Watch: Elevance Health’s Christy Noland talks about becoming a well-rounded communicator

Ragan’s Council Career Conversations, a recurring video series from Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council, allows members to share the strategies that made them leaders and the lessons they’ve learned about their careers.

Christy Noland, vice president of executive and business communications at Elevance Health, told Ragan that earlier in her career, she had a manager who told her pursuing multiple disciplines as a comms pro would provide her the dexterity to ascend within an organization.

“Make yourself uncomfortable and really challenge yourself,” Noland said. “It’ll be difficult for you to advance and develop if you haven’t seen all the disciplines and facets of what we can do. You won’t know how to manage and lead a team if you haven’t tried it yourself.”

She added that for ascendant comms leaders, a soft skills can’t be an afterthought.

“Everyone can be a great practitioner,” she said. “You can always hone your craft. Trust your gut and you’ll find that you’re able to navigate and counsel.”

Noland also told us that comms leaders shouldn’t just think with a communications mindset, but a business one as well.

“Put yourself in your CEO’s shoes and try to think about the issues in the way those leaders might,” she said.

Check out more of our discussion with Noland below.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.