When Carla Vernón joined Amazon as Vice President of Consumables, she could look back at a dozen milestones that made her present job possible. Not least among these was mile marker one: an opportunity in a ballet studio in upstate New York as a young girl. That’s when nine-year-old Carla was paired with the famous Arthur Mitchell, the first African-American dancer with the New York City Ballet and founder of his own legendary company. Since that time, Carla has been applying the lessons learned from dance to a stellar career as president of General Mills Natural & Organic and recognized as one of Savoy Magazine’s Top 25 Women in Retail and Most Influential Women in Corporate America.
Today as Amazon’s Vice President of Consumables, she oversees a $56 billion portfolio that includes all food, beverage, baby, household, paper products, health, and pharmacy products. This makes Carla one of the highest-ranking African-American and Latina women ever at the online retail giant.
“I am fascinated by models of high-performance teams,” Vernon said. “In particular, the degree to which unity and trust are resources,” like money or technology, that figure powerfully in an organization’s performance. Unity and trust don’t happen by chance, so Vernon compiled her own list of best “moves.” Here they are: Take warm-ups seriously, connect with people, and don’t turn one mistake into two.
The competitive dancer in Carla never forgets the role confidence plays in the performance of individuals and teams alike, saying, “Remember that you are your own fiercest rival. We are the only thing holding us back, and we are the most important competitor we can compete against.”
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