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In this episode, we cover:
Quotes from Today’s Episode
It’s an unfortunate reality, but power is, to a huge extent, a function of money. People buy policy, and they buy positions of influence as well as access to people who have influence. Lobbyists and media leverage don't come cheap. So I believe that women need to control half of the world’s money so that they can have half of this power and influence, too. - Cathy (5:55)
People just want to feel good, and being around people who are positive feels good. People want to follow and please those who make them feel good. So, as a leader, you should try to generate positive energy and make people feel safe and happy because it helps you lead and because it's contagious — it makes the whole workplace a little better. - Cathy (7:44)
When you are a senior leader, everything you do and say resonates louder. It's like having a megaphone. We see this among other senior leaders and expect them to act accordingly, but it can take a while to internalize it's suddenly something we need to pay attention to. - Monique (10:14)
It's best to keep the emotional volume at work low — whether that’s positive or negative. Women are still fighting the stereotype that we are too unstable to lead, so you want to seem in control and not weak. Negative emotions are especially bad because they make others feel negative, too, and then that feeling gets associated with you. A lot of men aren't raised to deal with their emotions very well at all, so if you seem upset at work, some men may feel like it's their job to protect you. And that's just a terrible power dynamic to have at work. - Cathy (17:09)
No matter what you hear, treat feedback as a gift and don't react in real-time. If you're upset, take your time to get past your instinctive reaction, and give your frontal cortex — your rational brain — a chance to recover. Then you can process the feedback and learn from it. - Monique (18:28)
If you’ve made a conscious decision to put most of your energy into your home life, then you've made a rational investment decision based on your goals and your values. Once you've done that, don't beat yourself up if you look around and notice that you're not getting promoted as quickly as your peers who live for their work. Your career might not be zooming, but you're probably going to have great kids. And it's not like you failed — you've only made a different investment choice, that's all. - Cathy (19:49)
Links:
Transcript
Monique: Welcome to WIT At Work, the podcast where we talk about how women in technology can achieve liftoff in their careers. I'm Monique Barbanson, your host.
Monique: Thanks for joining me today to talk about how women in engineering can advance to senior leadership at tech companies. Today, I'm chatting with my friend Cathy about her role as senior director of engineering at Cisco Systems, where she led a 150-person team responsible for developing software running in the internet backbone routers. Could you start by telling us a little bit about your journey to becoming an executive at Cisco Systems?
Cathy: Well hello, Monique. And thank you for letting me help kick off your new podcast. So, the story of me goes—the short version of the story of me goes, I grew up in a small town in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where I was in the first generation of my family who got to go to college. I went to Stanford where most of the engineering courses had, like, two women in them. And while I was there, I interned for HP and then later IBM.
And after graduation, I went to work for a couple startups. The first one didn't make it. And the other one was Metaphor where we met. And Metaphor was bought by IBM. I spent about a year at IBM, and then I moved on to Cisco Systems.
And while all this was going on, while I was working full time, first as an engineer, and then later as a manager, I went to school at night. And it took forever. It took me about six years, but eventually, I earned an MBA and a law degree. It was while I was at Cisco, three weeks away from taking the bar, already cramming for it, that I was offered a director-level promotion. And so I had this huge fork in the road; do I become a lawyer that I've been working so hard to do but I might not like it, or do I stick with engineering and take on a more exciting role and continue to be surrounded by engin...
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3737 ratings
In this episode, we cover:
Quotes from Today’s Episode
It’s an unfortunate reality, but power is, to a huge extent, a function of money. People buy policy, and they buy positions of influence as well as access to people who have influence. Lobbyists and media leverage don't come cheap. So I believe that women need to control half of the world’s money so that they can have half of this power and influence, too. - Cathy (5:55)
People just want to feel good, and being around people who are positive feels good. People want to follow and please those who make them feel good. So, as a leader, you should try to generate positive energy and make people feel safe and happy because it helps you lead and because it's contagious — it makes the whole workplace a little better. - Cathy (7:44)
When you are a senior leader, everything you do and say resonates louder. It's like having a megaphone. We see this among other senior leaders and expect them to act accordingly, but it can take a while to internalize it's suddenly something we need to pay attention to. - Monique (10:14)
It's best to keep the emotional volume at work low — whether that’s positive or negative. Women are still fighting the stereotype that we are too unstable to lead, so you want to seem in control and not weak. Negative emotions are especially bad because they make others feel negative, too, and then that feeling gets associated with you. A lot of men aren't raised to deal with their emotions very well at all, so if you seem upset at work, some men may feel like it's their job to protect you. And that's just a terrible power dynamic to have at work. - Cathy (17:09)
No matter what you hear, treat feedback as a gift and don't react in real-time. If you're upset, take your time to get past your instinctive reaction, and give your frontal cortex — your rational brain — a chance to recover. Then you can process the feedback and learn from it. - Monique (18:28)
If you’ve made a conscious decision to put most of your energy into your home life, then you've made a rational investment decision based on your goals and your values. Once you've done that, don't beat yourself up if you look around and notice that you're not getting promoted as quickly as your peers who live for their work. Your career might not be zooming, but you're probably going to have great kids. And it's not like you failed — you've only made a different investment choice, that's all. - Cathy (19:49)
Links:
Transcript
Monique: Welcome to WIT At Work, the podcast where we talk about how women in technology can achieve liftoff in their careers. I'm Monique Barbanson, your host.
Monique: Thanks for joining me today to talk about how women in engineering can advance to senior leadership at tech companies. Today, I'm chatting with my friend Cathy about her role as senior director of engineering at Cisco Systems, where she led a 150-person team responsible for developing software running in the internet backbone routers. Could you start by telling us a little bit about your journey to becoming an executive at Cisco Systems?
Cathy: Well hello, Monique. And thank you for letting me help kick off your new podcast. So, the story of me goes—the short version of the story of me goes, I grew up in a small town in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where I was in the first generation of my family who got to go to college. I went to Stanford where most of the engineering courses had, like, two women in them. And while I was there, I interned for HP and then later IBM.
And after graduation, I went to work for a couple startups. The first one didn't make it. And the other one was Metaphor where we met. And Metaphor was bought by IBM. I spent about a year at IBM, and then I moved on to Cisco Systems.
And while all this was going on, while I was working full time, first as an engineer, and then later as a manager, I went to school at night. And it took forever. It took me about six years, but eventually, I earned an MBA and a law degree. It was while I was at Cisco, three weeks away from taking the bar, already cramming for it, that I was offered a director-level promotion. And so I had this huge fork in the road; do I become a lawyer that I've been working so hard to do but I might not like it, or do I stick with engineering and take on a more exciting role and continue to be surrounded by engin...