions about career success and leadership by recognizing that advancement does not always require people management or upward movement.
- Identify multiple pathways for employee growth and talent mobility, including expanded expertise, cross-functional experiences, project leadership, mentoring, stretch assignments, and broader organizational influence.
- Apply a skills-based lens to talent decisions by recognizing transferable skills and non-linear career experiences when developing internal talent and evaluating external candidates.
Speaker Bios:
In her role as Assistant Vice President, Sr. Employee Experience and Brand Strategist for Commerce Bank, Becki Feldmann provides dynamic and engaging leadership in the attraction and retention of employees. She was recruited for her energy, enthusiasm, and passion for creating great places for people to work. She puts this into action working with team members and stakeholders across the bank with a focus on ensuring employees have the resources and relationships they need to succeed, the opportunity for their voice to be heard and most importantly feel that they belong. She also leads the employment brand efforts showcasing what makes Commerce a great place to work and ensuring alignment between employment brand and experience. She is a brand ambassador for Commerce internally and externally!
Outside of Commerce, Becki is involved with several local HR organizations and non-profits, she is a designer with jBloom as bloom with becki – life + style, she owns a brand management company, b-e-connected, llc. and she creates experiences to do good + give back through bloom for good.
She is a mom of two hilarious and handsome teenage boys who get it from her husband of almost 20 years. They live a very FULL life and take any opportunity they can to have fun and make a positive impact in the world.
What matters most to Becki in everything that she does is faith, family, relationships, community, and health and if she had to bottle all of this up, it would be making a difference.
Connect with Becki here: https://www.bloomwithbecki.com/
Holly Pyatt, Ed.S., PMP, is a speaker, facilitator, and organizational development professional with more than 20 years of experience helping people become stronger, more confident leaders and helping organizations build the capability to navigate growth and change.
Throughout her career, Holly has worked across healthcare, technology, energy, financial services, education, and consulting, developing leaders, strengthening teams, and creating people-centered solutions to complex organizational challenges. She brings that experience to the stage through relatable stories, practical strategies, and candid conversations about the human side of leadership.
Holly speaks on topics including empathy, self-advocacy, leadership, emotional intelligence, communication, and navigating change. Her signature programs include
Empathy Is Your Leadership Superpower, Leading with Empathy: A Project Manager’s Advantage, and You Are Your Own Best Advocate. Whether speaking to leaders, project managers, professional associations, or women navigating their careers and lives, Holly focuses on giving audiences ideas they can put into practice immediately.
Known for an engaging, warm, and practical style, Holly combines research and real-world experience with storytelling, humor, and reflection. Her goal is not simply for audiences to leave inspired, but to leave thinking differently about how they lead, communicate, advocate for themselves, and show up for others.
Holly holds an Education Specialist (Ed.S.) degree in Educational Leadership from Saint Louis University and an MBA from the University of Central Missouri. She is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Six Sigma Green Belt, MBTI practitioner, and Crucial Conversations facilitator.
Outside of work, Holly enjoys traveling, working out, listening to podcasts, and spending time with her family—including plenty of time supporting her daughter on the golf course.
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