Leadership strategies I learned in male-dominated careers

1
Leadership strategies I learned in
MALE-DOMINATED CAREERS
Alison Walden
SXSW 2016
@lsnrae
Hi,
my
name
is
Alison
Walden.
Thanks

for
checking
out
my
presenta;on.
I’m

looking
forward
to
sharing
some
of
the

leadership
strategies
I’ve
learned
in

male-‐dominated
careers
with
you.
I

work
at
SapientNitro.
I
lead
the

Canadian
Experience
Technology

prac;ce.

When
I
started
back
in
2005
as
a
web

developer,
it
wasn’t
the
ﬁrst
;me
I

found
myself
in
a
job
where
I
was

surrounded
by
men.
That’s
because
my

former
career
was
as
an
Explora;on

Geologist.

2
GEOLOGY CLIP ART
All
you
have
to
do
is
a
google
image

search
on
geologist
to
get
the

impression
that
this
is
a
male-‐
dominated
ﬁeld…and
this
was
my

experience
too…

3
GEOLOGY CLIP ART
My
search
did
bring
up
one
woman…The
ouOit
explains
why
I
used
to
get
eaten
alive
by
mosquitos…My
joke
is,
when
people
ask
me
why
I
leQ

geology
to
become
a
web
developer,
I
tell
them
that
it’s
because
I
was
sick
of
working
with
so
many
men.
So
here’s
where
I’m
at
now…

4
WEB DEVELOPER CLIP ART
The
search
results
for
web
developers
was
even
more
dire.
I
found
no
results
that
depicted
female
developers.

I
realize
this
won’t
change
the
world,
but
these
results
bothered
me
so
much
that
I
asked
our
execu;ve
crea;ve
director
for
Toronto
to
engage

our
design
team
to
create
some
new
ones
that
we
could
s;ck
online
to
get
indexed.
We
posted
them
on
our
blog
on
Interna;onal
Women’s
Day,

and
here
are
some
of
them…

5
WEB DEVELOPER CLIP ART – NEW!
Illustra;ons
by
Rafael
Cas;llo:
www.cas;llographicdesign.com)

The
hope
is
that
these
will
get
indexed
by
search
engines
and
if
a

woman
does
this
same
search
several
weeks
from
now
she’ll
ﬁnd

some
representa;ons
she
can
relate
to
a
bit
more.
Not
that
I

think
that
doing
a
google
image
search
is
a
par;cularly
scien;ﬁc

way
to
determine
whether
an
industry
is
gender
imbalanced…

6
WOMEN IN COMPUTING FIELDS
Women receiving bachelor’s degrees
in computer science in the US
Women working as web
developers in the US
Source: http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-computing
18% 35%
Source: http://www.dol.gov/wb/stats/gender_shares_emp_comp_it_2014.htm
These
are
US
sta;s;cs
for
2014.
Women
are
underrepresented
in
technology
programs
in
universi;es.
And
they
are
underrepresented
in
the

workforce.
This
has
been
my
experience.
Some
of
the
things
I’ll
share
with
you
today
are
pieces
of
advice.
And
because
of
my
experience,
these

are
pieces
of
advice
that
came
from
men.
Other
things
are
things
I’ve
no;ced
myself.
Lile
things
that
leaders
do.
And
in
the
stories
I’ll
share,
the

leaders
I’ll
tell
you
about
have
been
men.
BUT
IT
DOESN’T
MATTER
WHERE
GOOD
ADVICE
COMES
FROM.

7
Gina Trapani,
Developer,
founder of
Lifehacker
Marissa Mayer,
Engineer,
President and
CEO of Yahoo!
Tracy Chou,
Software
engineer at
Pinterest
Nicole Sullivan,
Performance
engineer and
international
evangelist for
Yahoo
Amanda Wixted,
Game
programmer and
iPhone tech lead
at Zynga
FEMALE TECH LEADERS
WOMEN
CAN
AND
DO
SUCCEED
IN
THE
TECHNOLOGY
INDUSTRY.
This
is
especially
evident
here
at
SXSW.
It’s
amazing
to
be
speaking
here
at
this

conference
where
many
of
these
great,
inspira;onal
female
tech
leaders
in
our
industry
today
have
spoken.
Some
are
here
this
year.
But
we’re

not
done,
we
s;ll
need
more
female
leaders.

8
We
need
to
gather
good
advice,
and
share
it
with
women
we
know
in
the
technology
ﬁeld,
and
help
enable
them
to
become
the
next
genera;on

of
technology
leaders
and
mentors.

9
UNIVERSAL
THINGS
The
other
thing
about
good
advice
is
it’s
universal.

My
hope
is
that
you’ll
ﬁnd
something
in
my
presenta5on
today
to
help

you
move
forward
whether
you’re
a
man
or
a
woman.
In
fact,
when
I

was
ﬁrst
inspired
to
speak
on
this
topic,
I
was
envisioning
delivering
it

to
my
front
end
development
team,
that
includes
many
men.

I’m
focusing
on
the
li>le
things
today,
because…

10
SMALL SHIFTS IN APPROACH CAN MAKE
BIG DIFFERENCES
IN HOW YOU ARE PERCEIVED

11
Four Words That Knocked Me Flat (The Second One Will Surprise You)

12
There
it
is,
the
SapientNitro
Bangalore
oﬃce.
Looking
strangely
devoid
of
people.
We
were
moving
one
of
our
automo;ve
clients’
websites
into
a

content
management
system.
It
was
a
huge
site.
Over
32,000
pages.
It
was
a
large
front
end
team.
20
people
across
North
America
and
India.

13
Bloomberg/Gey
Images
photo
by
Namas
Bhojani

And
here’s
some
good
old
Bangalore
traﬃc.
I’m
showing
you
this
to
illustrate
how
complicated
this
project
was.
It
was
more
complicated
than

this
scene.
It
would
have
been
considerably
easier
to
drive
in
Bangalore
as
a
Western
visitor,
than
it
was
to
work
on
this
project.
The

requirements
kept
shiQing
and
there
were
always
more
ques;ons
than
answers.

14
On
the
ground,
we
were
this
huge
80-‐person
tech
team
making
things
happen.
I
was
running
the
front
end
development
track
of
work,
and
I
was

SO
PUMPED
because
I
was
working
directly
with
some
very
senior
people.
I’d
never
had
the
chance
to
even
meet
them
before.
Up
un;l
that

point,
I’d
only
seen
their
pictures
in
those
kind
of
company-‐wide
email
newsleers.
(Photo
by
Subin
Paul)

15
One
reason
why
I
was
viewed
as
a
good
choice
as
the
front
end
development
lead
was
because
I
had
context
with
the
client
and
with
their

current
website.
My
team
had
been
maintaining
their
exis;ng
site
and
doing
their
campaign
work
for
the
last
two
years.
Everyone
else
on
the

account
was
fairly
new,
and
they
were
really
excited
to
gain
a
team
member
with
so
much
context.
At
ﬁrst
it
seemed
like
a
good
thing
for
me,

too.

16
But
it
didn’t
take
long
for
my
context
to
become
a
real
road
block
to
me
gehng
anything
done.
I
was
no;cing
my
inbox
ﬁlling
up,
and
it
was

taking
me
a
long
;me
to
get
to
answering
everyone’s
emails
when
I
had
a
website
to
build
and
a
team
to
manage.
Being
helpful
is
great,
but
I

started
to
no;ce
a
decline
in
the
quality
of
the
ques;ons.
People
weren’t
necessarily
thinking
much
anymore,

17…they
were
coming
to
me
for
answers
ﬁrst.
And
I
wanted
to
help!
It
didn’t
maer
how
strange
the
ques;on
was.
It
didn’t
even
have
to
make

sense.
If
someone
sent
it
to
me
in
an
email,
I’d
set
aside
some
;me
and
work
on
it.

18
“I live in Atlanta, but I think you meant where am I from originally.”
If
the
ques;on
made
absolutely
no
sense,
I’d
spend
;me

considering
what
the
sender
might
have
actually
meant,
and

give
them
alternate
responses
based
on
the
various

possibili;es.

We’re
gehng
to
the
part
now
where
the
4-‐word
sentence

came
in.

19
I
came
in
the
oﬃce
one
morning
and
no;ced
a
buzz
happening
in
the
corner
of
the
room.
Some
rumour
was
moving
across
the
room
like
a
wave

and
it
was
fascina;ng
to
watch.
Finally
it
got
to
me
and
I
asked
a
colleague,
what’s
going
on?
He
told
me
that
the
s;r
was
about
our
vice

president
of
technology.
Apparently
he
had
received
a
long-‐winded
ques;on
via
email
from
one
of
our
architects,
but
had
not
gone
to
the
same

great
lengths
that
I
would
have
to
provide
a
response.
His
response
had
only
4
words.
THE
4
words!
They
weren’t
TL;DR,
they
were:

20
“I don’t get it.”
His
response
was,
I
don’t
get
it.

Here’s
where
my
8
year
old
daughter
would
say,

22
And
the
developers
on
the
floor
were
like
this.
I’m
not
even
really
exaggera;ng.
As
a
group
I
think
technology
team
was
a
bit
of
a
tough
crowd.

For
one
of
us
to
ask
a
ques;on
of
this
guy
we
respected,
expec;ng
him
to
know
the
answer,
we
were
fairly
shocked
by
this
basic
response.
But

was
that
a
fair
reac;on?
A
bunch
of
us
literally
stopped
work
to
have
a
gossip
session.
Why
did
his
statement
affect
us
so
much?
I
couldn’t
speak

for
the
rest
of
the
team,
but
I
could
figure
it
out
for
myself.
So
I
took
some
;me
to
reflect
why
it
was
bothering
me,
And
I
dis;lled
it
down
to
a

few
reasons.

23
UNDERLYING
ASSUMPTIONS
First
of
all,
I
had
some
underlying
assump;ons
of
how
senior
leaders
behave.
I
wanted
to
BECOME
a
senior
leader.
And
I
thought
I
was
paving
my

way
there
by
answering
these
vague
ques;ons
I
was
gehng
on
an
hourly
basis.
By
spending
my
;me
trying
to
ﬁgure
out
what
people
were
trying

to
say.
But
here
was
this
guy,
already
a
leader,
and
he
didn’t
spend
his
energy
that
way.

24
UNDERLYING
ASSUMPTIONS
INNER
CONFLICT
+
So
it
conﬂicted
with
my
expecta;ons
for
myself.
This
is
not
how
I
would
have
handled
someone
asking
me
a
confusing
ques;on.
I
would
have

done
some
research
or
simply
tried
to
guess
what
the
person
was
asking.
Was
I
going
about
things
the
wrong
way?

25
UNDERLYING
ASSUMPTIONS
INNER
CONFLICT
+ A CULTURE OF
KNOWING
+
I
also
realized
that
I’m
not
used
to
hearing
people
say
“I
don’t
know.”
That
there
is
this
culture
of
knowing
that
I
think
is
especially
prevalent
in

the
tech
industry.

26
Designed
by
Freepik

So
on
the
way
back
to
my
hotel
that
night,
sihng
in
traﬃc,
horns
blaring
all
around
me,
I
took
some
;me
to
reﬂect
on
if
it
made
sense
or
not
for

me
be
uncomfortable
in
a
world
where
people
admit
that
they
don’t
know.
And
how
would
it
impact
me
if
I
did
the
same
thing?

27
Designed
by
Freepik

Well,
I’d
deﬁnitely
save
;me.
Imagine
if
I
placed
the
burden
of
explaining
things
on
someone
else.
Someone
sends
me
a
confusing
email?
I
ask

them
for
more
informa;on
instead
of
trying
to
ﬁgure
it
out.

28
Designed
by
Freepik

I’d
save
energy.
Instead
of
scrambling
to
learn
something
in
the
moment
just
because
someone
asked
me
about
it,
I
could
admit
that
I
didn’t

know.
This
comes
up
so
oQen
in
the
world
of
front
end
development,
where
there’s
something
new
to
learn
every
day.
If
I
don’t
know
about

some
new
framework,
chances
are
someone
on
my
team
has
used
it.
I
could
defer
the
ques;on
to
them.

29
Designed
by
Freepik

And
I
could
let
go
of
stress
by
refusing
to
be
a
part
of
that
culture
of
knowing.
Why
pretend
to
know
everything?
Why
perpetuate
the
idea
that

that
is
even
possible?

30
“I don’t get it.”
Four
words.
With
those
four
words,
I
was
done
with
guessing,
pretending,
and
faking
it.
If
this
person
who
I
respected
so
much
could
say
straight

out
that
he
didn’t
get
it,
then
so
could
I.
And
that’s
when
I
realized
that
that
was
actually,
how
a
real
leader
would
behave.

31
True confidence lies in not
having to know the answer
True
conﬁdence
lies
in
not
always
having
to
know
the
answer.

This
wasn’t
the
only
learning
moment
I
had
on
this
project.
The
;meframe
for
the
next
story
was
also
on
this
project.

32
THE HIDDEN
BENEFITS
of being organized
I
call
it
the
hidden
beneﬁts
of
being

organized.
The
;meframe
for
this
story
was

when
I
was
just
star;ng
on
that
project
for

our
automo;ve
client.
(I
got
tons
of
mileage

out
of
this
client
in
terms
of
learning!)
I
was

new
to
the
team,
with
new
eyes
to
see
the

chaos,
and
I
had
some
sugges;ons
for
some

new
processes
I
wanted
to
implement,
both

on
the
front
end
development
track
and
for

the
project
overall,
that
I
thought
could

make
the
project
run
more
eﬃciently.
So
I

shot
this
amazing
mee;ng
invite
to
our

delivery
lead.

33
Hi
Dave,

Let
me
know
if
this
;me
doesn’t
work
for
you.

Alison

The
subject
was
“Mee;ng”.
If
you’ve
ever
worked
with
a
strong
program
manager
then
you
can
guess
how
this
turned
out.

34
Alison

Re:
Mee;ng

Hi
Alison,

What
is
the
mee;ng
agenda?
How
do
I
know
that
I
need
to
aend
this

mee;ng?

Dave

Dave
very
reasonably
asked
for
an
agenda,
probably
not
as
politely
as
shown
here.
And
although
that
in
itself
if
a
valuable
point,
it
was
actually
in

crea;ng
the
agenda
for
this
mee;ng
that
I
had
the
A-‐HA
moment
that
I
will
share
with
you
today.

35
Designed
by
Freepik

Once
I
had
taken
the
;me
required
to

reﬂect
on
what
this
mee;ng
needed
to
be

about
so
that
I
could
make
an
agenda
for

this
picky
guy,
something
interes5ng

happened.
I
actually
ended
up
changing
the

purpose
of
the
en;re
mee;ng.
This
made

me
realize
that
I
wasn’t
taking
the
;me

required
to
think
things
through
before

ac;ng.
Hold
this
thought.
We’ll
come
back

to
it.

36
Shoo;ng
out
mee;ng
invites
with
no
agenda
wasn’t
the
only
instance
where
I
was
running
too
fast
in
this
project.

37
Over
a
year
and
a
half
I
made
7
trips
to
India
for
this
project
to
set
up
the
team,
communicate
requirements,
set
up
the
content
migra;on,

and
help
the
team
through
user
tes;ng
phase.
Every
;me
I
visited
the
Bangalore
oﬃce,
I
kicked
oﬀ
my
;me
there
with
a
mee;ng
with
our
vice

president.
This
was
a
mee;ng
he
scheduled.
He
wanted
to
get
a
project
status,
and
understand
what
my
goals
were
for
my
;me
in
Bangalore.
A

good
opportunity,
right?
It
would
have
been
amazing
if
I
had
actually
prepared
topics
for
us
to
discuss
together,
instead
of
just
winging
it.
For
our

conversa;ons,
instead
of
planning
what
to
discuss,
I
generally
employed
this
strategy.

38
BLAH BLAH
BLAH BLAH
BLAH BLAH
BLAH BLAH
BLAH BLAH
BLAH BLAH
BLAH BLAH
BLAH BLAH
BLAH BLAH
BLAH BLAH
BLAH BLAH
I
had
a
bit
of
an
epiphany
when
he
cut
me
oﬀ
one
day
with
2
words:

39
ALISON:
KEY ISSUES.
It’s
important
to
remember
as
you’re
doing
the
job,
that

40
DOING THE JOB IS NOT THE ONLY JOB.

41
In
subsequent
trips
I
planned
in
advance
how
to
ar;culate
the
status
of
the
project
with
him.
Similar
to
crea;ng
the
mee;ng
agenda,
when
I
took

the
;me
to
think
of
the
project
from
a
high
level,
something
interes;ng
happened.
We
not
only
had
to
clearer,
more
succinct
communica;ons,

but
this
reﬂec;on
in
itself
led
to
new
ideas
on
how
to
improve
the
project.
It
took
making
a
conscious
decision
on
my
part
in
order
for
me
to

organize
my
thoughts
at
the
right
;mes.

42
ORGANIZED
IN THOUGHT
ORGANIZED
IN SPEECH
+ ORGANIZED
IN ACTION
=
A
catchier
way
to
say
this
is…

43
TAKE
what you
NEED
And
here,
we
have
the
last
piece
of
pizza.
Does
anyone
want
it?
In
my
country,
nobody
would
take
this
last
piece
of
pizza.
We’re
too
polite.
We’d

all
be
thinking
that
someone
else
is
hungrier
than
us
and
needs
it
more.
But
I
call
this
story,
“Take
what
you
need”.

44
Ok.
Let’s
start
with
a
quick
game.
This
woman
is
frustrated
and
there
is
something
she
needs.
Can
anyone
tell
me
what
she
needs?
Now
this

seems
really
obvious
to
say,
but
no,
you
can’t
tell
me
what
she
needs
just
by
looking
at
her.
You
need
her
to
tell
you
what
she
needs.
I
come

across
this
issue
all
the
;me.
It
is
so
rare
that
people
say
what
they
need,
and
it
actually
drives
me
crazy.
And
it’s
not
enough
for
you
to
tell
me

that
you
need
something,
I
need
to
know
exactly
what.

45
But
you
could
have
taken
the
same
picture
of
me
several
years
ago.
My
team
was
engaged
in
maintaining
one
of
our
client’s
websites.
This
client

had
some
challenges
with
their
marke;ng
calendar.
The
challenge
was
that
they
prey
much
didn’t
have
one.
They
couldn’t
seem
to
keep
track

of
when
their
campaigns
would
appear
in
print,
so
they
kept
finding
new
web
projects
that
needed
to
be
done
at
a
moment’s
no;ce.
I
had
a

team
of
10
developers
and
found
that
my
toughest
job
was
shuffling
people
around
to
ensure
this
work
got
done.
I
didn’t
have
;me
to
aend

wireframe
or
design
reviews,
or
to
focus
on
the
technical
aspects
of
the
work.
Maybe
at
the
;me
this
picture
was
taken,
I
was
reading
an
email

from
my
counterpart
technical
lead
in
Chicago
finding
out
that
he
had
resigned,
and
that
he
wouldn’t
be
replaced.
I
was
ready
to
freak
out
at
the

thought
of
losing
his
support.

46
Source:
NBC’s
The
Oﬃce

So
I
went
to
my
VP
of
technology
and
let
him
know
that
unless
he
hired
another
tech
lead
to
work
with
me,
the
quality
of
work
was
going
to
go

down.

47
BOOM!
Obviously.
There
could
be
no
other
solu;on
to
this
problem
that
I
thought
about
for
30
seconds.

48
Source:
NBC’s
The
Oﬃce

Lucky
for
me,
this
guy
really
was
the
world’s
best
boss,
so
instead
of
reac;ng
nega;vely
to
my
ul;matum,
he
sat
down
with
me
and
helped
me

outline
all
of
the
issues
I
was
having
that
were
taking
up
my
;me.
It
looked
a
bit
like
this:

49
TOO MUCH
ADMIN
WORK
NEED FOR
TECHNICAL
QUALITY
+
NEED A
PROJECT
MANAGER?
=
What
a
great
idea.
With
a
junior
project
manager
to
oﬄoad
my
administra;ve
work
to,
I
was
able
to
resume
my
technical
work
without
the

assistance
of
another
tech
lead.
Now
in
this
case,
he
helped
talk
me
through
it.
But
you’re
not
always
going
to
get
a
VP
who
has
;me
to
do
that,

and
really,
if
I
had
taken
the
;me
to
think
it
through
myself,
I
probably
could
have
come
up
with
the
same
idea.

50
PROBLEMS
THE
POINT
IS,
When
you
have
a
problem,
your
unique
insights
will
provide
the
best
solu;on.
You’re
the
closest
person
to
that
problem.
In
the

end
you
have
to
ﬁgure
out
WHAT
YOU
NEED.
Then
ask
for
it,
from
the
person
who
can
give
it
to
you.

51
PROBLEMS
SOLUTIONS
It
means
that
instead
of
coming
to
someone
with
problems,
you're
coming
to
them
with
poten;al
solu;ons.
You’ll
be
perceived
in
a
completely

diﬀerent
way.

52
KNOW
YOUR
VALUE
Now
I’m
going
to
completely
switch
gears

and
talk
about
knowing
your
own
value.

The
;tle
of
this
story
reminds
me
of
a

one
of
my
best
friends
in
high
school.

This
happy
go
lucky
guy
who
never
used

to
mind
if
someone
called
him
arrogant.

He
used
to
say
that
if
he
didn’t
have
a

high
opinion
of
himself,
how
could
he

expect
anyone
else
to?
I
thought
it
was
a

fair
point.

53
I’m
going
to
start
here
with
this

ecard.
A
few
years
ago,

working
on
yet
another

challenging
project
(they’re
all

challenging
in
their
own
way,

right?),
a
few
of
us
sent
this

ecard
around
to
make
each

other
feel
beer.
We’ve
all

been
there.
I’m
talking
about

when
you’re
so
busy
working

on
low
level
things
that
you

don’t
have
;me
for
any
big

picture
thinking.

54
This
par;cular
project
was
a
redesign
of
a
coupon-‐clipping
website
for
a
grocery
store
chain
based
here
in
the
US.
I
was
located
in
Toronto.
The

designers
were
in
Chicago,
my
front
end
team
was
in
Poland,
and
the
back
end
team
was
in
India.
The
client’s
head
oﬃce
was
in
Grand
Rapids.

We
really
were
globally
distributed
on
this
project.
I
had
just
started
on
the
project,
and
no;ced
that
my
tech
director
was
always
trying
to
get

me
to
travel
somewhere.
Whether
that
be
to
Chicago
to
work
with
the
design
team,
or
to
the
client
site.
One
day
he
asked
me
if
I
could
go
to

Grand
Rapids
for
a
mee;ng,
and
I
answered
the
way
I
always
answered
such
a
request
back
then.
I
asked,

55
“Am I really needed at the meeting?”

56
Designed
by
Freepik

And
the
director
of
technology
looked
at
me
like
this.
“Am
I
needed
at
the
mee;ng”
can
be
construed
as
a
valid
ques;on,
but
be
careful.
What
it

does,
it
it
puts
the
onus
on
someone
else
to
assess
the
value
of
YOUR
CONTRIBUTION
to
a
mee;ng,
and
this
is
a
dangerous
thing
to
do.

57
Designed
by
Freepik

The
DoT
got
kind
of
sarcas;c
with
me,
“Well
I
don’t
know,
do
you
ever
ﬁnd
that
your
viewpoint
as
a
front
end
technologist
comes
in
handy

during
client
mee;ngs?”
I
had
to
admit
that
in
the
past,
that
had
happened.
“How
about
in
design
conversa;ons?”
Sure.
And
he
said,
“Well,
I

never
know
what
will
come
up
on
these
trips
so
yeah,
I’d
say
you’re
needed
at
the
mee;ng.
And
he
asked
me,
“Why
are
you
front
end
devs
so

averse
to
travelling?”
And
I
realized
that
we
were.
That’s
really
changed
since
then
but
at
the
;me…

58
Source:
Mar;n
Handford

We
wanted
everyone
to
seek
us
out
to
ask

for
our
opinion
on
things,
but
we
weren’t

puhng
ourselves
out
there
and
insis;ng

that
we
be
part
of
the
process.
We
were

being
passive.
We
needed
to
make
the

decision
ourselves
on
if
we
needed
to
be

part
of
the
mee;ng.

59
You need to be part of the meeting.YOU NEED
to be part of
the meeting
And
as
a
front
end
developer,
you
need
to
be
part
of
the
mee;ng.
This
one
is
an
easy
decision.
What
about
the
harder
ones?

60
Source:
hps://juliandradurkin.ﬁles.wordpress.com/2014/08/paths.jpg

The
good
news
is
that
even
making
a
decision
at
all
will
make

you
more
of
a
leader
than
the
people
who
won’t.
The
reason

that
people
don’t
want
to
make
decisions
is
because
they’re

afraid
they’ll
make
the
wrong
one.
My
career
manager
at

Sapient
told
me
this:

61
TO BE A LEADER IS TO NOT BE
AFRAID TO MAKE A MISTAKE.
He
said
this
in
reference
to
a
mistake
he
had
made
himself.
He
had
been
leading
the
implementa;on
of
an
eCommerce
storefront
for
a
retail

client
and
had
made
a
bit
of
a
dire
error
in
his
technical
design.

62
Source:
WashingtonPost:
hps://goo.gl/qxm6ZX

We
had
to
redo
a
lot
of
work
for
free
to
fix
it.
One
thing
here
that
impressed
me
is
that
he
didn't
get
fired.
It
struck
me
how
lucky
I
was
to
work
in

an
environment
where
people
are
allowed
to
fail.
When
he
talked
with
me
about
his
decision-‐making
process
in
that
situa;on,
he
pointed
out

that
nobody
else
on
the
team
was
deciding
anything,
and
that
part
of
being
a
leader
is
making
decisions,
even
if
they
turn
out
to
be
the
wrong

ones.
Here,
let’s
fix
this…

.

63
Source:
Huﬃngton
Post:
hp://goo.gl/76k3eD

That’s
beer.
As
humans,
we
don’t
like
messes,
and
we
don’t
like
talking
about
mistakes.
But
making
mistakes
is
a
great
way
to
learn
things
you’ll

never
learn
otherwise.
My
career
manager’s
story
reminded
me
of
one
of
my
own
failures.
And
now
I'm
going
to
invite
you
in
to
my
former
life,

as
an
explora;on
geologist.

64This
failure
probably
s;cks
in
my
mind
because
it
was
my
ﬁrst
big
mistake
I
made
in
a
full-‐;me
job.
I
was
doing
explora;on
work
in
the
Canadian

arc;c
with
a
team
of
fellow
rookies.

65
We
were
in
the
helicopter
flying
out
to
our
area
that
we
needed
to
map,
but
none
of
us
were
direc;ng
the
pilot.
This
would
always
be
a

challenge,
“Drop
us
off
at
the
flat
spot,
with
the
water
and
ice.
NO,
THAT
flat
spot…”
But
at
least
we
should
make
an
aempt.
We
had
aerial

photographs
that
showed
us
where
we
were
supposed
to
be.
So
the
pilot,
maybe
this
is
a
classic
case
of
a
guy
not
wan;ng
to
ask
for
direc;ons?

He
took
us
to
where
he
thought
we
needed
to
go
and
dropped
us
off.
None
of
us
checked
our
posi;on,
it’s
no
surprise
that
we
ended
up
in
the

wrong
place.
Before
the
pilot
leQ
he
said,
“I’ve
got
some
stuff
to
do
for
the
next
6
hours,
and
I’m
gonna
be
out
of
radio
signal
range,
but
I’ll
be

back
later.
So
don’t
break
your
leg
or
anything.
I’ll
be
back.”
We
didn’t
try
to
orient
ourselves
un;l
aQer
he
was
gone,
at
which
point
we
realized

we
were
way
off
course,
and
nowhere
near
the
area
we
were
supposed
to
be
mapping.

66
So
there
we
were,
stuck
in
a
remote
part
of
Victoria
Island
for
about
6
hours
with
nothing
to
do.
And
it
was
just
like
my
career
manager
had

described
–
nobody
was
making
a
decision
on
the
next
steps.
People
were
bickering
and
shou;ng
out
ideas,
but
nobody
had
enough
convic;on

to
really
stand
behind
any
of
them.
So
I
decided
to
make
a
decision.

67
I
told
everyone
that
there
were
plenty
of
rocks,
and
we
were
4
geologists.
Since
we
were
stuck
in
that
area
all
day
anyway,
we
might
as
well
map

them.
At
the
end
of
the
day
we
had
mapped
a
substan;al
area
of
this
land
that
our
company
did
not
own.

68
Back
at
the
camp,
my
boss
was
less
than
impressed.
He
did
take
the
data
we
gathered,
and
I
think
he
even
sent
our
samples
in
for
assay
(that

means
crushing
them
and
tes;ng
them
to
see
if
they
contain
gold).
But
he
made
a
big
show
of
telling
me
that
we
had
wasted
our
day.

69
But
it
wasn’t
a
waste
for
me.
Reﬂec;ng
on
it

later,
I
realized
I
had
learned
something

important:
My
team
members
had
listened
to

me.
I
had
the
ability
to
convince
people.
I
had
the

courage
to
put
my
stake
in
an
idea
and
run
with

it.
It
might
not
have
turned
out
well,
and
that
is

ﬁne.
Believing
in
myself
really
set
me
up
for
the

roles
I
was
to
play
at
Sapient.
And
this
brings
me

to
my
last
story,
about
a
mentor
of
mine
who

believed
in
me
when
I
was
just
star5ng
out
in

my
career.

70
It
was
early
in
my
career.
I
was
running
the
front
end
development
track
of
work
for
an
eCommerce
implementa;on
for
a
telecom
client.
This

was
a
large-‐scale
implementa;on,
with
the
front
end
team
alone
having
more
than
20
people
spread
across
NA
and
India.
We
were
in
tes;ng

phase
and
it
had
goen
messy.
It
seemed
like
whenever
we
closed
a
defect
two
more
would
open.
I
had
just
got
back
from
maternity
leave
and

didn’t
feel
comfortable
going
to
India.
So
that
was
ﬁne,

71
I
went
to
Kansas
instead!
This
was
where
our
back
end
team
was
sihng
at
the
client
site.
I
went
there
to
at
the
request
of
our
then
VP
of

technology
who
is
now
our
CTO,

to
talk
about
PROCESS
CHANGES
WE
COULD
MAKE
TO
IMPROVE
MY
TEAM’S
DEFECT
RESOLUTION
RATE.
Now,
I

had
a
few
ideas
on
how
to
turn
our
stats
around
that
I
was
happy
to
share.

72
FOOLPROOF PROCESS CHANGE TO IMPROVE DEFECT FIX RATE
I
sat
down
with
the
VP,
now
our
global
CTO,
and
the
senior
architect,
I
myself
was
a
senior
developer
at
the
;me,
and
outlined
a
plan
by
which

we’d
tackle
the
defects
one
page
at
a
5me.
I
described
a
scenario
where
the
developers
could
focus
on
ﬁxing
ALL
issues
on
a
per
page
basis
and

no;ce
if
they
were
breaking
something
else
in
the
process.
I
men;oned
the
feeling
of
sa;sfac;on
that
the
team
would
get
and
the
sense
of

momentum
that
would
come
from
seeing
a
page
completely
ﬁxed.
He
said,
ok,
and
I
went
back
to
my
desk.

73
The
very
next
day,
when
the
defect
logging
process
had
turned
completely
from
a
ﬁsh
into
a
rainbow,
I
was
mildly
surprised
and
didn’t

immediately
connect
it
to
the
conversa;on
I
had
had
the
day
before
with
the
VP.
I
remember
saying
to
the
developer
who
had
come
with
me

from
Toronto,
“Hey,
check
it
out,
this
is
cool.
They
are
only
logging
defects
on
the
homepage
today!”

And
he
was
like,
“Yeah,
isn’t
that
what
you
asked
them
to
do?
One
page
at
a
;me?”

74
BOOM!
BOOM!
The
VP
of
technology
had
ensured
that
my
idea
was
implemented.
I
could
never
have
done
that
on
my
own.

It
can
be
temp;ng
to
do
everything
yourself.
I’m
sure
our
VP
of
technology
could
have
ﬁgured
out
a
solu;on
to
our
quality
assurance
issues.
But

he
gave
me
a
chance
to
tackle
them
my
own
way,
and
I
had
never
felt
more
empowered.
Which
brings
me
to
my
last
point…

76
"Make yourself available, and
when you can lift somebody up,
lift somebody up”
-Suzy Deering,
CMO eBay, NA
I
really
like
this
quote
I
heard
from
Suzy
Deering
at
the
3%
conference
last
fall.

77
LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES I LEARNED
IN MALE-DOMINATED CAREERS:
‣  TRUE CONFIDENCE LIES in not always having to know the answer
‣  Organized in THOUGHT, organized in SPEECH, organized in ACTION
‣  TAKE what you NEED
‣  To be a LEADER is to not be afraid to make mistakes
‣  Trust a junior (if you can lift someone up, lift someone up)
RECAP
So
that
was
my
ﬁnal
story
that
I’ll

share
with
you
today.
Let’s
do
a

quick
recap
of
the
leadership

lessons
I’ve
learned
in
my
male

dominated
careers…
When
I’ve

done
this
talk
in
the
past,
the

feedback
I’ve
received
is
that

people
expected
the
advice
to
just

be
for
women,
and
they
think
that

advice
on
this
topic
will
be
diﬀerent

for
a
woman
than
for
a
man.

78
But
my
experience
has
overwhelmingly
been
that
the
hardest
part
of
solving
the
gender
diversity
problem
in
tech
is
in
building
up
a
female

presence
the
team.
Once
women
are
on
the
team,
they
don’t
need
any
special
advice
to
succeed.
AND
THAT’S
A
GOOD
THING,
RIGHT?
Because

women
are
just
as
talented
at
web
development
as
men.
I
haven’t
seen
one
area
in
which
the
women
on
my
team
struggle
where
the
men
don’t

also
struggle.
They
struggle
most
with
the
areas
I’ve
shared
with
you
today.
For
the
problem
of
building
up
the
team,
I
do
have
some
gender-‐
speciﬁc
advice
based
on
the
opportuni;es
I’ve
had
to
interview
candidates.

79
GENDER-SPECIFIC STRATEGIES FOR
MALE-DOMINATED CAREERS:
‣  Be confident about your skills in your resumé.
‣  Speak confidently about your abilities in an interview. No need to be pragmatic about your
abilities – you are trying to sell yourself.
‣  For people in a position to interview, be careful about your own unconscious bias when
considering applicants and consider the two points above.
‣  Don’t be apologetic if you are singled out in a positive way: If you think you got an opportunity
because you’re female, TAKE IT. Then prove how much you deserved it as a developer.
ADVICE JUST FOR WOMEN

80
HI, WE’RE
SAPIENTNITRO
I
consider
myself
very
fortunate
to
have
spent
the
last
10
years
of
my
career
at
SapientNitro,
where
I
learned
these
points
and
where
I
prac;ce

them
now,
myself.

81
It’s
a
safe
place
to
try
and
fail
and
grow.

82
WOMEN’S
LEADERSHIP
NETWORK
ENABLE
YOUR
POTENTIAL
10,000
COFFEES
RETURNSHIP
PROGRAM CMTOU
OUR PROGRAMS
Not
only
in
the
challenging
project
work,
but
in
the
great
clients,
and
the
programs
available
to
our
people
to
help
them
grow.

-‐Our
career
growth
framework
itself
is
called
enable
your
poten;al,
and
revolves
around
growth
through
coaching
and
conversa;ons.

-‐10,000
coffees
is
an
extension
of
our
career
framework,
mentorship
done
via
coffee
connects
facilitated
through
the
10,000
coffees
website.

-‐The
WLN
provides
mentorship
and
coaching
and
provides
a
forum
for
meaningful
dialog
on
current
issues
facing
women
in
the
crea;ve
and

technology
industries.

-‐Our
returnship
program
gives
an
“internship”
style
opportunity
to
women
that
have
been
out
of
the
work
force
for
an
extended
period
of
;me.

-‐This
last
one
is
dear
to
my
heart
since
I’m
par;cipa;ng
in
it
right
now,
and
the
name
was
too
long
to
put
in
the
circle…

83
CHIEF MARKETING TECHNOLOGY OFFICER UNIVERSITY (CMTOU)
Senior
technologists
from
around
the

world
have
the
opportunity
to
do

extensive
studies
in
business
and

marke;ng
related
topics,
as
well
as

expand
our
breadth
in
technological

topics.
It’s
a
year
long
program,
in

which
Sapient
partnered
with

presenta;on
training
experts
Duarte

and
crea;ve
business
school
Hyper

Island,
to
facilitate
4
1-‐week
intensives

in
diﬀerent
loca;ons
around
the
world.

It’s
an
amazing
learning
and
networking

opportunity
and
I’m
excited
to
be
part

of
it
this
year.
Because
learning
never

ends,
and
that
includes
learning
how

to
lead.

84
LEADERSHIP IS A CHOICE.
IT OCCURS WHEN SOMEONE DECIDES
THAT IT’S IMPORTANT THAT THEY LEAD.
- SETH GODIN
I
want
to
leave
you
today
with
some
inspira;onal
quotes.
American
author,
entrepreneur,
and
marketer
Seth
Godin
said
that
leadership
is
a

choice,
and
that
leadership
occurs
when
someone
decides
it's
important
that
they
lead.

But
I
like
how
Beyonce
said
it
beer.

85
POWER IS NOT GIVEN TO YOU.
YOU HAVE TO TAKE IT.
- BEYONCÉ

86
THANK YOU TO PIXABAY, FREEPIK
AND THESE OTHER SOURCES:
‣  Geology clip art: http://www.philipmartin.info , Can Stock Photo, Shutterstock,
http://image.shutterstock.com/z/stock-photo-attractive-geologist-researcher-cartoon-career-97510088.jpg
‣  Surprised cat: http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1856592/images/o-SURPRISED-CAT-facebook.jpg
‣  Traffic in Bangalore: Bloomberg/Getty Images photo by Namas Bhojani
‣  Sapient Bangalore tech team: Subin Paul http://subinpaul.com/
‣  Liana Finck’s New Yorker cartoon “I live in Atlanta, but I think you meant where am I from originally.”
‣  NBC’s The Office
‣  Martin Handford’s character “Where’s Waldo”
‣  Two paths: https://juliandradurkin.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/paths.jpg
‣  Fish becomes a rainbow: http://ocshsart.blogspot.ca/2013/02/art-2-morph-project.html
IMAGE ATTRIBUTIONS

Leadership strategies I learned in male-dominated careers

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