Several months ago, I was invited to participate on a panel hosted by the wonderful workforce development organization Year Up New York. If you don’t know about Year Up, they help young adults from challenging backgrounds achieve a “year up” in order to join the workforce as technology staff, or go on to school—community college or 4 year programs. The remarkable stories of these young people are life changing and life affirming—as is their youth, tenacity and resilience. Support Year Up—it is the work of everyone’s lives.
Year Up New York convened a 1-day Women in IT program hosted by Microsoft and facilitated by Abbie Lundberg, former editor in chief CIO Magazine and current founder/principal Lundberg Media. Two panels , each featuring eight CIO/SVPs, and one nonprofit representative per panel convened to discuss success factors and challenges of being a woman in IT. The panelists represented a broad array of sectors, and were very senior—CIO and SVP or higher, and the session was deemed closed in order to allow for candid exchange between the panelists and audience. All panelists were women.
Each talked about their journey to the top, describing early challenges—one woman, the first woman ever on the trading floor in a London Exchange was spat on by her male colleagues—to current dilemmas including jobs that didn’t materialize after relocating one’s entire family to another country.
It struck me that these were very technical, seasoned, tough women—strong leaders, big budgets, complex technology and business issues while managing large staffs often with many women reporting to them. Each panelist addressed the same kinds of issues we deal with all the time at ABI: mentoring, leadership, networking, role models, and lack of women at the top.
Many panelists had worked their way up through the technology staff ranks. Most, if any, did not come up through computer science ranks—instead they rose through a multidisciplinary path. What struck me about these women, however, was how comfortable they conveyed themselves in leadership roles. They have lots of women on their staff, they are leaders themselves, and each seemed completely at ease being leaders—I’d have worked for any one of them.
It was at the conclusion of the program that the ‘true’ gems occurred, however. Each panelist was asked to give one piece of advice to the audience. Every bit of advice was worthwhile—smart, timely, shrewd and actionable. I decided to pick a few of my favorites and share them, although this is a misnomer—every piece of advice was my favorite. I felt honored to share company with them.
- Create a personal transition team for yourself 4-5 people when a major life transition occurs. One panelist talked about creating your own transition team and not attempting major changes on your own, alone. Her advice was to single out people that represented different parts of the transition plan, invite them to join the team, assign them roles, secure their commitment to the team for its duration, and get them to be an active part of your transition from one role to another.
- Don’t settle for less because it can take much longer than you think to climb from where you settled to where you really belong. A panelist spoke openly about accepting a job below her skill level because she lacked the confidence to push for what she wanted, and described eloquently how long it took her—longer than she expected—to regain the ground she gave up by taking a lower skilled job. This is true for many women that often don’t always understand how to move up, and she gave a brilliant summation of how easy it is to waver, not stand firm, not wait for the right job. If you don’t believe it, just read the book Women Don’t Ask.
- Don’t waste your time trying to change the company, it won’t happen. Don’t hold on to a job for too long. I’ve heard this advice before, from women that have actually left companies and been re-hired by the same company but at a much higher level. The panelist spoke candidly and openly about how women often remain too long in a job, hoping the company will change, the boss will change, etc. She encouraged women to consider changing jobs and not hold on to a job that is not going in the direction needed to support the woman’s career. The company, the boss, the job situation may nor change, and at some point a woman has to fish or cut bait—leave in order to achieve her next career goals.
- Take risks, especially as a woman. This particular panelist was my kind of woman—shrewd, tenacious, quietly outspoken—qualities that I personally enjoy in a leader. She talked about the importance of not playing it safe in your career, and taking risks—actively looking for risk. I know—it’s one thing to say take risks, when in fact it is scary, unpredictable, and difficult especially if you are a working single mother, sole breadwinner, etc. But she conveyed that in many ways, being a working woman and a woman leader is all about risk, much of the time. She had a way of conveying the urgency and importance of risk-taking that I found compelling and believable, and I left her discussion thinking women often don’t understand how to think bigger. We think too small as a way to minimize risk, when in fact, we should be thinking bigger. Just think of how many jobs a woman-owned company could create if women thought bigger…
And what was my piece of advice? Go for the gold. Grab the brass ring. Think about what you want, put a plan together, and go get it. Life is short—make it count.