Category: Featured

Alex Allison of D Alexander Capital: The Future of Travel in The Post Covid World

Alex Allison of D. Alexander Capital: The Future of Travel in The Post Covid World

Flexibility is the future. Expect to see more and more travel companies incorporate new, flexible policies into their offering. If there’s one thing COVID-19 highlighted for brands in the travel space, it’s that people want to be able to shuffle their plans based on their ever-changing lifestyle. How you get to your destination, control over where you work, and lodging to support living and schooling are the primary drivers behind fixed travel dates.

As part of my series about “exciting developments in the travel industry over the next five years”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alex Allison.

Alex is the Founder and CEO of the pioneering destination hospitality brand, D. Alexander, and the Founder and Managing Partner of D. Alexander Capital — together, a vertically integrated real estate fund that owns and operates destination homes and delivers a consistent, flexible and tech-enabled experience.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

My father was a contractor, so I grew up around residential real estate and home-building. He built my childhood home in his early 20s, and there was always a project going on in our household for as long as I can remember. My mother was an early team member at a tech startup where she still works today, 31 years later. I spent many late nights at the office with her as she worked fiercely to wrap up the day. Looking back, this combination of real estate, tech, and entrepreneurship had a big influence on my interest in building from the ground up. My brother later became a real estate agent himself, and soon shared his vision with me of launching an online platform that would bring real estate transactions online. We set out to change the way that real estate deals get done, officially launching the Dotloop venture in 2009.

We sold Dotloop to Zillow in 2015, and I stayed on until 2019. But by then, I was increasingly preoccupied with behavioral shifts in how people live and work, leading to a different form of homeownership, investing and access. In my own life, I was becoming more mobile and working remotely in various locations across the country. And I saw that instead of buying primary residence “forever homes,” consumers were moving towards buying properties as investments, and prioritizing flexibility and mobility in their own lives instead. I felt like home ownership and hospitality were converging, and became fascinated by this idea of owner-operated destination rental brand. Which brought me to D. Alexander, and where I am right now.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

I’m a bit of a nomad myself — maybe it’s the distance runner in me that constantly needs to be on the move. I enjoy taking unique trips to different destinations around the world and I seek opportunities that provide me with the flexibility to work from anywhere to enable this level of nomadic lifestyle. In fact, D. Alexander came out of road tripping. I was driving down Highway 1, where I made stops at various remote locations and a family member’s vacation home that happened to be vacant. During these adventures, I was always on the search for a place to stay that provided consistent standards that aligned with what I was used to as from staying at hotels. This search always fell short, and I began to wonder about the future of living, and whether or not I was alone in this craving for a more nomadic lifestyle or if it spoke to a larger movement — it was the latter. So, I founded D. Alexander, an elevated destination hospitality brand that caters to the new kind of traveler: the digital nomad.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

We talk often about creating customers for life, and long-term thinking. Recently, the pandemic tossed a world of change at travelers and operators alike across the hospitality and lodging sectors. One D. Alexander customer that was impacted by the pandemic left a review without even staying at one of our properties: “We ended up having to cancel our reservation due to covid-19 but wanted to leave a review about customer service because it was so phenomenal. The team’s response times were super quick, they answered a million questions I had about the house and about different precautions as the covid situation evolved. They even went out of their way to find us extra cleaning supplies and paper products like toilet paper given we had a shortage in our hometown. Once we had to cancel they continued to give us personalized service and were completely understanding of our situation. We look forward to getting back to a D. Alexander property.”

Our brand values — patience, empathy, elevated service — are built into the very core of our business model. Being human and putting people first is at the heart of everything we do and it’s one of the reasons why our company stands out.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”? Can you share a story about that?

Find your off switch, which can be a compilation of strategies or tactics. For me, that’s continuing to work from a dedicated workspace during the day and running, calling friends or family members in the evening, while limiting email/notifications. The challenge of separating work from home has grown over the years as we become an increasingly mobile society with connectivity at our fingertips. For many, “the office” or process of going to and from a workspace became a vehicle that reduced burnout — the on/off switch in other words. That’s no longer the case, as our world changed overnight. There is no longer a physical separation between home and office, and a primary residence isn’t typically designed to support dedicated, focused work. Destination homes in remote locations can be one of the best solutions for remedying burnout.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

My family and my childhood were very influential to me. My mother is a big personality, who taught me to love what you do, approach every situation with positive intent, and not sweat the small stuff. My brother had high influence on me, too. He’s a fierce entrepreneur, and has the drive and perseverance to see anything through.

That said, I’m a creative at heart — and I get a lot of that from my father. He’s a master-craftsman and contractor with a small business in residential home building, and he immersed us in residential real estate when we were very young. Beyond helping us understand the industry itself, he taught us fundamentals that help excel any business. He was on a constant mission to deliver the highest quality, from the original research and methodology behind an idea, to meticulous detail in the execution. It set me off on my own quest to always think differently and execute fiercely. He prided himself on attention to detail. Those details can be the most crucial part of a venture. They’re where the real opportunities for innovation — and the difference between “good” and “great” — lie.

Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to the travel and hospitality industries?

The innovation at the center of our business is the owner-operated model for destination home-oriented markets, with radical consistency from home-to-home. That may not sound super sexy at a first glance, but it’s very exciting because it enables us to control the full customer experience, from booking to safety precautions to amenities to sleep experience and full customer journey. This is unheard of in destination homes, largely due to the majority of homes available in the market place being owned by individual secondary homeowners and operated by another company. This unique combination of owner-operated and a branded experience drives long-term thinking and provides unmatched controls over all aspects that influence a stay.

Our newest product offering launched in March, Destination Plans, provides guests with unprecedented flexibility and the confidence and certainty of professional cleaning, corporate standards, and protocols, security and consistency. We can ensure every home represents an elevated brand experience, from hand-selected, intentional amenities to thoughtful design details to inspiring locations with unparalleled access to nature. This seamless, almost boutique hotel-like experience is entirely new in destination homes and it’s a drive away from nearly anywhere in the country. We’re the first and only company in the space delivering this kind of immaculate experience for travelers.

Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing this innovation?

The two main pain points that inspired D. Alexander are a lack of consistency and flexibility in destination rentals. While platforms that connect independent homeowners with prospective guests play an important role in the market and are great partners of D. Alexander, the guest experience can become fragmented and usually suffers because of the lack of consistency or the challenge that comes with controlling quality. There are great operators and brands that deliver top-notch quality and protocols, but collectively, there is a high degree of variation due to fragmentation and overall structure of home inventory and ownership. It’s not uncommon across the marketplace to have a void in core, functional elements such as strong, reliable WiFi, accessibility, or a fully-equipped kitchen. We’re striving to eliminate those voids and deliver what people need 99% of the time. With D. Alexander, I wanted to create a brand that owned and operated all of its homes, so customers like myself could have a consistent, seamless experience.

Flexibility is another big part of this conversation. Life, by default, is uncertain and requires flexibility, yet there isn’t a high degree of flexibility because of the challenges it presents for operations. This has become particularly crucial in today’s uncertain travel landscape. Rigid booking models with locked-in dates and steep cancellation fees aren’t realistic for our fluid, modern lifestyle, especially right now. Because D. Alexander owns the homes, we can think outside of the norm to create a different model altogether with totally flexible booking, unique cancellation policies, moving dates or homes, or even gifting your stay. Guests purchase a Destination Plan through our website that they can use at any point in the next two years, which gives them the freedom to escape at a moment’s notice and eliminates the fear of being locked into plans that may change. Knowing that you have a reliable retreat for remote living, work, and play at your fingertips is a luxury that we’re providing. Ultimately, we guarantee peace of mind for our customers.

How do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?

I’m not sure that D. Alexander is disrupting the status quo today, so much as it’s shaping a new status quo for the future needs of travelers and households. It’s a radically different offering in the marketplace. We built our customer experience around flexibility and consistent comfort for longer-term stays because the consumer research showed that as life and work became more fluid and flexible, this is what our target customers were seeking. The market was already gravitating towards destination experiences over short term vacations; the pandemic just accelerated that trend.

While offices will return in some capacity, the work-from-anywhere (WFA) lifestyle is the new status quo for consumers, because once they change their behavior, it’s unlikely they’ll revert. Our model is specifically designed to encourage that lifestyle. So, while we were disrupting the status quo back in 2019, the new normal in 2020 has accelerated trends that align with us. Our huge advantage is that we were the first to recognize and build a model around this shift, rather than adapting a pre-existing business model to align with it. To that end, being built first around this new lifestyle gives us an edge of rapid innovation and invention. Looking forward, we’re focused on being the best version of ourselves and raising the bar on what home, hospitality and travel will look like in this new age of unprecedented flexibility. And we’re doing it with amazing partners around the table.

Can you share 5 examples of how travel and hospitality companies will be adjusting over the next five years to the new ways that consumers like to travel?

I strongly believe that COVID-19 has served as a catalyst for some broader lifestyle shifts that were already in motion pre-pandemic.

Flexibility is the future. Expect to see more and more travel companies incorporate new, flexible policies into their offering. If there’s one thing COVID-19 highlighted for brands in the travel space, it’s that people want to be able to shuffle their plans based on their ever-changing lifestyle. How you get to your destination, control over where you work, and lodging to support living and schooling are the primary drivers behind fixed travel dates. Remove these boundaries, and consumer needs are increasingly centered around flexibility (early check-in, extend your stay, move between locations, etc). Flexibility has always been key, but the industry as a whole will be forced to make swift changes to align with these requirements.
Digitization is the way, support will become supplemental. We’re still used to a hospitality model where checking in and checking out of a hotel or home may require contact with a person behind a desk and a physical key. We built D. Alexander with a tech-first approach because people want to be able to access a home on their own terms. Big data is going to be crucial as the industry finds its footing again and continues to evolve. As we’re able to learn more about our customers, their likes, and dislikes, the travel industry as a whole is going to be able to deliver a pretty remarkable experience for those customers.
We’re going to see the rise in the intersection between travel and health and wellness. Again, this is something that we saw a shift towards in the last year or two, but COVID really accelerated the movement. Health and wellness practices are no longer a nice-to-have — travelers have higher standards now. Consumers want to travel and live in places where nature is easily accessible, where home offices are spacious and give them the ability to truly focus, and where families and groups can coexist in a harmonious way. I think destination homes are built with this value proposition in mind, but the rest of the industry needs to take note as well.
Consistency is at the core, specifically in the alternative stay and rental home sectors, we expect to see more of it. We’ve all had experiences — myself included — where a rental home did not look as advertised on the website. Maybe it wasn’t clean like you expected, or the rooms were smaller than they looked online, or the backyard didn’t have that basketball court your kids were expecting. Delivering a consistent experience is more important now than ever before.
Primary homes will evolve and emerge as the new secondary home with growing consumer need and demand for the optionality that comes with a portfolio of homes across multiple geographies. New business models will emerge to help primary home owners become more liquid and leverage their assets.

Can you share with our readers how have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Nobody succeeds alone, in life, business and beyond, and I believe that goodness comes from great people passing learnings and advice along the way. I’m always looking for new ways to support entrepreneurs, early-stage companies, and the underdogs. This can come in many forms and I’m honored to have had the opportunity to serve as a strategic advisor and mentor to a number of businesses, startups and entrepreneurs over the years across the real estate, hospitality, and marketing industries. These include Moderne Ventures and Second Century Ventures’ NAR REACH, two growth accelerators for real estate tech companies, along with Galvanize, a startup mentor program and co-working hub in Denver. I’m passionate about the early days of a startup’s journey as it’s often the most challenging step of a company’s lifecycle, yet the most rewarding.

Over a decade or so of being exposed to a wide range of people and experiences in life and business, I’ve learned a lot. One key learning is that the fastest, easiest path to increasing the likelihood of the desired outcome is through soaking up the knowledge of others. I’m fueled by sharing my knowledge with the startup community and individuals who are chasing their own innovative ventures and passions.

You are a “travel insider”. How would you describe your “perfect vacation experience”?

The perfect vacation experience entails no agenda and being fully disconnected in an environment that has a charter and a home that’s comfortable, with adventure, exploration and discovery along the way. I’m born curious and crave an element of surprise with every new destination experience.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

We’ve been laser-focused on providing homes designed to work from anywhere. As this becomes the norm, people have a greater degree of flexibility and freedom to explore the world while also continuing to build their career. I see a world where households and destination seekers alike are empowered to chase whatever they want to chase in life, without boundaries. If I could inspire a movement, it’s centered around providing a platform that allows others to experience the freedom of a digital, nomad lifestyle, ultimately, I’m a believer that adventure enhances any job.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

You can follow me on Twitter and connect with me on LinkedIn.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Alex Allison of D Alexander Capital: The Future of Travel in The Post Covid World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Twitter VP Maya Hari: “Why there should never be shame in asking for help”

There is no shame in asking for help. Early on in my career, I worried that asking for help would be seen as a sign of incompetence or weakness. Now, I realize that understanding my limits is, in fact, one of my greatest strengths in both my personal and professional life.

That said, it took me a long time to get comfortable with the idea. So, a few years ago, I decided to change tact and gamify the process. I now force myself to get help and support once a week on a given task — either from my family or colleagues. For me, it’s not just about lightening the load, but also recognizing that the people in my life play a big part in my successes as a leader.

As a part of our series about strong women leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Maya Hari.

Maya Hari is the VP & Managing Director for Asia Pacific at Twitter. Maya’s focus has been to fuel growth for Twitter across a collection of diverse markets across Asia Pacific.

Maya also serves as a board director on ASX listed edutech company Openlearning and Chairperson of TiE Singapore.

Maya has been an active member of YPO Singapore since 2019.

Thank you so much for doing this with us Maya! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

My backstory is one of a global citizen, weaving across India, United States, France and Singapore.

Growing up, my parents always encouraged my sister and I to pursue our interests, be independent and not be fettered by society’s expectations of women. When I was young, I embraced my love for math, taking part in competitions like math Olympiads and learning to play Chess. At the same time, I loved exploring my creativity with public speaking and writing, and watching my mom designing textiles. I really enjoyed a balance of left and right brain — when it came time for me to pick an area of study in college, my two top choices were Engineering and Journalism, which seems very counter-intuitive, but I think reflects me perfectly.

I went on to finish a Masters in Engineering, and then sought out careers that though have a commercial and analytical side, also have a creative side. I have since spent almost two decades in the media and tech industries across the US and Asia Pacific before taking on my current role here at Twitter.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

I took on leadership of the region at a time when the company had gone through some thoughtful restructuring globally. Morale was low and I needed to rebuild trust during uncertainty.

Be it in person or over video conference, nothing substitutes time spent with teams and team-members, and it was at this juncture that I learnt the importance of transparency as a leader as I had to make some people-related decisions that were tough but necessary.

After the restructuring, I went on to lay the foundation for the business to re-accelerate by motivating and building up a stronger team with the right skills. As we had to carefully prioritise investments and resources, we also had to pick and place our bets on the right markets to meaningfully scale our business.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

In the early days, when I would meet Chinese clients, I would love to try and use words and phrases in Mandarin Chinese, a language I had learnt in bits and pieces over the years. Often I would be met with confused and embarrassed faces across the table and would quickly switch back over to English. I loved trying to make the effort but perhaps got the accent wrong.

Over time, I learnt to rehearse a few specific sentences that helped me kickstart a keynote presentation or hold a 3 minute conversation with a client before I declared that my depth of knowledge of the language had been reached and we switched back to English.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

There are many wonderful leaders and mentors who have enabled me to get to where I am today. But the one person without whom none of this would have been possible is my partner in crime in real life, my husband.

I am acutely aware that my career and family life wouldn’t balance if it weren’t for my husband. We started from a place of strength with a great relationship and marriage before we had kids. From changing diapers to giving the kids a bath to doing our taxes or attending school activities, he and I have always split it all consistently based on who is available.

He has a demanding career as well, as CEO of one of the region’s leading PropTech companies. But we prioritise being hands-on with our kids. It helps that we adopt a partner-mindset when it comes to parenting; it doesn’t solely fall on the shoulders of the mother.

My husband and I both being leaders in technology are able to support each other as sounding boards to one another. He also plays an important role in introducing me into relevant networks . One such network that I have found immensely useful has been YPO (Young President’s Organisation) where I have found not only strong networking opportunities for business, but also unique leadership and learning experiences.

In my work, I often talk about how to release and relieve stress. As a busy leader, what do you do to prepare your mind and body before a stressful or high stakes meeting, talk, or decision? Can you share a story or some examples?

My stress relief comes from pouring myself into fitness and urban farming.

A good workout is always an effective stress reliever for me. I spend 3–4 days a week working out for about 45 minutes each time, and nothing makes me feel as sane!

My other passion that helps me to de-stress is urban farming. 5 years ago I started an experiment to see if I could make my family and myself self sustainable by growing our own produce. While I grow over 30 varieties of herbs, vegetables and plants, this goal may take a few more decades to master! Through this, however, I have found a deep love for plants. I could spend hours in the garden and it has become the thing that gets my mind completely off of daily stresses.

Embedded Tweet link: https://twitter.com/CrazyplantLadee/status/1289908318635360258?s=20

Via @CrazyplantLadee, Maya’s personal urban farming handle

As you know, the United States is currently facing a very important self-reckoning about race, diversity, equality and inclusion. This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have a diverse executive team?

The importance of inclusion and diversity cannot be understated. In fact, many research studies have shown that companies with diverse representation on their boards, executive teams and within their workforce enjoy various advantages such as increased revenues.

Benefits can be attributed to a variety of reasons. For one, individuals who hail from different backgrounds naturally come with their own world views, formed through their unique experiences. By being inclusive, organisations will be able to explore creative ways of problem solving and make better decisions. Not to mention, businesses that genuinely embrace diversity often have positive reputations and are also able to build a more satisfied and engaged workforce.

Particularly so in the tech industry, as technology is increasingly embedded in everyday life. The shift towards the mobile and the digital means that people behind the tech need to be diverse to account for different perspectives and needs, in order to deliver content and services that are relevant to everyone.

The deeper the sense of belonging to a company, or to a team, I find the greater the sense of longevity in the company, and the greater the productivity and collaboration. It is vital for industries to truly internalise this as both a business benefit and just the right thing to do.

At Twitter, we’re on a journey to becoming the world’s most inclusive and diverse tech company. We’re headed in the right direction, but we’ve got a lot of work to do and progress can never be fast enough. We’re more committed than ever to leading the way for our employees, our sector, and the people who use our service everyday.

We foster this conversation with managers, employee resource groups, and allyship programs internally in the company. We help our clients embrace these conversations with their audiences via Twitter and we contribute to the conversation by driving change in our own industry.

We’re in it together #UntilWeAllBelong.

As a business leader, can you please share a few steps we must take to truly create an inclusive, representative, and equitable society? Kindly share a story or example for each.

I think the first and most important step is acknowledging that there is beauty in our differences. Companies and society must recognise that the whole is often greater than the sum of its parts. I firmly believe that everyone, regardless of gender, race or any other individual characteristic has something to contribute.

On inclusiveness — I think it’s largely around cultivating diverse day to day conversations in order for our employees to feel a deep sense of belonging. When I started my career in the US, I would fake interest in American sports that happened over the weekend to join in the Monday morning banter among my predominantly male colleagues. A couple of decades later, I find my Monday morning conversations much more diverse, and so are that of my teams. How can leaders ensure these are cultivated? That should be embedded in everything from team building to business meetings and more.

On representation — we should think about our choices of hiring and promotions — to truly seek out a diverse set of candidates. Before promoting a candidate, ask yourself: has everyone been equally considered? Is there a woman or someone of a different race who didn’t even make the consideration set? Regular talent planning along this vein makes this a sustainable effort, and an invaluable step forward to a well-represented organisation. We know representation targets work, because we’ve seen it in action at Twitter. We remain steadfast in our efforts towards achieving our vision for 2025: our global workforce will be at least 50% women.

On equitableness — checking and correcting for pay gaps across gender, race and orientation is a start. I believe there’s room to leverage technology platforms in compensation, package and/or talent planning in that regard that can actively identify and subsequently help leaders address pay gaps, biases, etc. Again, it’d be important to ensure a fully diverse panel is put in place before reviewing those decisions.

Throughout, we must remain transparent. Radical transparency drives accountability, and accountability will be critical to making our organisation and society more inclusive, representative, and equitable.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a CEO or executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?

Leaders at every level of a company no doubt play very important roles, but their responsibilities may greatly vary. For instance, functional leads are heavily involved in the day-to-day operations — they oversee and motivate their teams towards the completion and achievement of specific shorter-term or immediate goals.

On the other hand, CEOs and executives contend with a different set of expectations. These leaders must understand the company as a whole and be able to see the big picture. Considering greater industry trends and events, keeping an eye on competitor movements and determining the long-term strategic direction and business plans are part of their remit. At a high level, a CEO/ Executive tackles some core priorities such as co-creating and communicating the vision for the business, building a team and culture that will enable the company to achieve the vision and making decisions on what problems to tackle and which opportunities to invest in and prioritise.

These executives are also answerable to a different group of stakeholders, which is often the board and the company’s shareholders.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive. Can you explain what you mean?

One of the biggest myths about CEOs and executives is that we have zero work life balance. Although it is true that we can be incredibly busy, good time management plays an integral part in ensuring we make time for our family, friends and ourselves. Over the years, I’ve learned that it’s not always one or the other. I travel very often for work but I take night flights whenever I can, this way I can still put my kids to bed and have them feel like I was home for most of the day. Despite how busy my husband and I are, we still manage to eat dinner as a family more than 80% of the time. It’s not always easy to juggle work and family life but it’s definitely possible.

People also often have the impression that being a high-level executive is the most glamorous job one can have. They picture large offices in tall skyscrapers, luxurious networking events and a jet-setting lifestyle. While we do attend such events every once in a while and work does take us around the world, the day-to-day responsibilities of a CEO or executive are a lot less fanciful. Most of our time is spent holed up in conference rooms, poring over strategies and plans.

Lastly, believe it or not, we don’t have all the answers. As the company leaders, people often assume that we know everything, but despite the wealth of knowledge or years of experience we’ve accumulated, we are still only human, and we aren’t all-knowing! I think a large part of a CEO and executive’s success is dependent on the support they get from their teams. While we may definitely have the expertise, there is still always room for us to learn and I have greatly enjoyed discovering new insights from my Twitter family.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

The challenges faced by women at work are consistent across industries, be it getting a seat at the table to being heard in a meeting or the salary gap that exists between men and women. This leads to women hesitating to have a conversation with their management regarding career growth, or asking for a promotion or a pay raise, or speaking up to find mentors. My fundamental belief is that women need to stand up and ask for their rightful spot — and this is not easy, since I know women are devalued and overlooked at every step of the way as they grow up. But the moment that a woman sees another woman in a leadership position offer an opinion, or ask for that equal consideration, it changes the possibilities in their life.

Also, I have to be real about the fact that I have two kids. Many women in professional roles face these same challenges balancing work and family. Work cultures should allow for women, and for parents, to have this kind of balance, but not everyone is able to choose these kinds of supporting environments.

What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?

As you may be able to guess, when I first started this job, I was focussed on driving the turnaround of our business in such a diverse and vibrant region. But I’ve come to realise it’s more than that — leadership is at its best when everyone on your team achieves his/her full potential. It may sound cliche, but my real role is not just setting Twitter’s course in the Asia Pacific region, but also galvanising, inspiring and guiding a team of incredible people towards achieving success for the company.

Couldn’t put it better than @ValaAfshar, Chief Digital Evangelist at Salesforce: https://twitter.com/ValaAfshar/status/1266783685896024064?s=20

Certainly, not everyone is cut out to be an executive. In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful executive and what type of person should avoid aspiring to be an executive? Can you explain what you mean?

While there is no magic recipe with fixed ingredients or characteristics for an individual to follow to be a successful executive, I have four traits that I try to keep in mind to guide my approach.

First, I try to lead by being open and democratic. I want people on my team to feel comfortable coming to me and speaking their minds. I think there’s a rightful place for that, and people will feel more empowered and invested if they feel like their leaders are listening to their concerns.

Second, I try to maintain a careful balance between approachability and aspiration as a leader. At Twitter, this is a more unique challenge, as we are all encouraged to use Twitter and live with the product every day, and by virtue of this, I would say that I use Twitter a lot more than other executives might. As a leader, the transparent workplace that we’ve created on Twitter helps me to keep tabs on the sentiment of the team. Even concerns that people might not feel comfortable bringing to me, I try to be aware of so I can make decisions taking their worries into account.

Third, I have an obsession with talent — I think it is one of the most important organisational virtues. I strongly believe in ‘hire fast, hire well’ — if you bring in the best talent, your organisation will end up in much better shape than most organisations when facing common business issues.

Fourth and lastly, I think collaboration and trust is incredibly important. I’ve witnessed firsthand the power of technology, and seen how it diminishes the borders and the distance between us, but this is obviously amplified in the post-COVID, WFH reality. It is important to make collaboration part of your organisation’s mission, and commit to building and empowering collaboration between teams.

What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?

Women executives tend to encounter challenges that their male counterparts don’t. While this is unfortunate, successful women leaders are proof that it is possible to overcome these obstacles. One piece of advice I can give to others is to be yourself. This may seem like a no-brainer, but I think that many women often overcompensate and try too hard to prove themselves. Although this is not inherently negative, I feel that effective leadership first comes from understanding yourself instead of trying to be something you are not. Everyone has their own unique personality and style; once you have identified what you are good at, you will be able to better leverage your strengths and address your weaknesses when leading your team.

Women often have an edge when it comes to communicating and winning trust. In the business world, EQ is equally, if not more important, than IQ, and women are generally more intuitive where emotions are involved. Once perceived to be a vulnerability, being able to express feelings and build authentic connections with team members is now a valuable advantage that many women have. To obtain cooperation and commitment from your peers and subordinates, female leaders should strive to show genuine care and concern for their team. Sincere appreciation, encouragement and respect can go a long way in motivating team members, so we should always aim to support them in achieving their full potential.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I am interested in supporting the start-up space and am currently a board member of ASX listed edu-tech company OpenLearning where I oversaw their IPO journey.

Leaders like myself have a unique opportunity to give back to the welfare of the community by sharing our experience. I believe in enabling entrepreneurship in local communities and currently chair TiE Singapore — a non-profit organisation focused on fueling the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Mentorship, enabling access for young entrepreneurs to funding and facilitating connections to customers are a core focus for me through my efforts at TiE.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

Choose confidence

Growing up, I was awkward and lacking in confidence, and it took a really long time for me to start believing in my own capabilities and trusting myself to make important decisions. But that faith in self is key to effective leadership. As we progress through the different stages in our lives, the challenges only get harder so don’t rely on external achievements, accolades or praise to give yourself ‘worth’. Confidence should be built from within.

2. Be patient — life is a marathon, not a sprint

I have two kids and took 3–4 months of maternity leave with each — but during what should have been my down time getting to know my newborns, I instead found myself extensively worrying about my career. Had I indefinitely stalled my career? Was I being passed over for promotions? How were people going to view me now that I was a mom?

My beautiful children are now aged 13 and 8 respectively, and now looking back, I wish I’d been kinder to myself. The only person watching the clock was me, and with the benefit of hindsight, I’ve come to realise my career momentum stayed right on track throughout. Now as I lead my team at Twitter, I find myself often promoting capable men and women even while on parental leave, which just goes to show that it’s not a case of one or the other. A bit of patience, and there’s room for both.

3. Network outside just like you network inside

Building networks outside the company is just as important as forming networks inside the company. In fact, it’s often these external interactions that lead to the best discussions and insights for how to move the business forward. As a leader, I invest a lot of time and effort into developing peer groups so that I can both share and learn best practices and discover new ideas. This helps me to gain different perspectives and go outside the Twitter ‘echo chamber’, so to speak.

4. Ask for help — both at home and at work

There is no shame in asking for help. Early on in my career, I worried that asking for help would be seen as a sign of incompetence or weakness. Now, I realize that understanding my limits is, in fact, one of my greatest strengths in both my personal and professional life.

That said, it took me a long time to get comfortable with the idea. So, a few years ago, I decided to change tact and gamify the process. I now force myself to get help and support once a week on a given task — either from my family or colleagues. For me, it’s not just about lightening the load, but also recognizing that the people in my life play a big part in my successes as a leader.

5. Have fun, don’t take yourself too seriously

Work hard but play hard too. Life is a journey and it is meant to be enjoyed. Take a breather and slow down to enjoy the view. I know it can be easy to get swept up in our constant pursuit of success, but be careful not to let life pass you by!

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

If you’ll allow me to get on my soap-box — we need to save our planet, period. The earth is in grave danger and my children’s generation may soon find themselves facing the perils of a harsh climate that could lead to a loss of freedom to live the lives as they do today. Indeed, if the recent pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we can’t take anything for granted — let alone something as vital as our world’s resources.

From science and policies, to a change in consumer habits and preferences, a lot more needs to be done to address the climate crisis. My daughter and I have started a campaign called #ShareTheGreen, where we do our part by giving away hundreds of plants during each quarter of the year to our community. We hope that our effort will encourage more people to grow their own food.

I’d also encourage each one of us to vote with our money — if you can, opt for locally manufactured goods, or those with lower carbon footprints. Choose products with responsible packaging, and write or Tweet to your favourite brands to compel them to find substitutes for plastic containers! If you invest, select stocks in companies that use green energy sources to power their offices, data centres and manufacturing plants, or those that use vehicles that run on biofuels or electricity.

If everyone does their part, I am sure that we can accelerate change and save our planet for future generations.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My favourite quote is one by Mark Twain –

“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”

As I make decisions in my career and life everyday, this quote is my go-to sniff test to assess if things I lend my voice and time to, are in fact worthy of being in consideration of my purpose as a leader.

I have some clues as to my true purpose as a leader (my deep belief in social and economic empowerment of women or my love for the planet and sustainability) but if I am honest, I can’t be certain yet. I am enjoying this journey of pursuit for the day when I truly know my raison d’etre in this world.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

I am inspired by the work that Bill and Melinda Gates are driving marrying investment in science with on ground practical implementation considerations and diplomacy across the world. A lunch or breakfast with them would be the perfect opportunity to learn from their intellectual and compassionate approaches.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

Twitter VP Maya Hari: “Why there should never be shame in asking for help” was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Rajeev Shrivastava of VisitorsCoverage: The Future of Travel in The Post Covid World

“Safety” is certainly at the top of the list — at least in the immediate future. If customers are going to travel, they need to feel safe. “Flexibility” is another one, because until there’s a vaccine, travel providers will have to adjust their businesses to meet shifting customer demands and provide travel coverage that is responsive to their needs during the pandemic. “Education” is another. It’s important the travel companies learn and educate their customer base as much as they can from this experience to help them navigate what may lie ahead. “Innovation” is certainly on the list, because technology moves fast, and companies need to keep up. Lastly, I’ll say “Optimism”. This won’t be an easy period for travel, but a dose of cautious optimism is the need of the hour for these unprecedented times.

As part of my series about “developments in the travel industry over the next five years”, I had the pleasure of interviewing…Rajeev Shrivastava.

Rajeev Shrivastava is CEO of VisitorsCoverage Inc., an InsurTech company that simplifies the way people buy and manage their travel insurance policy online. Rajeev founded VisitorsCoverage in 2006 after successfully developing patented technology for the online search, comparison and purchase of travel insurance at a time when the rest of the industry was virtually all paper-based. Today, VisitorsCoverage offers some of the most innovative travel insurance products and solutions for consumers and businesses worldwide.

Rajeev is a serial entrepreneur leveraging his experiences and expertise in leading-edge and emerging technology, business operations, and brand strategy to create a diverse portfolio of brands. With a passion for leveraging technology to create impact, Rajeev has harnessed his deep understanding of technology to provide much-needed services for travelers and immigration communities.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Since its inception, the Internet has been my profound passion. I was fortunate enough to start my career in it back in the early days when we used to carry the browser software on a floppy disk. Over 20 years ago, when Hotmail was the only email, I was very sure that the Internet would change the way we live, work and play. When I moved to Silicon Valley in the late 1990s, and took a job working for the internet pioneer Cisco, it was as if the stars were paving the way to fulfill my passion. My experience as an immigrant motivated me to create solutions that solved the less obvious problems and hurdles faced by others like me. That’s how the online travel insurance marketplace, and VisitorsCoverage, were born.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

There are many. One in particular is worth mentioning because it helped shape my career as an entrepreneur in many ways. I wouldn’t necessarily categorize it as a fun story, but it was certainly a huge learning experience. Within months of launching VisitorsCoverage I was sued by a competitor. At the time, I was laser-focused on the mechanics of creating my business and wasn’t versed in the legal aspects and liabilities of running a business. With no prior experience dealing with lawsuits, my focus was diverted from creating solutions to dealing with a frivolous lawsuit. Fortunately, it didn’t last long and was resolved, but it taught me several lessons and skills instrumental to growing my business. Most importantly, reading, interpreting and negotiating business agreements in ways that drive the desired results. These are such vital skills for any entrepreneur that often get ignored.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

None that I can recollect.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”? Can you share a story about that?

The level of stress tolerance of course varies from person to person, but my advice is to wake up every day thinking about how you can help people and be relevant by the work you do, and not focus on how you can make money. If you accomplish the former, the latter follows. I also learned that you need to start by planning what your strategy will be to achieve the goals you have set for yourself. Hire the right team and build an ecosystem that will help you get there.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

Yes, very much so. The full credit goes to my life partner, my wife. Without her active support, none of this would have been possible. She is a cofounder and contributed in every conceivable way that she could.

Thank you for that. Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to the travel and hospitality industries?

Our primary innovation for the industry has been to simplify it. Before we arrived, the travel insurance industry was full of complexity, so our simplification mission has been full of challenges. We have addressed this across the spectrum by focusing on customer education — creating new benefits that are responsive to modern travelers needs and creating technological solutions that improve the overall customer experience, making travel insurance purchase and use clear and straightforward. Other ways we innovated was through customization — we introduced several customized insurance benefits that were a first in the industry; and technology — we are the only company in this space with patents behind our technology. We were also pioneers in creating the first SaaS B2B platform, a plug and play solution enabling any agent and broker to sell travel insurance. More recently, we debuted our most impressive customer support solution to date — “Luna” a Chatbot that leverages artificial intelligence and machine-learning capabilities providing customers a next level experience that they have come to expect.

Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing this innovation?

Among many, the biggest problem that we are trying to solve is how to demystify the complex world of travel insurance for everyone. All solutions we offer revolve around this central focus. We are reinventing the travel insurance experience, from customer education to after sales support and everything in between.

How do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?

For decades, the travel insurance industry had been mired in a “one size fits all” approach. But customers come in all different stripes — they’re all individuals with differing needs.

Our solutions are geared towards helping the entire value chain in the insurance ecosystem. Travel has evolved over time, and so have the risks. Customer expectations are changing with every new version of a “Smartphone” release, if I can say so metaphorically.

Modern travelers want everything within a click of a button. The insurance industry is highly regulated and has been significantly slower to adopt changes than other industries. It remains our challenge to make the travel insurance experience as simple as an Amazon purchase or an Uber app experience.

Our efforts and solutions are very much focused in this direction. Whether it is creating custom insurance benefits or products, building plug-and-play SaaS platforms, or leveraging artificial intelligence, our primary goal is to simplify the travel insurance experience.

As you know, COVID19 changed the world as we know it. Can you share 5 examples of how travel and hospitality companies will be adjusting over the next five years to the new ways that consumers will prefer to travel?

“Safety” is certainly at the top of the list — at least in the immediate future. If customers are going to travel, they need to feel safe. “Flexibility” is another one, because until there’s a vaccine, travel providers will have to adjust their businesses to meet shifting customer demands and provide travel coverage that is responsive to their needs during the pandemic. “Education” is another. It’s important the travel companies learn and educate their customer base as much as they can from this experience to help them navigate what may lie ahead. “Innovation” is certainly on the list, because technology moves fast, and companies need to keep up. Lastly, I’ll say “Optimism”. This won’t be an easy period for travel, but a dose of cautious optimism is the need of the hour for these unprecedented times.

So long there is a human life on the earth, people will travel. You simply cannot imagine a world without travel. By mitigating or managing travel related risks we can help people ease their travel anxiety. That’s where travel insurance comes in handy, providing the much needed assurance and sense of protection from different travel risks including financial, medical, safety, and other emergencies. Travel insurance is like a tool that every traveler should keep in their first-aid kit.

You are a “travel insider”. How would you describe your “perfect vacation experience”?

The thought of a vacation conjures up words like “getting away from it all”, “relaxation”, “unplugging”, and “family fun”. A perfect vacation should be less worry, and more fun.

Can you share with our readers how have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Let me answer your question another way: consider how goodness brings success to you! Solving real world problems and putting your education and knowledge to work is real fun, and for me, it brings me tremendous satisfaction and fulfillment. If you do it right, success will follow. At VisitorsCoverage, we took on the challenge of simplifying travel insurance and making it easy for travelers around the globe. There’s nothing more fulfilling than helping our customers out of a jam, sometimes a very serious one. The feeling of being part of their trouble-free and enjoyable trip, is a certificate of our success.

If I could, I would create a solution to easily and effectively share “knowledge” with other like-minded people. On the internet, there is an overabundance of information, data, and content. But what is missing is a distribution model for real knowledge. This can truly transform generations.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Certainly, they can follow me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajeevshrivastav/,
and you can follow VisitorsCoverage on Facebook at facebook.com/visitorscoverage, on Twitter at @VisitorCoverage, on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/visitorscoverage/, and on Instagram at @VisitorsCoverage.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Rajeev Shrivastava of VisitorsCoverage: The Future of Travel in The Post Covid World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Virginia “Gina” Drosos of Signet Jewelers: Be strong enough to set clear vision and direction; Once

Virginia “Gina” Drosos of Signet Jewelers: Be strong enough to set clear vision and direction; Once you’ve done that, be humble and ensure your team feels empowered

I would give women and men the same advice on this front: Be strong enough to set clear vision and direction, and trust your ability to take in the information you need to set the right course for your team. Once you’ve done that, be humble and ensure your team has the resources and feels empowered to get the job done well.

CEOs need to have a clear vision and focused strategy that creates room for other leaders in the organization to succeed, and also set a culture that allows everyone to bring their best work to the table every day. That’s how high-performance teams are created — by unlocking discretionary effort toward common goals. Strategy and culture begin from the top.

As a part of our series about strong women leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Virginia “Gina” C. Drosos.

Virginia “Gina” C. Drosos is the Chief Executive Officer of Signet Jewelers (NYSE: SIG), one of the world’s largest retailer of diamond jewelry, where she leads a team of more than 24,000 to deliver a world-class OmniChannel experience to customers of Kay Jewelers, Zales, Jared The Galleria Of Jewelry, H. Samuel, Ernest Jones, Peoples, Piercing Pagoda and JamesAllen.com.

Gina was appointed Signet CEO in July 2017 and served as a director of Signet’s Board since 2012. She is also on the Board of Directors of American Financial Group (NYSE: AFG), an insurance and investments company.

Gina has more than 30 years of executive leadership experience in the consumer goods, beauty and healthcare industries, as well as retail. She continues to be at the forefront of innovating mass market e-commerce retail, while globalizing and reinventing product categories, to increase sales and profits of brands recognized worldwide.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I grew up believing I would pursue corporate law because my father was an attorney, and as we sat around the dinner table every night, I saw his work experience as a way to make a difference in the world. I changed my mind after a successful entrepreneurial experience chartering sailboats through the Bahamas for Spring Break during my junior year of college. I couldn’t afford to pay for a Spring Break vacation, so a friend and I had the idea to connect with boat owners that were sailing through different points in the Bahamas and pay our way through. After running the same “program” senior year, with 8 boats of kids paying their way through their own vacations, I realized how fun it is to create and conduct business. I then decided that I wanted to create precedents as opposed to interpret them. So, I applied to business school instead of law school and was accepted to Wharton.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

I have always, and will always consider myself to be a student of consumer behavior. For example, years ago, when I was at P&G, we wanted to develop beauty and personal care products to delight lower income customers. So, I assigned my team the task to live on the budget of a dollar for two weeks to think about and “live into” how we could improve our products in ways consumers would truly value. So, when one of my kids came home and needed supplies for an unexpected school project, I hadn’t budgeted out the money to pay for it. I spent my gas money and took the bus to work that week instead. These were the little moments of experiential learning that led us to become the #1 beauty company in the dollar channel, and directly feeds into how I work today.

In learning the Signet business, I’ve spent a lot of time with customers, and I now understand that they experience an integrated head and heart journey. This is especially true for our bridal customers who want to express the deepest emotion of their lives, declare that in a visible way, delight their partner, and yet make a smart investment. Buying right is a juxtaposition of emotion and logic that collides in one moment that we are uniquely capable of helping with.

Our understanding of that duality is why we are cracking the code on the eCommerce business. Neither the internet nor eCommerce are new, yet buying jewelry online had been stagnant. During COVID-19, our e-commerce sales have exploded because we’ve quickly pivoted to on-line personal consultation, live chat, virtual appointment booking, co-browsing and much more. We’ve cracked the code by understanding the importance of personal interaction and enabled our consultants to help customers Celebrate Life and Express Love, consistent with our mission.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I am an experiential learner which is why I spend so much time in our stores. So, when I went to our diamond polishing facility in Botswana, one of the things I wanted to do was polish a diamond. I had to laugh when I naively underestimated how exact this part of the craft is. After 30 minutes of coaching and angling, our expert polisher barely let me touch it to the wheel and said, “Good! Did you get a feel for it?” It’s a skill that requires a hand that is far more practiced than mine, and it showed me how much care goes into creating every single piece.

My parents above all gave me confidence which enables me to make bold decisions in business today. As a kid, if I did my best, that was enough. And when it wasn’t, there were other things I could try.

I also know how to surround myself with talented people because I know the power of a great team. I’m so fortunate to have that here at Signet.

In terms of mentors, I’d call out Susan Arnold whom I worked with for over 10 years at Procter & Gamble, and as I followed her through the organization, she helped me navigate the corporate environment while giving me the room to learn and grow.

Also, John Pepper was a great CEO. He invested in the power and value of people, and that influence reached down into the organization and positively impacted my leadership style.

I visualize different scenarios that could happen. For example, before a board meeting, I think about key themes and sticking points where I might have a different point of view from the rest of the team, and play out the conversation in my mind. I think it through over the course of a few days, and while it doesn’t always play out the way I expect, that practice of preparedness helps relieve stress.

In the moments I’m not actively thinking about the task at hand, I put it on the back burner to come back with a fresh perspective.

And, I work out and play golf.

Racism is real — full stop. People in positions like mine must be activists to change the sphere of influence and create a more inclusive environment for people of all races, genders, and walks of life. Great leaders are humble enough to admit they have more than a few blind spots, and it is critical to build diverse teams to expand the reach of how we work with each other and serve our customers. Surrounding myself with a diverse team that feels comfortable to share any and all ideas and feedback is critical. Diverse organizations deliver better results.

CEOs need to have a clear vision and focused strategy that creates room for other leaders in the organization to succeed, and also set a culture that allows everyone to bring their best work to the table every day. That’s how high-performance teams are created — by unlocking discretionary effort toward common goals. Strategy and culture begin from the top.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive. Can you explain what you mean?

It is a complete myth that CEOs have all the answers. Throughout my career in lower levels of leadership, I thought there was a point where I would have all answers, and I think the truth to that is more about finding opportunities and leveraging my strengths. Knowing what questions to ask happens over time, but the answers are always in the team around you.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

The business world has yet to realize that toughness is not a gendered notion. Women who are making tough decisions are not inherently witchy. There are many moments when it takes grit to be a good leader as easy decisions don’t come to my office anymore. It’s the thorny business, legal and personnel issues that rise to the top and require guts and grit to solve. As a caring and nurturing person, myself, I know these aspects don’t make me less decisive or tough. If anything, and especially within this highly personable business, it informs the decisions I make in the best ways.

What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?

I would give women and men the same advice on this front: Be strong enough to set clear vision and direction, and trust your ability to take in the information you need to set the right course for your team. Once you’ve done that, be humble and ensure your team has the resources and feels empowered to get the job done well.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

It’s all about the people. It’s my belief that making the world a better place is the reason we are all here. I have had the privilege of mentoring and sponsoring many people in all stages of their careers. My goal is to help them achieve their goals to live the life they want, and make choices that are mentally stimulating and build confidence.

I also hope that within my career journey I have successfully helped make the world a better place through products and experiences that reach people so that they can express their true self.

Virginia “Gina” Drosos of Signet Jewelers: Be strong enough to set clear vision and direction; Once was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Iva Teixeira of The Good Face Project: “I believe the most important thing we should commit to…

Iva Teixeira of The Good Face Project: “I believe the most important thing we should commit to doing is listening”

I believe the most important thing we should commit to doing is listening. When we truly listen, we learn what others need. An example of this is how the Good Face Project is quickly becoming a preferred employer for mothers. Long before the pandemic, we began providing moms on our team with remote work arrangements and flexible hours. We strive to listen well and not assume what people mean, but to verify, and do our part to help.

As a part of our series about strong women leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Iva Teixeira.

At the age of 19, Iva Teixeira immigrated to the United States from Bulgaria with $3,000 in her account. Supporting her way through school, Iva gained graduate degrees in engineering and business, and went on to a strategy consulting career at the prestigious Bain & Co where she advised large beauty brands in the areas of strategy, marketing and sales. Iva was eventually named SVP of Operations at PAR8O, where she was directly responsible for scaling the team to deliver on everything from client acquisitions and strategic partnerships, to insights and analytics. Since then, she has teamed up with a number of venture-backed technology companies to deliver scale and commercial success.

In January 2018, Iva co-founded The Good Face Project, the world’s largest data-driven index of cosmetic ingredients, where she currently serves as CEO. Through powerful AI algorithms, The Good Face Project’s technology is able to analyze cosmetic ingredients and products across 15 different dimensions of safety, effectiveness, and benefits to provide consumers with clean, completely personalized, and immediately shoppable beauty and skincare recommendations. In July 2020, The Good Face Project was welcomed into the Target Tech Accelerator, furthering Iva’s mission to fix the broken beauty industry through technology

Iva holds a BS in Mathematics & Business Administration from Marian University, an MS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from University of Michigan, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She lives in San Diego with her husband and two children.

I am originally from Bulgaria, and came to the US alone at the age of 19, with $3,000 borrowed from family friends in my pocket. I am an immigrant in the truest sense of the word, my American experience having left me with roots, memories and strong friendships in Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Massachusetts, New York, and, now, California.

I put myself through college, and pursued higher education, gaining Masters Degrees from University of Michigan, and an MBA at Harvard University. I advised Fortune 100 leaders, and Big Beauty companies as a Bain Strategy Consultant, and later had the opportunity to scale venture-backed technology startups. That is how I discovered my passion for solving important problems through technology.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

At the Good Face Project, we use Artificial Intelligence and science to bring confidence and joy back to shoppers when discovering beauty and personal care products. Our algorithms are authored by my co-founder, Lena Skliarova-Mordvinova, and the story of our partnership is definitely worth sharing in terms of interesting stories!

I had identified the opportunity to deliver clean and personalized beauty and personal care advice to shoppers, and had already begun forming an early team when a mentor introduced me to Lena. At the time, she was looking to join a startup as a Data Scientist. We arranged to meet at a public event, and as soon as we began speaking with each other, both of us just knew we were meant to work together. Since then, our partnership has flourished, and our rich relationship will undoubtedly extend beyond our company’s success.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When we first began speaking with investors, we had a meeting with a very high profile and influential firm. The founder of that fund took the meeting with us. After digging deeply into our opportunity and business model, he looked quite content, and said, “I like this deal, but it’s too early for us. We like to invest in later rounds.” Lena and I looked at each other and said, “We are going to be one-and-done. So, this is your only chance.” The guy looked at us and started laughing uncontrollably. He was right to do so! We are now speaking with him again, for our latest round of funding. You see, a direct-to-consumer technology that has proven its business model MUST access capital and grow, in order to improve as many lives as possible, otherwise it’s value proposition is hollow.

The best support that my team and I have received, so far has been from a group of tech investors and mentors at a San Diego incubator, called EvoNexus. EvoNexus specializes in supporting entrepreneurs who build deep technology. Especially remarkable in that group is Kim Davis King, a legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalist with a tremendous track record helping entrepreneurs build strong businesses. Kim has been an amazing confidant and champion.

As a busy leader, what do you do to prepare your mind and body before a stressful or high stakes meeting, talk, or decision? Can you share a story or some examples?

In early stage ventures, every day presents new problems and the opportunity to feel really inadequate when solving them. For me, the most important prep is getting an early start of the day and having quiet time for myself. I usually wake up at 5:00 am, do some yoga, and then go for a long walk. Lately, I have been incorporating calls with my parents, or my brother, both of whom live far away.

No matter how hard we try, we can rarely see through another person’s eyes, or experience the world in their skin. The only way to build businesses that serve all is to engage and represent all on one’s team. It’s as simple as that.

As a business leader, can you please share a few steps we must take to truly create an inclusive, representative, and equitable society? Kindly share a story or example for each.

I believe the most important thing we should commit to doing is listening. When we truly listen, we learn what others need. An example of this is how the Good Face Project is quickly becoming a preferred employer for mothers. Long before the pandemic, we began providing moms on our team with remote work arrangements and flexible hours. We strive to listen well and not assume what people mean, but to verify, and do our part to help.

Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a CEO or executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?

As a CEO, I must remember that every person on our team has the choice to keep quiet, or be candid, and do the right thing or not. Modeling for the team the behaviors that will make us better individuals, and a better team, is my number one job.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive. Can you explain what you mean?

I find the myth that a CEO has it all figured out especially disempowering. You see, the CEO’s job is to empower her team to figure it out!

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

My upbringing in a household where my parents were equal partners in everything in life was extremely liberating, but it may have rendered me blind to gender differences in the workplace. So, I am not the best person to delve into this.

What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?

I draw energy from my work, and I jump into the actual work too quickly to be able to imagine it in advance. There is no substitute for the real experience.

There are many different types of successful executives — the turnaround CEO, the large company CEO, the growth CEO, and the startup CEO. I can speak with confidence only about the latter. The only skill the startup CEO must master is to be brave enough to suck at something new and stick with it until that is no longer the case.

What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?

Don’t be afraid to be yourself while delivering the goods!

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I believe that kindness is not innate. Rather, it’s modeled and acquirable. I believe that showing kindness on my team begets kindness in team member homes and beyond.

If I could, I would erase all child suffering, and would make it so that no child ever feels alone, threatened or unloved.

Iva Teixeira of The Good Face Project: “I believe the most important thing we should commit to… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Nichol Ng of X-INC Group: “Do not drown your feminine thoughts and what comes naturally to you in…

Nichol Ng of X-INC Group: “Do not drown your feminine thoughts and what comes naturally to you in order to fight in a man’s world”

Do not drown the feminine thoughts and what comes naturally to you in order to fight in a man’s world. Instead, play up the femininity, sensitivity and the innate sixth sense that comes with being a woman.

I have to say that I believe females make the best multi-taskers in the world. We somehow have that DNA to make things happen, juggle multiple roles, while looking fabulous at the same time!

As a part of our series about strong women leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nichol Ng.

Nichol Ng is CEO and MD of X-INC Group. She is co-founder of The Food Bank Singapore (FBSG), a member of YPO (Young Presidents Organization), a global community of business leaders, and President of ONE (Singapore). She is also the mother of four young children.

Thank you so much for doing this with us Nichol! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

The elder of two children to a young homemaker mother and businessman father, I started out as a busybody early in my life. From the age of seven, I took on multiple leadership roles in school from being a prefect to cheerleader and playing for the school softball school team.

I cannot talk about my career path without speaking about my family. My late grandfather traveled from China to Singapore on a junk boat in 1939 with his younger daughter, after his first wife passed away. In Singapore, he met my grandmother who bore him nine children — six boys and three girls. My grandfather started a food trading business selling food to roadside hawkers before World War Two. In the late 60s, when hotels started opening in Singapore, my two older uncles started to diversify into western culinary ingredients to escape the corruption that came with serving Chinese hawkers.

My late father, the 8th child, dropped out of school at 15, to help out with the family food distribution business. In the early 80s, he started his own trading business which flourished. He dabbled in everything from movie production to seafood trawling and duty-free shops. My father built a large business empire with 40 companies in 25 countries, raking in USD250 million in the early 90s. With his booming business, he helped to sustain the then smaller food distribution business.

Unfortunately, the Asian Currency Crisis of 1997 saw the empire crumble. I witnessed first-hand my family home being seized by the bank, as my dad and his brother became bankrupt. The only business that they managed to ring fence was the tiny but thriving business that my grandfather started in 1939.

Throughout my university years from 1997, I worked for my own allowance while juggling student leadership roles and completing my degree. Upon graduating in 2000, I scrambled to find a job amidst the burst of the first tech bubble. Thankfully, I was offered a marketing job with the Radio Corporation of Singapore, despite studying economics at university.

In 2002, Asia was hit by SARS and my father, who was then running the food distribution business, asked me to join him. He needed someone to help digitize the business which, at the time, was still run very much on paper and pen. I jumped at the opportunity to work alongside my Dad, secretly harboring a personal agenda to possibly turn it around.

After a few years of learning the ropes, I decided to set up FoodXervices Inc in 2007, to buy over the old company. It was a move that shocked many as the old company was already an established name with 60 years of history in the industry. Rebranding it was a big risk. In fact, the new entity took on such a different new look that people assumed we had been acquired by an American firm. My younger brother joined me in 2008 and we have worked together as a team ever since.

I started out in 2002 as the youngest employee of a team of about 40 employees, with revenue of S$12 million. Today, our group of companies has nearly 200 employees, 500 F&B clients and a revenue of close to S$65 million annually. However, the values that my grandfather instilled are still very much present in the business, eighty years on.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

The most common mistake that people make, especially when they don’t see me, is that they assume I am male rather than female! My name is spelt uniquely as Nichol, rather than Nicole, and many people assume that the CEO of a company is usually male. This mistake still happens, even today.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

My funniest mistake has to be my preference for wearing five-inch heels and funky dresses with my bright red hair. I wear heels and dresses even when making deliveries of 18kg tins of oil to the back kitchens, which is often not the most practical choice! Initially, most of the old timers didn’t take me seriously. But the biggest lesson that I learnt early on was no matter how small a fish you are in this big pond, you have to make a bold statement for people to remember you. Many, including my uncles, never thought I would survive the industry. But here I am, 18 years on, still revolutionizing and pushing the boundaries of our age-old industry.

My late maternal grandmother taught me a very simple rule in life, “Always give more than what you take.” Once you can live with that, you will stop comparing how much people give you in return. I think this value has helped me to hone my emotional intelligence, improve my generosity, and be kind to those around me no matter how difficult times are. It is about putting thought into everything that I do and, importantly, putting the needs of others before myself. This has created a more worldly view on how I deal with on my own problems and how we can make life better for others less fortunate.

Juggling family, charity and business leaves me with very little personal space. I take pleasure in the little things such as driving my kids to school, showering them and making breakfast for them. I feel that time with my loved ones helps me to clear my mind.

Another thing that I always do is to ensure I get dressed up, put on some make up and wear something stylish before an important meeting. Even if you don’t win it, you still get to look your chicest!

Just like in a classroom, we learn from a diverse pool of talent; from teachers who specialize in different subjects and our peer group who have strengths in different areas. For a small, diverse nation such as Singapore, especially those born post 1965, we have learnt to respect each other, regardless of race, language or religion. As a company, it is essential that we are able to put differences aside to understand each other. Without demolishing cultural barriers, it would be impossible to come together for the greater good of the company and society in general. Diversity and inclusion in both the workplace and in society helps us to open our eyes to opportunities that we might not see if we only spent time with one group of people from the same race or background.

As a business leader, can you please share a few steps we must take to truly create an inclusive, representative, and equitable society? Kindly share a story or example for each.

Within our company, remuneration is not based on either gender, race or nationality. As long we have good employees, everyone that works for X-Inc Group has the opportunity to further their careers with us.

I believe we are here to add value to everyone’s lives, regardless of where they come from or what their educational background is. I believe it is essential to elevate others, to a better place in life. I am therefore always thinking about what can I do to help others, particularly my employees, peer group, friends and family and those I work with in my non-profit roles.

We are often asked in interviews “What if I want to settle down and have a family, will it affect my career?” This is not an issue for us. We are passionately pro-family and actively promote flexi-working hours and telecommuting which has enabled many young parents to juggle both family and career commitments.

CEO means Chief (do) Everything Officer, Chief EQ (emotional intelligence) Officer and most importantly, Chief Leader. Like it or not, you need to be visionary and aspirational.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive. Can you explain what you mean?

There are no ivory towers where we sit on top, day-dreaming daily. The only seats we usually take are the hot seats!

Another myth is that CEOs need to know everything and always need to make the right moves and not make mistakes. The truth is that we do not have all the answers and we are here to learn, just like everyone else. We “Sc*#w Up Too”!

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

I personally feel there is a real lack of representation of female leaders across the corporate world. If the largest corporations around the world are mostly run by men, with only males on their boards, the decisions made are simply not going to be reflective of society.

Another challenge, which will always be a challenge, is being able to juggle both home and career effectively. Due to the biological makeup of the female, I believe that females are meant to do more when they decide to have children. No one can replace a nursing mum or the birthing process. Women will always be pushed towards being that great mum and it can be difficult at times to know how it is possible to have it all. That being said, I have to say that I believe females make the best multi-taskers in the world. We somehow have that DNA to make things happen, juggle multiple roles, while looking fabulous at the same time!

What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?

The exciting thing about my job now is that we function like a startup, despite having an eighty-year old heritage. While we have the experience, heritage and history of surviving three generations, we were also blessed with the opportunity to press the re-start button in 2007 which has allowed me to function both like a founder and CEO. Honestly, it’s never boring!

More than ever, I believe that optimism, positivity, humility, nimbleness, and creativity are the most important traits to be being a successful CEO. Having a value system and the ability to see beyond one’s self is also exceptionally important. To be a leader, you need to be big hearted to groom future leaders and realize that others may become better than you. I have personally learnt a lot about what it takes to be a good leader from other CEO’s within the YPO network, who have been kind enough to share their wisdom and knowledge with me. Many of them also prioritize social responsibility and try to put others first.

What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?

Do not drown the feminine thoughts and what comes naturally to you in order to fight in a man’s world. Instead, play up the femininity, sensitivity and the in-ate sixth sense that comes with being a woman.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

Making the world a better place doesn’t just mean you need to put on the cape to save the world. It can be small things such as ensuring those nearest and dearest to you can also learn to create an impact in their own ways. For example, I have supported my children’s Filipino nanny’s mission to send cartons of food to orphans in the mountainous region of her hometown where the children do not even have a decent place to study. The smiles on their faces when they opened the cans of spam was priceless, that’s when you realize that so little can mean so much. I try to teach my children that we should help those around us, regardless of their circumstances.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

There is no right or wrong leadership style. Just your own. Embrace the good and the bad with being yourself.
You don’t have to be the perfect daughter to be the perfect CEO. I spent many years in my early career working with my late father trying to please him only to truly learn that sometimes daddy is also not right.
By the time you think you are having a burnout, it’s likely you are already having one. I work too much and rest too little, however I still haven’t figured this one out yet!

D) Be a mother earlier. If I had the opportunity, I would have started being a mother slightly earlier on so that I could have had a few more kids. I believe you can have your cake and eat it too!

E) In life, you need to learn to put on some good noise cancelling headphones…sometimes. It is key to filter out the noise and focus on what really matters

Self-appreciation and self-love. I think this is the most understated trait that we can build in our next generation. We have been groomed to be so critical of ourselves that self-appreciation is truly a dying trait. We need to stop beating ourselves up so much but of course, stay real too.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Stated in my answer above. “Give more than what you take…always.”

I would like to have a coffee with Maye Musk, Elon Musk’s mum. I think it’s amazing that she found a new career at 70. She is true inspiration to me.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

Nichol Ng of X-INC Group: “Do not drown your feminine thoughts and what comes naturally to you in… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Angela Bradford of World Financial Group: Why a person in leadership needs to develop ‘mental…

Angela Bradford of World Financial Group: Why a person in leadership needs to develop ‘mental toughness’

For sure, not everybody is cut out to do the same things in life. To become a successful leader and executive you need to be dedicated. A person in leadership needs to have mental toughness. If someone has a hard time being self-motivated, it is going to be very tough to run an organization.

In order to step into these positions, you need to be able to lead yourself first. If you always need someone to tell you what to do, or prefer that, then unless that feeling changes I would personally recommend to not try to achieve some of these positions.

As a part of our series about strong women leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Angela Bradford of World Financial Group.

Angela is a Senior Marketing Director with World Financial Group. Within four years of transitioning from the blue collar world of trucking and training horses, to the white collar world of finances and training people, she has opened multiple offices and started expansion into two countries. She has an amazing team working with her and has the goal of opening an office in every state and province in North America within the next 10–15 years.

Thank you so much for doing this with us Angela! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

What brought me into the financial industry was my choice to take an opportunity that came up just over 4 years ago. I believe in taking opportunities and seeing where they take me. Life is short, so I want to live it to the fullest!

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

For sure, I can share a story. As I stepped into leadership in my firm, I recall that for the first 5 years I was not the best leader! What do I mean by this? I would TELL people what to do and then get mad when they didn’t do things ‘my way’. Without particulars, in respect of others’ privacy, I remember having heated arguments about very childish things because I didn’t know how to communicate, and I thought being right was more important than having a great, growth orientated culture. Without knowing it, I was doing management-role rather than a leadership-role thinking. I have learned a lot since I started leading, with the main thing being, I still have so, so much more to learn.

That is the best part about leadership, you are always growing and evolving. Be patient with yourself and just strive to improve daily.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I don’t know if it was funny or not, but when I first started, I recall how inept I was at the business. I remember not really knowing what I was doing most of the time and making calls and talking to people with no idea what I was talking about. While I don’t remember an exact occasion, I sure do remember a lot of people saying no to me; however, looking back I realize they weren’t saying no to me, they were saying no to something that I couldn’t even explain!

What I learned from this period of time, and I would love for the readers to get from these experiences, is don’t wait until you’re ready to start whatever it is that you want to start. If I had waited until I was perfect, polished, and in full control, I would still be waiting. The best way to learn is through action.

It is so true that we cannot become successful without help. It is hard to think of one particular person as there are so many that have helped me get to where I’m at. The first one that comes to mind today though is Adam Dawe.

I met Adam just over four years ago; he introduced me to the business I’m in. I did not have a lot of confidence that this career path in financial services was for me. In one of our initial meetings, because of my disbelief about stepping into the opportunity that was presented, I went into Adam’s office with a lengthy list of pointed questions that had a skeptical bias, to say the least! With complete respect for me, Adam answered each and every question.

I learned something big in that moment: people borrow our belief in them until they believe in themselves. Through Adam’s belief in me and his coaching, I was able grow my confidence and become a leader. I will be forever grateful for that.

Relieving stress and becoming prepared before meetings is very important. A quick way I deal with this is just taking a moment and taking deep breaths. Sometimes I close my eyes and focus on who I’m going to be talking to. I pray that I will provide value in the meeting or event. The times I actually do all these things are the best meetings and have the best results.

One example is when I have to talk to agents that may not be happy with me or something around them. In other words, they are in an argumentative state. Going into those phone calls or meetings I always try to take a moment and just focus on their good points, and on what I want to achieve in that meeting, rather than focusing on being “right”.

I believe diversity is really important in any company and in any situation for a few reasons. The first reason is that different cultures and different people think differently, and because of that diversity ensures fewer blind spots in an organization or company.

The second reason for having a diverse executive team, is that the leadership needed to mirror that acceptance of all cultures, religions, nationalities, and genders is how we were created to be. By setting an example, the whole organization is much more likely to act on the belief that all groups equally have value to offer. There are be fewer fights and arguments. Growth is fostered and the organization can become a positive force in society.

As a business leader, can you please share a few steps we must take to truly create an inclusive, representative, and equitable society? Kindly share a story or example for each.

As a business leader, I am conscious, first of all, of the need for an inclusive and equitable society. One way that I work at this is by not basing recruiting on a specific gender or nationality, but rather on skills, mindset, and values held by the individual.

Our agency is made up of various cultures and genders, as well as different past careers and personal beliefs. I have found that by working with a mixed group of people, the differences in views and ideas makes for a way stronger team.

For example, I have some agents on the team that are from Africa. Listening to their stories of struggle and conquering those challenges, inspires me and many others around them in the “hard times” we go through in North America. When we think outside our small circle, we are able to make a bigger impact and change in the world.

Another step is to build a business culture that encourages self-reflection and the awareness that personal perspective is just that: one way of seeing the world. There are valid other ways to view experiences. From this place, it is possible to see that everyone is doing the best they can based on the many variables in their lives. We, as a culture and a society, can learn to acknowledge the differences in people and love people just as they are.

The difference between a CEO or executive, and a lot of other leaders, is the number of different things that they are responsible for. A lot of leaders are leading a team, rather than an entire company. When you’re leading an entire company you are responsible for not only the team but also back office, compliance, the organization, lawsuits, and anything else that may come up in the course of a day or year.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive. Can you explain what you mean?

One of the beliefs that people may or may not have about CEOs or executives is that they are somehow different than everybody else. What I mean by this is that some people feel they can never achieve those statuses. However, anyone can achieve almost anything if they let themselves step into it and do the work.

One of the things that makes a person different and gives them the ability to achieve higher levels of leadership, is how they think. In my opinion, effective leaders have skills anyone can learn, and work on. In other words, anyone can become a CEO or executive if that is something they really want.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

One of the biggest challenges I see faced by women in leadership positions is learning to not take things personally. I find that women are often more empathetic than men, which means they attach to things that people say and do personally. This makes them effective as leaders, but also can make it hard on them emotionally and mentally when they need to detach.

I also find that sometimes there are “boys clubs,” but not as many “girls clubs.” Because of this, sometimes women can feel alone as they don’t have as many people to bounce ideas off of. I do feel this is changing though, as more and more women are stepping up into leadership type roles.

What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?

I thought my job would include more management, but really, it’s all about leadership. There is a massive difference between the two. One is more about helping the team find success and the other is more about making them do certain things. Leading by example is key to the overall success of any organization.

For sure, not everybody is cut out to do the same things in life. To become a successful leader and executive you need to be dedicated. A person in leadership needs to have mental toughness. If someone has a hard time being self-motivated, it is going to be very tough to run an organization.

In order to step into these positions, you need to be able to lead yourself first. If you always need someone to tell you what to do, or prefer that, then unless that feeling changes I would personally recommend to not try to achieve some of these positions.

What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?

One piece of advice I would give to other women in leadership, is to listen. Listen to your team and to your leadership. My second recommendation is first become the person you’d want as a leader; then, those following you will copy you.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I have been using social media to make a difference in how people view challenges and life. I have also been visualizing the ranch I will buy, where I will use horses to empower women. I plan to make a huge impact in the professional and personal successes of women worldwide.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

For sure I can share that.

I had no idea how many “friends and family” wouldn’t support my career change.

I didn’t know how many people wouldn’t support my change from one career to the other. That was a bit of a tough eye-opener. The good side of this was it gave me space to make new friends that would support me.

I recall getting facebook messages telling me to quit even a year after getting started at WFG. The interesting part of this, is no one that told me to quit offered me a better option. Something to think about. If someone is telling you to not try something, make sure they have a better option for you.

Care less about other’s opinions of you and your potential sooner.

When I started to transition into business ownership, I had a lot of people, including those closest to me, try to stop me. I know they meant the best for me. The thing is, what others feel if right for them, is not necessarily right for you. One of the things I would recommend for those looking at the change into executive or CEO type rolls, is to blaze your own path and go all in if that is what you feel you are lead to do!

That it wouldn’t be easy.

To become a leader is tough. Why? Because you have to become a person worth following. The internal growth that happens is not easy. Growth is never easy; and, in fact, it is not meant to be easy. But I will say it is also more fulfilling then you can imagine. It is worth the ‘pain’ and ‘stretching’ of your internal self.

I wish I had got obsessive about personal growth sooner.

In order to lead people better we have to become better. I started down the personal growth journey later then I should have. I would recommend to anyone that wants to advance to begin to work on personal growth, starting now!

I would have reached out to leaders in the industry for help.

I came to the business with an independent mindset. Independence is important, but I needed to change this perspective to an interdependence mindset. Reach out to those already in the space you want to get into, as this is a way to fast track growth.

I am working on creating a movement to empower women to reach their full potential. Women are powerful and many of us just need someone to help us find our “seed of greatness”.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

One of my favorite quotes is “life happens for us, not to us.” I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis just over a year ago. I could have believed my life had “ended”; instead, I chose, and continue to choose, to use the tough times to build myself into a stronger person and who can make a bigger impact in the world.

I would be honored to spend time with Emily Frisella, as she is a serious boss lady with a huge mission to make a change in the world, especially among women entrepreneurs.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

Angela Bradford of World Financial Group: Why a person in leadership needs to develop ‘mental… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Jill Hitchcock of Fisher Investments: “Don’t try to map out 30 years of your career; You’ll drive…

Jill Hitchcock of Fisher Investments: “Don’t try to map out 30 years of your career; You’ll drive yourself crazy, and it rarely turns out like you planned anyway”

Success isn’t a straight line to the top. Don’t try to map out 30 years of your career. You’ll drive yourself crazy, and it rarely turns out like you planned anyway. Be open to unexpected opportunities. Know that your career will have twists and turns, unexpected detours, and even steps backward. And importantly, recognize that sometimes your career can be your top focus and sometimes it can’t, and that’s okay, too.

As a part of our series about strong women leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jill Hitchcock.

Jill is the senior executive vice president responsible for the U.S. private client group at Fisher Investments, a fee-only investment adviser with over $123 billion in assets under management and over 75,000 clients globally. She has worked at Fisher Investments since 1999, serving as an investment counselor for high net worth clients and as a leader of the Research and Human Capital groups. In her current role, Jill leads all aspects of acquisition, service and financial planning for U.S. private clients. She also spearheads high priority projects to keep the firm’s technologies secure and up-to-date, and improve all aspects of diversity and inclusion at the firm.

Thank you so much for doing this with us Jill! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

In a lot of ways I fell into it. I came across Fisher Investments at a Career Fair my senior year at UC Berkeley. I was immediately drawn to their excitement, energy, and the small company feel.

When I joined, I assumed I’d stay for a few years and then go do something else. But instead, I kept getting drawn into new projects and given new roles — each one bigger and more challenging than the last. I found myself excited, challenged, and I felt part of something bigger than me. I’ve grown up with the firm, and it’s become my family.

I met my husband at Fisher and we had two amazing boys. But then my husband got sick — totally out of the blue — and we spent a year in utter hell, fighting his cancer and trying to parent our sons. During this time and after my husband passed away, my team could not have been more supportive. There was never any question that I needed to be with my husband and sons and that Fisher would be there when I was ready to re-engage.

Now here I am, 21 years later, having progressed from an entry-level hire to the head of our entire US Private Client Group, which serves nearly 60,000 clients who collectively entrust over $82 billion in assets under management to our care.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

It won’t surprise you that COVID-19 has led to one of the most challenging — but in a lot of ways one of the most interesting — periods in my career. Before the current crisis started, my main goal was to grow and scale our firm’s US Private Client Group.

COVID-19 changed the situation very quickly. Within weeks, my whole organization had to pivot and completely redesign the way that we worked with clients to help protect our employees, clients, families, and community from COVID-19’s spread.

Historically, we have had a highly collaborative in-office culture. We also pride ourselves on offering in-person educational events for our clients all over the country; we were doing more than 2,000 in-person events a year! All of a sudden we couldn’t do any of the things we were used to doing. In response, my whole team had to figure out how to make remote work a success and continue to provide world-class client service. For example, we quickly transitioned from in-person client events to digital.

Internally, our approach has focused on communication. I am in close communication with my direct reports, making sure we are aligned, clear on our priorities, and how we’re solving problems. It’s been incredibly challenging, but this experience has also shown how resilient we are as a team. Our business has actually grown every month since the pandemic started, which I believe is a testament to our resilience, communication, creativity, and teamwork.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

This isn’t a “mistake” per se, but business travel and scheduling is certainly fraught with problems. I remember some mistakes that were of our own making, like scheduling an educational seminar for several hundred clients in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Whoops.

Others were out of our control, like having our flight cancelled and needing to drive from Nashville to Tulsa overnight in order to get to another client seminar. It snowed — a rarity in Nashville — and the roads were in bad shape. We were committed to being there for our clients the next day so we tackled the 9 hour drive, trading off driving, trying to keep each other awake, and powered up with a middle-of-the-night stop at a Waffle House. As you may imagine, a Waffle House in the middle of the night is a strange place to find yourself!

On the road, there are endless flight delays and cancellations, traffic jams, creepy hotels and sketchy restaurants. It’s much less glamorous than people think, but it’s also a good place to learn how to handle situations out of your control. It has taught me to problem solve on the fly and to respond with zen when I encounter situations out of my control.

My family. They’re my safe place and my respite from having to be “on” all day. I’m super close to my mom and my sister, adore spending time with my two boys, and have a great partner. I’m a single mom with a demanding job. I rely on my family to ‘do it all’ and it’s great to have all of them for support. They also let me indulge my goofier-side at home.

Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time surfing with my family. We’ve been under quarantine for a few months and decided to take advantage of all of our normal activities being cancelled to learn a new skill together. It’s been fun to learn something new together — it changes the typical parent/child dynamic because I’m learning alongside them, and we’re sharing tips and advice. It’s been especially funny to hear my 8-year old say, “No, Mommy, do it like this!”

Otherwise, I’m a workout junkie. I work out every morning before work, and it sets the tone for my day. At the end of a stressful or tough day, I go for a walk to unwind. I also love to hike — I did Half Dome and Rim-to-Rim in the Grand Canyon in the last couple of years and am looking forward to more trails re-opening soon!

Anyone who’s worked in the business or finance world can tell you how vital diversity of thought and experience is in managing a company. Simply, you don’t know what you don’t know. There’s a lot of evidence that diversity supports business performance and helps companies avoid risk. That’s because a variety of perspectives help companies spot opportunities and avoid mistakes.

More than business results though, the reckoning we’re going through as a country comes down to the fact that opening up opportunity to everyone is the morally right thing to do. We try to live by these principles at Fisher Investments, both in our hiring and in how we treat employees. I serve as co-head of Fisher Investments’ Diversity & Inclusion Taskforce, which has allowed me to play a heavy role in our focus and initiatives.

As a business leader, can you please share a few steps we must take to truly create an inclusive, representative, and equitable society? Kindly share a story or example for each.

I believe I can make an impact by helping employees early in their career. I work to help our younger staffers make smart decisions that make sense for them. I also try to help people challenge themselves.

Without guidance and intervention, too often you see underrepresented groups not pursuing opportunities because they don’t think they are qualified or ready. Or people focus on the things they don’t want to do without recognizing how those roles will build valuable skills. That ends up being really limiting. For example, I often see women opting to not pursue more technical roles because they don’t think they are qualified, instead of allowing themselves to learn on the job.

This is a mistake women and other groups who have been traditionally underrepresented in financial services often make simply because they have fewer role models. A big part of my work is in encouraging these folks to enter into the prestigious, challenging roles at our firm. I also try to encourage them to pursue roles that build a diverse skill set and leave them as many career options as possible.

You spend your time thinking, planning, communicating, and debating. It’s less about “doing.”

Executives set the course, steer the ship, communicate (and then re-communicate) the plan, and answer one million questions. We do all this while constantly scanning the horizon for a change in environment that might necessitate a different approach.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive. Can you explain what you mean?

To be successful, leaders need to want to have an impact beyond themselves and to drive results through others. Doing the job well means putting your needs behind others, which can be hard. You’re always adapting to what your organization and people need. You’re responsible for people — that means watching out for them, communicating goals and rationales, and adapting to their needs. More broadly, it means charting a path through new territory while staying responsible to the organization and its people.

There are a lot of wrong reasons to get into leadership: perceived status, the desire to boss people around, or a purely financial motivation. Pursuing a job for solely for these reasons won’t give you internal satisfaction and motivation, and it won’t set you up to do the hard work every day to help your organization succeed.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

The emotional labor of being a parent, partner, and a leader. Yes, it’s a stereotype but I also think it’s true — women do more of the thinking and planning for their families. My mind is always whirring — working through work stuff plus managing a household. How am I going to solve this work problem? What’s going on with that project? What am I going to cook for dinner? And so on.

I’m a single parent, which makes things harder, but it’s hard for everyone. As women, we beat ourselves up if we aren’t perfect. We’re our own worst enemy in that we hold ourselves to these absurd standards. A “picture perfect” life only exists on Instagram.

The advice I’d give everyone is to figure out what’s important to you and focus on those things. I’d much rather go on an adventure with my family than have a perfect household. I’m not a gourmet cook. I actually hate cooking and believe there’s zero shame in serving cereal for dinner. Cut yourself some slack!

What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?

People have this idea that when you’re a leader, you just issue edicts and “so it shall be.” That’s not the case at all. To lead well, you need to make sure people understand where you’re going and why. You need to get buy-in, which doesn’t come with authoritarian mandates. It comes from understanding, communicating, and trust.

I think of my reports as a leadership team. Yes, at the end of the day, the buck stops with me, but we are a team, and it’s critical they feel comfortable asking me questions, challenging me, telling me when they think I’m wrong, and suggesting alternatives. Trust and alignment are key.

I’d highlight four key traits:

Willingness to stand alone: There’s no roadmap for the boss’s job because the job is to make the map. You have to be comfortable charting the course for the organization, including navigating the inevitable twists and turns. Here’s a clue: when you hike with a group, are you in the front of the pack, the middle, or the back? Do you hike ahead, check out the path, and come back to report? Or are you bringing up the rear?
Openness to new things: A leader needs to be comfortable in the unfamiliar. When a new task comes around, the best leaders are confident that they will be able to learn how to do it, but also humble enough to learn.
Communication: Written, verbal, large group, one-on-one — you need to excel in all formats and be able to match your message to your audience. You also have to be willing to communicate the same messages over and over again. It takes hard work, practice, and repetition. But it’s a key skill.
The ability to manage multiple tasks: Leadership is all about juggling multiple balls. And really, to succeed, you have to thrive on this juggling act and love the challenge. You have to love the adrenaline!

What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?

Play to your unique strengths. Then compensate for your weaknesses. I’m a strong communicator and have built a unique culture of cooperation and collaboration with my direct reports. I know that’s a skill and I rely on it because we’re greater than the sum of our parts. But I also know my weaknesses, so I’ve built structures to shore up those areas.

Finally, don’t feel like you have to be superwomen. Learn to delegate. Learn that perfect is an unrealistic and undesirable ideal. Let the unimportant stuff go.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I’ve long been interested in getting more women in finance, and not just into the industry broadly but the more prospect/client-facing and technical parts. This is an issue inside of Fisher and beyond but it’s one that I think is starting to change as we see more women take on senior positions at top firms. I try to use my experience to help entry-level women find their ideal role and then grow as professionals.

At a company level, I’ve been grateful for the opportunity to co-lead the Diversity & Inclusion Taskforce I mentioned earlier. As a country, we still have work to do to encourage equality and diversity, and that’s a commitment for Fisher too.

I am also proud to be part of a company that puts clients first. My colleagues and I are addressing a real need — investments help people have sense of security in retirement, put their children through college, and meet other life goals. Not everyone in financial services puts their clients first in the way that we do, and I’m glad that my work allows me to make a difference in individual people’s lives.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

“It’s fine. It’s always fine.” I tell my team this constantly — because problems are almost never truly catastrophic. You have to have confidence you’ll figure it out. That comes with practice — the idea that you get really good at solving new problems. And once you have confidence you’ll figure it out, then you’ll know it will always be fine.
Own your time. If you don’t, someone else will. I routinely block time on my own calendar so it doesn’t get gobbled up by meetings.
Run towards the things that scare you. I came out of the service side of our company and didn’t know much about portfolio management. Then I had the opportunity to lead our research organization. It was very intimidating and totally outside my experience. But I took on the challenge, and it was one of my most valuable professional experiences.
Invest in yourself. Take advantage of opportunities to build skills, especially early in your career. Far too often I hear younger employees list out all of the things they don’t want to do, instead of focusing on how those opportunities will build new skills. To this point, a basic knowledge of data and statistics is key. You have to be able to measure what you do and understand the key metrics of your business.
Success isn’t a straight line to the top. Don’t try to map out 30 years of your career. You’ll drive yourself crazy, and it rarely turns out like you planned anyway. Be open to unexpected opportunities. Know that your career will have twists and turns, unexpected detours, and even steps backward. And importantly, recognize that sometimes your career can be your top focus and sometimes it can’t, and that’s okay, too.

I’d like to see a greater focus on financial education in schools. We have a savings and retirement crisis in this country. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, some 40% of Americans couldn’t handle an unexpected $400 expense. Close to a quarter of Americans had no retirement savings. Think about how much worse that might get given current economic volatility and unemployment challenges.

There are a lot of causes for this crisis, but education is part of it. Why don’t schools teach personal finance today? We should be teaching kids how to budget, manage their money, how interest works, the power of compounding, how to avoid getting into credit card debt, and how to get a mortgage. These are skills they need to have their entire lives, and our society does a woeful job preparing them for it.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“The only thing better than good is good enough.” Of course, this paraphrases Voltaire’s famous quote. This is true at work and in parenting.

Here’s an example: we recently had to paint my son’s closet doors. I could have done it myself in 20 minutes — fast and perfect. Instead, I let my boys do it. One painted each side. It was a HOT MESS! But you know what? They loved it, they had a great time, and they are super proud of themselves. And honestly who cares whether your closet doors are painted perfectly?

My grandmother. She was an incredibly strong woman who raised four kids while teaching school and helping her husband, who worked long hours at the family dairy. She had elegance and grace, was an incredible hostess, was strong, and had a subtle sense of humor. She was the rock of our family.

I have amazing memories of spending summers with her growing up. But by the time I was into my career, she was in decline. I would love to talk to her about how women have progressed, how the career landscape has changed, what career she might have pursued if she’d have had more options, and also about how she managed to work and raise her kids at the same time.

Jill Hitchcock of Fisher Investments: “Don’t try to map out 30 years of your career; You’ll drive… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Julie Parrish of RedSeal: “It’s ok to wear a dress; Don’t feel like you need to wear pantsuits and…

Julie Parrish of RedSeal: “It’s ok to wear a dress; Don’t feel like you need to wear pantsuits and hide your femininity just to fit in with the men”

It’s ok to wear a dress. If you like skirts and dresses, wear them. Don’t feel like you need to wear pantsuits and hide your femininity just to fit in with the men. Dressing professionally is important, so skirts, dresses and blouses should be appropriate length and not overly revealing — but it is ok to wear them if you want to.

As a part of our series about strong women leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Julie Parrish.

Julie Parrish has more than 30 years of experience across sales, channel management and marketing in Fortune 500 companies. Prior to joining RedSeal, Julie held CMO roles at both Check Point Software and NetApp, where she oversaw all aspects of marketing, including product, field, brand, digital, events, and both public and analyst relations. Her track record includes leadership positions at Symantec, Veritas, Nokia Internet (now Check Point Software), 3Com and Hewlett-Packard.

Julie has a degree in decision and information sciences from Santa Clara University

I was opportunistic more so than strategic in managing my career path. My Bay Area university education and slightly technical degree led to opportunities based in the Silicon Valley, and in high-tech. I chose Hewlett Packard for my first job because it was a big stable company, well-known and well respected. At that point in my life, I did not have a clear sense of how I wanted my career to play out, but I knew that starting at HP would be a great platform for learning and growing.

While my degree was in Decision Information Science, I was not interested in programming or systems analyst work. The position that HP had for me was a marketing analyst role which was exciting because it was in marketing but allowed me to leverage my operational studies and do analysis. I spent five years at HP before taking a management position at a smaller company.

I think there are two approaches (at least) to developing a career path: You can decide you want to be head of a particular function and chart that course, or you can focus on doing a great job with the position you have and see what opportunities present themselves. I chose the latter, which took me into channels, marketing, sales and operations at various points in my career. I was very focused on “how can I add more value” instead of “what will it take to get the next job on my checklist.” I believe this approach is what landed me on many cross-functional teams over the years at various companies. I had the opportunity to participate in M&A integration, discounting/costing programs, internal communication efforts, IT governance and many other areas in addition to my primary function.

The COO title I hold today is really a direct reflection of all that experience coming together.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

My role as Chief Operating Officer started in May 2018. At that time, we were going through a cash crunch and had been fundraising for some time. A tremendous part of my job (even prior to the COO role) was dedicated to working with various PE, VC and banking organizations to raise money. There are so many interesting stories from that time period — from the people I met to the endless nights of spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and information gathering that was required along the way. I think the most interesting story happened on the day we actually got our funding from a terrific PE firm. My boss and I had had dinner the previous evening to discuss Plan B, C and D in case the deal fell apart at the 11th hour. My boss and I, along with our attorneys and our bank sat on a call with representatives from the PE firm, their attorneys and their bankers to finalize the transaction. Each of us had our banking portals open, ready to confirm account information. The final transaction terms were read to the group for each of us to verbally approve for the record. Once the approval was recorded, the “sending” bank was asked to confirm that they were ready to proceed, and the “receiving” bank was asked to confirm that they were ready as well. A very official command was given to transfer the funds and I will never forget literally watching the numbers in our bank account change in seconds. I felt a truly amazing combination of relief, awe, and pride that we’d finally done it.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Oh gosh, I’ve made a lot of mistakes. The one that comes to mind isn’t all that funny to be honest although it became funny over time, and the lesson is important. Many years ago, part of my job included organizing the annual sales kick-off meeting. Just before the meeting was to start, I was in the bar area with a few of my leaders and was informed that the external speaker that I thought was going to lead an important session was not available and a substitute had been chosen. I felt that the individual that had been chosen was not qualified and I loudly claimed that I would be a better choice to lead that particular session (which was a ridiculous claim). I’m sure you can guess where this story goes. I had not met the individual and he happened to be standing very near me. As I left the bar and headed to the general session room, he caught up with me. I introduced myself and his first words to me were “I’m happy to let you lead this session.” The funny part here is that I had no idea what he was talking about. I assured him that we were excited to have him and I helped him get set up for his session. As I started to walk away from him, I realized what had happened. I was mortified and turned around and went back and apologized profusely. He took it in stride, accepted the apology and was nice enough to compliment me on my integrity in owning up to my lapse in judgement. Now, here is where it gets really funny. He not only turned out to be a fantastic, well qualified speaker — but our paths crossed many times over the years. Since then, every single time I watched him speak he told this story (without mentioning my name or the company), including my apology and how it made him work harder to be a great speaker. What is the lesson? There are so many, but the basics are:

There was no reason for me to have been an unkind ego-maniac when I heard that the speakers had been switched. I have seen so many people do things like this over the years (without getting busted like I did), and the bravado does not make you look smarter or more powerful. It has the opposite effect.
Do not miss an opportunity to apologize. Human beings make mistakes, but if you want to be a leader you need to own up to those quickly, make the “wrong” right and learn.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. What is it about the position of CEO or executive that most attracted you to it?

I am attracted to roles that allow me to add as much value as I can to the company, based on my background and experience. At different points in my career, that has meant different roles — and sometimes even lateral shifts. For example, I previously made a big shift from a WW sales executive to be the CMO at a F500 company. On the organization chart, it was lateral move.

I’ve done a few of those lateral shifts over the years as opportunities presented themselves. The COO role is interesting to me because it can be a little undefined in terms of what functions sit within the organization, and it can change depending on what the company needs. When I first became COO, the role included IT, sales operations, corporate planning, business development and marketing. Over time as the needs of the organization changed, we moved IT and planning back into Finance and I took on more of a classic “Go-To-Market” set of functions — combining sales, service, support, operations and marketing. The range and focus of the role are dynamic, which attract me. And regardless of the functions within the team, the role always has a metrics and operational element.

Any “C” level role means you hold the highest level of responsibility for that function. Decisions made at these levels typically have company-wide, not just function-wide impact and can alter (positively or negatively) the overall results of the company. That fact really differentiates these roles from other leadership roles. If the CEO role is about setting the vision and strategy for the company, the COO role is really about helping the company operationalize and execute on that strategy.

What is the one thing that you enjoy most about being an executive?

I most enjoy the visibility and exposure to all aspects of the company. I don’t mean this from a personal standpoint, as in “I like to be visible.” I mean this from a business standpoint. At an executive level, particularly COO or CEO, you typically have visibility to all of the moving parts within the company, all of the challenges and opportunities that exist and can make a big impact on the overall success of the company. I like the range of decisions that I participate in, and the breadth of topics that I address.

What are the downsides of being an executive?

It can be lonely at the top. I did not know what that really meant until I became an executive. Yes, there is a team around you. Yes, a board votes and weighs in on major decisions, but at the end of the day, a C-level executive has to make the final call on difficult topics based on all the input and advice. The outcome of that decision is one that employees and external constituents will attribute to you.
You spend a lot of time managing optics and justifying decisions, which is challenging if not downright exhausting at times. As an executive, you are privy to more information and understand the constraints, options and variables that go into various decisions. The rest of the organization does not have this level of insight, and managing that gap requires the right level of transparency and nuance.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive. Can you explain what you mean? There are many myths, but a few that come to mind are:

Executives are geniuses and have all the answers. Great executives need to score high on the “smart” scale, but what makes an executive great is their ability to craft a vision/strategy, inspire teams to deliver the plan, communicate powerfully and take the right risks.
Most CEOs were born leaders. Not necessarily. Many have overcome academic challenges, social awkwardness, fear of public speaking and skillset deficiencies over time. Most have had terrific mentors and coaches at some point that saw the potential.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

The following three areas have been challenges for as long as I have been in the workplace (a long time). While we’ve moved the needle a little bit, we clearly have not moved it enough:

Pressure from society. Like it or not, men are still praised for bringing home the bacon and women for cooking it. Still. In 2020. How does that manifest itself for a woman executive? Women who work weekends, travel for work and do all the things required to be a successful executive will get the stink eye from teachers, pediatricians, neighbors and even family members that feel they should be spending more time at home. Men are rarely, if ever, asked “how do you do it all?” It is expected that men can be successful as a husband, father and a provider. It is considered extraordinary (as in not natural) for a woman to do the same.
Corporate America is still a man’s world just in terms of the sheer numbers. Even in a scenario where there is no harassment and no discrimination, women are really outnumbered. That creates a level of discomfort in many areas — everything from team-building activities optimized for men (golf, scotch, cigars, sports) to the style of communication men are used to — and means that women need to constantly adapt if they want to fit in. A woman who suddenly realizes she needs to pump her breast milk will have a very different level of (dis)comfort if she has to excuse herself to take care of that while in a group of mostly women instead of mostly men. In most cases, it isn’t necessarily hard to adapt — but it wears you down and becomes exhausting over time.
Unintentional bias in hiring and promotion processes. Women have not been in the workforce at executive levels as long as men have. Job descriptions for C-level roles are most often written with years of experience requirements at certain titles/levels. Men will, by default, have a greater number of years’ experience in most cases, simply because they have been in the workplace at these levels for much longer. This is why the pool of women candidates for executive roles and board of director seats is smaller than it should be, which leads to the predictable outcome of fewer women in C-level roles. We won’t make much progress here until we shift our thinking on how specific qualities, transferable skillsets and outcomes should shape a job description.

What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?

I’ve had a good progression of titles and responsibilities over the years. By the time I was at an SVP level, I was very close to the CEO and other C-Level roles and had a good understanding of what those jobs were about, in terms of scope of responsibility, decision making, expectations and outcomes. That said, the most striking difference was probably the amount of time spent positioning and explaining decisions. Internal messaging and communication are a big part of these jobs.

A great executive inspires the organization in many ways. Someone who is consistently identified as being an inspiration can communicate powerfully (even difficult messages), and someone whose teams deliver results and follow their leader is a generally a good candidate. Great executives have to be decisive, take risks and innovate, and these are also important traits to look for. There is a lot to be said for EQ, or Emotional Quotient, and making sure that is balanced well with the IQ. If you can’t get teams to follow you, you won’t be a great executive.

The types of people that should avoid aspiring to be an executive are those that prefer to support instead of making decisions, those that prefer to avoid risk and conflict, and people that are not effective at collaborating with others. Leaders who may have delivered great results but have high attrition rates are also not great candidates. Finally, being an executive is not an 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. job, five days per week. I know plenty of people that have the skills and traits to be a great executive but prefer not to travel, not to work weekends and prefer to have a reasonable workday. You will not have perfect work-life balance in an executive role, unfortunately.

What advice would you give to other female leaders to help their team to thrive?

Happy people produce better results, and women have natural skills in the areas of empathy, diplomacy, inclusiveness, resilience and humility. Lean into these traits as you work with your team to inspire results vs. dictating or demanding results.
Don’t over rotate to trying to fit into the “boys club.” That can quickly be perceived as political or overly aggressive (even when it is not) and may alienate the team from the leader.
Leverage the fact that the majority of your peers may be men. Ask them for advice and ask how they have succeeded with their teams. The best role models for female executives are not necessarily other women — but men.

There are so many people that I am grateful to — starting with my parents who always encouraged and supported my path, all of the wonderful bosses (almost all men) that developed and promoted me, and companies that took chances on hiring me.

A related story comes to mind from many years ago. I really wanted to get that Vice President title checked off. I felt I had the experience, leadership traits and track record of results to support the title. In a conversation with the head of human resources for the company I was working for at the time, I expressed my dismay that this VP title had not happened yet. My current position was big enough to be a VP job, and I felt I’d earned it. She asked me if I’d ever told my boss that I wanted to be a vice president. I hadn’t. I assumed that the track record spoke for itself and I’d watched the process play out a few times. She told me that she did not think the executive team knew that I had that level of ambition. She was right — they didn’t. Very important lesson here: if you don’t ask for the promotion, you probably won’t get it. I asked for it and I got it.

Then I forgot the lesson, which brings me to the one person I would call out here: Dan Warmenhoven, who was the Chairman of the Board at NetApp at the time. I had been the SVP of WW Channel Sales for a few years, and I asked him what else he thought I could do for the company and what potential roles or functions should I look at as possible career paths. He looked at me and said, “I don’t know why the hell you haven’t applied for the CMO job that has been open for 6 months.” While I had an awful lot of marketing experience — and at the VP level — it didn’t occur to me that I would be qualified, but I hadn’t asked. And I was qualified. I went for that job hard — and I got it. While this story came later in my career it was actually instrumental in shifting the perception of who I was and what I could do and led to more C-level roles.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

It takes all kinds of people doing many different activities to make the world a better place. Some people start charities and foundations, and others contribute to the process one person at a time. I am in that latter group.

Because of my success, I am visible. I get asked to speak to large groups, contribute to conversations like this one, and am well known in my company and in my industry. I prefer to be known for how I behave and the impressions I leave on people than for what I may have accomplished. The most important thing I can do is be a great example for my peers, employees, children, friends and family. Some questions I ask myself are:

Am I seen as kind, thoughtful, caring and honest?
Do I leave more than my fair share on the table?
Do I exhibit grace, gratitude and humility?
Do I lift people up or do I tear people down?

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

Don’t be the girl at the bar. Classic high-tech bonding, particularly at sales meetings, often takes place after hours at a bar. This is a male-dominated environment, and trying to fit in by showing that you can hang with the bros won’t win you the points you think it will. It can actually work against you.
Some people won’t like you. Not every decision you make will make everyone happy, but you need to make the decision that is the greatest good for the most people. Similarly, some people just won’t like you… just because. You need people to respect you and you need more people to like you than do not, but you can’t worry about everyone liking you.
You have to ask for what you want (see story above on promotions).
It’s ok to wear a dress. If you like skirts and dresses, wear them. Don’t feel like you need to wear pantsuits and hide your femininity just to fit in with the men. Dressing professionally is important, so skirts, dresses and blouses should be appropriate length and not overly revealing — but it is ok to wear them if you want to.
Things happens and you will need to be resilient. You might have been up for a promotion, and the company re-organized and now that role is gone or has changed. Maybe your company will have a bad earnings call and a knee-jerk reaction to slash budgets will occur — that might mean the campaign you’ve worked on for months will get cut. Maybe your company will be acquired and instead of becoming a general manager, you end up taking an exit-package. There is an awful lot that will happen outside of your control that can impact your career progression (positively and negatively), and how you react to those challenges is crucial.

“Is it true, is it kind, is it necessary?” This is a very old quote and philosophy. For me personally, it fits in with my view on how I personally can make the world a better place: I can start by being a decent human being or a great role model — starting with what I say and put out into various platforms. I think we waste a lot of time, cause a lot of damage, and create a lot of unnecessary confusion when we don’t follow this simple guide. Our 24/7 always-on world is filled with so many social media options and platforms for people to “speak.” This has created more opportunity for divides, propaganda and hatred, in my opinion.

I would love to see a movement that taught and emphasized this philosophy across several channels:

Schools
Businesses
Politics
Marketing
Media

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

As simple as this may sound, I’ve always liked the basics of the following: “Be on time, follow instructions and don’t be a jerk.” One of my first managers at Hewlett Packard told me this. I was shocked at the number of times that some of my co-workers would use a different template for a presentation than the manager had provided or routinely be ten minutes late. I asked him how he felt about it, and he said that in his experience, the key to success is doing those three things consistently because so many people won’t. I have never forgotten it, and he was right. Within that simple lesson are fundamental attributes of discipline, respect and integrity.

Julie Parrish of RedSeal: “It’s ok to wear a dress; Don’t feel like you need to wear pantsuits and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Michelle Cheo of Mewah Group: “Why is it so essential to protect your energy and mind space”

Protect your energy and your mind space. Nothing great can be achieved without having positive mindset and we must be able to keep our positivity in order to enable change. There will always be the “naysayers” and conflict. If we focus on things we cannot change, we will be less likely to be the positive force of change that is required. You have to believe that you can do it.

As a part of our series about strong women leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michelle Cheo.

Michelle Cheo is CEO of Mewah Group, an agricultural-commodities group of companies that has a global presence in over 140 countries. The Mewah Group is headquartered in Singapore, with manufacturing facilities in Malaysia and Indonesia. Michelle is responsible for the formulation and execution of the overall strategy and day-to-day operations of the Group. In 2019, she was awarded the Her Times Women Empowerment Award for Entrepreneurship.

Michelle serves as a Council Member of the 60th Board of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industries (SCCCI). She is an active member of the Young Presidents Organisation (YPO) and currently serves as Chair of the Singapore Chapter. She is also a member of the YPO Asia Pacific Regional Board and Co-Champion of the YPO Women Business Network in the Asia Pacific Region.

When I started working, my first job was at ExxonMobil, where I served in both Baton Rouge, Louisiana and its new chemical complex in Singapore. It was a very exciting project where we were part of a team, setting up a new chemical complex located on 7 reclaimed islands. Being a part of such a team brings about a sense of fulfillment, when you are able to see a dream manifest itself into reality from the ground up.

This feeling of fulfillment was not only in terms of the tangible structures in place, but also from a holistic view of building a brand-new infrastructure. We had to ensure the plant was fully functional after commissioning, be prepared to solve unforeseen technical hiccups from the use of relatively new technology to simultaneously building the necessary teams, culture and the systems needed.

I joined Mewah as I wanted a more commercial role and I started out in the trading department. From there, I then did a lot of business development which allowed me to ideate, initiate and bring to fruition many projects of various capacities in the business for both the soft and hard infrastructures necessary for our growth as a group. Creating something from ground up and adding value through new innovations is something I truly am proud of and thoroughly enjoy.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

One of the main perks of my role as CEO of the Mewah Group, is that I am able to engage, interact and meet with many interesting people who, in their own way are making an impact in their respective fields. And because I have a healthy interest in innovations within the food science sphere, I am always impressed by all the passionate people I meet.

For example, I had the pleasure of meeting a very interesting Italian chap some time ago in America. He had spent a year living on a boat in the middle of the sea for a research project he was conducting on algae for its nutritional benefits and its potential of being a reliable source of energy (a study that many researchers have been looking at, in the world of sustainability). I was intrigued with his knowledge for algae and the passion with which he spoke about it.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Well, I speak mostly conversational mandarin and many of the Chinese terms in the Asia Pacific Region vary from the Chinese terms used in mainland China. While I was on a business trip, I was trying to introduce a friend to a roomful of businessmen and intended to say that he had four daughters. Everyone soon started to laugh and I quickly realized that I had erroneously said he had four mistresses. Unfortunately, the phrase I used for daughters is the same as the colloquial term for mistress!

In my journey so far, I stand on the shoulder of giants and I am blessed to have many contributors to my success. I am very grateful to my parents for where I am today. My upbringing was a typical tiger mum and dad sort of upbringing where there was always constant pressure, never said, but always inferred to try our best, to be useful members of society and to constantly improve myself. My mother realized at a young age that I was very good at Maths and Science, which was why I decided at a young age to study Engineering in School.

I was not aware then that not many women did STEM and I did not grow up with any mental barriers to what I could achieve in life. My father constantly told us to read widely and that there was no use doing well in school without then constantly investing in our personal life-long learning throughout our careers. He is also a very strategic thinker and through him I have learnt how to set boundaries, understand risk-reward ratio’s when studying a business deal and to never give up on my dreams and aspirations.

I spend a lot of time thinking about what is important to me. At the end of the day, the things that matter most are good health, family and friends. Practicing gratefulness and empathy help to balance out the temporal stresses which may occur from day to day. I believe this is a habit that many of us can attain.

We must prepare well before hand for any task set out but it is very important to be able to have a good night’s sleep the night before as well.

It is always easier to have a team that agrees with you where, if you don’t ask the hard questions, then you can move with great speed. The question remains though, if this is the best for the business and whether we reap the best outcomes with this approach, because if not, then everyone loses.

I believe that what works is having a diverse executive team with different perspectives, braving to approach the difficult questions and making us rethink our assumptions to hopefully arrive at solutions and outcomes. However, this can only happen when there is a company culture that respects people with different opinions.

In that aspect, I am lucky to belong to a company that has practiced equality in the number of men and women on their board of directors, not because we were looking for gender equality but each of the board of directors deserved to be there in their own right. We also have an executive team which includes many senior women members who have worked their way up and whose opinions are greatly valued.

As a business leader, can you please share a few steps we must take to truly create an inclusive, representative, and equitable society? Kindly share a story or example for each.

In my opinion, the most important thing for any society is social mobility. People do not choose the circumstances that they are born into, but if they have the talent and the willpower, they should be able to have the opportunity to rise above their circumstances. One of the best levelers of this is education. I believe if we mobilize more good schools in less fortunate neighborhoods together with teachers who can inspire people to dream big, then this pool of talent too can rise above their circumstances because they have been given the opportunity to do so.

The beauty that comes with social mobility is the empathy that is cultivated when people explore different perspectives, regardless of religious beliefs, upbringing and even political views. This creates a better understanding of the “US” vs “THEM” approach.

The most important job of the CEO is to be able to paint a vision of where the company is heading towards and mobilizing the team to follow him/her in this direction. Sometimes, it is very difficult for people to see opportunity especially in the face of many potential challenges, but this is a necessary skillset. Often, we may get dragged down by the routine jobs and daily operational challenges but as a CEO, I believe it is my duty to be able to cut through the “business as usual” and to continuously challenge the norm before it shapes complacency. As Andy Grove said, “Only the paranoid survive” and no business will survive indefinitely if it doesn’t evolve in the face of changes in business trends or competition. Therefore, even when something seems to be going well, the CEO must jump in and inspire people to change what or how they are operating to avoid any form of oncoming threat on the near horizon. It is the classic case of trying to get people to change before someone has “moved their cheese”.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive. Can you explain what you mean?

I think most people think that the CEO has all the power to make things happen. This is not true. A title is just a title. It is the people that make you a leader and we can only lead people based on our ability to convince and inspire them.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

There are many views and traditional perceptions of the responsibilities between male and female, especially in the home front. These views and responsibilities further changes after the birth of children, where there is even more division of labor. This is then backed by societal pressure of being a perfect mother. Having equal division of responsibilities here is imperative, especially when one is juggling dual careers that require extensive travelling. In many cases, the women will often decide to take a slightly less demanding career path or takes a step back altogether, leaving the man as the main breadwinner. Therefore, the female talent pool for senior positions might not be as large of men who have had more years of relevant experience.

What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?

All of us have some level of ability to influence the job and the job takes on the personality of the individual as well. Over time the two become one.

Most people will choose to put in their mind and spirit into something they are passionate about. At the end of the day, we do what we do well when it is driven by passion. Being a CEO is hard work and that does entail many sacrifices that many may not know about.

What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?

In my view, the most important thing is to cultivate positive mindsets. We can only believe in changing things for the better if we believe we have the power to change them. This is how we can maximize our efforts, intellect and nurture our passion.

There are scenarios at work that we can control and yet there are many that we cannot. This can ultimately seem negative. However, there are also many levers which we can use to influence the things that we can control and continuously expanding our sphere of influence. If we only focus on the negative or the small conflicts, we might give up our power of influence even before we can build or create anything.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I believe women hold up half the sky. I am Deputy Chairlady of World Vision Singapore and by investing in women and children in developing countries; we hope to build skills and capabilities to break the chain of poverty in these countries.

Closer to home, I continue to be passionate about women empowerment and I build platforms for women to connect. I have been involved with the Career Women’s Group at the Singapore Chinese Chambers for more than eight years and it’s a platform by which we organize events to help women entrepreneurs grow their business. As of last year, I have also been building the YPO Women’s Business Network in Asia Pacific with my co-champion. I love entrepreneurship and the YPO WBN has given me a platform to connect with other women entrepreneurs and business owners in the region. I am also a mentor with the Young Women’s Leadership Connection (YWLC) which is a network focused on women who are just starting out in their careers.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

Protect your energy and your mind space. Nothing great can be achieved without having positive mindset and we must be able to keep our positivity in order to enable change. There will always be the “naysayers” and conflict. If we focus on things we cannot change, we will be less likely to be the positive force of change that is required. You have to believe that you can do it.
Keep learning and growing. In order to lead people to where they have not yet been, we have to be constantly learning ourselves. Learning can take place by reading, attending courses or surrounding our-selves with people who are constantly at the top of their game. If we do not invest in ourselves, we will not be able to inspire our team.
Surround yourself with good people. You will not be able to get there alone. When you have a good team, they help to propel you upwards. I constantly feel blessed working with the people I have around me at work because all of them have great technical skills, tenacity and belief that they can work through any challenge that comes our way. It is only through them and the vision that we collectively have that we can constantly push the company upwards and onwards.
Hire for a good attitude, teachability and resilience. Technical skills are important but it is only half of what is required. I have been working for close to 20 years and the entire business landscape has changed drastically during this time. Changes have come in ways which we never thought possible but we embrace them and the team has to continuously keep themselves updated with new skills and capabilities. I am grateful to work with people who can adapt to these changes. Unfortunately, I have also met many of who could not.
You can only implement change at a speed that average people in the organization can accept. Many occasions in my career, I have had to speak about change and how we adapt to these changes, and in many cases not everyone can accept a new idea. This process involves a lot of convincing and leadership skills to bring people to a higher performance level. It is the hardest when it involves a scenario that we do well in but maybe not the best at. I personally realize that speed of change coincides with the speed of acceptance of the average person in the organization. If we push too hard there will be too much resistance, however, if we wait for everyone to accept, then change will never happen.

I spend a lot of my time and energy studying subjects revolving around food technology and efficient ways to bring food to the table. The opportunity to merge technology and business innovations to improve food production is massive. This is the key to minimizing the environmental impacts of a growing human population. Some people estimate that food production is 17% of global carbon footprint; if I could make a dent in this somehow, it would give me a lot of fulfillment.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Be the change that you want to see.

I see so many who are unhappy with their work or in their personal lives and by default they keep blame it on their external circumstances and the people around them. With a little introspection, they will be able to determine what the actual source of their unhappiness is and what they can do to make a positive change. I think they would find that there is a lot more they can influence for the positive instead.

Jeff Bezos. This is a guy who in his mid-career decided to start his own business. His tenacity is testament to how he has elevated his once small business to the Amazon we know today. I would just love to meet him and understand what keeps him going.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

Michelle Cheo of Mewah Group: “Why is it so essential to protect your energy and mind space” was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.