Rachel Talton

CEO & Founder, Synergy International Ltd. Inc.

Education: Doctoral degree in management, Case Western Reserve University; master’s degree in business administration, Cleveland State University; bachelor’s degree, University of Rochester

How I Approach My Day: I anchor myself in one question: who needs me most today, and what is mine to do? I choose to begin thankful and grounded.

What Success Looks Like to Me: The moment a leader I coached makes the hard, right call long after our work has ended, with me nowhere in the room

What I Look for in a Leader: Character before charisma, every single time. I am drawn to leaders who take radical ownership and who never go looking for somewhere to lay the blame. I value those who make courageous choices and own them without flinching. 

If I Could Trade Places With Anyone: I would trade places with my grandmother, my mother’s mother, for one single day. She had 19 children with my grandfather, and she was an earth angel whose capacity for love I am still learning to comprehend. I want to feel her hands at work, hear the prayers she whispered over children whose futures she could not guarantee, and understand the quiet courage that became my inheritance.