Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Rebecca Phillips, Mrs Heart, of Texas Plus America On The 5 Leadership Lessons She Learned From Her Experience
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Always be willing to take on a challenge. — When I was first starting out, my manager literally handed me a book for product briefs and said “here read these this weekend.” I had no idea what half of the terms meant but I asked questions. It was an unorthodox way to test a candidate, but it showed us each 2 things….1. I was willing to learn and ask questions. 2. I would face challenges and work through them vs walking away.
As a part of our series about “Lessons From Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Rebecca Phillips.
Rebecca Phillips is Mrs. Heart of Texas Plus America 2022. She is an advocate for women and girls in STEM. Her platform Robots & Rhinestones works to provide an exciting experience in STEM no matter what age! She is a technologist herself with over 20 years of professional experience in the high-tech field. Rebecca calls Austin, Texas home and loves her city — The Live Music Capital!
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I started as an administrative assistant for a high-tech company while I was finishing my master’s degree course work. The VP of Marketing that I worked for quickly realized that I had marketing potential and moved me into a junior marketing role within 6-months. From there I never left high-tech, I found my passion.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company?
I’d like to share a story from earlier in my career. I previously had the opportunity to start an industry tradeshow. This is a rare opportunity to have an idea and drive it to fruition on such a grand scale. By working with industry thought-leaders and rallying their support, I started a brand-new industry event. It was a 9-month project in the making and the event was a great success. I got to roll-up my sleeves and get into the weeds of making the event happen. Nearly 10 years later, the show still exists in a bit different of a format, but it has been adopted by the community. It was a fabulous experience and one that stands out to me as a once in a career opportunity.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. 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 out in my career, I traveled a lot for work. I was very new to international travel with my first out of country trip being a work trip to Taiwan. Prior to leaving, I read a lot of books and learned about local culture for business to try and make sure I could avoid mistakes. However, I still very much looked like a tourist upon arrival and in my downtime. I showed up with a large animal print suitcase and very pink outfits. It is important to note that today this would not be out of the ordinary but 20 years ago it was very different. From this I learned 2 things; One — travel is more than just your time in the office, you start to make an impression as soon as you arrive at the airport and until to you leave your home airport. Two — don’t lose your personality in your work, and when you do standout — embrace it and celebrate it! Though my luggage is much more subdued today, I still wear pink!
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I have created a personal project called Robots and Rhinestones. (This is also the platform for my pageantry journey.) Robots and Rhinestones strives to empower women and girls of all ages in STEM. We work with organizations that encourage girls to get involved in STEM such as FIRST and ChickTech. We also have started meet-up groups of women in technology to get together socially. We plan social activities that encourage conversation and foster friendships.
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Are you currently satisfied with the status quo regarding women in STEM? What specific changes do you think are needed to change the status quo?
We need to work to create inclusive support systems for all women in STEM. What we see today are very technical focused support groups geared for those with technical roles. However, there are a lot of women in STEM careers that are not in technical roles. By creating inclusive groups, we gain strength in numbers, share more stories, and create a greater bond.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women in STEM or Tech that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts? What would you suggest to address this?
STEM careers are traditionally male dominated. Women in STEM tend to lack support from other female co-workers mainly because of the numbers. We need to collectively start inclusive groups to support each other not only in career advancement but in social support. By sharing our stories and learnings we help each other. This means not just management roles but roles at all levels. We hear a lot from executives about how they got to where they are, that’s amazing. But what about the individual contributor that has had successes or failures? By providing them with a voice to share their story we help many others.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a woman in STEM or Tech. Can you explain what you mean?
Women are just a diversity checkmark. I absolutely hate this myth. I truly wish I could say that it no longer exists. Women are just as qualified and, in many cases, more qualified than their male counter parts. However, until we finally have gender blindness this will be a myth that we will have to continue to battle.
What are your “5 Leadership Lessons I Learned From My Experience as a Woman in STEM or Tech” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)
1. Always be willing to take on a challenge.
When I was first starting out, my manager literally handed me a book for product briefs and said “here read these this weekend.” I had no idea what half of the terms meant but I asked questions. It was an unorthodox way to test a candidate, but it showed us each 2 things….1. I was willing to learn and ask questions. 2. I would face challenges and work through them vs walking away.
2. Never stop asking “why”.
Asking “why” uncovers details about the problem and the environment around it. If you ask and embrace the why from a place of sincerity and genuine inquiry you will learn a lot. Sometimes on the other side of the why is a wonderful a new opportunity that you did not know was there.
3. Listen more than you speak.
This classic piece of advice holds very true. Sometimes as women in tech we feel that we must be extremely vocal to be heard. That is not true. By listening and truly understanding the full picture a few highly informed words mean a lot more than several words that are there to fill the silence.
4. Empathy is a skill that is in high demand. Don’t be afraid to show it.
As women one of our great natural strengths is empathy. Empathy is a soft skill, and it is very difficult to be taught. If you can find your unique way to bring empathy to the table, you provide a skill set that many others do not have to share. In my career I frequently find that I am the team member listening and understanding the human side of why people are reacting the way they do. Maybe it is that there is an ill family member at home or maybe it is just that the garage door broke that morning before they came to the office. If we can understand the situation someone is in, we can begin to understand their reaction and motivation. This understanding helps us work together in a healthy and positive way.
5. Enjoy what you do. Find the fun in what you are doing.
It is super easy to get lost in the tactical day to day of our jobs. Are we checking off all the items on our to do list, meeting our goals, keeping a zero-email inbox? Stop and find the fun. This can be as simple as random taco Tuesdays — host a Tuesday that everyone gets together for lunch. Get an order sheet together on Monday place the order and everyone take over a conference room for Tuesday lunch. If it is organic from the team, it is usually much more engaging a than top-down corporate planned event. Personally, I am known to be the Holiday Cube Decorating Contest ringleader. If we have cubes or offices and we are in the office I am going to encourage cube decorating! I’ve hosted both decorating contests in the winter and the summer! Some of these contests have been epic in scale. We’ve had annual trophies! Have you ever had your neighbors cube “snow” all day long? Mildly annoying and absolutely amazing all at the same time!
What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?
My advice is to listen and never stop learning. I’ve worked for many leaders that stopped listening to their teams and as a result their teams stopped talking and eventually died off. Listen both with a logical and empathetic ear. Second, keep learning yourself. Take more than just new leadership classes. Go take a class or listen to webinars about new technology, and not just thought leadership. Get your hands dirty. If you haven’t written code or soldered a board in a while. Do it! Remember what got you into your career and how it got you to where you are today. Not only will you learn something new, more importantly, it will make you appreciate your team and where they are in their individual career paths. 🙂
What advice would you give to other women leaders about the best way to manage a large team?
Large teams can be tricky to manage but finding the way to have everyone feel included and knowing their sense of purpose is key. Have round tables with the everyone in the team to really get to know everyone. Include time for not just what projects are you working on at the office, but if they want to share, what projects are you working on at home? We have implemented virtual coffee time with our team. Everyone Friday for an hour, it is optional, we get together and just chat. Sometimes it is about home DIY projects, videos games, kids’ sports, and sometimes it is work related. We strive to let the conversation be organic but if it gets a bit too work related someone will say something and try to steer the conversation back to generic topics.
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?
I have been blessed to have some really amazing people help me along the way in my career. But, honestly, the person I am most thankful for is my aunt. Though she is not one that taught me about technology she is the one that taught me about resilience. She is a multiple time cancer survivor and caregiver for my special-needs cousin. Through all of the ups and downs of health issues for herself and my cousin she never let any of it set her back. Sure, just like anyone she has her rough days but she lets those roll-off her like water and keeps moving forward. She has never lost her faith, her gentleness, her love for others or her positive outlook on life. She has always been someone that I’ve looked up. The skills that she taught me in person and by example have truly gotten me to where I am today.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
By telling my story of how I came to high-tech I work with students to encourage their curiosity in science and technology and show them that there are a variety of roles in STEM. Just because you love technology you don’t have to be an engineer, maybe you want to be in graphic arts or maybe in finance — that’s great you can still work in technology!
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would love to inspire a movement to help make the technology workplace more welcoming and friendlier for women. We spend a lot of time and effort on getting young women and girls excited about STEM. However, if we are not actively working to fix the workplace for them then we are filling a pipeline and not providing a positive place for them to land when they start their careers.
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 “Do one thing every day that scares you.” This reminds me to always push my comfort zone. It is easy to stay in our comfort zone but that is not where we grow. So, I strive to challenge myself to try new things. Most recently I entered the world of pageantry. I am not necessarily a ‘girly girl’. This spring I entered my first beauty pageant at the age of 50. It was a wonderful experience. I have met some amazing women that I know will be friends for life! I was way outside my comfort zone, but I learned a lot about myself.
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders 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 🙂
Alecia Moore, aka P!nk. She is an amazing woman that has broken down barriers in her industry. She stands for what she believes in, she fights for those that don’t have as large of a voice as she does, and she encourages and empowers those around her and her fan base. She is much more than a singer, she is a working mom, an advocate, an athlete, and an entrepreneur. I’d love to have brunch and chat about her outlook on career and empowerment and talk about wine making.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Rebecca Phillips, Mrs Heart, of Texas Plus America On The 5… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.