The Power of Seeking Discomfort with Prudential’s Carolynn Smith

About this episode

Carolynn Smith discusses the importance of seeking discomfort in leadership and the role of AI in customer experience.

What happens when you’re suddenly asked to lead the very people who used to be your peers? For Carolynn Smith, that moment came with her first big promotion. It taught her lessons about courage, discomfort, and how leadership often begins by stepping into the unknown. Today, Carolynn is Head of U.S. Service and Enterprise Process Excellence at Prudential Financial. She oversees large-scale transformation efforts and shapes how customer care is delivered at one of the country’s leading financial services companies. In this conversation, guest host Karen Lellouche Tordjman sits down with Carolynn to talk about seeking discomfort, the role of AI in reimagining customer experience, and what it really takes to grow into leadership. Along the way, Carolynn reflects on raising a family while rising through the ranks, and why leaning into discomfort has been her best teacher. 1:59 Core Values and a Promotion 3:13 Business vs. Personal Relationships 4:50 Surround Yourself With People Smarter Than You 8:18 Seeking Discomfort  10:15 “Work-Life Blend” 14:03 AI and Customer Experience 17:45 Managing Customer Expectations Links: Carolynn Smith on LinkedIn Suchi Srinivasan on LinkedIn…

People in this episode

Hosts: Karen Lellouche Tordjman, Suchi Srinivasan, Kamila Rakhimova

Guest: Carolynn Smith

Topics covered

• leadership
• discomfort
• AI
• customer experience
• work-life balance

Keywords

• leadership
• discomfort
• AI
• customer experience
• work-life blend
• transformation
• career growth

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Prudential Financial

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