In her podcast, Breaking Beliefs, Amy recently interviewed Jana Axline, who is the immediate Past President of the Project Management Institute, Mile Hi Chapter in Denver, Colorado. Jana is a focused project management leader and consultant who drives ideas from initiation to implementation, achieving successful outcomes for clients. In this interview, Jana shares her insights on the importance of mentors and building relationships at work with clients and colleagues.

Jana has an interesting and circuitous career journey. She worked eight jobs before she finally discovered that project management was right for her. Her career started with an interest in music and acting. From there, it spanned from working as a Registered Securities Assistant where she traded stocks and bonds, to working at Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, Banana Republic, and Target, where she quickly moved up into management. 

Jana finally took a course in project management and loved it. Her professor suggested that she join and volunteer with the Project Management Institute. This volunteer experience helped her get her first project management job at Cigna Healthcare as an IT project coordinator. 

It was at Cigna that Jana learned from a mentor the importance of building relationships at work that go beyond talking about work: 

“I picked a mentor who seemed like me, but was better at the things that I felt I needed to get better at. She wasn't an overly bubbly warm person, but she was good at connecting with people. People were loyal to her and they felt like she cared. I enjoyed that about her and I wanted to emulate it. I selected her as a mentor so I could talk to her about specific situations that came up and asked her how she would have dealt with it or how I should deal with it and be able to glean some of that.”

To this day, Jana continues to apply what she learned from her early mentor about building relationships at work that go beyond talking about work: 

“That’s the theme throughout my career -- building relationships at work that aren't focused on getting the work done. She did that too. She died young, I attended her funeral and there were probably 300 people there. Even years later, it made an impact if you want to be remembered for what you’re doing in people's lives on a day-to-day basis. To help their growth, help them as a person.”

To learn more about building relationships at work, the importance of mentors, and how to be excellent at customer service, listen to the entire episode.