Eliminating the Gender Gap in Senior Leadership at Technology Companies

In this episode, we cover:

• Why Cathy decided to keep working in engineering after earning an MBA and a law degree. (0:27)
• How money enables power and why women should strive to achieve both. (4:57)
• The importance for leaders to generate positive energy within the workplace. (6:35)
• How position and influence impacts the relationship between management and employees, and the importance for leaders to build trust with team members. (10:48)
• The ways decision making changes as a person moves up the management chain, and why Cathy makes a point to learn the personalities of each of her employees. (13:15)
• Subverting sexist stereotypes in the workplace: Cathy’s take on why women should strive to keep the “emotional volume” at work low. (17:00)
• Tips for balancing job and home commitments as a working woman. (18:53)
• Why Cathy believes being “risk-averse” is holding women back. (24:10)
• When and how to say “no” to accepting added responsibility at work. (26:20)
• What has changed in regard to gender equality, and why there’s still a long way to go. (28:23)

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:

• Harvard Business Review on Leadership Skills
  • Research: Women Score Higher Than Men in Most Leadership Skills
  • “Women scored at a statist