![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-1954686511.jpg?w=2048\")
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For executives with C-suite ambitions, the question is often how to earn the title. TIAA CEO Thasunda Duckett argues the more consequential challenge is ensuring the title never becomes the center of your identity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI rent my title. I own my character,\u201d Duckett recently told Fortune<\/em> editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell, noting that there will come a day when she is no longer CEO of TIAA.\u00a0<\/p>\n What belongs to her, Duckett says, are the qualities she believes no board can confer or take away: \u201cI own my intellectual curiosity. I own my grit. I own my perseverance. I own my compass.\u201d<\/p>\n Corporate life rewards identification with the role. Promotions become markers of progress. Authority shapes access, influence, and relationships. By the time an executive reaches the corner office, it can be difficult to distinguish where the role ends and the individual begins.<\/p>\n Executives spend years investing in the next promotion. Duckett suggests they should invest just as deliberately in the qualities that remain when the promotion changes. Those are the attributes that shape how leaders navigate every chapter of their careers, including the ones that unfold after the corner office.<\/p>\n Much has been said about the years of board preparation for CEO successions. But CEOs have to prepare themselves. One is an exercise in organizational continuity, while the other is an exercise in preserving identity when the office no longer belongs to you.<\/p>\n Former GE CEO Jeff Immelt recently wrote about how the phone stopped ringing after he stepped down, a candid reflection on how quickly the privileges attached to the office can recede. Duckett appears to have already anticipated that reality. By treating the CEO role as temporary rather than permanent, she is preparing for leadership\u2019s final transition while still in the job.<\/p>\n Understandably, aspiring CEOs frequently ask what experiences or skills will prepare them to lead an enterprise. Duckett\u2019s comments suggest a different kind of preparation: Build an identity that can withstand every transition an executive career inevitably brings, including the one that eventually takes away the title.<\/p>\n Ruth Umoh<\/strong> Tell me more. <\/b>$5 billion CEO says he doesn\u2019t just call references\u2014he also secretly hunts down managers you didn\u2019t list to ask about your personality<\/span><\/p>\n Second act. <\/b>Christina Qi left behind a hedge fund trading $7 billion a day for a farm in Utah. Her new startup just raised $97 million to rival Bloomberg<\/span><\/p>\n Midnight oil<\/b>. <\/span>Ex-PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi worked from midnight until 5 a.m. as a receptionist to pay for her Yale degree\u2014and she says \u2018respect went up\u2019 because of it<\/span><\/p>\n Everyday millionaire. <\/b>He earns $33 an hour as a Costco cashier. Now he’s a millionaire<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Thasunda Brown Duckett on career opportunities that arrive at personally inconvenient moments: \u201cDon’t ever count yourself out. Even if it’s not the ideal time, it may be the perfect time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Sen. Lindsey Graham died from an aortic tear caused by cardiovascular disease, according to preliminary findings from the D.C. medical examiner. <\/span>Fortune<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Investors stayed relatively calm despite intensifying fighting around the Strait of Hormuz, as oil edged up and U.S. stock futures dipped. <\/span>Fortune<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n As SpaceX expands beyond rockets into AI, cloud computing, chips, and advertising, it’s increasingly resembling Amazon, but with a much steeper valuation. <\/span>Fortune<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Trump privately told aides he believed the U.S.-Iran ceasefire was \u00a0effectively over, just two weeks after announcing it. <\/span>WSJ<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n The AI boom has fueled a record $3.2 trillion in global dealmaking, though bankers are questioning how long the M&A surge can last.<\/span> NYT<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Meta unveiled Muse Spark 1.1, a new AI model it says outperforms comparable offerings from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. <\/span>Fortune<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n A federal judge approved the SEC\u2019s $1.5 million settlement with Elon Musk despite \u201cserious misgivings\u201d over allegations he saved $150 million by skirting disclosure rules. <\/span>Fortune<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n A coalition of state attorneys general is preparing to sue to block Paramount’s $111 billion merger with Warner Bros., potentially creating a major obstacle to the deal. <\/span>Reuters<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n #TIAA #CEO #Thasunda #Brown #Duckett #rent #title #character<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For executives with C-suite ambitions, the question is often how to earn the title. TIAA CEO Thasunda Duckett argues the more consequential challenge is ensuring the title never becomes the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4156,2412,8180,12523,369,1925,6448,1285,12524,7645,9261,7895,4332,6292,6679,12526,10792,1889,5983,12527,7894,7893,13343],"class_list":["post-11984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-brown","tag-building-your-career","tag-business-leadership","tag-business-strategy","tag-ceo","tag-ceo-salaries-and-executive-compensation","tag-character","tag-chief-executive-officer-ceo","tag-corner-office","tag-corporate-leadership","tag-corporate-strategy","tag-duckett","tag-leadership-advice","tag-management-advice","tag-most-powerful-women","tag-next-to-lead","tag-rent","tag-skills","tag-succession","tag-succession-planning","tag-thasunda","tag-tiaa","tag-title"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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