How to Achieve a 5-Star Career w/ Penelope Przekop, PDC Pharma Strategy

We live in a world dominated by ratings. We generally prefer to purchase 5-star products, read 5-star books, eat at 5-star restaurants, and watch 5-star movies. Why then would you settle for anything less than a 5-star career? Today’s guest says you absolutely should not, and offers ways to be your best self at work and in your personal life.In this HRchat episode, we hear from Penelope Przekop, a corporate quality management expert, entrepreneur, and writer. Throughout her 30+ year career, Penelope has worked with numerous Fortune 100 pharma companies, including Pfizer, Merck, Lilly, and Glaxo Smith Kline, and held leadership positions at Novartis, Covance, Wyeth, and Johnson & Johnson.Penelope is the founder and CEO of PDC Pharma Strategy and serves as the Chief Compliance Officer for Engrail Therapeutics.She is also the author of Six Sigma for Business Excellence (McGraw-Hill), four novels: Please Love Me, Aberrations, Centerpieces, and Dust and she has a new book coming out in November called 5-Star Career: Define and Build Yours Using the Science of Quality Management: amazon.com/5-Star-Career-Science-Quality-Management/Questions Include:Let’s begin by understanding a bit about you. While struggling to overcome a troubling childhood, become the best version of yourself, and build a career, you began incorporating quality management concepts into your personal thought process at home and at work. As a result, you say you found what proved for you to be “the missing link” between all of your hard work and feeling rewarded. Tell me more.Why do people settle for mediocracy? Is it laziness (too much ‘Netflix and chill’ time)? Is it a lack of opportunity? Is it the system keeping us down? Is it something else?Why do you believe one’s career is, essentially, what we make of it? Talk to me about the concept of a person’s career being a product created by their own process. Share too, how to improve that process by learning to manage all the parts as an integrated, unified whole.In your new book, you suggest it’s possible for us to each clearly define what a quality career means. Tell us about that process. As part of that answer, perhaps you can explain what you mean when you explain that a ‘successful career is not just about money and that it’s vital to shift one’s personal philosophy, mindset, and operating system to support developing it?You stress the critical role data plays in making decisions that can produce a 5-star career. How can data guide us along our career journeys and help us to avoid impulsive leaps and be more honest with ourselves?We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc.  Support the showFeature Your Brand on the HRchat PodcastThe HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score. Want to share the story of how your business is helping to shape the world of work? We offer sponsored episodes, audio adverts, email campaigns, and a host of other options. Check out packages here.Follow us on LinkedInSubscribe to our newsletterCheck out our in-person events