In this captivating Fearless Female Leadership interview, I sat down with Bernadette Berger, Director of Innovation at Alaska Airlines, to explore what it truly means to drive innovation in a time of massive change. From her early career rejections to becoming a leader shaping the future of air travel, Bernadette's story is a powerful reminder of the courage it takes to keep showing upāand the vision it takes to build what doesnāt exist yet.
Bernadette's path began in industrial design, not aviation, and after 29 job interview rejections, she finally broke through with TeagueāBoeingās premier aircraft design partner. There, she spent over a decade experimenting, learning new skills, and eventually helping design next-gen aircraft interiors and experiences. Her innovation philosophy? Donāt aim to fix everything at onceāask what would need to be true to solve the problem at hand.
Now at Alaska Airlines, Bernadette leads innovation across the organization, helping unify cross-functional tea...
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I honor you/your team's desire to learn how to be world-class especially in moments that matter most to you.
Iād like to share something with you that many people do not know.
You are talented enough to be amazing at whatever is important to you. You see, itās proven in science that itās NOT talent that makes people great (Talent is Overrated, Geoff Colvin). It's your mindset and focused practice that will move the needle.
You will have an opportunity to learn HOW to practice as well as the mindset required to be your best. Guess what? This will not only affect you. It will affect those you serve as a role model for AND those you influence.
I know how you might feel. āI am not training for a national athletic eventā or āI am not on my way to be in the top 1% of any endeavor.ā
Hereās the thing. We tend to be happier when we are doing our best. Whatever you have coming up or whatever...
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āIt is a common misconception that āeither you have it or you donātā. In other words, either you are good at math or you are not. You are talented at one sport but not at another. You are a follower and not a leader etc.
Hereās something that most people do not know!
There is no scientific proof that, even if one excels as a young person, that ātalentā is an indicator of whether or not you can become an expert. Sure, if you are 5ā2ā male, it may be difficult to play basketball at a high level (but not impossible!). All things considered, YOU are capable of much more than you think regardless if you have ātalentā or not. Thereās one thing you can start doing now that will help you to be world-class in whatās important to you: Deliberate Practice. Anders Ericsson has spent decades researching this very topic and has written an entire book on deliberate practice,Ā Peak.
Here are the most important take aways that you can implement now:
1.) Ā ...
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