Category: Featured

Lara Caimi of ServiceNow: Why You Should Over-Communicate With Your Team

Over-communicate. Do not let physical distancing constraints stop you from engaging deeply. Listen, connect, empathize more. Within my own teams, I have found that we share our full selves frequently and transparently. And it’s been a blessing — it’s brought us closer together as our personal and work lives have blended. We’ve been able to build a rock-solid foundation of trust.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Lara Caimi. As Chief Customer and Partner Officer, Lara Caimi leads the Customer and Partner organization for ServiceNow. Lara took this new role in July 2020, after serving as ServiceNow’s Chief Strategy Officer since joining the company in December 2017.

Lara’s organization — which includes customer outcomes, customer experience, alliances and channel ecosystem, and our training & certification organization — provide our partners and customers with best-in-class guidance and capabilities to drive successful digital transformations and realize quick time-to-value.

Before joining ServiceNow, Lara was a partner at Bain & Company, where she worked for 17 years. While at Bain, Lara advised technology companies on topics of growth strategy, go-to-market strategy, and M&A.

Lara is a member of FirstBoard.io, whose mission is to increase female representation on corporate boards and at the highest level of corporate governance and management. Lara holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and English literature from St. Olaf College, a MIB from the University of Sydney as a Fulbright Scholar, and a MBA from Harvard Business School.

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?

People tell me I have a will to win. I have always taken my dreams & responsibilities seriously — as a mom, ally, mentor. It is important for me to show up as my best self everyday. To be world-class. To do justice to what I put my heart & mind to. From St. Olaf College’s women’s basketball team, where I was a four-year starter, through to 17 years in consulting and now ServiceNow where I lead our new Customer and Partner organization, I’ve set audacious goals and then worked hard to achieve them. I have not always followed a paradigm — but my unconventional path is my strength, because it has helped me bring unique thoughts & perspectives to the table.

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

I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me in January that we would be living in a completely different reality today. I’m a student of business. And what businesses do in times of crisis and adversity defines who they are. This moment is an opportunity for strong companies to get stronger and become set the benchmark for success. It’s easy to be a team when things are going well. But, teams become teams when they work together through difficult times.

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 I was a consultant, I used to call into these high-profile daily status meetings. I didn’t have a speaking role on this particular call, so I was multitasking. I forgot to put myself on mute and started using my breast pump. A colleague paused his presentation and was like “What is that noise? Is someone on an oil rig?” It’s so funny because now most of us are working from home and I think we can all agree the mute button is everyone’s nemesis! The takeaway is: mute yourself if you’re not talking and even when you think you have, check again.

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 a lot of people who have helped me get to where I am today, but John Donahoe has absolutely been a key influence in my career path. He was my mentor and champion throughout my careers at Bain and ServiceNow, from giving me opportunities he knew I could take on even if I wasn’t confident yet, to the transition to Bill McDermott. John is a unique leader because he consistently looks at potential vs. just an impressive track record, which isn’t the case with all leaders. He has an extraordinary gift for seeing potential and knowing how to challenge and encourage them into the next thing in the most appropriate and thoughtful way.

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?

When the pandemic began, I was more worried about my physical health than I was my mental health. My gym was closed. I wasn’t walking as much. Now, though, I’m prioritizing mental wellbeing. It’s been a game-changer. I’ve had to set boundaries and intentionally carve out time for my own mental health. For example, I’m repurposing my former 90-minute commute time to meditate and reflect on a regular basis.

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?

We must see more of everyone in every company. Black employees, women, all under-represented communities. Greater diversity in positions of influence and accountability leading change. Corporate America must better reflect the world we live in. Representation isn’t just good for employees; it is also business-critical. The more we can reflect our customers in who we are, the better the products we create and the better company we will be. In my experience, increasing the number and types of voices, thoughts, and perspectives — including gender, race, and ethnicity, age and more — expands the way companies connect with their customers, anticipates needs, and builds paradigm-shifting innovations. .

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.

Everyone has different circumstances. As leaders, we have to offer flexibility and meet people with empathy, kindness, and courtesy. During times like these and as we move forward, we must take a more personal & empathetic approach to the workplace. It is a unique opportunity to build tighter workforces connected through the power of belonging. Diversity and inclusion are table stakes. Belonging is the breakthrough. When people feel they truly belong — that they can be their authentic selves and their voices will be heard and respected — they contribute to their fullest potential.

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?

Create a vision and build a great team to get you there.

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

You never reach a certain point where you know everything. You have to continuously prioritize your own growth. Now more than ever, it’s critical to set and track goals and to develop meaningful personal & professional progression plans.

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

It’s no secret that women face bias and must learn to navigate what I call ‘potholes’ in their careers. The further women advance, the fewer female role models they see. With fewer people to experience and identify the ‘potholes’ — things such as implicit bias, stereotypes, and fewer sponsors — we see an impact on women’s ambition and confidence. Now especially during the pandemic, women are having to choose between continuing their careers and handling household responsibilities. As employers and leaders, we have to offer even more flexibility to give women and other care-givers the space they need to do both.

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

The decision to move from Bain to ServiceNow was scary. I had been there for most of my career. All of my friends were at Bain and my husband is actually a partner at Bain. Bain has a strong, wonderful, people-centric culture and I was drawn to the fact that ServiceNow embodies that same culture and puts people at the center of its purpose. I found the transition to ServiceNow to be wonderful. The idea of seeing things end-to-end and really having full accountability gives me this great sense of pleasure.

The decision to move from Bain to ServiceNow was scary. I had been there for most of my career. All of my friends were at Bain and my husband is actually a partner at Bain. Bain has a strong, wonderful, people-centric culture and I was drawn to the fact that ServiceNow embodies that same culture and puts people at the center of its purpose. However, what surprised me most on the job was the speed and agility with which an $80B+ company like ServiceNow moves — for example, in the midst of COVID, we built, shipped and delivered Safe Workplace apps from scratch for our customers in just 1 quarter!

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?

I don’t think everyone has to aspire to be an executive. Organizations need strong contributors at all levels, and people can continue to develop in different ways, no matter where they are within a company. That said, the leaders I admire keep people at the core of everything they do. One of my favorite sayings is that people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. It’s true. Leaders who make people their business are far more successful than those who only prioritize product or productivity.

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

Over-communicate. Do not let physical distancing constraints stop you from engaging deeply. Listen, connect, empathize more. Within my own teams, I have found that we share our full selves frequently and transparently. And it’s been a blessing — it’s brought us closer together as our personal and work lives have blended. We’ve been able to build a rock-solid foundation of trust.

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

Leadership means supporting the communities where we live and work in. There is so much that we can and need to do; I’ve found it helpful focus on women in leadership, to increase the impact I can make. I’m working on three areas right now: 1/ At ServiceNow, we have a five-point plan to address systemic racism and social injustice. I’m leading the “inclusive leadership and workforce training” pillar to teach leaders and employees to take meaningful actions that create sustainable, positive change and help end racial injustice & discrimination; 2/ I serve as the executive sponsor of our “Power of 10” groups, which have scaled to be a network of more than 700 female leaders across ServiceNow; and 3/ I’m a member of FirstBoard.io, which aims to increase women’s representation on boards of directors.

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

Make a plan but be willing to throw it out the window. Life can take a million different paths and all of them come with their own benefits. I’ve had the privilege of working in different industries and living in multiple parts of the world, from Australia to Boston. I didn’t anticipate any of the big transitions and what they would lead to, but for the most part they’ve turned into incredible opportunities and experiences. Set goals and work hard and when you get a shot to do something, take it. Say yes and lean in!

Set a big dream goal and tell people about it. Women in particular aren’t as good at putting themselves out there and outwardly stating a lofty goal or objective. They tend to wait until they’re beyond ready to meet it. Encourage yourself and your teams to dream big, and then talk about it!

Get comfortable with the uncomfortable. To put it simply, when you’re uncomfortable you’re growing. In a similar vein as my above point, it can be scary to take on the project or job you believe is outside your expertise. My advice to you? Take it. If you’re comfortable, you’re not learning and growing.

Relationships matter. Act with integrity and treat everyone with respect. This one is so simple in theory but so important and often one of the first things to be overlooked. Always treat people the way you want to be treated. Whether it’s an executive assistant, client, or colleague, have empathy and respect for everyone you interact with. You never know when you’ll come across that person again. A high moral character will take you far.

Build your own version of success and set boundaries. I received this advice from a female partner at Bain. It was such a simple and true reminder that success isn’t a one-size-fits-all. It can be incredibly hard to not compare yourselves to others; however, as I’ve grown into my career I’ve understood that success is personal and looks different for everyone. I remember at one point thinking that I had to work part-time when I had kids, because that is what other women around me were doing. I quickly realized that being a mom and having a full-time career were both important to me and my identity. Success for me now is being able to do well at my job and then put my kids to bed every night. This means defining my own terms and setting boundaries to say, “I can’t do a 6 p.m. meeting, but I can do a 9 a.m. call”.

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.

Last year, the Business Roundtable, a group of respected CEOs from a variety of industries and countries, updated how they define the purpose of a corporation to be more equitable for all stakeholders, not just shareholders. These leaders realize that their organizations have a duty to serve everyone, not just a select few. I hope all companies will follow their example.

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 “Don’t leave before you leave” from Sheryl Sandberg. Women in the workforce are often faced with a dilemma when they decide to become a parent. Because they don’t already have a picture of how they can manage to be a mother and an executive, they assume there has to be a trade-off. I remember having this same thought as I watched countless women around me shift to part-time roles or quit altogether when they decided to start a family. What Sheryl encourages with “don’t leave before you leave” is for women to rethink their approach — the months and years leading up to having children are the time to lean in, not to scale back and self-defeat in anticipation that they’ll need to eventually. At the end of the day, it’s important for everyone, but especially women, to choose their unique path to success and not feel like they need to step back from their careers just because they anticipate building a family. As I started thinking about how I defined success for myself, it was clear to me that I wanted both. By committing to clear boundaries, I have found a way to be a full-time executive and an involved mom of three and I couldn’t be happier.

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 find Ben Horowitz to be not only an interesting person, but also an incredible business leader. I also look up to Maria Martinez at Cisco who created the customer success role at Salesforce. She founded it and helped create the notion of customer success and what it means in the SaaS world. I’d take a private meal with either one of them!

Lara Caimi of ServiceNow: Why You Should Over-Communicate With Your Team was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Sarah Tourville of Media Frenzy Global: “Why you need to learn to have to have tough conversations…

Sarah Tourville of Media Frenzy Global: “Why you need to learn to have to have tough conversations without getting upset”

…you have to have tough conversations without getting upset — the end. Not every conversation is easy, but they have to happen, or you bury it until you explode, and no one wants a leader who goes off on a tirade because they failed to communicate effectively.

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

Sarah is the CEO and founder of Media Frenzy Global, a PR agency that builds brands for innovative and disruptive companies in the US and UK through strategic messaging, Public Relations and creative content. Founded in London in 2006 and Atlanta in 2013, Media Frenzy Global helps technologists tell their story and drive national and global brand recognition. Sarah is also a regular contributor to Forbes on communication best practices and agency growth and an advocate for women in business, female entrepreneurship and leadership.

I am forever thankful for the degree I chose in international marketing management as a young woman fresh out of high school in England. I was always naturally curious about the world around me. I knew national PR and marketing campaigns did not excite me as I loved understanding cultural nuances and developing initiatives that would resonate in different markets. My passion for creating a “media frenzy” for global brands led me to head up the European launch of Microsoft Expedia and work for Motorola, where I was responsible for communications in the European, Middle Eastern and African markets. It was such a great experience and helped set the stage for what I do now. My work with these powerhouse brands also sparked my interest in technology.

People always ask, “what led you to create an agency?” When I worked on the corporate side, I had the opportunity to collaborate with around ten agencies in different markets. They each had their style and way of expanding brand awareness using different methodologies and processes to help them achieve their goal and of course, we were there to guide them. They were phenomenal. I wanted to take the best of what I had experienced and pull those aspects into my agency. I knew I wanted my agency to deliver excellent and personable customer service, one of my sweet spots. I advocate for customer service because it is critical for success. I also wanted an agency that was business-minded and entrepreneurial. At Media Frenzy Global, we think about our clients’ business to better understand the parallel of PR and its relation to their business growth. Another key focus for my business was being results-driven. We work on this consistently, especially amid the current pandemic. Lastly, the goal for my agency has always been to think differently. In 2018, we created a new mantra, “Go There.” It sounds simple and, to some possibly cheesy, however, we use this barometer when we’re prospecting clients, winning new business, creating strategy, or pitching to the media. How are we setting our clients apart? Are we maximizing our creativity and taking everything we do to the next level? The components have aided in the success of the agency and the team. I’m very proud of what we have achieved up until this point.

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

Winning and losing our most significant client would have to be the most valuable lesson in business I’ve learned to date. The story is quite fascinating when I think back on it. We had won the client first, which led to creating the agency and hiring five people to run the account. We were responsible for their entire marketing and pr strategy. In a way, the company appointed me as their CMO, so the account was quite significant. Our team dedicated so much time and energy into helping this particular client that, as a business owner, I did not have time to generate leads to grow and diversify our clientele. Eight months into the project, the client’s investors pulled out, which meant all marketing stopped, and we lost the business, having to fill a 30K per month void with high operating expenses. I struggled to sleep for an entire year as we worked to replace the loss. This moment became a wake-up call to me and changed how I would move forward with running the company. The experience was a hard pill to swallow yet, I learned so much about business, planning and forecasting. You should always have more eggs in your basket. Always.

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 necessarily have a funny mistake to share, but indeed a serious moment that turned comical. Earlier in my business, I became very intentional with networking with other business-minded leaders to understand how Media Frenzy Global could leverage our services and grow. After a few recommendations and warm introductions, I set up a meeting with a prominent leader in the city I was in at the time. During the conversation, he propositioned me over a kale salad. I was caught off guard and started choking almost to the point where the Heimlich Maneuver was needed. As a woman, it amazes me how, when professional boundaries are crossed, women are told to overlook the moment or brush off. It’s almost like we have to wear a shield so that inappropriate comments and situations bounce off us, so we’re not labeled as difficult or “not grateful.” I could not get over the fact that someone with such visibility and prominence had stooped so low. It taught me never to lean on anyone and create your own success.

My husband, Tim, is my greatest support. He is straightforward and gave me the motivation to step out on faith and follow my dreams. Early on in our marriage, after I had my two daughters, I wavered on my next professional move. Would I go back to corporate? Start my agency? I continued to ask myself what I wanted, tossing ideas back and forth but never deciding which route I would take. However, my husband drew a line in the sand for me during one of our many conversations. He said, “You have two choices in front of you, head back to the corporate world, or follow your dream and start your agency.” I had talked about it for years, and it was then I decided to bet on myself. The very next day, after our conversation, I got to work. I haven’t looked back since. My husband has been by my side every step of the way. He’s experienced the highs of my professional career, and because he is business-minded, he’s been a great support system and sounding board on my journey.

The way I cope with stress as a leader is by thorough preparation. What this looks like for me is writing everything down by hand. When gearing up for an important meeting or presentation, I must write things out from beginning to end. For example, our company has a marquee event that we put on quarterly (monthly since the onset of COVID-19) called PR Reimagined, where we examine how communicators can think outside of the box and reimagine how we do business from a PR and marketing perspective. I’ve moderated many of these events, and before each one, I research the topic, the speakers, and write everything out by hand, down to the questions I want to ask and the points I want to make.

I use this method when pitching a new client or attempting to secure a partnership agreement. I don’t necessarily re-read the copy; however, as long as I’ve written it down, I also know that I’ve committed it to memory. There have been occasions where I’ve had back to back client pitches, and in every scenario I’ve written down what I wanted to say or convey for every presentation. This process helps me show up prepared and confident, consistently.

From my earlier point, I’ve always been interested in learning more about how people from different backgrounds think and what motivates them. It’s the reason I majored in international studies in college. As CEO, I’m proud of the diverse team we have created and believe it’s essential for agencies to reflect internally who they are helping externally. Meaning, if your client comes to you wanting a campaign or content created from a Black perspective, it becomes crucial to have Black team members who understand the nuances and intricacies of Black culture. We’ve seen where major brands have failed when creating campaigns because everyone who had a seat at the table looked the same and made decisions based on similar experiences. You have to bring a diverse perspective to the work you are doing for your client, and that means having a diverse team.

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’m proud of the work my partner and colleague Katie Kern and Media Frenzy Global is doing in partnership with Lee Deas of Obviouslee Marketing based in Charleston, SC. Together, they’ve created the Act In Solidarity Pledge to stir action from agency leaders. The communications industry (marketing, pr and advertising) has a long way to go when it comes to creating equitable change for Black professionals. Our goal is to make sure agency leaders and owners across the nation hold themselves accountable for their lack of Black talent and Black upward mobility in predominantly white spaces. This pledge provides a springboard into taking actionable steps in the right direction. The mission is to make work a safe place for Black professionals where they are given the same opportunities as their White counterparts and allowed to bring their full selves into the office setting. I am proud of the work we are doing in this effort.

As CEO, I am not on the ground floor of my business. I often get close because we are small; however, my team is better at PR, marketing and social media than I am. I trust them immensely as they are the catalyst for our success — however, my day-to-day consists of selling our services and achieving growth. I am continually working on methods to grow top-line revenue, increase margins and identify mutually beneficial partnerships. The business of the agency is top of mind for me consistently. While I wouldn’t say I am the “face” of the company, when issues arise, they fall on me. As a leader, you have to be comfortable in managing the wins, losses, successes, and failures.

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

The biggest myth I believe is essential to dispel is that CEO’s have all the answers. I surround myself with people who have the answers. It’s the foundation of being a great leader and the reason I partnered with my colleague Katie Kern. Katie is an excellent ideator and continually drives the team towards achieving our goals as a company. I always say she’s been a game-changer for our agency. Our Marketing Director, Jonathan Young, is a stellar writer who can dive deep into the needs of a business and help solve their problems. Nikkia Adolphe, our PR Director, continually drives results for our PR clients, and her department is solid. My team continuously blows me away, and I trust their decisions. I don’t know it all, and I’m okay with that.

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

Women have to do it all. I have to run the company, manage the children, maintain the house, and the social calendar. I never just get up and go to work. This is not to take away from my husband in any respect. He is an amazing husband who is present, active and supportive. However, men have a much different experience when it comes to balancing career and family. They don’t always have to adjust as much as we do. I could have hired a nanny; however, I’ve always wanted to be a woman who was there for my children and there for myself. My agency is what I do for myself outside of the home, and while it’s not always easy, I make it work by any means necessary.

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

Starting out, I assumed as CEO; my role would consist of closing deals and securing partnerships without having to keep such a keen eye on spending. Historically, we’ve always had someone help in this respect; however, over time, I became hyper-aware of every dollar spent. I can tell you where my business is financially down to the penny at all times. I probably look at it more than I should, but I’ve heard of business owners who have been burned by not keeping an eye on their finances, and I never want to share in that experience.

As a leader, handling conflict, having tough conversations, and handling grace under pressure becomes your superpower.

You cannot be afraid of conflict. Disagreements will arise with your team, clients and vendors. While conflict doesn’t necessarily mean World War Three, there are times when you won’t see eye-to-eye, or you will look at business differently from your leadership team. How can you effectively communicate when you are firm in your belief, and you feel your way is right? It will happen, so knowing how to handle those situations will make the difference if you sink or swim.

Second, you have to have tough conversations without getting upset — the end. Not every conversation is easy, but they have to happen, or you bury it until you explode, and no one wants a leader who goes off on a tirade because they failed to communicate effectively.

Lastly, having grace under pressure. In the agency world, the pressure is always on. So handle every failed client pitch, or a business meeting that didn’t end well, with grace. I’m thankful for every rejection, and no, I’ve received. The 30K client who dropped us after month 8? They are back on our roster and one of our star clients. There is always a silver lining. It’s not easy, but it can be done.

Since we’ve transitioned our team to working 100% remotely in the last five months, I have found there is less pressure, which has been refreshing. At times, the office can create a pressure cooker situation, especially when you are in a meeting after meeting without a break or tensions, and expectations are high on a particular day. I’m unexpectedly grateful for the time the chaos of the pandemic has provided. Our team is the best we’ve ever been. We’re still winning new business and achieving goals for our clients and company.

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

I advise any women in business to join a CEO entrepreneurial group. When I think back, I’m baffled that It took me so long to make the commitment and not understand the importance of having solid business advice to help me get to the next level. While I couldn’t join until our company hit a specific revenue goal, I’m glad I decided. It’s a game-changer for sure.

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

I am passionate about female leadership when it comes to young women, so I make an effort to speak to high-school women specifically and instill confidence in this age group. There are so many distractions and While it may sound cliche, they are the future, and I make an effort to pour into them and provide insight on my experience any chance I can.

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

You will never be able to put the baby down, never.
You won’t sleep as well as you would have in corporate America
You will have anxiety
You will always think about payroll every two weeks
You will earn less than you would at a corporate job — right now anyway!

While this may seem negative, it’s true. Nothing rewarding comes easy. My career is rewarding. I have a great family, a great company and team, and I am living my dreams. There are nightmares here and there; however, I roll with the punches and know that to whom much is given much is required. I will take some sleepless nights because I am living life on my terms.

My movement would be to create a social media app called Selfless Social. It would help teenagers become less focused on themselves and help uplift other people. Social media can be such a derogatory place, especially for young people, and the next generation needs to understand it’s not all about them. The app would allow them to take time to do great things and encourage others. The current state of the world could certainly use more positivity.

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

“The harder I work, the luckier I get” — Thomas Jefferson.

Madonna. She’s 61 and has reinvented herself at every stage. I would love to sing a line or two of ‘Material Girl’ with her.

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

Sarah Tourville of Media Frenzy Global: “Why you need to learn to have to have tough conversations… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Katie Stein of Genpact: “The only way that we keep people engaged is to actually open ourselves up…

Katie Stein of Genpact: “The only way that we keep people engaged is to actually open ourselves up even more”

The only way that we keep people engaged is to actually open ourselves up even more. People see my house is messy, I have my son’s headset on, my home office isn’t perfect. But that is what they are going through as well. I think it’s actually more of this shift from a closed mindset to having to open ourselves up so that we may maintain the mental and physical health of our own teams.

So much of what we do as leaders is to drive change. It’s not actually about the perfect answer. There will never be a perfect answer. It’s about going where you want it to go and then figuring out how you get a bunch of smart people on the right teams. Sometimes they are organizationally aligned, sometimes they are not. But you need to actually go in that direction and build towards what you are trying to do.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Katie Stein.

As Chief Strategy Officer, Katie Stein leads the development and execution of Genpact’s corporate strategy, including the company’s focus on priority service lines and the realignment of its product and solution portfolio. As Global Business Leader of Genpact’s Enterprise Services, she leads the company’s core services portfolio encompassing all industries, including finance and accounting, order management, source to pay, supply chain, and enterprise risk.

Coming out of college, I worked in management consulting with the Boston Consulting Group for several years, before working at Mercer as its Global COO for the retirement and health benefits unit. Ultimately, what I realized is that you bet on your boss and the culture and the team that you are joining and will be a part of, even as the role evolves from where it began. That was a big factor to why I joined Genpact and the experience I’ve had thus far. We’re a very curious culture that prides itself on enabling everyone, including myself, to take a problem and turn it over and over until we’re satisfied with the solution.

Please share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting, and what lesson you learned?

Early on, maybe about six months after starting at Genpact, I was in this massive town hall meeting with a couple of hundred colleagues. There were lots of names to remember, and after a couple of weeks I had mastered most of them. But we had some exec leaders that called me ‘Stacy’ (probably thinking of our CMO, Stacy Simpson). I then decided to make a joke of it by calling one of them by an incorrect name, and then going on to brand Stacy and me as “Katcy.”

Everyone started laughing. It was one of those moments of completely diffusing the situation through candor. But it also was symbolic of “If you get my name wrong, I will get your name wrong, too.”

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

Usually when people answer that question, they answer it in terms of people who had their back and pushed them. My experience was a bit opposite. During my tenure at Marsh & McLennan, I experienced a pivotal moment in my career. I was involved in a leadership team meeting. It was my first time on the “big stage.” I was pretty nervous in part because I had a very tough boss.

Ahead of this leadership meeting, I worked very hard to prepare and get everything perfect. Then the meeting began and within an hour everything went south quickly. The next day I was in her office, and she said to me: “How does it feel to come down from your ivory tower?” I’ve never forgotten that.

You would have thought that I would have taken that moment to say, “what a horrible person.” But I took that moment — and it was such a jolting thing that I needed — in that it’s okay to not have the textbook answer and to not be perfect. Companies and organizations exist because there are stakeholder dynamics, and you have to think through what they are trying to get out of it. Sometimes I even feel that way with my own kids. It really changed how I approached things; it changed my career path, honestly.

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 the need to make a decision?

All my teams at Genpact know I’m an avid runner, and they know that I’m fiercely competitive. I always say, “You’ll never outrun me.” I love to take a problem and turn it over and over in my mind.

And running is one of those times you’re not latched to a computer, and you can’t be looking at your iPhone or laptop. No one can be talking to you. And you can just be trying to consider a problem’s every angle. You know what you think the answer is.

But in that moment you can step away, you can breathe, you can test it against five other assumptions, or against something they’re seeing that you’re not seeing. Certainly during COVID, my teams know I am going to be running more so they’ll take that opportunity to throw their problems at me.

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. Please articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have a diverse executive team.

Diversity can of course be defined in terms of racial background. But it can also refer to diversity in experience. And experience comes down to fundamentally understanding what has happened in a person’s past, how they’ve grown up, what challenges they faced, what resources they lacked, and so on.

I think if we’re really honest and we want to think about how as companies we continue to be agile in terms of how we grow and evolve, you have to embrace that experiential diversity. Because the moment the team becomes settled and you’re just sort of repeating each other’s thoughts, you’re stuck, you’re in a quagmire.

Diversity is fundamental if we want to continue growing. It’s essential for each of us to step back and listen to others, to actually try to experience and understand what they are thinking and feeling.

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

I have been reading a lot about how in many countries, and in many generations, women are bearing more of the brunt when it comes to family duties during this pandemic. Prior to COVID-19, during the work week, there was a clear separation between church and state. I’m all in on work during the week, and on the weekends it’s all my family.

During this pandemic, however, it’s been a 24/7 demand cycle and those lines between work and home life are increasingly blurred. Those lines are blurred because our kids are sitting next to us homeschooling, while we have to juggle the demands of work from home. On top of this, I think it’s mostly women who will come out of this having felt the stress of those pieces. Not because their partners, spouses or others haven’t helped out, but because intuitively women feel that burden more strongly.

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

I would say especially as we continue to work in a virtual environment and with many other demands, particularly when it comes to family, it’s very easy for us to become disconnected. I think that our ability to embrace more radical transparency with our teams and have more candid conversations will be critical.

There has been this feeling of trying to have a little bit of separation of work and home, because the fear is that someone knows too much about your kids and maybe they’ll make an assumption about how much you’re willing to work. Or someone knows something about your home life and maybe they’ll assume you now want to work on this or that project.

The only way that we keep people engaged is to actually open ourselves up even more. People see my house is messy, I have my son’s headset on, my home office isn’t perfect. But that is what they are going through as well. I think it’s actually more of this shift from a closed mindset to having to open ourselves up so that we may maintain the mental and physical health of our own teams.

So much of what we do as leaders is to drive change. It’s not actually about the perfect answer. There will never be a perfect answer. It’s about going where you want it to go and then figuring out how you get a bunch of smart people on the right teams. Sometimes they are organizationally aligned, sometimes they are not. But you need to actually go in that direction and build towards what you are trying to do.

Katie Stein of Genpact: “The only way that we keep people engaged is to actually open ourselves up… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Eric L. Mitchell of LifeFlip Media: They Told Me It Was Impossible And I Did It Anyway

I’ve been contacted by potential partners that would never have been a consideration before. It’s also allowed me to increase my skills and to demonstrate the outcomes as a host and broadcaster to bring out the best in the topics people really want to hear about and the best and most interesting information from each of our guests. I guess nothing proves a naysayer wrong like success, and that’s what we’ve been accomplishing so far, with no upper limits in sight.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Eric Mitchell.

Eric is a Marine Corp Veteran and marketer who’s spent the majority of the past six years leading media relations for clients as co-founder of LifeFlip Media in Portland, Oregon. With no formal broadcast background, he’s become a frequent face on national media as a color and opinion analyst for the Fox Network and NewsMaxTV and works with CNN, Cheddar TV, KGO Radio, CNBC, MSNBC and the New York Times. Although he’s spent the majority of his time behind the camera in support of clients, this year he’s taken a new step forward with the launch of his own show “TO THE POINT with Eric L. Mitchell” which airs weekdays at 2:00 p.m. ET (11:00 a.m. PT).

Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that will help people?

Absolutely, the newest and most exciting project is the show. While it had been a thought for a long time, the sudden travel restrictions in March of this year, due to COVID, made it the ideal time to begin my show. I live and work in Seattle. Before the lockdown, I had been spending a week a month in Manhattan with my wife and business partner, Lucille Mitchell, to work with the producers of the major shows and to support our clients in their on-screen experiences there.

My close relationships with many of the producers made that process highly productive. But when COVID hit New York, that process was suddenly turned on its head for everyone — for the shows, the anchors, the producers and of course for anyone working with the shows and producers, like me, and for the potential incoming guests.

All at once, broadcasting remotely became the necessity and the norm. It was the ideal time to launch my show. I built out my home studio and had thoughts of running the show from Seattle for only a time. But while we don’t know the future, the launch has gone so well, it may not be necessary to locate it elsewhere, or at least not for some time. The show has developed a strong voice. The audience is growing and we’re security an amazing roster of guests such as Montel Williams, on topics related to support for our military Veterans … Kevin Harrington, on the newest innovations he’s working on and seeing… in fact, the producers are now watching the show not only out of interest but to scope out the people we have on the air as prospects for their own future guests. So, it’s providing service in a number of ways.

In your opinion, what do you think makes your company or organization stand out from the crowd?

My motto for marketing has always been to focus on storytelling, not storyselling. Every one of the guests has a relatable and an attainable story. There are so many creative entrepreneurs. A Navy SEAL who’s written 17 books, for example, is perhaps most interesting for their story about spending $90,000 to climb Mount Everest and nearly dying in the process, and the nature of the people he saw while there, many of whom did not make it… those are the real stories. Or the founder behind the Fit Body Bootcamp — a national franchise of training centers — who came to the U.S 20 years ago with nothing and worked his way up as an entrepreneur. Those are the stories that enthrall an audience. These are the things we’re able to bring out on my show and through our marketing organization for anyone we are working with.

Ok, thank you for that. I’d like to jump to the main focus of this interview. Has there ever been a time that someone told you something was impossible, but you did it anyway? Can you share the story with us? What was your idea? What was the reaction of the naysayers? And how did you overcome that?

I started my career in Silicon Valley. I had no background in journalism. No prior broadcasting career, beyond a couple of podcasts I’d started. And I had no special connections to any celebrities or anyone in professional sports. So, when I made the move to marketing and broadcast there were a lot of people who felt I had no business aspiring to that. I am a former Marine, and I’d done some podcasting, so the naysayers felt I should have done something down those two tracks.

In the end, how were all the naysayers proven wrong? 🙂

Well, after our first few months of broadcast we’ve achieved record growth, an unbelievable roster of guests, and I’ve discovered the producers I work with for the national shows are watching, even sometimes considering my show a kind of “Amazon store” to see the prospective guests they’d potentially want to be booking for their own shows in action.

And I’ve been contacted by potential partners that would never have been a consideration before. It’s also allowed me to increase my skills and to demonstrate the outcomes as a host and broadcaster to bring out the best in the topics people really want to hear about and the best and most interesting information from each of our guests. I guess nothing proves a naysayer wrong like success, and that’s what we’ve been accomplishing so far, with no upper limits in sight.

Yes — it would have to be my wife and business partner, Lucille Mitchell. We’ve been married 16 years since March 20, 2004. Of anyone who has stood by my side during the darkest of times, it’s been her. A lot of people struggle with the concept of working with spouses, but she has made our company better. An entrepreneur doesn’t need someone around them saying, “yes, good idea.” She is able to challenge me, when I need to be challenged. And she is an entrepreneur in her own right as well, with a clothing brand she markets in addition to her work with LifeFlip Media.

The other would be my stepfather, Tim Perkins. We have an age difference — I’m in my 40s; he’s in his 70s — but he’s been through a lot, has done a lot and has a solid business background. His input has been vital to me.

It must not have been easy to ignore all the naysayers. Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliency? Can you share the story with us?

My experience in the Marines did a great deal toward instilling resilience. Our motto, one that stands out to me then and now, was “adapt and overcome.” We don’t sit things out because our back hurts, our knees hurt, we’ve injured a toenail. We persevere. People’s lives depend on it. Sometimes our own lives depend on it, and we depend on each other. That time period inspired my lifetime love and respect of Veterans and my willingness to support Veteran-owned businesses at any time and to do what I can to market and promote them, free of charge.

It was an experience that did more than perhaps anything else could in teaching strength and resilience. Many have paid great prices for their time in service; many have paid the ultimate price. The time in service was absolutely a formative experience for me.

Based on your experience, can you share your favorite strategies people can use to harness the sense of tenacity and do what naysayers think is impossible? (Please share a story or an example for each)

Discipline over Distraction. This is my favorite motto and the one that stays with me through every part of my life. Jealousy, envy, worry about what other people are thinking — those have no place in your psyche and if I am honest, I will admit there are times in my life I let the naysayers take up space in my head, rent free. But no more. During all of the worry about COVID, we need to stay focused on what these new times open up; how we can use the time away from travel and in working from our homes to advance and succeed. And there’s no one I know who’s had high success without developing a solid work ethic and whole lot of hustle.

Adapt and Overcome. This, again, is from my time in the Marines. So, things aren’t ideal. Find a way to work through it. Figure it out. Do the work. Do the work other people are unwilling to do.

What is your favorite quote or personal philosophy that relates to the concept of resilience?

One of my favorite role models is Kobe Bryant. So much of what he said and the way he lived has been instrumental for me. But one of his quotes in particular is especially applicable to me and I believe to all of us right now: “If you do not believe in yourself no one will do it for you.” Of everything, this is profound.

I love this question, because it’s what I’m most passionate about. I’m a big supporter of #BlackLivesMatter. I feel that we talk about equality and justice for all in our country. We’re perhaps the only country that has freedom of speech. Even hateful things are legal to say. We have freedom of religion. We can bear arms. We can take care of one another.

I want us for the first time to actually to live this and get behind it. We get to be these voices. It’s our Woodstock, our 60s. We can live in our history books, or we can make history now. Being an anti-racist is one of the biggest things I implore upon people. Think how we can unite each other. It shouldn’t matter the color of your skin, your gender or who you lay down with at night. We need to fix what we do so we don’t have to repeat it, because repeating history sucks.

Can our readers follow you on social media?

Yes! @ToThePointTV @ToThePointwithEric on Facebook, www.LifeFlipMedia.com

Thank you for these great stories. We wish you only continued success!

Eric L. Mitchell of LifeFlip Media: They Told Me It Was Impossible And I Did It Anyway was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Cristen Kogl of Zebra Technologies: “We must accept that people with various strengths may show a…

Cristen Kogl of Zebra Technologies: “We must accept that people with various strengths may show a different, if not more efficient, path to achieving a goal”

As an executive, I have the responsibility to help make my immediate reports better leaders themselves. I’m adamant about the power of teamwork and inclusion of diverse perspectives in discussions and decision-making. So, my legal leadership team frequently hears me tell them: “Don’t just go through the motions — engage, listen and learn.” I recommend to them — and put into practice myself — delegating work and giving assignments by identifying the goal, rather than the steps to take. In doing so, we as leaders must accept and appreciate that people with various strengths may show a different, if not more efficient, path to achieving the goal.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Cristen Kogl Senior the Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Zebra Technologies.

Cristen Kogl is an executive at Zebra Technologies, a publicly traded 50-year-old enterprise and S&P 500 Index member. She was appointed senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary on September 1, 2018. Ms. Kogl oversees the global legal practice, advising on matters related to securities and governance, mergers and acquisitions, go-to-market strategy, intellectual property (IP), and regulatory and compliance impacting the company’s operations and industries.

Since joining Zebra in 2015, she has held a variety of progressive positions including vice president, corporate counsel; vice president, assistant general counsel; and assistant corporate secretary. Previously, she served in various leadership roles for W.W. Grainger, Inc., The ServiceMaster Company, National Express LLC and Spyglass, Inc.

Ms. Kogl received her juris doctor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School and her Bachelor of Arts in political science from Lake Forest College.

Thank you for joining us! Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

Let me start by saying that the practice of law is exactly where I should be. It may seem surprising that I never had a “Perry Mason” moment; I didn’t grow up believing I was destined to be a lawyer, nor did I need an “a-ha” moment to gravitate toward the profession.

I’m one of five siblings raised in Minnesota. As the result of family dynamics, I fell into the roles of keeper of the peace and negotiator, finder of things and solver of problems. These traits naturally lend themselves well to practicing law. Puzzles interest me, and the law provides a framework for natural curiosity and problem solving.

As a young associate in a law firm, I found that I while I loved the law, I was drawn to the ongoing business of my clients. So, it was only natural that after negotiating against a few different companies (while representing their clients or suppliers), I jumped at the chance to interview for an in-house position.

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

When I made the transition from traditional law into corporate roles, I started broadening my experience. As a corporate generalist, I needed to be both an inch deep and a mile wide on all areas of the law, as well as a mile deep and an inch wide in those matters most pressing to my role and the business I supported. As a result, I have had the opportunity to go deep in many different functional areas within the law due to internal or external influencers impacting the companies’ operations and industries.

For example, in the past two years, I have learned a lot about global trade — in fact, a lot more than I ever thought I would need to know. The Section 301 tariffs imposed by the United States on Chinese exports in 2018 were impactful to Zebra’s manufacturing operations in China. However, as I dove deeper into this space, I started to connect the various regulations and the unintentional impact of the Section 301 tariffs on U.S. software developers who could not use their U.S.-developed software to change the essential character of the hardware manufactured elsewhere whereas companies’ with software developed outside the U.S. could confer country of origin to that other country and thereby escape the tariffs on imports into the U.S.! In a nutshell, for U.S. companies with U.S.-based software development and offshore hardware manufacturing, the Section 301 tariffs incent moving software development offshore instead of repatriating manufacturing into the U.S. I had the opportunity to make this case in Washington D.C. As a result, we strategized and advised the business on how to ensure Country of Origin trade compliance while continuing our investment in American engineers and innovation as we moved our hardware manufacturing for U.S.-imported goods out of China. It has been an interesting learning experience, to say the least.

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?

As a young, female lawyer in the nascent Legal technology space in the early 1990s, there was nothing funny about any mistake!

Instead, what I fondly look back on are those moments– and there were lots of them — when close coworkers and I would countless hours to the point of exhaustion and become utterly slap happy. I remember one time when a colleague and I were in marathon work mode and, at some point, needed to figure out a notice date. We literally could not do it; our brains could not count simple days/dates against the specific deal provisions. This turned into counting on our fingers and then writing dates with numbers, resulting in a giggling fit. To an outsider, we would have sounded crazy, but we needed that laughter as a reprieve and a release. I would be a liar if I said moments like this no longer happen!

There are many people to whom I owe a debt of gratitude, but two in particular come to mind right away. During my freshman year at Lake Forest College, I took an American political science course with then Professor now Dr. Claudio Katz, who eventually became my major advisor and supported my senior thesis. Not only was he an engaging classroom instructor but he always had office hours for his students.

Throughout law school, I held a part-time internship with the Wisconsin Department of Justice and had the good fortune to be assigned to then AAG Jerry Hancock, now Rev. Jerry Hancock He lived the work life balance before it was trendy and had a passion for healthy living. As I had zero expectations around being a lawyer with no family or other role model, Jerry provided me with my first impression on the life of a lawyer. He helped me be a better manager and coach for my junior lawyers and newer team members.

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?

At work, I often talk about how to release and relieve stress, particularly with my team. It is something we have to be intentional about every day and each in our own ways, and I think being honest and having an open dialogue about it is a good start.

Early during the COVID-19 outbreak, I was cognizant of the mental and physical toll work was going to have on my team, particularly within our environmental health and safety department. Our duties had doubled. We had day jobs that needed attention but were required to respond to an exceptional crisis while writing the playbook. Not to mention our global workforce became completely remote for the first time.

My immediate response was to ramp up communications to keep the team connected. We started a weekly video blog series in which I and other team members had conversations over Zoom about topics du jour — and we always made a point to share and encourage ideas for finding balance and calm during that dynamic situation. The videos became a hit. More importantly, we provided a sense of normalcy as well as a space for team members to comment and cheer each other on.

Simply put, diverse teams lead to better decision making, better outcomes and create opportunities for more diversity. We need to create the environment where individuals can feel safe to be seen and heard. Within the Zebra Legal department, we often talk about how “tone at the top” has a huge impact on the overall culture of an organization. It is not enough for companies to say they support inclusion and diversity — they need to walk the talk, and accountability starts with leadership teams. While words matter and we could spend pages discussing these important topics, we are at an action inflection point.

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.

At Zebra, we understand that we need new ideas and new leaders to bring our company into the future. This starts with supporting unique and varying career trajectories for all of our employees. I try to use my leadership position to support and promote underrepresented employees, mentor rising female leaders, and inspire others by sharing my own experience as a female lawyer, executive and single parent. I am also personally committed to and require diverse hiring slates, project teams and outside counsel.

Something that each of can do, no matter where we are on our career journey, is to have the courage to stand up to inequality, regardless of the source. As a staunch advocate of inclusion and diversity both within Zebra and society as a whole, I encourage my team (and everyone reading this now) to ask themselves:

What can/should I do to make everyone feel welcome so that all can be heard and seen?
How can I empower others to bring the version of themselves that they want to bring to work without fear of judgement or mistreatment?
How can I ensure everyone’s accomplishments are given equal value and mistakes are equally forgiven without bias to a particular gender or minority group?

As an executive, I have the responsibility to help make my immediate reports better leaders themselves. I’m adamant about the power of teamwork and inclusion of diverse perspectives in discussions and decision-making. So, my legal leadership team frequently hears me tell them: “Don’t just go through the motions — engage, listen and learn.” I recommend to them — and put into practice myself — delegating work and giving assignments by identifying the goal, rather than the steps to take. In doing so, we as leaders must accept and appreciate that people with various strengths may show a different, if not more efficient, path to achieving the goal.

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

People have asked me what I did to get promoted from within to Zebra’s executive leadership team. Others have been surprised to learn how, at 32 years old, I became General Counsel of Spyglass (which licensed the core browser kernel to Microsoft which became the basis for Internet Explorer), an Internet of Things (IoT) and small footprint browser company that had technology well ahead of its time! Their questions and reactions are sometimes rooted in a misunderstanding of what it takes to become an executive. Though I did put in a lot of hard work and nurtured professional relationships, I did other things as well. I made sure I collaborated with and learned from many people, all with varying backgrounds and strengths. I raised my hand for difficult assignments, and I never felt afraid to share my opinions with others. I also asked a lot of questions in order to be prepared for anything. In all honesty, I made continuous learning one of my top priorities, and I still maintain those habits.

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

There’s an assumption that a single mother has limits to her career success, or that she won’t be as dedicated to her job, in comparison to single fathers and professionals without children. The truth is finding work-life balance is particularly challenging for women, which I learned immediately when I became a new mom.

My son was born on a Sunday at midnight. I left the hospital on Tuesday and the next day my employer at the time was served with a lawsuit. On Thursday, from home, I retained outside counsel and sent out a litigation hold notice. The following Monday, I chose to go into the office with my week-old infant in tow. I had previously coordinated daycare to begin after my purported maternity leave. So, for the first few weeks, he went into the office with me daily. Eventually, a friend stepped in to babysit and then he transitioned into my planned daycare. Throughout this time, I didn’t take leave and continued to work full time.

Fast forward 12 years to when my son was in grammar school. I was in a leadership position with a great company — and a round-trip commute that totaled 96 miles (with no option to work-from-home). I arranged for before-school, after-school, and after-hours care for my son, and was gone daily from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. I told my grammar school aged son that he couldn’t get sick or forget his homework or lunch because we only had Plan A — there was no Plan B. Today, we can laugh about this parent-child “deal” but, at the time, it didn’t feel good. I couldn’t keep the pace up and needed to be more available to my son at this crucial time in his life. I wanted to give 100 percent to everything and, as we know, this is impossible. So, I changed jobs. It may have been seen as a lateral move, or even a step back in my career, but it was the right move at the right time for my family. I would make the same exact decision again today.

Everything worked out as it should. My son is now a senior in college, and I enjoyed growth in my career. The point of my story is that it is not easy to manage the work-life balance. It is a dynamic endeavor and not necessarily something to ‘achieve’ but rather assess and implement however it makes sense for you at any given point in time. I am open about the challenges I faced as a parent so others — women in particular — know they are not alone in their struggle.

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

It’s actually not much different than what I expected — but I love it! I’ve worked for multiple public companies and have been in a general counsel capacity, or supported the role, for most of my career. This provided me with the opportunity to see what others do and learn from them, all of which has prepared me well.

Traits that pay off early and in the long run include hard work, approaching everything with a curious mind, gaining experience and a commitment to ongoing learning. They may seem like innate personal qualities, but I believe they can be learned habits, too. An openness to new experiences and commitment to accountability will propel you through life — and as high up the corporate ladder as you want to go. If someone is unwilling to take on difficult assignments or uncomfortable about sharing their perspective, the climb will be much harder. The approach I’ve adopted in my career and life can be summed up in the mantras I’ve instilled within my team — Make It Happen, Make It Matter, and We are Better Together.

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

Here’s my advice for young lawyers and female professionals in general:

1. Think holistically. Approach every decision and action with a comprehensive perspective. Think both about what is present and what is missing, think about the immediate reaction as well as the impact down the line. We often get so focused on the task at hand that we lose sight of what we really are trying to achieve.

2. Pay it forward. I appreciate the value of having a team that understands and supports me no matter my personal quirks, capabilities, or goals. Having a team to lean on, especially one with collectively diverse ways of thinking, is one of the reasons why I have been so successful in my career at Zebra in particular. That’s why I try to go above and beyond to invest in my team, support and promote my team and underrepresented groups. I expect that someday I might need a job from one of my more junior lawyers and hope I show up in a way today that would encourage them to hire me in the future.

3. Do the right thing, no matter what. You must always keep integrity top of mind, even when being agile. While certainly good advice for up-and-coming lawyers, every single person’s ethics and morals will be tested some time in life. Be a model for civility and do your part to ensure everyone has fair and equal access to new experiences and career growth, especially once you rise to a position of leadership.

4. Strive for work-life balance but know there is no single approach for every person. Also know that your personal work-life balance is not a static condition.

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

I try to take a local approach to making a global impact, from serving as a Merit Badge Counselor for Boy Scouts of America to participating in my church’s efforts to address community hunger and immigration issues. At Zebra, we have a strong spirit of giving back to the communities in which our employees live and work. I make a point to inspire my team to incorporate community service into group work activities. For instance, during a work trip to Asia, I led a team volunteer activity at a soup kitchen and homeless shelter in Seoul, and collectively our team donated 160 hours. There is always more we can do.

Being active in and supporting law and business communities is also important to me, and something I look forward to doing more of in the future.

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

Law school, back in the day, was a solo sport. Although you may have had a study group or a team for moot court, it was all about individual achievement. However, it requires teamwork and communication to succeed as part of a corporate legal department. We are Better Together is a mantra for Zebra’s Legal department and I fully believe that our success is driven by bringing diverse experiences, perspectives, and skills to bear as we support Zebra’s business.

One thing that would have been good to know early on is to play offense not defense. I’ve learned that playing to win — versus playing not to lose — makes me more effective. If you are too busy protecting what you have, you don’t have the time or the energy to see what opportunities are out on the horizon.

Another thing I wish I was told was that curiosity and openness to experiences can contribute to early and rapid success. Law school taught me how to view the world, but my curiosity and willingness to try new things helped me quickly advance. I entered the field with zero expectations or preconceived notions about the law profession. In what some might call naivete, I found newness and freedom as I had no self-imposed limitations.

The law is taught as a black and white subject, yet the practice — especially for those in-house, is gray. Understanding how to manage within the gray and how to provide business-actionable advice would have been very useful. When I get legal advice from outside counsel or someone on my team, I want actionable advice. We can all read the law, the art is how to apply it to a business objective.

If I had known back then that a job held by a fairly limited number of people was actually within my reach, I possibly wouldn’t have gotten here. Instead of worrying about what I was achieving, I focused on what I was learning and how that could or would impact our business, employees, and customers — a strategy that has so far worked well.

I’m acutely aware of how unconscious biases can influence our behavior as humans. Women can have both children and career success, just as men can have both domestic and professional roles, and we should treat them accordingly. That is why I encourage all people, regardless of generation or background, to assess the unintentional and automatic stereotypes they may hold within — and assume positive intent of others (which can be hard for everyone including a group of cynical lawyers). Becoming more accepting of someone else’s perspective and strengths no matter their gender, sex, race, religion, or other personal identifier will make us collectively better as a team, company and society.

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

Saying “a lot has happened” in 2020 feels like both a cliché and gross understatement. We are experiencing tectonic-like shifts across all aspects of our lives — economic, health, geopolitical, and social. Operating in a climate of local and global crises is challenging for everyone and reminds me of how interconnected we all are. I have spent a lot of time thinking about and processing these global events while reflecting on my and the Zebra Legal team’s unique position. I keep returning to two quotes attributed to Mother Teresa: “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” And “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”

These quotes remind me that we are not helpless. If we learn about and engage in topics that mean the most to us, I am confident we can make a difference. But change does not come easily when racial injustice is endemic and systematic. Although I cannot speak from a place of personal experience as I have not been subjected to racism, the truth is we are all impacted, regardless of our individual backgrounds and experiences. And because of this, I believe that every one of us has the opportunity, if not the moral imperative, to create safer and more equal environments for all.

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 derive a lot of inspiration from trailblazing women — from those you would expect like Eleanor Roosevelt or Sandra Day O’Connor to those maybe considered way off the beaten path, like Marcia Clark, who rebounded and reinvented herself after losing the O.J. Simpson case.

Lately, and on a local level, I would love to grab a meal with and know what’s on the mind of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Talk about an unconventional powerhouse leading the third largest city in the nation! Personal demographics aside, she’s an anti-establishment candidate operating in a town notorious for party-dominated machine politics. Does that take guts or what? In my opinion, Mayor Lightfoot is courageous, a person with high integrity, and displays a good sense of humor. I want to learn her secret to establishing a platform and finding her voice to lead in accordance with her own morals and beliefs — which might be a heavy topic for lunch, but I’m game if she is.

P.S. There’s always a seat open at my table for the Great One (Wayne Gretzky for those not in know) or Brett Favre, my all-time favorite football player!

Cristen Kogl of Zebra Technologies: “We must accept that people with various strengths may show a… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Michellene Davis of RWJBarnabas Health: People crave leadership, but not “management,”; Execut

Michellene Davis Esq. of RWJBarnabas Health: People crave leadership, but not “management,”; Executives need to ensure that they are using their seat to empower the leaders on their team

You can be a leader at any level of an organization, but leaders must be clear about the goal — and laser-focused on the ‘true north’ of the organization and yet, simultaneously, be thinking of the good of the team. I believe that by nature, people crave leadership, but not “management,” not in the sense of traditional management anyway. Executives need to ensure that they are using their seat as executive managers to empower the leaders on their team. They should fully embrace and reflect an understanding that they hired their team members because of the full array of talents and permit them space to thought lead.

As a part of our series about strong women leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michellene Davis, Esq.

Michellene Davis, Esq. is a trailblazer and a nationally recognized leader who currently serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at RWJBarnabas Health, the 15th largest healthcare system in the nation. An effective advocate and researcher, Michellene was also the first African American ever to serve as Chief Policy Counsel to the New Jersey Governor and the first African American woman to serve as State Treasurer in the New Jersey Department of the Treasury. Michellene is a passionate community servant and mentor, having served as immediate past-president of Executive Women of New Jersey (EWNJ), the state’s leading senior-level executive women’s organization that is committed to increasing the presence of women serving on corporate boards and in the top leadership of New Jersey companies.

I had an interesting trajectory in my career. It wasn’t a ladder, but a winding trail. I started as a litigator doing criminal defense work, and during my time I realized that many of the cases were a result of individuals making decisions based on a sense of having no other alternatives. There were structural barriers that needed to be addressed; barriers that forced these individuals to no-win situations. I went into public policy with this in mind and to make a greater impact on how we address keeping people out of these situations.

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

One of the interesting stories, when I began leading at RWJBarnabas, I did a lot of work to usher in our current organizational mission, which is centered around social impact and community investment practices. It is the way in which we address the social determinants of health through a policy-led equity framework. It gave me the opportunity to create something from scratch that had not existed here, and, quite frankly, had not existed anywhere else. We were actually the first healthcare system in the country to have a policy led equity framework approach to address the social determinants of health. While my CEO charged me to create it there was a lot of internal tension around it. The process was like pushing a boulder up a steep hill in the hot sun on a slippery surface. It really required that I tap into and hone some skills that I had not previously used or had known were there. I was forced to build internal stakeholder buy-in and partnerships to create interest and, while my role had been about doing so externally, doing so internally was new. Talking about this truth in bringing about cultural change was highlighted when at a dinner where our CEO Barry Ostrowsky, RWJBH CEO was asked about the creation of the new mission is practice, and he turned to me and said, “the godmother of the program is right here, and she can answer your questions.” As I concluded so doing I was approached by someone who Later on, a woman approached me and said, “if you still have those notes when you were building the program, I can assure you that you have a book on your hands,” and that book will be published in September, called “Changing Missions, Changing Lives: How a Change Agent Can Turn the Ship and Create Impact.” I’m particularly grateful to Barry for supporting me and understanding the need for this kind of change. We wouldn’t be where we are without his support.

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 was asked to give a keynote speech at a healthcare technology conference, but if you know me you’d know that I’m the least technically savvy person you’d know. Normally, for speeches, I won’t bring notes with me onstage because they can keep me from connecting with the audience, but this time I felt I needed to bring notes, given my lack of technical prowess. I did a lot of research in the realm of technology and I had taken some copious notes using my iPad to bring up on stage. Well, when I arrived I was brought to the green room, where I reviewed my notes and made sure I was ready. Finally, I’m led to the arena where I was given a very gracious introduction. I walked to the podium and made my greeting and my thank yous, and I brought up my iPad to begin the speech only to realize that it was dead because I had not charged the device beforehand! As a result, I’m standing in front of a crowd of 500 people without the ability to reference these copious notes I had taken so much time to prepare. So what was really funny was that my speech ended up being about the ability to draw upon past failures as present power and strategic ability. And at the end of the keynote, I revealed I had worked from an iPad that had never turned on and they burst into uproarious laughter and gave me a standing ovation.

I have, what I like to call, a personal board of directors, who fall more in the category of mentors. I probably bother these people 2 to 3 times a year. The interesting thing about this is they’re majority male — one is a former CEO of an international pharmaceutical company, another is a former New Jersey governor, another a hedge fund founder. What I’ve realized over the years is that I didn’t pick them all, some of them picked me.

One in particular, I met at an event where my CEO had nominated me for an award for Executive Women of New Jersey. At the event, I was sitting at the dais and one of the presenting CEOs sitting next to me said, “I read about your background, it’s really interesting. I want to ask you a question. This is what you’re doing now, but what are you going to do next?” I thought that was such an interesting thing to ask, so I turned to him and I asked “what do you mean?” He said, “I’d like to work with you to see where your career might go,” and that’s when he became a member of my personal board of directors. That person has helped me to navigate internal small “p” politics, survive an episode of bullying and to be as forgiving of myself as I am of others.

In the midst of a busy day, I sometimes have to take a few moments to breathe deeply and quiet my thoughts. If I’m really stressed, I go into another room and look into the mirror and talk to myself out loud because I find that the inner voice in our mind has so many negative thoughts on a daily basis. And when we are stressed, those internal voices actually grow louder. So, I speak aloud to tell myself, “you are prepared, you know your material, you’re the expert in this, and they need your information. You are here to help them understand.” I am then able to leave that moment understanding I am serving a purpose; to be of service to those who need this information and I am here to aid, assist, elevate, and enhance them. This takes the focus off of me and places it squarely on the needs of others, which in turn helps me to deliver. I have always been a firm believer in servant leadership.

Studies have shown again and again that a diverse executive team outperforms its counterpart on every level. This fact is reflected even in nature; a biologically diverse environment thrives under stress. A 2018 McKinsey report that studies over 1,000 companies across industries in 12 countries found that companies with executive teams in the bottom quartile for both gender diversity and racial and ethnic diversity were 29% less likely to achieve above-average profitability. The more perspectives, backgrounds, and skillsets we can bring to the table to attack new and developing problems, the better.

We must keep in mind that diversity alone is not enough. Unless there are great efforts to ensure belonging of diversity of thought and voice then it means nothing. The truth is that I’m a devotee of equity, not equality, not mere diversity, and not just inclusion. For me, equity and belonging require an in-depth analysis of power structures, decision making, and pay parity. These are the elements that make employees feel valued, worthy, and appreciated enough to remain within organizations where they have to weather being an only, or a few.

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.

The first one I’m going to bring up is pay equity — shocking. The fact that in 2020 we’re still arguing for pay equity is deeply frustrating and quite frankly exhausting. While white women make 82 cents on every dollar that a white man makes, Black women were paid 61% of what non-Hispanic white men were paid in 2018. That means it takes the typical Black woman 19 months to be paid what the average white man takes home in 12 months. We know these stats exist, and that they are commonly known, and yet somehow, they are still permitted to exist — that’s not ok. We need to make certain that every organization, every single corporate entity, takes an opportunity to create a strategic plan to address this. I know many organizations say it may be too expensive to address in one fell swoop, so we need to ask “what is your plan?” on an annual basis. We can in fact close the wealth gap, but it requires intention.

We must consistently ask the question “who is at the table?”

Ed Zimmerman, a partner with the law firm Lowenstein Sandler frequently speaks of how he uses his platform to advance gender equity. He is consistently asked to be on panels as an area expert, and at some point, he realized that because he gets all of these requests, that must mean he has the power to make requests of his own. Now when he’s asked to be on a panel of at least 5 people, he requires that at least one of them be a woman; If it’s 10 people that he requires there to be at least 2 women. He writes that because of this ask, some entities stopped asking him to be a speaker altogether and that’s ok with him because that means he doesn’t have to be there.

If you are walking into a meeting, conference, or panel discussion and everyone is the same gender, the same race, or the same ethnicity, or the same lived experiences and therefore the same or similar perspectives, then what are you going to get out of that environment? You’re not only limiting racial/ethnic diversity, but you’re also limiting the diversity of thought. So I think it’s always important to ask who is at the table and exercise the privilege of your position to hold a seat for others.

I’ll give you a personal story. When my CEO asked me to be the first woman to be the first executive vice president, I asked what the full compensation package was before I’d say yes. I told him I wasn’t negotiating just for me, I was negotiating for every woman who has ever been promoted only to find out she would be paid less than a man with the same title or a man who held the title before her. He laughed and said, “I should have known.” But he engaged in authentic dialogue and I agreed to the position.

You can be a leader at any level of an organization, but leaders must be clear about the goal — and laser-focused on the ‘true north’ of the organization and yet, simultaneously, be thinking of the good of the team. I believe that by nature, people crave leadership, but not “management,” not in the sense of traditional management anyway. Executives need to ensure that they are using their seat as executive managers to empower the leaders on their team. They should fully embrace and reflect an understanding that they hired their team members because of the full array of talents and permit them space to thought lead. As a leader, I realize there are multiple reasons for every decision. As an executive, I need to be strategic, forward-thinking, and proactive about how we make those decisions. We don’t have the privilege of sitting back and waiting to be reactive. It is the role of the executive to ensure that the agenda of the organization is forward progressing while ensuring that its people feel valued and as essential elements of a winning formula.

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 is the idea that all it takes to be an executive is a mastery of the technical area of your expertise. One of the worst trends I’ve seen in business and government is when we find someone who’s an expert at, say, making widgets for example, and because they are so good at making widgets we say “Oh, we’re going to promote you to oversee this widget unit and you’re going to become a manager.” And because they were so good at making even more widgets, they get promoted even higher. However, what we haven’t done is made sure this individual is an expert at being a convener and collaborator with people. We haven’t invested in them enough to ensure they are fair, and just, and adept at dealing with others who are dissimilar to them. I think it’s a myth that executives need to know what they are doing all of the time. It’s a bad myth, too, because it contributes to an environment of presumptuous arrogance where executives see it as a weakness to acknowledge that there are areas or subjects of which they are too unfamiliar to be the ones making wide sweeping decisions. Rather, I believe that more executives need to utter the truthful words, “I don’t know” with greater frequency in order to encourage intellectual curiosity amongst their teams and to exemplify the need to inquire before we conclude.

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

The international phenomenon of women being interrupted or over talked by men still baffles me. It is an unequivocal disempowering experience which has a horrendous impact on morale. Yet, it still continues to happen. Unfortunately, even more than that is the issue of pay inequity. Our male counterparts have the privilege of sitting in every meeting, board, and conference room knowing that they are being paid equivalently. In every single one of these settings, the women who enter these settings know that there is a deep likelihood that they carry the burden of pay inequity which has not only affected them in the present but, has disproportionally had a disparate impact on their retirement savings as well. For women of color, the burden is even heavier, has a generational impact, and serves to further the racial wealth gap.

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

Well, now that we are dealing in a COVID-19 world much has changed from how we all thought about our jobs. As a result of the mergers and acquisitions activity rampant in the hospitals and health systems my job covers a much more expansive area than originally anticipated. Despite the fact that I was brought on board to oversee policy and government affairs my current role has bloomed to align with my values of health equity and systems change. The role has also been much more public than I had previously thought. When I was hired by the former CEO I was told that I was to be the face of the healthcare system. Our current CEO doubled down on this when he charged me with elevating the national profile of our changed organizational mission.

A successful executive has a heightened level of self-awareness and emotional intelligence. I think we need to recognize that these are not soft skills. I’ve seen leaders with sound technical expertise lack the ability to humbly go into a meeting and ask for help from people who have expertise in areas where the leader is lacking. I think that’s crucial.

I think the only kind of person who should avoid becoming an executive is someone who only wants the title or those who thrive off of exerting power over others. It should not be something that you do for yourself. Executives need to make decisions that are about the institution, the individuals they manage, communities they’re serving, the world as a whole, a market in particular, or the products they’re selling, not about themselves. I think service-oriented leadership is a really key component and a strong trait that will ensure a successful leader.

Executives should also always be looking to collaborate. Nothing is possible without a competent and dedicated team. I have aimed to live by the mantra that praise trickles down; accountability tracks up. When I’m honored or awarded, that honor is not mine, it is on behalf of the tremendous individuals I have the honor to work with and the fantastic work of our team.” The only ones who should not pursue executive leadership are those who can’t recognize that accomplishments do not solely belong to them. Simultaneously, if there’s an issue with a team dynamic or productivity the leader has to also look at themselves in the diagnostic. What is the leader doing to create the issues that have caused the problem? How can the leader quickly recognize the issue, amend their behavior, and pivot in time to redesign a methodology that works for all should be questions that executives are willing to ask themselves.

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

Women leaders can help their teams to thrive by making certain that they’re investing in their teams. Get a coach to help your entire team and pay attention to their specific needs. Explain to your team the importance of investing in themselves early in their careers. Formalize sponsorship opportunities so that you have more opportunities to promote team members to project leaders. But more than that, tie these initiatives in with the men in your organization so that they are also aware of the breadth of expertise and skill your team can bring to the table; especially in settings in which they traditionally lack access.

Also, mentor both at work and outside your organization with other women leaders in other settings. When I do reviews, I ask team members what their ultimate career goal is and where they see themselves in the next 5 to 10 years. I can then help them to network with others in that career or position that sets them up for their ultimate career goal. Opportunities like these allow them to advise you on whether their work is aligned with their goals or not and how you can adjust their assignments to be better aligned when possible. You’re investing not just in the work product, but the individual and they can see that you’re willing to invest the time to help them thrive.

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

I am fortunate that the work that CEO Barry H. Ostrowsky has asked me to lead, our new institutional mission of Social Impact and Community Investment, aims to accomplish exactly that. We are solely dedicated to literally make the world a better place one community at a time. This work is aimed at addressing the social determinants of health through a policy led equity framework that acknowledges the reality that racism is a public health crisis further exacerbated by implicit bias in health.

I will also say I try to make the world a better place just in the way we treat each other. I’ve mentored a great deal of individuals, and when that list of mentorship requests grew too long, we created the Women’s Leadership Alliance at RWJBH. When I realized that many requests were also coming from outside of my organization, I went on the board and became President of Executive Women of New Jersey to ensure that we are driving an inclusive agenda that would serve as a resource for all women looking to climb the corporate ladder.

I also really wanted to ensure that young people felt they had a voice in carving out the future, and so we created the RWJBarnabas Young Professional Advisory Council and the RWJBarnabas Corporate Institute for Internship a paid summer internship designed to build a more diverse future of healthcare administration.

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

There will be times in your career that you’ll be scared; go forward anyway. Do it scared. When I was CEO of the New Jersey Lottery, I went through an administration change with a new governor. Usually, in state government a change in governor means that you’ll soon be replaced by a new political appointee. However, the state Treasurer called me to a meeting to ask me to be his chief of staff. I initially said no, because I was scared, but they wore me down. When I got the role, I realized how much larger it was than I expected. I went from an approximate staff size of 150 at the Lottery to a staff of over 7,500 across the department of Treasury. I remember feeling really overwhelmed a few short weeks after starting and I really wanted to leave the role and go back to the Lottery. But I had an inner dialogue that said, it’s ok to be afraid, I just need to keep showing up every day. Soon, I was more excited than scared and that has made all of the difference.
Give yourself some grace. As women, we have a tendency to want to know everything when we walk through the door. It’s been shown that for some, women can have 7 out of 10 qualifications for a job description and not apply because of the missing 3. A man will have 3 qualifications and say the other 7 don’t matter. We’re allowed to do some learning on the job. When I became Chief of Staff of the Treasury, I experienced just that, but I gave myself some time to learn on the job and was able to excel in the role; quickly ascending to Deputy State Treasurer and then Treasurer
Failure is inevitable. You can get back up again. There will be opportunities to negotiate for a raise and you’ll get a no. But that doesn’t reflect your value or your worth. In my experience, there’s always something greater. Mistakes can be your best teachers. Be willing to take a calculated risk every once in a while, innovation requires it.
Know your worth and add tax. I oversee areas that no one understands. I have a background in government affairs. Others may have backgrounds in communications or marketing. These are areas that I have observed that people without the requisite training and experience tend to be presumptuous about. I’ve had those who have read a political headline attempt to tell me how to do my job and watched others had their marketing work consistently compared to their competitors by those whose expertise is a totally different area altogether. It’s important to not internalize this occurrence. It can be a challenge, and I will admit that it can, in fact, be quite weathering, but we have to be sure to cling to the Eleanor Roosevelt quote that, “no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” For example, when I served as the acting state Treasurer, we had a meeting with oil lobbyists and their CEO client and when I entered the room and asked if they would like to begin the meeting, one of the lobbyists looked at me in front of his client and asked to wait for the treasurer to arrive before starting. I looked at him and said, “Well, the Treasurer is about to leave this room.” I wanted their client to know that they had not done their homework and that his lobbyist’s insulting behavior which assumed that a young Black woman could not be the state Treasurer, could cost them. I left that room. Implicit bias and a lack of cultural competency can cost businesses every day
You are entitled to be happy. As executives, we find ourselves in really demanding roles. We spend a lot of time “doing,” but we’re rarely permitted to just “be” — to take a break and rest. We don’t have to live a life where we are miserable the majority of the time and have to wait for vacation to be happy. We’re entitled to be happy in our day-to-day. We are allowed to find joy and you are entitled to change things when you don’t feel that.

It would be a movement for equity, one that dismantles the structural and systemic racism that increases health care disparities, and one that ends poverty. I think we’re witnessing this in part with the current anti-racism movement. I have referred to it as the great awakening. For those of us who have been committed to racial equity systems change for years, it’s interesting to watch colleagues across the country beginning to recognize the reality of lived experience for their colleagues, neighbors, friends and family members of color.

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

My favorite quote is by Shirly Chisholm, the first African American woman to run for President of the United States, “Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.”

I aim to live this on a daily basis. Even though I’m in private industry, much of what I do permits me to exercise my dedication to serving others. We drive the employee engagement and volunteer platform under social impact. We address the social determinants of health and ask questions like “how do we bring affordable food access to food deserts and food swamps?”; “how do we affect change in neighborhoods or households where violence is an issue?”; “what do we do about education and economic disparity?” Each of these questions is about how we expand our resources, our networks, our influence in order to effectuate systems change. How do we take care of the least of us? What are we doing to chip away at transgenerational poverty? and what are we doing to fix structures that proliferate an underclass? These are the questions I and my team ask ourselves on a daily basis. The call to servant leadership requires more of us to ask these same types of questions. We are called to be active change agents. What are you challenging? What are you changing?

I really need to dine with Sallie Krawcheck, CEO of Ellevest. I’m an Ellevest investor and love the creation of an investment platform designed for women. More, EWNJ is also an Ellevest investor as it was important to me during my tenure as president to ensure that our investment portfolio reflected our principle interest and our mission. I’ve been super excited to witness their organizational response to the call to be anti-racist and to achieve economic equity and to close the wealth gap for women of color generally and Black women specifically. They’re one organization to watch. I think the future is exceptionally bright for them and as a result, for all of us. Sallie, give me a call, I’d be happy to speak with you about the health — wealth connection.

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

Michellene Davis of RWJBarnabas Health: People crave leadership, but not “management,”; Execut was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Alice Combs of Vulcan Wire: Let’s start a movement to find efficient and lucrative usage of our…

Alice Combs of Vulcan Wire: Let’s start a movement to find efficient and lucrative usage of our plastics and rubber, which all too often lie dormant in our landfills

Having been in the recycling business for forty-five years, I first think of our dismal recycling efforts tied to our biggest long-time problems of the environment and homelessness. To combine these problems, I would have the government, established industries and charitable organizations put out feelers for efficient and lucrative usage of our plastics and rubber, which all too often lie dormant in our landfills — but would be transformed as inexpensive reliable building products.

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

After a painful divorce, Alice Combs took a variety of unrewarding jobs. She persevered through every obstacle; she taught herself to be a skilled entrepreneur and expert employer, and slowly developed her startup company, Vulcan Wire, into a thriving business. By Vulcan Wire’s forty-fifth year, it boasted $10 million in annual sales. Now semi-retired, one of her ongoing missions is to empower women to pursue careers in business, especially in male-dominated industries.

My backstory is bizarre. First, I was fired from my pre-trainee clothes buyer job. I supposedly wasn’t management material nor corporate material. Devastated, I wanted a career wherein nobody would have such power over me. My goal was to earn a comfortable living without a boss.

I tackled straight commission sales of consulting services, and then welding rod, neither of which was fruitful. In desperation I asked business owners, buyers and managers what they needed and couldn’t get. A plant manager of a box material manufacturer said, “Honey, I need baler wire, and even the farmers can’t get it.” That was in 1975 and now forty-five years later my corporation, Vulcan Wire, has annual sales of $10 Million.

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

Thank you for such an easy question because it leads to how I came up with the title to my book, The Lady with Balls: A Single Mother’s Triumphant Battle in a Man’s World. When Vulcan was only three years old and doing well, but not well enough to afford a loss of $5K ($20K in today’s world), one of my customers, who owned his business, promised to have his overdue bill of $5K ready by 11:00 AM. However, upon my arrival his receptionist didn’t have the check and said the president was in a meeting. I broke into that board meeting and loudly demanded payment. When told to leave, I sat in a chair and refused to budge without my money. The result was the president, himself, picked me up and dropped me down the stairs.

News of this drama spread to one of my favorite customers seventy-five miles away. He phoned to ask if I’d been injured, which I wasn’t. Then he said a lot of his fellow garbage owners wanted to meet me and were calling me “The Little Lady with Balls.” They, too, had business dealings with this slow payer and called him a son of a bitch. Delighted that I had stood up to him, they unanimously wanted me to become a member of their garbage club, The Royal Order of California Can Carriers. I happily joined, and my business expanded.

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 was that I neglected to ascertain what wire qualities were necessary for my customer’s needs. He told me that he needed 12 gage annealed wire, and that’s what I presented to him. Unfortunately, the wire broke because it didn’t have the required tensile strength and elongation. I should have taken a couple of 18” segments for testing, which I did after this failure. The second wire sale was a success, resulting in leads and endorsements.

My first mentor was my boyfriend at the time. He repeatedly listed my good business qualities after I’d been humiliated by my previous employer. His encouraging words gave my low self-esteem a small lift. He taught me that upon speaking with a potential customer, the first words out of my mouth should be, “Hi. I’m Alice. How are you?” For some reason I had never before asked people how they were. He also taught me that it was more effective to telephone and request an appointment than to cold call in person. His most important and last contribution was to ask what people needed that they couldn’t get.

My second mentor was my local Albertson’s produce manager, with whom I had regular conversations. When he heard how excited I was with my new business endeavor, he told me that all supermarkets had balers. Then he escorted me to the long back room with a relatively small baler which used differently configured wire than in the manufacturing plant. Now Vulcan sells a greater volume of wire to supermarkets than to boxboard manufacturers.

Bicycling was my original main Vulcan stress reliever — secondarily, completing boring and mundane, but necessary, tasks. However, when Vulcan expanded beyond my home to an office, my bicycle wasn’t convenient. I joined a gym for access to its Olympic-size lap pool and swam daily. When my regular swim wasn’t enough, I would make the seventy-five-mile drive to Modesto, where life was slower and more friendly than in the San Francisco Bay area, where my home and office were. Due to scant traffic, the drive was relaxing, and I always found welcoming customers there. I would alternate lunch dates with the biggest customers, many of whom told me juicy secrets that to this day I haven’t revealed.

An ideal corporate team is a reflection of its customers, but even then, I believe in merit rather than giving a job to someone less qualified.

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 don’t believe in quotas which may harm the more deserving. However, I would like tax money spent for additional training, education, scholarships, tutoring and mentoring of low-income adults and their children. I think that the best assistance might be from unpaid volunteers who do this as a calling. I wonder if our population has enough qualified, altruistic, and energetic people willing or able to spend enough of their time to make a difference.

In 1999 I began tutoring (without monetary compensation) five children, three of them regularly for several years. They became like family to me, and we also did extracurricular activities. We swam, took nature walks, and celebrated each of their birthdays at my home with a cake and presents.

My biggest delight, however, is my pretend grandson’s overwhelming gratitude for “changing his life” because he had been an illiterate third grader. The two of us worked diligently on reading — first with Captain Underpants and later with the Harry Potter books. Now he is gainfully employed.

The buck stops with the CEO. If the CFO, or another higher up falters, the CEO can be blamed for being blindsided, as it’s the CEO’s responsibility to appoint or recommend to the board a trustworthy and competent individual as well as to dismiss poor performers. The CEO will study and react prudently to financial reports after the CFO presents and summarizes them — perhaps with recommendations.

The CEO is responsible for the team’s camaraderie and corporate attitude. It’s much easier to lead during good times, but during bad times he or she must present hope and positive aspects in addition to the dismal reality. Now, during our unsettling pandemic, top quality leadership is more important than ever.

The CEO must lead by example in every aspect — speaking, emailing, perhaps in social media (if the organization is large enough), dressing, open to and respectful of other (perhaps even contrary) opinions and attitudes, openly give praise to the deserving, and above all be honest. These qualities are necessary when dealing with customers, employees, suppliers, and board members. If the CEO is also a board member (the case with most small businesses), he or she has a fiscal responsibility toward every stockholder.

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

One common myth is that corporations aren’t people. A corporation is the sum of its stockholders, employees, and board of directors — all of whom are people. When I have this argument with friends and acquaintances, they say, “Oh, I don’t mean you and your business. I mean the big corporations like Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft. To that I respond that the biggest difference between myself and Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates, is that they were smarter and more ambitious than I. Therefore, they developed larger and more powerful corporations.

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

It’s difficult for me to comment on the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts because I didn’t rise to the top via an already in-place corporation. Vulcan is the corporation I gave birth to, my baby. Before Vulcan had enough income to split away from my personal income and incorporate, I already had a reputation for providing top quality wire and service — and for running a tight ship. My reputation with suppliers and customers was already formed. Once I dressed like an executive and was confident and knowledgeable in my field, I experienced perhaps a 2% female discrimination. The negative affronts seemed to be from both sexes. I don’t think this was a big deal because anyone should be able to handle 2%.

Even though I consider myself very feminine, I primarily thought of myself as the owner, president and CEO — not as the female owner, female president and female CEO. I was too busy to capitalize on being unique as a woman in a man’s world. Now I have the time and have written a book to make a production of being a woman in a man’s world. Perhaps the biggest difference was that I had to work harder and therefore appear smarter and more competent than if I were a man.

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

When I discovered the need for industrial baler wire, I assumed that within months I’d be earning $40K per year (nearly $200K per year inflation adjusted). Before I reached my monetary goal about three years later, I had discovered unanticipated costs: wire waste, warehouse space, office space and equipment, office supplies, insurance, interest for borrowed money; business fees and taxes, and needed employees along with their payroll taxes.

I had under-estimated the amount of working capital Vulcan needed. I was so green that I was initially shocked upon learning that all reliable businesses expected 30-day credit terms, and even worse, rarely mailed their payments as early as the 30th day. I was flummoxed when Vulcan sales grew exponentially, and taken aback that such rapid growth nearly imploded Vulcan.

I didn’t realize all the paperwork and calculations that would be needed to smoothly run a business. Until I was desperate for clerical assistance, I didn’t realize that I needed a foolproof system in place before I could delegate. Then once I delegated, I thought everything would flow smoothly. Ha! I discovered those human beings made even more mistakes than I did, and until I could afford an office manager, I had to continuously trouble-shoot. I also discovered that dishonest people were more numerous than I had imagined.

I hadn’t dreamed that it would sometimes be necessary to work 50–70 hours a week, and until I’d been in business for ten to twelve years, I’d have hell to pay for any one week or longer vacation. Upon return, I would have to fix all sorts of loose ends and tangles. Today it’s exhausting to merely remember all I had to do forty-five years ago.

Foremost, an executive must have perseverance because there will be many disappointments and rough periods, and she will make lots of mistakes. She must be determined to endure and change the negative, so a positive is eventually reached. This kind of challenge will likely be draining, so one must propel oneself by envisioning a sunnier future after this and that is done. Unless she can reinvent herself to become an optimist, a pessimist should not aspire to be an executive,

Ideally, she has a corporate and personal nest egg set aside for emergencies. In the event of extreme corporate financial setbacks, she must lead by lowering her salary a greater percentage than that of her employees. After Vulcan lost its largest customer, along with some smaller ones, I gave myself a 17½% pay cut. My most difficult business task ever followed: I had to announce 10% pay cuts for everyone else.

She must have a quick mind and be able to summarize a financial statement within a minute or two. One who can’t do quick calculations in her head would be too challenged to be an executive.

She must be able to listen and carefully read between the lines, whether interpreting a conversation, business letter, or even a contract. People who take everything at face value would make too many blunders.

An executive must be willing to do things she doesn’t want to do. I’ll always remember my brother, a partner in an embryonic part-time startup, was asked by his partners to help a potential client move from one house to another. My brother refused because he thought it would be disingenuous to do what he wouldn’t have done except for hopes of gaining this person’s business. I was horrified that he refused this simple request. I explained that I took all sorts of people to lunch and wouldn’t have without Vulcan’s interest at heart — and I was sure these customers knew that. Understandably, my brother never accomplished his dream of being self-employed.

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

On top of the same advice I’d give male leaders, I’d advise women to not think of themselves as primarily women, even if they are the sole woman in the company, room, or corporate board. They should exude confidence and genuinely like and feel comfortable with both, or all, sexes, as well as all colors and ethnicities. Their mindset shouldn’t be, “Oh, I hope they will respect me,” or “Which ones might sexually harass me?” or “Will they expect me to serve coffee or do secretarial service?” However, after an inappropriate comment or request, every woman should be prepared with a snappy, professional retort.

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

I believe the world needs entertainment of all sorts, so please allow me to indulge in my latest enthusiasm, spreading the word of my book and bi-monthly blog posts. I’m a bibliophile of historical fiction, memoirs and biographies. People like me savor good book stories more than TV or movies. We love to escape into other lives and share laughter, joy, worries and tears with the written characters. I’ve been told by many that they’ve experienced these emotions from reading or listening to my book, and others who want to learn about business can absorb valuable lessons from it. Those who savor tales of perseverance and personal reinvention will enjoy The Lady with Balls and my website’s blog posts.

I hope that what I’ve written and continue to talk about will give valuable knowledge to aspiring entrepreneurs who later prosper as corporate owners. I also hope my story prevents others who aren’t cut out for such stress and diligence to realize this before they would otherwise learn that a self-directed business is not for them.

To return to the business I founded in 1975, I’ve given employment to people of all ages, which for some have been lifetime careers, for others a job that taught them about business and assisted them financially as they completed high school and college — or even became entrepreneurs themselves. Vulcan has been a fair, flexible and profitable place to work. Vulcan’s wire assists in the recycling effort and contributes toward jobs with non-Vulcan employees such as truck drivers, wire mill workers, grocery store workers, service workers processing payroll or computer goods and services, machinery suppliers, etc.

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

The monetary angle covering 30-day credit terms: When I made my first wire sale, I expected immediate payment. My customer expected to accept the wire with an accompanying invoice which he would pass on to his accounts payable department where the invoice would be recorded but not scheduled for payment until thirty or more days later. However, I had paid for the wire with a check that would bounce unless I made a compensating deposit before the end of the day. This action, called kiting, was illegal. Fortunately, because my customer was desperate for wire, he gave in to my plea for COD as well as my threat to otherwise take the wire back. He was not happy with me, as it took him forty-five minutes of telephone time to call his corporate headquarters in another state. He said he would never again do this, and any future wire sales would have to be on credit.
The waste factor: Unfortunately, I hadn’t thought the whole fabricating process through. It hadn’t occurred to me that the initial 800–2,000-pound spools of wire would most likely not be perfectly divisible by 100 (my customers’ spool requirements) as a spool might weigh 849 pounds, a waste of 49 pounds. I also found out when I had cut lengths of wire, there was also a waste factor, albeit less waste than with the 100-pound spools.
The monetary problem with exponentially increasing sales: I was blindsided when I discovered that my sales were increasing at an unhealthy rate. Before this happened to me, I had never imagined such a scenario. The problem was that I had to pay for the unfabricated wire I purchased eight to thirty-five days before my customer was scheduled to pay me. Without an eventual plateau of expanding sales, I would be bankrupt. I resorted to allowing my poor choice of a boyfriend to move in with me and pay rent, half the utilities, and more than his share of the groceries. After I made him move out, for about half a year I substituted my Vulcan sales efforts for getting straight commission recycling contracts for a garbage company. During those six months my sales plateaued. Then I again focused on wire sales, and before they rapidly grew again, I secured a bank loan for additional working capital.
Negotiating with suppliers: Before I discovered the need for industrial baler wire, I had never negotiated for any product or service, so it hadn’t occurred to me to do so with my suppliers. I was too slow to believe the words, “This is the best price I can give you.” I hated negotiating, but did what I had to do.
How to dress: I originally dressed as a secretary in pretty dresses and snappy pantsuits, which then didn’t qualify as executive business attire. In 1983 I attended a John Malloy lecture, How Women Should Dress for Success, and became one of his followers. He stated that a savvy female executive wore a mannish cut non-form-fitting jacket, a high cut blouse, and a skirt of below the knee length. The colors were to mimic the then muted or earth tone male suits. The appropriate shoes were closed toe one to two-inch high heels. The earrings were to be either pearls or small gold hoops. A purse was to be hidden within her briefcase.

Having been in the recycling business for forty-five years, I first think of our dismal recycling efforts tied to our biggest long-time problems of the environment and homelessness. To combine these problems, I would have the government, established industries and charitable organizations put out feelers for efficient and lucrative usage of our plastics and rubber, which all too often lie dormant in our landfills — but would be transformed as inexpensive reliable building products.

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

My number one favorite quote is from Thomas Alva Edison, “I failed my way to success.” In fact, I listed this quote above my sixth chapter, Wire Breaking Right and Left. As I stated earlier, my first wire sale was a literal bust. Now I’m the founder of a company annually manufacturing thousands of tons of excellent quality baler wire.

Before that, I failed to meet the standards of my pre-trainee clothes buyer job which was the impetus for my successful career. Previous to being fired, my first marriage was a failure, and I bounced from one ill-suited boyfriend to another. Now I’m about to celebrate thirty-one years of a wonderfully happy marriage. I could list many other past failures that led to great successes.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, born in Somalia fifty years ago, is one of the most courageous, intelligent, and persevering people alive. She currently is a fellow at the Hoover Institute and is the founder of AHA Institution, a non-profit with an anti-Muslin extremist agenda to protect women from female genital mutilation, honor violence. and forced marriages. AHA also supports freedom of speech in public debate and the work of Muslim reformers. Ayaan’s eloquent writing can be found in her books and the Wall Street Journal.

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

Alice Combs of Vulcan Wire: Let’s start a movement to find efficient and lucrative usage of our… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Linda Hand of Prealize Health: “Understand your team members, what each of them are good at, where…

Linda Hand of Prealize Health: “Understand your team members, what each of them are good at, where they need help and then trust them enough to push them beyond what they know they can do”

Understand your team members, what each of them are good at, where they need help and then trust them enough to push them beyond what they know they can do. They will rise to the challenge, but no matter what, do not let them fall without your hand there to guide them.

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

Linda is the CEO of Prealize Health, an AI-enabled health insights company that transforms healthcare from reactive to proactive so that more people can live healthier lives. Linda brings 35 years of experience to her role as CEO, with an emphasis in organizational leadership, product development, solutions delivery and go-to-market strategies across a diverse portfolio of industries. She has also provided management consulting services to several emerging enterprise and venture capital firms.

My father worked for IBM for 37 years. He brought home a pamphlet when I was in 7th grade that laid out the career path for computer scientists at IBM. It had about 17 job levels, and at the very end of it, it read: “If you are good in math and science (which I was), then this is the career for you, and especially if you are a woman, because there are so few females in this discipline.” I decided at that moment to chase a career path as a Computer Scientist! I graduated from UC Berkeley with a CS degree and programmed for several years before I realized that I could make a much bigger impact by leading teams.

I worked for several early stage companies across all different industries but, as a technologist, never wanted to go into healthcare or government offerings because my mentors always warned that those industries were too slow to adopt. I eventually came to healthcare via some management consulting I was doing for VCs and their portfolio companies and got hooked on wanting to solve the many complex challenges presented, while doing something for the greater good. After leading a company providing clinical technology to life science companies developing new treatments, I joined Prealize almost 2 years ago to revolutionize healthcare using AI and machine learning.

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

I joined Prealize in late September 2018, knowing fully well that I would be raising Series B in early January 2019. That gave me five weeks to pull together a team whom I had only just met, in an industry that I had not been in previously, to create a product strategy, a 2019 strategic plan and our 3 year vision! I trusted my years of experience, my intuitions about the team from my limited experience with them, picked a few to work intensely with, and got started. The amazing board members, thought leaders and advisors that the founders and investors had attracted to support the company were incredibly insightful, helping us to pressure test our assumptions, challenging my hunches and experience, truly contributing to solidifying the plan. We closed a successful Series B round at the end of April 2019.

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 I was first starting my career I didn’t think that ANY mistake was funny! I was far too seriously evaluating everything I did and trying to improve. That said, when I think back to my very first job out of college, I was employed for maybe all of four months and was the youngest and least tenured on the engineering team, when my boss decided the day before she left on maternity leave to change her decision from having the most experienced male run the organization to having me be the manager while she was out. I had to work hard to be an empowering boss without losing my ability to go back to being a peer upon her return. That mostly meant joking around and trying to develop rapport, while doing my best to project manage and report on all of the efforts of the far more experienced senior team. It was one afternoon in the hallway that I was bantering about with “the guys” (there were only two of us women in the team out of 12), when I referred to one of them using a term that, in my household, was only ever used as an “endearing” term for someone you truly liked. Within seconds, a booming voice from down the hall called out “Who said that? Who just used that word?” We froze, my face flushed bright red, and I spoke up that it was me. It was one of those moments where you truly have to choose accountability, but would prefer to run; where the fight or flight kicks in. The big boss asked me to come to his corner office to explain myself. He asked me if I knew what it meant. I fumbled to explain the whole endearing thing, which he wasn’t having. He scolded me deeply and asked me never to use that word again. I apologized for my ignorance and skulked out of there sheepishly. To this day I have never spoken that word again.

I have had so many wonderful mentors along the way. Managers early in my career that saw something in me that I did not, or just could not see, and then inspired me to develop a specific skill. They made me want to learn how to uplift others in that same way. Senior leaders, like Dennis McEvoy and Umberto MIlletti, who recognized and rewarded my integrity and courage, deepening my resolve to always lead in that way. Tom McKinley, with his mentorship, generosity of time and true partnership, continually expands my understanding of what it takes to build a business and govern it with those same values.

But it was Jim and Michele McCarthy who taught me about courage and vulnerability as a leader and how to bring it to my work consistently and intentionally. I was building a new division at the time, in an organization that had legacy peer organizations, led by extremely politically motivated individuals. The environment became increasingly toxic the more success my team achieved. Backstabbing and withholding information, telling mistruths behind doors, were regular behaviors of one peer in particular. I found myself starting to withhold information, not quite telling all and hating my job and the person I was becoming. The McCarthys were instructive in getting me to see that even though I was experiencing a hunt-or-be-hunted environment, the only way to respond was to hold true to my integrity and behave as if I were not in the jungle watching my back. It took a lot of trust and courage to do that, but the method was surprisingly effective. The hunter did not know what to do when faced with truth, trust and openness when he knew I knew he was not trustworthy. This was probably one of the biggest lessons of my career — to learn what it really means to live my values, no matter what. To know that I was living and behaving and modeling what I wanted in my culture and organization grounded me as a leader, it changed the dialogue and it ultimately won out.

I am committed to getting in my daily workouts to manage stress. I cycle, hike, ski, walk, stretch, strengthen my body in some way, every day, to release the buildup of anxiety that comes with leading a fast-paced startup. For high stakes meetings and decisions, I really need to prepare early and often to feel like I have done my best. I might frame up an outline, some key points and objectives and then “noodle on it,” while I ask others for their help and insights and differing perspectives. For talks and presentations, I adhere to the “Practice Practice, Practice until I can do it in my sleep” approach. I always get nervous before a public speaking engagement and find that I need to admit that I’m scared and nervous and work through the worst thing that can happen, before I am ready. Then I need to turn that nervous energy into passion and excitement before my heart races out of my chest. I usually practice so much that I can “see” the slides without looking at them, but it doesn’t always protect from a brain freeze, which I suffered at an annual meeting. My entire talk track for my first two slides was a story about the business that the person who introduced me told as I was walking to the stage. I froze, blanked out, no ideas coming about what to say instead, just cut off at the pass. It took me a few minutes to regroup and decide that I should just go to slide 3 and start there!

Diverse teams can be stronger teams, but must be inclusive first and foremost. Such teams make better decisions, they incorporate different perspectives and they value, encourage and actively seek out the input of others. Executives in a diverse and inclusive team are more collaborative and are more likely to value that in their own teams, thus building strong, well rounded organizations of their own. To intentionally and deliberately recruit, attract and develop a variety of individuals starts at the top, in the executive suite and on the board. One of my key decision criteria for joining Prealize was the value of diversity embodied by the board, the team and the advisors and founders fostered inclusiveness and debate throughout the interview process.

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.

It starts with sharing core values that not only support, but require inclusion and equity, the willingness to challenge our subconscious biases and the courage to refuse to tolerate anything less. We need to make active commitments to each other to challenge and change. Awareness and introspection have been critical for my team, especially since the death of George Floyd. We realized that we could do better, that simply “saying” was not doing. We realized that we weren’t doing enough to promote and attract a representative community of employees, that we really didn’t even have a true baseline from which to measure. We became founding members to sign the ParityPledge™ in support of People of Color (we had already pledged in Support of Women when i joined). Public statements about what we are doing, what product innovations we are funding — all these things have been very important in elevating our team’s focus and attention on racial equality.

In terms of fairness and equity, I regularly review compensation across my organizations to ensure parity at all levels and encourage my leaders to do the same. In a prior job, one of my directors came to me asserting that she felt she was unfairly paid, compared to males in the company. While this was categorically not the case, I had to point out that she had an inequity on her own team, where a male employee was making less than a more junior woman. She could not see her own bias as she attempted to explain the difference — the woman had been a better negotiator than the male when she joined and the disparity was too great to make up in one performance cycle. Inequities do not just occur in one direction.

We also need to understand and track why people stay, get promoted or leave our organizations to have a clear view of how ingrained our values are across the company and throughout our processes and interactions. We have added interview questions at offer decline and employment exit to try to get more insights in this regard. This can help us understand the experience a candidate has through the interview process as well as an employee’s experience within the company. We are just starting to understand how to reflect this in our customer interactions and processes as well.

The CEO has the ultimate responsibility for the successes or failures of the business. She needs to not only be on top of, but also in front of, the risks and opportunities that are available to be mitigated or leveraged. It is a non-stop job, with “no rest for the wicked,” as my mother would say. CEOs must manage not only their business but their response to the markets and influences around them, seeing the implications of things before they come to fruition so that timely, optimal decisions can be made.

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 is that ‘it’s lonely at the top.’ As CEO I am solely accountable for the business results, but building the right team and partnering with them well, including my board members and advisors, keeps me from feeling isolated and alone. I feel tethered to the team by asking them for help and guidance, though ultimately owning what comes of if.

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

There are so many articles and books written on this topic, but the most prominent thing is that expectations are different, both externally and internally imposed. Women are much harder on themselves than men, expecting to know something like 90% of how to do a job before feeling “qualified,” whereas men will typically feel qualified at around 30% of the qualifications. In my experience, with males dominating leadership positions across industries, men supporting men, hiring in their likeness, they are less likely to hire a diverse team and more likely to set a higher bar for performance for women than men. I’m generalizing here, and there are wonderful exceptions to this; male leaders who do everything they can to create equitable opportunities for all shapes, size, colors and genders. But women just have fewer role models in the leadership ranks, fewer women leaders to raise them up, and the women that are there don’t always see that as their responsibility.

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

The thing that comes to mind is the constant weight of knowing I am responsible for the team and their livelihood. The successes and failures of the business affect the team, their partners, their children, their homes and college funds. I did not think I would carry that burden as profoundly as I do.

Having a tolerance for a certain level of ambiguity while having the courage to make decisions and move an organization forward in spite of what you don’t yet know, is both an art and a skill. You need high levels of accountability and self awareness to be a successful executive in that environment.

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

Understand your team members, what each of them are good at, where they need help and then trust them enough to push them beyond what they know they can do. They will rise to the challenge, but no matter what, do not let them fall without your hand there to guide them.

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

I have been mentoring high potential women leaders for some 25 years, volunteering for Menttium Corporation, to be matched annually with women, people of color and aspiring executives. It is rewarding to nurture and support these incredibly smart and capable executives in their journeys to greatness. I continue these relationships well beyond the first year assigned and with several, we are into our second decade together. My former colleagues and mentees, also exceptional women leaders, have gone on to develop and inspire the next generation of high potential women leaders as well. I am super proud of the people I have had the honor to work with in this capacity.

And frankly, I am proud and honored to have been a working mom for my whole career, raising four strong, successful daughters and two sons that understand how important it is to promote and support equality, diversity and respect while bringing your absolute best to your colleagues and your customers. That has now expanded to five granddaughters!

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

What I wish I knew before I started:

Work/Life balance is a choice, but you need a supportive environment :. Having worked throughout my career in industries dominated by males, often those with partners supporting the primary care needs of their children and homes full time, I often found myself working incredibly long hours, struggling to “keep up” with four kids at home (teenagers and toddlers) to raise, to get to school, to programs, to help with school lessons, while holding down a full time job and with a spouse that traveled internationally three weeks of every month. Male leaders made it “seem” unacceptable to have to leave early to pick up the kids or come late to drop them off, or work from home with a sick kid. The stories in my head were that I would not, or could not, be promoted if I let these challenges interfere with my work. I eventually learned that those were stories that I was choosing to believe and I had the power to work elsewhere and chose otherwise.
Focus on results and those things you can control. Results matter and, in the end, those key performance measures are all that anyone remembers. Keeping my head down and my eyes on the prize helped me when encountering highly political peers trying to distract me with minor problems blown out of proportion. When I focused on results, I did not fall for the “look over there” strategies that could set me off track.
As much as you believe your work defines you, it is “just a job.” In the grand scheme of things, it is also probably one of many you will have in your life. I recall fretting over the possibility of missing a key deadline with one of my peers at Sybase and him telling me “It’s just a job” and thinking, “wow, I thought you cared!”. Turns out he did, he cared a lot, but he also had perspective. In 20 million years, no one will have remembered my missed deadline. It will have been a spec on the windshield. I will have wasted a ton of time and energy worrying about it. So…back to #2.
Stuff happens and it will inevitably happen to you, it’s how you handle it that matters. If you could not have stopped it, then all you have is the aftereffect, so deal with it. So many times, I needed to just regroup and face the current situation and found it very unhelpful when my boss was overreacting, escalating or blaming, which focuses on blame not results. I learned to focus on outlining a plan for a retrospective root cause analysis, while laying out the timeline for solving the current situation. So again…back to #2.
Ask for help, ask often and even when you don’t think you need it. This is probably my biggest lesson and one I continue to work at. I was raised to be strong and tough and to try to study and know as much as I could. Needing help seemed to imply a weakness. At a strategic offsite, I was having a discussion about needing to develop more trust amongst my leadership team and Michelle McCarthy, who was teaching me how to boot up my team, mentioned that she didn’t trust me. I was mortified! I challenged that I was probably the most trustworthy person she knew — how could she think that of me? Her response was that she didn’t trust me because I didn’t ask for help. She taught me that asking for help takes strength and vulnerability and that people connect more authentically to those who trust them enough to show their vulnerabilities. Modelling that simple and very powerful behavior empowers a culture that allows for trusting collaborations, open and honest dialogues. It has changed the way I lead.

In these times of needing to go extra, extra miles to make right what has been wrong for so long, I would inspire the “Got One? Give [at least] One!” movement. For every opportunity we enjoy, we must use both hands to raise another up. For each laptop I have, give one away for distance learning or working from home. For each trip to the grocery store, donate a meal to a family in need. For each paycheck, pay it forward to someone who lost their job with COVID. Are you in?

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

“Presume good in everyone.” Starting with the basics that most people have good intentions and that I might not be able to “see” everything I need to see about or within a situation before arriving in it, to “presume good” means I enter the dialogue assuming that and then ask questions to fill in details and learn more. It sets me out from the start on a “seeking to understand” journey and allows me to be clean and pure in my approach to my questions. I have no hidden agenda, no ulterior motives, no assumptions and I get to the truth faster than dancing around predispositions and foregone conclusions. I have taught so many people this and it has changed their lives as quickly as it did mine, but it has been an especially useful tool for those questioning whether their biases, subconscious or otherwise, get in the way of their interactions with people.

I would be honored to have a private breakfast or lunch with Melinda Gates for her extraordinary work in healthcare, and frankly life care, with women in disadvantaged situations, making a phenomenal difference in their lives. Her book, The Moment of Lift, was quite inspiring and the work she and her husband are doing during this pandemic, as well as with other seemingly insurmountable challenges, is tremendous.

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

Linda Hand of Prealize Health: “Understand your team members, what each of them are good at, where… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Author Charlene Wheeless: “Why you need to create a safe space for uncomfortable conversation”

Create a safe space for uncomfortable conversation. There is a lot going on in our world right now and people need a safe space and room to have uncomfortable and difficult conversations without fear or consequences or retribution for telling the truth about how they feel. Make it clear that everyone has a voice in your company and that their views are respected. Open communication promotes inclusion.

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

Charlene Wheeless is a renowned communications expert, author, and speaker with more than three decades of experience in corporate affairs and communications. She is the founder and CEO of her namesake strategic communications consulting company, where she helps companies and senior leaders navigate and solve their toughest business challenges. Charlene’s debut book “You Are Enough! Reclaiming your Career and Your Life with Purpose Passion and Unapologetic Authenticity,” which is slated for publication in late 2020, details her experience as a Black, female executive in industries that are traditionally white and male, her courageous fight with cancer and lessons from her popular talk ‘Lessons from Being Invisible.”

I’ve been in corporate communications and corporate affairs for my entire career. I’m one of those rare people who knew early on what I wanted to do from a career standpoint. My first job after college was with IBM in their communications department, and I’ve never looked back.

A little more than three years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. That experience led me to a professional and personal pivot. In short, when my treatment was completed nearly a year later, I figuratively looked up and felt that I no longer recognized the life I had — I was never going to be my pre-cancer self again, so I put on my big girl pants,

left the corporate world, wrote a book, started a public speaking career, and launched a strategic advisor/consulting business.

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

As a female executive leader, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to advise other women in business. Among the lessons I like to share, at the top of the list is to know and own your value. But when looking to close my first consulting project I ignored my own advice and took on far fewer fees than what I should have. I knew at the time that I was making tactical and strategic errors, but for whatever reason, I fell into the trap of devaluing myself and my expertise. I vowed to never do that again. But it was a great reminder of how easy it is to fall into the trap of wanting to please the customer at the expense of you.

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 started my business in earnest during the height of COVID-19 so most of my interactions have been virtual. I learned pretty quickly that you have to pay attention to what’s in the background. My husband has been working in our home office, so initially, I was working from my dressing room. It’s a nice dressing room, with a loveseat in it. I also have a small elderly dog that never lets me out of his sight and for the most part he spends his entire day following me around and laying on that loveseat. During one Zoom call with a potential client, I noticed that my the client was a bit distracted and I felt myself losing him but I wasn’t sure why. I tend to record my Zoom calls so that I can recount the customer’s needs with clarity. Once the meeting ended I watched the recording to see if I could figure out what happened and then I saw it. My little dog decided to clean/lick his private parts during the last half of the call! No wonder my client lost his concentration. It was horribly embarrassing and I’m still waiting for it to be funny to me. Everyone else thinks it was hilarious! I stopped working in my dressing room and moved to another part of the house.

How much time do you have? There have been so many people who have helped me through various stages of my life and my career. The most influential person from a motivation standpoint is my mother. I was raised by a single mother who died when I was in my twenties so she didn’t live long enough to see my career take off, but the sacrifices she made for me are what propel me forward. My success is how I honor her memory every day.

Also, a CEO I worked for in the late 1990s stands out as an important champion throughout my career. He was the first executive to treat me as a true executive and through his support, I was appointed to a vice president and corporate officer at the age of 35. When I ultimately left the company, it was very difficult for me to leave him. I told the company that was recruiting me that the offer had to be so good that my current CEO would tell me to take the job. They did, he did, and I did.

I’m not a nervous or anxious person, but before a big meeting I give myself a pep talk and I mentally channel someone and assume their persona. I don’t always channel the same person, but the person I channel most often is Oprah because she knows how to command a room. Sometimes I think, ‘Hmmmm, what would Oprah do or say in this moment?’ Other times, I just remind myself that it’s just a meeting, not rocket science — unless it is.

The business case for diversity has been made several times over, but something I always come back to is the fact that our population is changing and by that, I mean the racial make-up of our country. With that in mind, if your company and especially your leadership team are not a diverse population the decisions they are making about the future of the business are inherently misguided and wrong because they are making decisions for a demographic that isn’t true anymore. The world is diverse. You need to have a diverse executive team to truly serve the needs of the business.

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 we first have to recognize the moment that we are in right now, which is not about diversity and inclusion, it’s about systemic racism and racial injustice. From that vantage point, my top three are:

1. CEOs need to lead as a human first and CEO second. Employees are stressed out, traumatized and scared. Everyone’s world has been turned upside down due to what I call a societal trifecta — the pandemic, the challenged economy, and racial injustice on clear display. Now is the time for leaders to lead from a point of humanity and empathy. A by-product of that will be inclusion.

2. Create a safe space for uncomfortable conversation. There is a lot going on in our world right now and people need a safe space and room to have uncomfortable and difficult conversations without fear or consequences or retribution for telling the truth about how they feel. Make it clear that everyone has a voice in your company and that their views are respected. Open communication promotes inclusion.

3. Don’t just say it — show it. Companies need to make concerted efforts to diversify their leadership teams, workforces, supply chains, customer bases, office locations and the types of products they make. In business and in government, there has been a lot of rhetoric around equality, equity, and diversity. The time for talk is over. Make your changes visible. Diversify your teams. By the way, it isn’t about removing one person so that you can put in another. Why not just make the pie bigger so that there is room for all?

I guess one more point that I’d like to share is that I don’t think inclusion is enough. I think we need to focus on belonging — making sure that people not just feel welcome, but that they belong.

I used to think that the most important role of the CEO is to make decisions and solve problems. But in actuality, a significant amount of time is spent on people, leadership, and helping others to think through solving problems. Additionally, the CEO is the company’s Secretary of State and a company’s brand is very closely tied to the reputation of the CEO so being visible externally as well as internally is extremely important.

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

That you own your own time. CEOs are pulled in so many directions all of the time. There is always someone who wants something from you.

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

Again, how much time do you have? Women executives still have to prove themselves, while men are presumed to be competent. Strong women, who are typically the types who become CEOs still get labeled for certain assertive behaviors that men typically are rewarded for. I read somewhere recently that men are hired for their potential and women are hired for their experience. I think that says it all.

What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be? It’s pretty much exactly how I thought it would be. A lot of hard work, but enjoyable. A little scary at times because you don’t know when or if all your clients are going to dry up one day. But ultimately, very rewarding and deeply satisfying.

Executive traits that I see consistently in successful people are confidence without arrogance, an abundance of self-awareness which enables them to be agile, they care about people and it shows and they are great listeners.

In general, people who have difficulty making decisions or are enamored with what they perceive as the power of being an executive should really stay away from executive positions. Or people who have a thin skin. As an executive, you are always on display. You don’t get to have a bad day.

What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive? Build an “army of advocates”; people who will be champions for you and your team. Focus heavily on professional development of team members and invest in their success personally and professionally. Someone once told me that his philosophy in managing people is to “Pull the weeds and water the flowers.” It’s a simple statement and very helpful. So often, leaders focus heavily on the people who bring challenges at the expense of nurturing top talent. When that happens, the entire team sees it, feels it, and is usually less productive as a result.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place? Of course, first and foremost is by helping other people learn and succeed. My goal is to mentor people into greater levels of success than me because it takes all of us to make the world a better place. Like most leaders I know, I give my time and money to great causes — local and national — that are focused on leaving this world better off than how we found it. I often think about legacies and to me, a legacy is built by every person you touch and if you inspire and motivate others to take a positive action, well, that’s powerful.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.) In no particular order:

1. Hire someone to handle the back-office support of your business. I have found that the administration side of running a business is really boring and I don’t particularly like it. I wish I had found a partner to outsource these tasks to earlier, so that I could focus my time on the purpose and promise of the business. 2. That I would work longer hours and harder than I did when I was in the corporate world. That’s the

downside. The upside is that you love every minute of it. Still, it’s better in the long-run if you pace yourself.

3. Be careful about providing “free” advice. Your knowledge is the intellectual property that you have built your

business on. It’s hard to build a business if you give away your IP. 4. You will be tempted to take jobs that you shouldn’t. Write down what you are attempting to do and generate

by starting a business. Put it on a post-it note and stick it on your computer or a place where you see it every day. Stay true to your vision. It’s very easy to get distracted. 5. That there was going to be a global pandemic. Of course, no one could foresee what we are dealing with

right now as a nation and as a world, but gosh it would have been nice to have had a crystal ball.

I would encourage people to live a life of purpose, passion and authenticity.

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

“Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” — Teddy Roosevelt

Businesses operate because of people. If you are going to build a strong team, they have to know you care about them. Many people believe that if you put the customer first, everything else will fall into place. I understand that view, but I believe that if you take care of your people, they will take care of your customers. I used to be the queen of “It’s not personal, it’s business.” And, truthfully, that thought has failed me every time. It wasn’t until I realized that if people are involved, it’s personal, that I was able to build successful teams and meaningful relationships at work.

Oh, that’s an easy one for me. Darius Rucker, the singer. I’ve always been a fan of his solo music because his lyrics often move me. When I was going through cancer treatment, the day I finished chemotherapy I was at my weakest and just plain tired of everything. I was sick most of the time, I was weak, and the list goes on. In an effort to cheer me up, one of my daughters sent him a picture of me sitting in the chemo infusion chair after my last treatment — bald head and everything. She sent it privately through his Instagram account with a note. He (or his people) later posted it on his Instagram account with a message below it encouraging me to keep fighting and he would keep praying. Now, I know that many celebrities hire people to manage their accounts and there is a very good chance that he has no idea that this occurred. But what came next was so powerful for me. Underneath his post, some of his fans wrote messages of encouragement to me. As I read post after post, I just cried –not pretty tears — this was ugly crying. I let it all out and I hadn’t really done that before. I don’t know any of the people who posted those messages of encouragement but reading them gave me the strength I needed at that moment to keep fighting and keep looking forward. So, why Darius Rucker? So that I could say thank you.

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

Author Charlene Wheeless: “Why you need to create a safe space for uncomfortable conversation” was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Tammi Jantzen of Astarte Medical: “Why you shouldn’t surround yourself with people who look and…

Tammi Jantzen of Astarte Medical: “Why you shouldn’t surround yourself with people who look and think exactly as you do”

You shouldn’t surround yourself with people who look and think exactly as you do. You need differing opinions and points of view to truly expand your thinking. Building a diverse team has always been important to us, however, it was never about achieving a prescribed diversity quota. Every hire we make is based on the best possible candidate with the right experience and skillsets. Our core values of competence, respect, authenticity, and communication help guide us as we grow. I’m proud to say our efforts have resulted in an incredibly talented and diverse team of amazing individuals. There’s so much we learn from one another — it amazes me every day.

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

Tammi is co-founder and CFO of Astarte Medical, a precision nutrition company using software and predictive analytics to improve health outcomes in the first 1000 days of life, initially focused on preterm infants. NICUtrition® by Astarte Medical is a real-time, clinical decision support solution designed to standardize feeding and optimize nutrition for preterm infants in the neonatal ICU (NICU). Tammi spent 15 years as CFO of three early stage venture capital funds and is an angel investor and serial entrepreneur.

For the last 20 years, I have worked with my co-founder, Tracy Warren, as both investors and entrepreneurs. We have historically targeted healthcare, but six years ago decided to focus exclusively on women’s and children’s health, an area we are both passionate about and a largely underserved area of innovation and investment. In an attempt to gain insights into clinical needs and pain points, we visited many women’s and children’s hospitals talking to innovation groups and researchers. It was during a visit to Brigham and Women’s Hospital that we met Kate Gregory, a NICU nurse and Harvard researcher. Kate opened our eyes to the challenges of preterm infants and early life nutrition. She was clearly a rock star and we knew immediately that we wanted to work with her. Kate’s passion quickly became our passion, and we realized we didn’t just want to invest in the idea, we wanted to build the company ourselves. At the time, we didn’t know what the product would be, but we set out to investigate the problem first and develop the solution second. About nine months later, Astarte Medical was born.

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

In early 2019, we successfully raised a $5M Series A financing and then another $3.5M convertible note financing at the end of the year. Woo hoo! The Series A fundraising journey, however, was not what we expected it to be. Having spent so much time in early stage venture capital investing, we went into this thinking we knew exactly what we needed to do to win over investors. We focused on the business and the opportunity and shared our vision for revolutionizing care. It was clear early on that we had set very unrealistic expectations on how much time and energy would be expended to raise this round of funding. Sitting on the other side of the table as entrepreneurs, we gained an appreciation for all the founders that had come before us as investors for over 15 years. Nothing happens as quickly as you think it should and there’s a lot of “tire kicking” that sucks up so much of your time and never leads to an actual investment. And the worst part was investors that could never get to a “yes” or “no”. Hearing “no” is better than perpetual indecision. But with persistence and drive, it can be done! Sitting here today, I’m happy to report that we have an amazing investor base.

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?

The mistake was taking multiple meetings with a group of investors that were clearly never going to invest in a female-led company. I can call it a funny mistake now, and lesson learned for sure, but at the time not so much. Here’s how it transpired…at a meeting with an all-male group of potential investors, we were asked, “Do you have any men on your team?” In fact, we do. But, when the CEO has 15 years’ experience in the industry and an MBA, the CSO is a registered nurse with a PhD and over 10 years researching our product area, and the CFO is a certified public accountant with extensive financial experience, should that matter? The question about our company’s testosterone level was followed by one about who would handle mergers and acquisitions negotiations for us. Those can get quite complicated, the potential investors helpfully informed us. The mistake was not listening to our inner voices that day that were screaming “RUN! and don’t look back”. But we continued for the next 12 months to take meetings and entertain questions. Ultimately, they couldn’t pull it together and we successfully closed our $5M Series A financing — without them. The lesson learned is that not all money is good money. I’m so grateful they are not part of our investor base — I just wish we would have listened to our instincts sooner.

Hands down, that person is my co-founder, Tracy Warren. We have worked together for 20 years — longer than most marriages. We joke about the fact that we have “one brain” because we often know what the other is thinking before speaking. Although, strangely, people often mix us up, we are definitely not the same person. Tracy is the high-level strategic thinker of the team. She comes up with the crazy brilliant ideas, and I figure out how to actually get them done. Tracy has continually pushed me to think bigger and outside the box. I am forever grateful to her for helping me see my own potential and push me to be a better me.

Before Astarte Medical was founded, I would say I was much more comfortable staying behind the scenes, being supportive but not putting myself in the spotlight — ever. But when it comes to startups and fundraising, it’s all hands on deck. I had to push aside my fears and give the company pitch, as often as we were given the opportunity, whether it was to an individual investor or on stage with an audience of 200 people. In the beginning, I stressed myself out in unhealthy ways over every single pitch. I have now learned the key to releasing and relieving that stress and anxiety is preparation, practice, and confidence. When preparing for a high stakes meeting or presentation, always remember that no one knows your business better than you do. That realization is game changing.

You shouldn’t surround yourself with people who look and think exactly as you do. You need differing opinions and points of view to truly expand your thinking. Building a diverse team has always been important to us, however, it was never about achieving a prescribed diversity quota. Every hire we make is based on the best possible candidate with the right experience and skillsets. Our core values of competence, respect, authenticity, and communication help guide us as we grow. I’m proud to say our efforts have resulted in an incredibly talented and diverse team of amazing individuals. There’s so much we learn from one another — it amazes me every day.

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.

We are in a unique position at Astarte Medical to use our current NICUtrition® platform to tackle health disparities in neonatal ICUs. As shown in recent studies, racial disparities are widespread in NICUs in the United States. Black and Hispanic preterm infants experience a significantly increased risk of developing comorbidities than white preterm infants. Even within NICUs, disparities exist in how preterm infants are fed and nourished resulting in adverse outcomes that disproportionately impact Blacks and Hispanics. We can leverage our NICUtrition® platform to liberate data from a hospital’s electronic medical record to support health equity programs and develop a better understanding of the causes of these disparities. By providing data to highlight racial disparities in real time, we can enable effective interventions to reduce disparities and improve care while the baby is still in the NICU.

While all leaders make contributions, responsibility for success rests on the shoulders of the executive team. Success is multifactorial and means building a sustainable and profitable business that provides continued employment to employees, reliable and innovative products to customers, and a solid financial return to investors. Ultimately, the executives are the ones held accountable for this success.

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

The biggest myth is that you need to have fancy credentials, prior experience, an extreme type-A personality or that you need to be a middle-aged white man to be a great executive.

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

Women often face skepticism, consciously or unconsciously, about whether they can get the job done or be effective leaders. Success has to be proven. Whereas with male executives, it’s assumed they will be successful until proven otherwise.

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

As with any startup, you wear many hats. Although my official title is CFO, I actually spend less than 25% of my time on financial-related matters. As a CPA, I wouldn’t have thought in a million years that I would lead the marketing effort for any company. Yet, here I am, doing just that. Admittedly, I’m learning as I go and lean heavily on the team for support but I’m enjoying it way more than I thought. Astarte Medical was born from an idea, and here we are, four years later with 12 employees, selling our product, seeing our vision take shape in a meaningful way. I’m not sure what I thought it would be, but I know it’s not a “job”. It’s so much a part of who I am now, it’s more like another child to grow and nurture.

I can’t imagine being a successful executive without having passion for what you are doing. Passion, drive and determination are key. If you are a person looking for a 9 to 5 job, this isn’t for you.

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

Stay focused on executing and delivering on your core business. Too many start-ups attempt to take on an impossible scope early in their gestation and fail to do any one project well.

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

Over the last 40 years, there has been a significant increase in diseases such as allergy, asthma and obesity — conditions which are all linked to gut health. In order to reverse this trend and have a positive impact on the next 40 years, we are focused on the first 1,000 days of life, from conception through age two. It is a period of tremendous potential and enormous vulnerability. The foundations for life-long health are largely set during this 1,000-day period as this is the most critical time for brain development, healthy growth and creating a strong immune system. Proper nutrition during this time can have a profound impact on a child’s ability to grow, learn and thrive. Astarte Medical is initially focused on optimizing nutrition and gut health for preterm infants; however, our strategy is to then move into prenatal care and early infant nutrition to optimize gut health across this unique window of opportunity. Our vision is to have a hand in creating the healthiest generation ever.

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

Invest time in finding the right hires — take the time to make sure the cultural fit is right. A bad fit can create negative energy and can bring the whole team down.
Communicate expectations — ensure that every employee knows what is expected of them. It is key that they know what success looks like for them individually and as a team.
Hold the team accountable — both when things aren’t going as planned but also when goals are achieved.
Always trust your gut instinct (pun intended) — if that inner voice is telling you that someone doesn’t fit with the company culture you are working hard to build, don’t wait to make a change. See #1 above — it impacts the whole team.
Think big and encourage your team to do the same — it will make them feel part of something bigger and can be a motivating factor in their current role.

I would like to inspire the movement toward wellness and prevention rather than treatment of disease. At Astarte Medical we are inspiring this movement by using data and analytics to inform care early in life during the most critical time of growth and development to set our kids on the proper trajectory toward life-long health.

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

“A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.” During the early part of my career, as a venture fund CFO, I was pretty content working in the background to support the partners in the firm. I enjoyed my work and found satisfaction in my accomplishments, but never at any time did they include promoting myself, speaking to an audience, or in any way shape or form “putting myself out there”. As co-founder of Astarte Medical, I have had to push myself out of my comfort zone and do whatever it takes to make the team and the company successful. Stepping up and getting out there has resulted in a confidence level that was previously unknown to me and has led to a tremendous amount of both personal and professional growth and was a key driver in closing our financing.

Melinda Gates — because of her philanthropic work around the world in health, particularly children, but also because of her push to empower women. We share similar interest in increasing diversity in the workplace, encouraging more women to start businesses, and in closing the funding gap for female founders.

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

Tammi Jantzen of Astarte Medical: “Why you shouldn’t surround yourself with people who look and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.