![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image003-e1738078026382.jpg?w=2048\")
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It\u2019s not what you know, or even who you know. According to Cisco\u2019s new U.K. chief, your next promotion might hinge on your attitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot teach positive attitudes and engagement and energy,\u201d Sarah Walker tells Fortune<\/em>. That\u2019s the No. 1 green-flag trait she keeps an eye out for when hiring or looking to promote from within\u2014and she says it outweighs what\u2019s on your resume, especially early in your career.\u00a0<\/p>\n The 45-year-old boss spent 25 years climbing the ranks at the Fortune<\/em> 500 Europe telecommunications giant BT. In that time, Walker went from joining the sales team at the \u00a314.21 billion British ($17.7 billion) legacy brand to leaving as its director of corporate and public sector. Following a micro-retirement, she joined Cisco as managing director before being promoted to lead its U.K. and Ireland arm just two years later.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now that she calls the shots, the CEO\u2019s go-to choice for her team is always the upbeat, eager-to-learn worker.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s more about the person first and foremost than it is about skills or experience,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n \u201cI always try and distinguish between the things that can be taught and learnt and the things that are just inherent in somebody,\u201d Walker says, adding that skills become more important as you climb the ladder and enter more specialist roles.<\/p>\n Even then, she says someone with a great attitude and willingness to learn can still bag a role over someone more experienced if they can be developed into the role.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cYou don\u2019t need to be the finished article to be promoted, but we need to know that you are in a position where within a reasonable timeframe, you\u2019ll have invested the time to upskill and develop\u2014so I say to people, be very focused on who you are first and foremost, because that\u2019s the bit that makes you stand out, and can\u2019t be taught and will be a differentiator,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n But no matter how junior\u2014or senior\u2014you are, she still thinks a bad attitude will make you stand out for all the wrong reasons.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t stand arrogance.\u00a0Be confident, but have a level of humility,\u201d Walker warns. \u201cYou can\u2019t rest on your laurels because you\u2019ve done something well in the past, you need to be thinking about what\u2019s the next great thing that you\u2019ll do?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEven at my level, you have to be open to the fact that there\u2019s lots more yet to learn and grow and adapt,\u201d she concludes. \u201cI always know that I\u2019m only as good as the last good thing that I\u2019ve done, and I\u2019ll only continue to be good if I continue to do good things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Walker\u2019s not the only CEO to reveal that it\u2019s not a ritzy college degree or being the best networker that will make you stand out at the start of your career\u2014but a positive attitude. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has said that an \u201cembarrassing amount of how well you do, particularly in your twenties\u201d depends on it.<\/p>\n Even Walker\u2019s predecessor, David Meads previously echoed to Fortune <\/em>that \u201cEQ is at least as important as IQ.\u201d The now MEA chief at Cisco stressed that he sees \u201cno difference in terms of the capability\u201d from talent with or without a degree while adding that qualifications hold even less weight in external-facing roles.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need that EQ to be able to read the room and understand what\u2019s being said by what\u2019s not being said.\u201d<\/p>\n In the end, numerous leaders, including Pret and Kurt Geiger\u2019s CEOs, have stressed that being nice to their boss and coworkers was one of the biggest determining factors in their success.<\/p>\n As Maya Angelou famously said: \u201cPeople will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.\u201d And ultimately, the same is true for hiring managers and those with promotion powers.<\/p>\n A version of this story originally published on\u00a0<\/em>Fortune.com<\/em>\u00a0on\u00a0January 30, 2025<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Ciscos #top #exec #Amazons #Andy #Jassy #share #hiring #red #flag<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s not what you know, or eve… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[374,1931,4349,4348,2005,542,6128,6130,6129,625,446,3016,1242,1243,300,2007,4350,1184,12,2011,187],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7314"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Skills become more important with experience\u2014but it always pays to be positive and humble<\/h2>\n
An \u2019embarrassing\u2019 amount of your success in your 20s depends on your attitude, Jassy echoes<\/h2>\n