What impression are you leaving once you leave?

January 3, 2019

It can be a strain to be aware of your actions 24/7 but as a leader it is critical. You leave an impression every time you interact with anyone, and if you are a busy person you may be leaving the impression in a few seconds.

Think about when you enter a meeting room, realize you are in the wrong room and leave. What did you say? Did you come across as simply having read the wrong room on your calendar, or as a disorganized ditz.

How about when you have just given a talk and there is a line of people waiting to talk with you, but you are tired? Do you take the time, despite your fatigue, to greet every person, listen to their question and thoughtfully answer, or do you say “sorry, have to get to my next thing” and leave?

Or you visit a site in China, or India, and you are horribly jet lagged but to the employees who you are meeting with your visit is a big deal. Do you let on that you are struggling with jet lag and whine a bit or sit up straight and force yourself to be charming and attentive to them?

Then there are the times you go out with sales people to celebrate a big win or mourn a loss. Do you relax and have a few too many drinks because you are with the lads, or do you keep a watch on your own imbibing so as to not make a mistake and say something you’ll regret.

There are thousands of such moments when you need to chose how to behave and, as a leader, I believe you always need to keep the impression you leave at the front of your mind. For you the encounter may be minor and forgetful but for the people you are meeting with – employees, customers, peers, shareholders – it may stick with them for years, especially if you let them down or disappoint them in some way.

The more people who work for you, the more important every small interaction is because your time gets sliced thinner and thinner. When you have more than 20,000 people working for you, which you may do one day, every moment leaves an impression as the CEOs of the big companies are very aware.

I’ve watched dear friends in powerful positions struggle with this. The stock takes a precipitous tumble on one day and it can be hard not to lash out and be negative to the people around you. The company misses its number and it can be hard for the head of sales not to get drunk with his boys. I’ve fought hard not to be negative when grossly over tired and had to lecture myself in the ladies room mirror to stay positive. We are all human and being self aware and conscious of the impression you are leaving with the people around you is serious work.

But if you want to be a leader it is critically important. You never know who is watching (particularly important if you are CEO of a public company). You never know what is really going on in the lives of the people you are working with and how much they may be needing you to lift them up that day. You cannot know how you may change their career choices with a few thoughtful moments.

So pay attention! I wish I had more than I did.

Career Advice

Startup or large corporate – which is best for you?

November 16, 2018

Everyone has an opinion of whether you should work for big companies or small, startup or corporate, but the answer is very personal. I was coaching a group earlier this week and the question came up as “I am working for a startup but everyone is telling me I should go work for a big corporate now for my resume – what do you think?”

I believe there is no right way, no right answer. But there are dimensions to consider as you map out your next step.

Are you working for good, experienced managers? Do you respect them, and will they invest in you? If so, stay with them as long as you are growing and learning – whether you are in a small or a large company. It is so much more efficient to learn from good managers than from bad. There are a thousand ways to do a job badly and a handful of ways to do it well so learn as much as you can from people you respect for as long as you can.
Are you working for a winning startup? I have found many employees are very loyal to their company, even when in their hearts they know it is failing, and yet if the company is not winning you may not grow. It could be that you get more experience because you get a battlefield promotion, but more likely if the company is not growing your responsibilities and span of control will not grow. Remember 9 out of 10 startups fail. So if you are early in your career and want to advance fast try to find a startup (if you chose to do one) that is growing.
Do you long for more formal training, If so then it’s probably time to go to a larger company and grow your large company skillsets. These may be larger team management, scale, working with international teams, and probably politics. Larger companies will typically either having training programs internally, or have the budget to send you out on courses. I was fortunate enough to be sent to the Stanford Executive MBA program, all expenses paid (while I was pregnant) because the company wanted to invest in me. It was a fantastic experience for me, a math major with no business training, to learn the basics of finance, marketing, management and organizational development in a crash course. A startup would not have been able to invest in me that way.
Do you want to manage lots of people? Again, a large company stint may make sense for you. It is certainly a great experience to manage a large team of people or a large P&L at some point in your career. But with that will come both good and bad politics. Good – the art of influencing people in a constructive way; Bad – the art of backroom lobbying and selfish decisions. So prepare yourself for both.
Do you need stability? There are times in all our lives when stability is very attractive, such as when we are caring for an ill family member, and times when it doesn’t seem important. Be aware of what you need right now.
Do you need to make a high end salary for the level/job you are in? Larger, established companies will typically pay more, especially if you are in a very competitive job category. Startups will typically want to conserve cash. Make sure you know what you are worth in the market at large and then consciously make the decision that works for you and your financial plans.
Do you enjoy risk and want to have fun? Well then, a startup is probably for you.

And when you are all done, looking back on your career from a beach or with grandchildren on your knee, what’s important is that you have lived to your highest potential (whatever that means to you) – and that you have worked for and with great people in fun companies. Life is too short to work in low quality companies, with and for bozos, when there are so many terrific companies and people to work with.

Career Advice

Managing the switchbacks of your career

July 18, 2018

A successful career is rarely a straight line up the slope. It is so often a weaving up through experiences and it’s important to recognize how and when to weave.

I did a coaching session yesterday where just this question came up. This time the individual had years of engineering, both as a stellar software engineer and also as a manager and can feel he wants to do more – can do more – and knows he needs to broaden his skillset.

I have a handful of principles which can be helpful when you are wanting to grow and create more upward momentum in your career:

Make sure you are in a critical path for the company (and this will vary by industry). For tech companies success hinges on sales (revenue and cash) and product. In, and in-between, these functions there will be a number of critical roles and projects. These could be supporting the top customers, could be developing a handful of critical new relationships, could be bringing a new product to market. Learn what these are and which would be i) new to you, ii) challenging for you and iii) valuable to the company.
Make sure you advocate for a new position you can be successful at if you work hard and learn fast (which I assume you would!). It’s important that you succeed in each role you take on even if it’s a bit rocky as you come up the learning curve. It’s OK to make short term tactical mistakes in your career, it’s not OK to make strategic ones.
Stay visible. In some companies a tour away from HQ is truly valued but in others it may be the kiss of death for future promotion because you are out of sight and out of mind. If you do decide to step away from HQ to stretch yourself – for example to China or DC – agree on a time frame with your management (e.g. 2 years) and be sure to discuss what you would be eligible for when you come back, but before you go.
Be aggressive – that you are very focused on personal growth – but humble – that you know you have a lot to learn. I’ve had too many engineers tell me they know they’d be good in sales while massively underestimating how truly skilled great sales people are, and too many sales people sure they can do marketing (better than marketing is doing it) with no comprehension of what it takes. If you have not worked in a job I guarantee you underestimate it, so be humble.
Be direct. It’s rare, especially in small companies, that your executives are sitting around thinking about taking risk with you to broaden your career outside of what’s immediately expedient for them so don’t beat around the bush.

If you’ve been in the same role for 3 years look up, and across, and consider stretching yourself in to a new role – unless this is truly what you want to do for the rest of your working life.

Career Advice

Management screws up – what do you do?

May 1, 2018

Something is wrong and management has messed up again, how do you react?

One of the ways people react and hurt themselves in the process is by being immediately negative. Cynically: “well this is just the norm for this effed-up company” or “yet again we are going to screw our customers”. Maybe with resignation: “I’ll have to work more hours now to correct their mistakes”. Maybe as a victim: “I have no power and I can’t take the risk of saying anything”. Maybe on the attack: “We need to get rid of our VP”. You’ve heard them all I am sure, standing around the water cooler discussing how, yet again, management is no good.

How is that helpful to anyone? It’s only helpful to you for 30 seconds as you feel better venting (but it’s better to save that for your dog). It’s not helpful to your team mates because while they might pile on for a moment they will be left feeling worse.

But most of all it is not helpful to your management. When there is a problem usually everyone knows it, including management who, though they may not show it, are probably worrying too. Quality issues, high turnover, bad process – it’s probably a known issue that is languishing or not being solved for whatever reason. Or maybe you’ve identified a problem. Either way piling on to complain or roll your eyes does not contribute to the solution.

What most leaders long for is for the people on their team to describe the problem constructively and offer solutions. Pragmatic or harebrained, cheap or expensive, start the conversation and you become part of the solution.

If you are not sure how to do this maybe role-play with a friend. Practice describing what you see without being negative, cynical or frustrated. Don’t be a Pollyanna either. Focus on facts, process, unconscious culture – whatever is contributing but in a pragmatic tone. Make sure you are clear up front that your objective is to bring a new idea or solution so you don’t get derailed in the description of the problem before your audience knows your intent (so he can keep listening and not stop listening and start composing his response in his head before you get to your idea). For example, first sentence “I have been thinking about the quality issue on the latest release and I have an idea” or “I’m concerned about the turnover in our department and I have an idea as to how we could reduce it”.

There is a mind game you can play with yourself. Imagine you are the CEO listening to you. You are busy and burdened with the challenges of the job. You (the CEO you) may know the problem you (the employee you) is about to bring up, you may not. Either way, what is the best way to quickly describe the problem/your observation and your idea? Practice that – without being negative or sycophantic.

If you get skilled at this you will become part of the solution and you will be recognized and appreciated by your management. It will create opportunity for you. Early in my career I was not as skilled at this as I wish I could have been, but I was good at pointing out the problems and offering to fix them. Taking on broken programs, developing new programs from scratch to solve a problem or develop an untapped opportunity and this definitely accelerated my career.

Now you may say this would not work in your company. That’s not the culture. Management doesn’t want to hear, HR doesn’t listen etc. etc. To that I say get out. Find a better company that is worthy of your talent. And when you do, chalk it up to experience, or if you think it’s really egregious maybe write a blog like Susan Fowler did and bring down leadership. You are never powerless.

Career Advice

Why being kind as a leader trumps yelling every time

February 10, 2018

Are you conscious of how you react as a leader when someone makes you angry? With an attack or with kindness?

I once worked with a head of sales who, when things were not going his way, would curse out anyone not on his team who he thought didn’t appreciate how hard his job was. Unkind, unnecessary accusations of incompetence or intentionally obstructing sales. Engineering, customer success, marketing – you name it – they all got yelled at instead of constructively engaged. But unpredictably so everyone walked on egg shells around him.

I recently saw a situation where an employee disappointed a startup CEO and the CEO chose to call her up and scream at her. Profanity laden, unfounded accusations of mal intent. The employee had resigned at an inopportune time and the CEOs reaction was to attack. Not give the employee the benefit of the doubt, or quietly share her disappointment.

And sometimes it even happens with customers. But in all cases shouting and bullying is not only poor leadership – it is harassment.

It’s so easy to react emotionally and react with anger. To raise your voice and attack. To clench your fists and shake with emotion. It is so much harder to react with kindness and yet being kind is often one of the characteristics of great executives. Not soft or weak; kind.

This is because it takes extra energy and thought to manage your reaction. It takes caring about the people you are leading or working with more than yourself. You have to step back and make the mental space to think through what’s behind the employee’s action. Have they made a mistake because they did not have enough information? Or because they didn’t think their action through? And if so how should you react to help them make a different decision next time?

I had the pleasure of working for a COO once who was a master at this. He never got angry, never raised his voice. He had a staff who were strong willed and opinionated – we must have been a nightmare to manage. Several of us went on to bigger jobs as CEOs, professors, GMs but at the time we were never satisfied, always pushing for more and for change. And we were definitely not always constructive. I learned, while working for Chi-Foon Chan at Synopsys, that you never need to attack to get your way. You can listen, respond with thought and patience and still exercise tremendous power. Very, very occasionally the chief would get angry but he would go quiet and still and wait us out and then quietly corner us with intellect. Impressive and something I aspired to once I was a CEO (although not always successfully).

The net result of having the self-control to think of your employee first and be kind is that people will remember you positively, will want to work for you, and will recommend other people work for you. You will make their lives better and they will be in the foxhole with you as you grow your company. And if their own careers are growing and they want to move onto a bigger job they will talk with you about it so a) you will not be surprised and b) you can help them find their next position – thereby earning their lifelong loyalty. I worked with a first-class CFO once who had three department heads: Accounting, FP&A and Treasury and he was clear that part of his job was to groom each one of these heads to be a CFO, knowing that when they were ready they would leave him. He succeeded and inspired deep loyalty in everyone who worked for him.

So if you find yourself reacting with anger and raising your voice, or worse yet yelling at an employee, step back and count to ten. Breathe deep and find another way. It’s simply not worth the destruction of relationship that occurs when you lose your temper.

Career Advice

2 ways to completely destroy trust with your manager

May 12, 2016 Leave a comment

It’s always nice to talk about all the things you can do right in your career and in the office, but sometimes it’s worth focusing on what you should not do because it’s so hard to recover.

There are two ways I have seen people break trust in the office that are almost always fatal. They are not the only two, of course, but when they happen it’s always a surprise to me because these mistakes are always visible – whether you think they are or not.

1. Make, and stick to, a bold faced lie

This mistake is often about the use of information. You, the manager, share a piece of information with Angela. Maybe Angela sits in a meeting where she hears it, and you stress in the meeting how confidential it is, or maybe you need to share the information with Angela so she can do her job. But, for whatever reason, Angela just cannot keep the information to herself. She shares it with John. Maybe she shares it because it’s just too juicy not to, or because it gives her sense of power to show John that she has the information, but once she does it’s out.

John is shocked by the information and asks his manager, Bill, is it true? Bill asks him how he heard and John tells him, and shows Bill the text Angela sent him. Bill calls you to discuss the leak. So you, the manager, know the source. You confront Angela, and she lies, and sticks to the lie. She doesn’t know you have evidence so she won’t back down.

This is a real scenario I experienced, and it’s not unusual. In a recent seminar on cyber security an FBI instructor told us that in the case of a security breach the average time to leak is 2 hours because employees cannot sit on the information, but they deny it because they are afraid. Decisions like layoffs and reorgs which affect people’s lives spread fast, as do knowledge of in-office sexual relationships.

But as the manager, once you have an experience like this with an employee, will you ever trust them again? If you know they will lie like that? Probably not.

2. Break a serious promise

Strong teams are formed on human relationships. Trust, relying on one another, knowing that you have each other’s back. And so, at times, employees make commitments to one another. A commitment to stick with a project until it’s done, not matter how hard it gets. A commitment to stay on the team through thick or thin until the mountain is taken. A commitment not to lie to one another. A commitment to take on the customer travel for the team because they need to focus on the project within HQ. A promise to protect someone’s job when they go on maternity leave.

Jeff is leading a small team taking on a significant challenge for the company. He knows it’s going to be hard, and he’s worried about it before, but he commits to his manager and his team that he’s going to see it through. He won’t quit on them and they’ll win together. A month later he gets a better offer and quits. He’s an important player but do you try to turn him around?

When someone breaks an explicit commitment/promise to you, or to their team, would you ever work with them again, or give them a reference? Probably not.

Everyone is human, and everyone slips up sometimes. And it’s not only early on that people that make these mistakes, but experience has taught me that age has nothing to do with breaking trust in the office. And so what do you do if you make one of these mistakes?

My advice is as soon as you realize you have made one of these mistakes you come clean. Go to the person you have betrayed, tell them everything, and sincerely apologize from your heart. Don’t try to explain it away, or explain why you think there were extenuating circumstances, or why your actions were really OK but you got caught. Just take the blame squarely on the chin and, if you believe can, make the commitment to never make that mistake again because you understand the cost to their trust in you.

Trust is fragile. It takes time to build and, once broken, can be very hard to rebuild. Admitting your mistake is a good first step to rebuilding trust.

Career Advice

Top 3 things to look for in your first job

December 17, 2015 Leave a comment

It can be hard to find that first job, and sometimes you need to take
whatever you can get to start your career. But whether it is your very
first job or a job search in the first five years of your career, there
are three critical things you should not settle without.

1. A great manager

Having
a great manager early on will by far create the strongest impact toward
your long-term growth. Working for someone who is talented, generous
with their time, and willing to teach you can be a powerful jumpstart.
And working for a turkey is both demotivating and a waste of your time.
Remember, for every way to do something well, there are a thousand ways
to do it badly. Every year counts early on, so partner up with a strong
leadership team, make sure that you are efficient with time and sponge
every skill possible when you are young, hungry and hopefully don’t need
much sleep. Strong management will steer you onto projects that stretch
you and teach you, and catch you when you stumble. Poor managers come
in a variety of flavors: micro managers, absentee managers, inconsistent
managers, and the list goes on, but they share one characteristic, they
deprive you of valuable learning. So pick wisely. Interview your
potential manager so you get a sense of how much they will help you
grow.

2. Growth

Just as a rising tide
floats all boats, finding a thriving environment early on will create an
opportunity for advancement. Think about the people who landed early in
companies like Google and LinkedIn. Were they any smarter than their
peers who joined loser companies? Probably not. But the diligent,
hard-working ones took advantage of the extraordinary emerging
opportunities to grow their own careers, fast. Even in modestly
flourishing/booming times, you will find that growth creates
opportunity. Early in your career, you should be alert for new tasks,
projects and be sure to volunteer and raise your hand up when companies
are searching for aggressive new talent. Take on new challenges, be a
problem solver and stretch your skill set. Stagnant companies make it
difficult to do this, so stay alert for rising tides.

3. Visibility into the business

Too
often I talk with people early in their career, and they don’t
understand the Profit and Loss principles of their company. Being able
to distinguish between decisions that help or hurt the business is
pivotal. Insist on acquiring visibility of cash flows from customer
reports, sales deals, marketing expenses and product development costs.
Looking at the cash trail of a company early on is essential to
understanding how the company makes money. Whether you are the egghead
designing a new product (which will make money), or you are the inside
sales rep selling (bringing money in) or you are the accountant working
on the P&L (watching the money) you want to see it and understand
it. That way, later in your career when you are making decisions that
directly impact the growth, profit or loss of your own company, or the
company you work for, you will have a visceral feel for how the
financials of a company actually work. And if you don’t understand basic
finance in the first 5 years of your career take classes until you do.
The knowledge is well worth giving up a few evenings for.

Often, I
am contacted by people who want a little coaching as they start their
careers or who are looking for a change in direction. And so often I am
asked my opinion about whether they should go and get an MBA. There are
some circumstances where an MBA is worth the time and money – for
example if you want to switch from engineering to finance – but in most
cases it isn’t. It’s my belief, after managing so many talented people
both with MBAs and without, that in most cases these three things are
fundamental: a great manager, a growing company, and getting yourself
familiar with the money trail.

Leadership

5 Reasons to Put Yourself in the Line of Fire as a Leader

December 1, 2015 1 Comment

My post in Inc a week ago:

While sitting at a restaurant in London Heathrow airport yesterday, I found myself between the unfortunate cross hairs of a helpless server and his useless manager. At noon, while the restaurant was full of customers from around the globe, the credit card machine stopped working. Many patrons, myself included, did not have enough British pounds to pay for our meals as we were on our way out of the country.

The waiter explained that I would need to pay my tab in cash. I opened my wallet to find scattered pounds, euros and dollars, and I knew it wouldn’t be enough. The waiter suggested that I wait the 30 minutes it would take for their system to come back online, but I of course told him that this wouldn’t be an option as I had a flight to catch. The waiter then left me to “talk with his manager.”

Now the fun started. The waiter walked the six feet away from me to where his manager was standing. I watched as the 40 year-old manager told his barely-20 year-old waiter what to tell me. The waiter returned to my table to reiterate his manager’s suggestion and I pushed back again. The poor waiter went back and forth as we tried to get close to the price of my bill counting the few pounds, euros and dollars that I had with me. I could not make the whole amount, which also meant no tip. During this entire exchange, the manager remained where he was, six feet away, and would not look at me or help the waiter by talking directly with me, the disgruntled customer.

As my gate was across from the restaurant, I continued to watch as the same encounter unfolded with other customers and the manager was still immovable to intervene. The young waiter was trying hard and I remained appalled by the lack of support and leadership from the restaurant manager to appease his customers or find solutions given the situation.

The encounter was a prime example of one of the many ways managers can fail at their jobs, which should, at their centers, be to claim any and all responsibility.

When something goes wrong with a customer do you automatically step in front of the bullet for your team?

Should you? I think so… and here’s why:

1. You need to take responsibility.
You’re the leader, which means you should be out front and center, leading your team. When something goes wrong, you need to make sure the customer looks to you for the fault and not to your employee. There are a couple of reasons for this. One is so that the customer respects you when you take ownership and will be more likely to work with you to find a solution than if you hide behind your employees. Second, this helps your employee become part of the solution rather than part of the problem. A rare exception to this rule is when your customer thinks an employee of yours is the problem. If this is the case, you need to listen carefully and help your employee with a get-well plan, if at all possible, but you may have to separate the employee from the customer. Either way, this is still your responsibility.

2. It’s a teaching opportunity.
Part of our responsibility as leaders is to cultivate and prepare the next generation of leaders. What better way to prepare the future of your company than to show them how to deal with a difficult situation? Lead with purpose and communicate your process when showing them how you step in front of an issue. If you lead by example and explain to them why you took the approach that you did, then they will learn how to do it for their own teams.

3. It’s a learning opportunity.
Most of us never learn true humility, especially in the superman-driven world of high tech. As leaders, we often struggle to hear and see the truth. Employees won’t tell us things we might need to hear, so we must keep charging on, regardless of our performance. So when a customer gives us tough feedback–“Your product is too slow, too expensive, low quality,” or “You missed your committed deadline”–it’s a moment in time for personal learning, humbleness and to be reminded that the customer is always right.

4. Don’t blame your employee.
This can be hard, especially if you are frustrated with a situation where your employee executed a task poorly. Yes, maybe give them tough feedback. Yes, maybe use it as a teaching moment. But never place blame or point fingers. 99 percent of the time, your employees are trying to do the right thing. When you blame them, you are probably missing the real issue.

5. Don’t project weakness.
Maybe you don’t care if your customer or your employees think that you are a weak person, but if you are an ambitious leader, you probably do. And when you hide behind an employee rather than taking charge, you are acting weak.

Equality

5 Practical Ways You Can Keep More Women On Your Team

October 9, 2015 Leave a comment

Published in Inc on Oct 5, 2015

At long last, the world is paying attention to the issue of gender
diversity. In May 2014, top tech companies started reporting the dismal
numbers of women in their workforces. When these statistics were
released to the public, a spotlight shone on this disparity, sparking a
conversation on the need for gender equality amongst corporate America.

While
this conversation has been discussed at length in the media and
exhausted by panels at conferences all over the world, the fact remains
that little change has actually occurred. We have a long way to go. As a
new report from Lean In and McKinsey shows, we are more than 100 years away from gender equality in the C-Suite. To top it off, NY Times reports,
the modern workplace is “toxic” and “the ranks of those women still
thin significantly as they rise toward the top, from more than 50
percent at entry level to 10 to 20 percent in senior management.”

It
might have taken 100 years for women to be able to vote in the U.S.,
but it shouldn’t take 100 more years before we achieve gender equality
at the office. If you want your company to benefit from the economic advantage of a diverse team,
there are five actions you can implement at your own company to grow
the number of women on your team. Here are some actions you can take now
to act locally and change the number of women on your team.

1. Women attract other women.

Do
you have at least one, preferably two, of your operational leaders who
are women? “Operational” is an important distinction. There are plenty
of teams where the HR person is a woman, or the communications person
(occupying the pink ghetto), but when you start looking for R&D leaders or P&L managers, the number of women thins out drastically.

What
few people realize is, if you have women in technology and operational
leadership they will attract other women. Women want to see other women
ahead of them in the company they are joining so they have positive
proof that they can get ahead in that company. Likewise, if there are no
women for your younger employees to look up to, you will lose them over
time. Before you say you can’t find them, determine going in that you
will interview both women and men for your open positions. In your
interview process you will find highly qualified women and you will hire
them. These highly skilled women will be magnets for other women
considering your team and open your talent pool up significantly.

2. True, not fake, flexibility.

Many
teams talk flexibility and yet the subtle competition and mindset of
one-upping each other that some teams exhibit can make working flexible
hours feel unsafe for many women. True flexibility means actively
respecting every employee’s wish to get their job done where and when it
works for them. If you can establish a culture where it’s completely
acceptable to call into a meeting if you need to be home or use video to
hold one-on-ones to support a teammate that needs to leave early
(rather than look down on it), you can keep women (and men) on your team
who have to juggle their home responsibilities with their job. But you
have to be proactive and out spoken about your support for flexibility
(provided people get their jobs done of course). Passive support is not
enough.

3. Talk about diversity openly.

It
takes courage to talk openly about your belief on diversity. Many of
your team will agree with you, but some will not, and not everyone will
tell you. I have found that a few men will complain to each other and be
passive aggressive on the issue, but you still need to speak out so the
women and other minorities on your team hear you. There is enough
evidence now that diversity creates better financial results and better
products. It makes no sense to omit 50% or more of the potential talent
from your workforce. By having the courage to speak out, be consistent
and be fair you will keep more women on your team and improve your
company in the process.

4. Invest in your women.

Many
fields are hostile to women, especially technology. Facebook’s Mary Lou
Jepson is just the latest in the long line of women to speak out about it.
Knowing that the workplace can be toxic or hostile, one way you can be
better than your competition at keeping and growing women is your
willingness to invest. Send women to female career oriented conferences
like the Grace Hopper Conference or the 3% Conference. Support them forming Lean In circles.
Speak openly about your wish to see them invest in staying with their
chosen field and find ways to grow within their field rather than
dropping out or moving to a more female friendly industry.

5. Hire a few good men.

There
are many men today who believe strongly in the need for gender
diversity. Their motivations are varied. Sometimes they have daughters
and want their daughters to have every opportunity. Sometimes it’s “just
right.” Other times it is understanding the need to hire the best and
the brightest and not wanting to miss out on half the talent. Whatever
the reason, these male allies are important in the quest for gender
diversity.

Bring men into your team who want to work on a diverse
team. Find men who don’t tolerate prejudice towards women and will
support the advancement of the women on your team. Make a conscious
effort to support these men when they work hard to bring women onto the
team and identify unconscious bias in the people around them.

It’s
time. The dearth of women at the top of companies is not just a
pipeline problem that stems from companies not proactively working to
improve their culture for women. We need to address the culture that
causes 50% of women to drop out of tech within 10 years of graduation
because it’s hostile. They don’t stop working, they just leave tech.
However, you can change the outcome for your team if you work hard to
bring women in and to keep them; your company will be stronger for it.

Career Advice

Speaking Truth to Power

August 28, 2015 Leave a comment

My Inc post – August 14

What
is it is that prevents us from speaking truth to those in power: Fear
of punishment? Fear of attack? Fear of being noticed? There are many
reasons we don’t deal in the truth, but great teams, whether a small
company leadership, a public company board, or a political team, learn
to speak and deal in the truth.

Knowing the truth about whatever
situation you are in, or the problem you are solving, is absolutely
critical, and yet so often people can’t overcome their own barriers to
tell those above them the honest truth. From my experience, here are
five reasons that people don’t speak up and some ways you can conquer
these concerns for yourself:

“I can’t get to her”–If
you’ve ever tried to reach a senior executive at a large company, you
know how hard it can be to steal a few minutes of their day. They have
layers of people protecting them and their time: a chief of staff, a
fierce admin and a busy schedule that seems to create walls of
unavailability. However, the best executives will make themselves
available if you bring value. Some of these executives answer emails,
sometimes they eat lunch in the cafeteria, and if you explain what you
want to talk about in serious terms, their admin will make time for you.
Be persistent and when you get your 15 minutes, be sure that you bring a
solution or suggestion for improvement, as well as the problem you
believe they need to know about. As a CEO there is nothing more
frustrating than someone bringing me a problem, dumping it on my lap and
having no part in helping me solve it. I’d still prefer to know, but it
is certainly easier to hear a problem when it comes with a proposed
solution.

“It’s not my place”
-It’s a self-limiter to believe that just because someone is in power
above you in the organization chart that they are in some way better
than you, or superior to you. Everyone has a role to play in the
organization, and as human beings, everyone is equal. Some jobs carry a
greater span of decision-making than others and a wider range of
responsibility, but no one is “better” than anyone else. It’s true that
in some company cultures executives start to believe that they are
better and look down on people they don’t consider their “peers,” but
they are weaker for it and I can tell you from experience that when they
are looking for a job later they forget that they once thought you were
beneath them. Remember, you have a place and a voice; your perspective
is valuable to power and you have a responsibility to share it.

“He won’t like it”–Some
people don’t like to hear bad news. They would rather you wrap
everything in the positive, especially if they are conflict averse. You
need to be aware of your audience’s personality to figure out how to
deliver a tough message, but don’t be fearful. Fear will only prevent
you from getting to the real problems and finding solutions. People
don’t get fired or shut out for telling the truth. If you are
constructive and are doing a quality job, you will not be fired for
expressing your opinion on a situation (and if you do, go and work for a
better leader). Good leaders want to hear the truth, even if it’s
painful to hear. So, speak up! Have confidence in yourself and don’t
worry about whether the power player you are speaking with will “like”
your message.

“She should already know” –
It’s a myth than people in power have all the information. In an ideal
world, they do, but in a fast-paced business, there is no way that your
leaders knows everything. You can be sure leaders are talking with
customers, sales people, your manufacturing leads and your engineers to
try and getting the information they need to make the right decisions,
but they never know everything. If you know something that you think
they should know, tell them. If they were already aware of your concern,
you just confirmed it. If they were unaware of your concern, you were
able to bring value and help them be better leaders.

“He shuts me down”–Getting
shut down is the one obstacle I find the hardest to overcome. This is
the person who raises his/her voice, gets aggressive and bullies to
intimidate a speaker into silence. It’s important to remember when
someone does this to you that it’s a tactic that has been learned
because it can be effective. I have particularly seen men use this on
women, but I have also seen men do it to other men. This often happens
when someone raises a controversial point, particularly if she is
“pushy,” and a man will get angry as a way to shut down the
conversation. If this happens to you, remember that others in the room
probably do not respect this behavior. However, most people will not run
to the aid of the person who spoke up, because they don’t want to draw
the anger in their direction. When you speak up and someone attacks you
with anger, don’t back down if you believe in the truth you are
speaking. Stay calm and stick to your guns. You might be surprised to
know that many people in the room agree with you.

One of the biggest reasons people don’t speak up is not about their
leadership, or fear, it’s about being liked. I’ve always been outspoken
and I am very conscious about speaking truth to power, but not everyone
likes it. I have found that some people admire me for it, and when I
leave a team (a company, or a board) those people will thank me for my
contribution. But others think of me as too aggressive and
controversial. For those people, it’s a relief when I leave the group.
It’s hard not to care when people don’t like you, but not everyone will
like you, so get used to it.

Finally, I realized I can’t please
all the people, all the time. It’s most important to be authentic, stop
worrying and speak the truth. You will find that when you do, the
people–the power – that matters will thank you for it.

management

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Startup or large corporate – which is best for you?

Managing the switchbacks of your career

Management screws up – what do you do?

Why being kind as a leader trumps yelling every time

2 ways to completely destroy trust with your manager

Top 3 things to look for in your first job

5 Reasons to Put Yourself in the Line of Fire as a Leader

5 Practical Ways You Can Keep More Women On Your Team

Speaking Truth to Power

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