Leadership

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Logos: Travelers Institute, Travelers. Text: Travelers institute dot org. Joan Woodward greets her interviewer. Text: What's the biggest risk you've ever taken?

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JOAN WOODWARD: The biggest risk I ever took in my career really was leaving government. I worked on Capitol Hill for 12 years, and I was so comfortable there and confident. I was chief of staff to a big committee. I worked for Senator Bill Roth, and I felt like I had it all.

And one day Goldman Sachs came knocking on my door asking me to start a Washington research operation. And I knew nothing about Wall Street. And I was a government person. And I just took a deep breath. I said, I don't think I'm going to get this opportunity ever again in my life.

So I took that risk on myself. And I spent nearly 10 years at Goldman Sachs running their global markets institute. And I am so grateful that I had confidence in myself, which I really didn't think I had at the time as a young woman with four little kids, and taking on a global job was really a risk that I cannot believe I took, and I'm so grateful that I did.

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Joan and her colleagues ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Text: Photo Credit, New York Stock Exchange.

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When Alan Schnitzer asked me to come to Travelers and establish the Travelers Institute as a thought leadership platform, I knew I could do that, but I wasn't sure about insurance. Insurance kind of scared me because I really didn't know about it. So my advice to others is take a risk on yourself. Be confident in yourself and you can learn things as you go. So you might not have the 10 ingredients you might need immediately, but you can learn those things.

A lot of smart people we're hiring these days at Travelers, and you can adjust. You can be flexible. Your bosses can be flexible. We have a lot of training programs here, so the support you get at Travelers allows you to take those next risks in your career.

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What's your advice to others taking career risks?

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So a lot of times women, in particular, don't have the self-confidence in themselves to take that next risk in their career because they always believe they have to have every single ingredient to be successful. The imposter syndrome is real, where you walk in and you say, am I good enough to do this job? Are people going to figure me out?

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Joan gives a talk titled Surety Bonding and Construction Risk Management, 2020 Conference. January 27 to 29, 2020, Bonita Springs, Florida.

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And so I'll just give a piece of advice here that really helped me along the way is every time I stand up to give a speech or give a talk or give a presentation, I assume that I know more about the subject material than everyone else in the room,

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She gives another talk titled GDP Growth Seems to Be Robust for Now. Can it last? A graph beside her measures the GDP percent change from 2007 to 2019.

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and I'm sure that's not true, but it has helped me along the way.

And when I make a mistake, which I obviously do a lot, someone will come up and say, hey, Joan, you said this a little bit, it was a little bit off, but if you just tweak it a little bit. So they helped me. Having self-confidence, being vulnerable to accept criticism, to accept that constructive feedback. And I think sometimes women have a hard time getting feedback, and sometimes men have a hard time giving feedback to women.

So let's just break down the barriers and say, let's help each other out and lift each other up without self-confidence, especially for young women, and women of my age, we still struggle with that, and know it's real, that you're not alone in that, that everyone has a problem with self-confidence.

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Joan and her colleagues applaud as they stand on the New York Stock Exchange's marble balcony. Joan rings the opening bell as she smiles. Text: April 7, 2025.

Logos: Travelers Institute, Travelers. Text: Travelers institute dot org.

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