Ashley Zaslav on Watershed Moments
Ashley Zaslav is the founder of Integrative Complexity, which is a high-performance coaching firm that works with made career high achievers ready to bet on themselves and test their potential. She’s also on our coaching bench at Strong Skills, and I’ve been fortunate to refer some amazing people to Ashley and hear firsthand about the work that she does with them. Some of her clients include founders of investment firms, newly promoted partners, high potential investment professionals, search fund CEOs, first time CEOs, C-suite leaders, and executive directors. Ashley is an athlete, and she was a two-time captain of the Duke Women’s Soccer Team that was a national finalist in 2011. She was the number five recruit in the nation coming out of high school. So, Ashley is absolutely a competitor, but we talk about her mindset and how it’s shifted over the years from just competing and maximizing and being the best that she can be to blending that mindset with one of wisdom, one of slowing down, one of thinking and being a little more intentional with how she shows up, while still being her competitive self. She competed globally with the US Youth National Team until she finished her career due to injuries. Injuries are a big part of Ashley’s journey; she tore her ACL three times when she was in college, and she’ll talk about her resilient mind and how she thought about injuries, and I think it’s something for all of us to take away from today’s conversation. Her approach to coaching is informed by her experience and expertise in high performance that she developed competing as an elite athlete at the highest levels, as well as working within the finance world. She worked at places like Bridgewater (if you’re unfamiliar with Bridgewater, perhaps you’re familiar with their founder, Ray Dalio, who’s got a TedTalk and has written a bestselling book and is really at the forefront of people and culture as it relates to the finance world), TPG, Brooklyn’s Capital Strategies, and at Spencer Stewart where she worked with all kinds of different elements of people practices within organizations. She received her MBA from NYU Stern and she got her bachelor’s from Duke University. She’s also very proud of being the mother to 3 kids under 5.
Ashley had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:
“On the outside someone can look one way and then have so many challenges on the inside” (8:45).
“Everybody has a story” (9:00).
“I do think that knowing I had faced these really hard things and gotten through them gave me this inner confidence when things would come my way” (14:20).
“I have to learn how to be when things are good” (18:20).
“I love making patterns of information” (22:45).
“It’s harder to speak up when you don’t have conviction about what you’re saying” (25:35).
“I’m very open and flexible about who I need to be to get better” (28:30).
“For me, what’s felt more organic is to be fluid” (37:45).
“There’s nothing more honest than sitting in a film room watching yourself blow a play that leads to the other team scoring. There’s no hiding from that” (41:40).
“The best companies are always balancing short term and long term” (48:15).
“One of my favorite things about succession planning is to do it well it requires almost going against all of the strong, natural impulses” (50:50).
“That ability to integrate those two realities changed my world so much” (53:55).
“[For me], success [looks] like doing work really well, doing work that I love, being present for the kids, having marriage and partnership, really enjoying life” (1:05:45).
“I do think success 3 to 5 years from now is looking back on these last 3 years and feeling like I wasn’t just striving” (1:12:15).
Additionally, you can connect with Ashley on LinkedIn.
Thank you so much to Ashley for coming on the podcast!
Thanks for listening.
-Brian
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