In this edition of Leadership Lessons, Dr. Yaro Fong-Olivares shares wisdom rooted in candor, curiosity, and conviction. Fong Olivares, executive director of the Gloria Cordes Larson Center for Women and Business at Bentley University, shares that leadership starts with self-awareness, like knowing when restoring perspective requires rest. (“Before I go off [or overreact],” she says, “I go to sleep.”)
In moments of uncertainty, she says she relies on integrity and good faith, trusting that things will right themselves. And as a lifelong learner, she reminds us that leadership isn’t about having every answer; it’s about staying open to growth, one lesson (and sometimes one music video) at a time.
Q: What is one of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned—not from a mentor or boss, but from an unexpected source, such as a child, a mistake, or a random encounter? How has it influenced you?
Before I go off, I go to sleep. One of the most valuable lessons I have learned truly sank in after many incidents in which I would push myself beyond my limits, becoming irritable and distant with colleagues. The exhaustion would take over, and I thought I could push through, but instead, my patience grew thin, and I jeopardized relationships. Now my mantra is “before going off, go to sleep”.
I think children have this right when they experience stress, such as a tantrum, and then go to sleep, only to wake up refreshed and ready to move forward. I am passionate and direct, and when I reach my limits, those attributes can backfire and distort my reality in unhelpful ways.
With a regular cadence of rest and work, and the occasional “time out,” I manage to be authentic, empathic, and compassionate. I don’t have to sacrifice my individuality to fit in with my organization’s culture, and at the same time, I model vulnerability by acknowledging and meeting my specific needs.
Q: What’s something you once believed about success, leadership, or work that you later realized wasn’t true? What changed your perspective?
As an academic overachiever, I believed that if I just worked hard, my work would speak for itself. That was true sometimes. But when working in a bigger organization where there is more anonymity and even hierarchy, I noticed that if I didn’t spend time on my reputation and relationships, my work would be unrecognized by those who are removed from my day-to-day interactions.
That created a dependency on my immediate teammates or supervisors to find future opportunities. Now I focus on ensuring that my reputation and relationships are far, wide, and diverse. I make it a point to attend organizational events outside of my department or conferences in a different industry than my own. I also leverage LinkedIn for exposure to other industries.
Q. What leadership wisdom has guided you in moments of uncertainty or challenge?
The lesson that keeps me going is based on my experience that if I show up with integrity and good faith, wrongs will right themselves. Ambition and competition are normal dimensions of the workplace, but unfortunately, holding ambition and competition is not easy for everyone, and can trigger aggressive and sometimes bullying behavior.
I’ve been in situations where I’ve had to navigate that, and rather than matching that energy with reciprocal bullying or withholding, I focus on delivering the best performance, showing up with generosity, and transparency.
This has repeatedly led to positive results, sometimes even a mutually beneficial collegial relationship. While it’s nice to have friendship at work, I focus on developing a good working collaboration. If friendship arrives, great; but even when it does not, I am still able to leverage key working relationships to achieve my goals and vice versa.
Q: What’s one insight or practice that has made the most significant impact on your career progression?
The belief that I know how to learn. I have had the opportunity to work with new or recently founded organizations. This has meant performing tasks that were typically new to me and sometimes “a stretch” assignment, without being called that.
As a learner, I enjoyed the discomfort of not knowing. As a leader, it requires a lot of self-assurance and confidence to say, “I don’t know yet” or “let me do some thinking on that”.
I am expected to have the answers, and I have a lot of answers. But when you are starting something new, it’s more fruitful to consult many others while still being able to make up your own mind.
Sometimes, the ability to learn means shifting your mind and moving forward in a way that is very different from what you had originally imagined. That’s the sweet spot between leading with conviction and leading tentatively. Leading with conviction is a balance of transparency about what I know and what I don’t know…yet.
Q: What’s one unconventional or surprising habit that helps you stay focused and motivated?
This one is easy because it’s something that I started very young, by watching VH1 and MTV. I love watching music videos. A music video is a short story perfectly crafted to distract me from stress, but also gives me a sense of completion and closure since music videos are brief and tell a whole story in 3.5 minutes. It’s a multisensory experience, and sometimes I find myself imagining myself repeating the choreography in my head.
Meet Dr. Yaro Fong-Olivares at the 2025 Massachusetts Conference for Women. She will be at the Gloria Cordes Larson Center for Women and Business at Bentley University exhibit from 9:00 to 10:00 am on Wednesday, December 3, 2025.
Stop by to receive a Healthy Mind Platter bookmark and learn about Dr. Yaro’s work in brain-based strategies, including cognitive reframing, mindfulness, and the Healthy Mind Platter framework. This framework can help leaders navigate chronic stress, set boundaries, and sustain high performance over time. In a world where burnout is increasingly common, Dr. Yaro offers a science-backed approach to cultivating resilience, clarity, and long-term impact.
Dr. Yaro Fong-Olivares
