WITI Strategist is pleased to present this first of a series of columns on global leadership success stories, career paths and advice of senior technology and business leaders. For example, in upcoming columns, we will meet Cathy Brune, CTO of Allstate, Cathie Kozik, Corporate Vice President, Integrated Supply Chain IT for Motorola, and Jana Schreuder, head of Northern Trust's Worldwide Operations and Technology organization. All are senior executives respected in their fields and aggressive learners that understand the global context of their work.

Cathy Brune and Cathie Kozik both rose through the ranks to lead major technology organizations. Ms. Brune began her career at Allstate with keypunch operator training, and now she is in charge of 6,000 people for one of the nation's largest insurance providers. Ms. Kozik began her career path as an engineer at AT&T, and worked her way through other technology giants such as Lucent Technologies before ending up at Motorola. While their paths are different, their direction is not: Up. That is due, in part, to their common trait of pushing themselves, of regularly doing more than was expected of them and consistently jumping out of their comfort zones. They keep learning and enjoying challenges, and that is a hallmark of a good leader.

Ms. Brune's first big step was to leave her home in Charleston, South Carolina. "When I had an opportunity to go do something different, I jumped at it. I had to take the risk. You gain that confidence and you decide, 'I'm going to go try that. I want to be successful.' And then success brings success."

As Ms. Kozik began to move up the ranks at Tellabs, it was frequently due to her ability to turn around lagging departments or projects. Jumping in to these new, tough situations meant constantly challenging herself and learning new things. She was hired as a first-level supervisor, was promoted rapidly and then moved to IT, eventually becoming CIO. "It was an opportunity to challenge myself in a completely new area, which is something I like to do on a fairly frequent basis." Both take time out from their busy schedules to share their path and learnings with WITI.

That aggressive push to grow skills and lead are also seen in our profile of Jana Schreuder, one of the highest ranking women within the Northern Trust Corporation, a premier international trust and custody bank. She understands that leadership roles are changing in today's global environment, and while dedication, hard work and decisiveness are still critical qualities, aspiring leaders should also be flexible enough to meet new demands and assignments in order to navigate the business world. Throughout the past 25 years, Ms. Schreuder has taken on assignments and projects that would not have been for the feint of heart.

As Ms. Schreuder discussing in her profile, "What I would say to people is, 'Seize opportunities,' because, everybody doesn't get twelve different offers to consider, or even two or three," she said. "You may just get one. And my philosophy that has worked for me is, you take a look at it and ask, 'Can I make something out of it?' If you can; seize the day."

As management guru Tom Peters once said, "Unless you walk out into the unknown, the odds of making a profound difference in your life are pretty low." Each of these women understand that leadership and learning are tightly linked, and unless they build expertise and experiences beyond what they already have, they will not reach the goals they have set for themselves.