Poised For Leadership

NetApp hosted the latest Jo Miller's Women's Leadership Coaching workshop: Poised for Leadership.  As always, I enjoyed Jo's workshop and was thrilled to be able to participate in a full day event with her for the first time.  The time spent here helps to reinforce things I have begun to put into practice and reminded me of things I need to continue to invest effort into.

As emerging leaders, we can often find our selves in a quandary: we an't get to a higher level job without leadership experience, but can't get that experience without the next job.  When you find yourself in this position, you need to take the steps to get the recognition you deserve. Do not be "the best kept secret" in your team.

To do this, you need:

• Organizational Influence
• Sphere of Influence
• Leadership Brand
• Visibility
• Influencing
• Self-Leadership

What does being a leader mean? Leading by example, developing a vision, not disheartened easily, genuinely cares about the people and the business, collaborates up, down and across for success.

Organizational Influence

Like it or not, "every workplace has an intricate system of power , and you can - and should - work it ethically to your best advantage." (Erin Burt, Seven Career Killers)

Don't think of this as Office Politics, but rather Organizational Awareness. Observe what's going on around you, and perhaps modify your behaviour and your language to adapt.

Part of this is being aware of the shadow organization.  Like you're standard org chart, but based on people's organizational influence. Take a look at your existing organization. Find people who work well together - a good solid relationship, and draw a line.  Find people who do not work well together. Then find the coalitions - groups of people that work well together. Finally, identify the key influencers in the organization.  See where you fit into all of this.  Are you reaching outside of your immediate organization?  You need to build robust, professional relationships with key people around you.

Don't count on your sphere through normal meetings. Set up lunches with individuals or small groups, don't eat lunch at your desk, bring in cake or chocolate to share: get to know people outside your immediate teams.

Be aware of the unwritten rules of the game. Something like, there may be a person that you cannot correct in front of others in a meeting, without burning bridges. In some groups, you may need to shop around new ideas before implementing them - or your group may be "Act first, ask questions later" type of org.  You need to know the specifics for your team.

In some organizations, it may the words you choose.  Your VP may not like any vocabulary that hints at entitlement for what you're asking for, or they may only want to take action on your ideas if you have data to back up your request.

Sphere of Influence

We've heard it a thousand times, but your network is so important to your success. You need to grow your sphere of influence.  You need connections. These connections and mentors will help you to enjoy more promotions, higher pay and greater career satisfaction.

Building these networks can help your next big job find you.

Don't build these networks with only your personal advancement in mind. Get to know different things about them, figure out how you can help them to advance, find opportunities for them.

Part of building your network is making sure you're adding key types of people to your network:

• The connector
• A true people person, knows and gets along with everyone, loves to open doors and make introductions.
• The Informational Powerhouse
• Keeps their finger on the pulse of the business, knows about changes before they occur, filters useful information from gossip or noise.
• The Influencer
• Not necessarily high-level or high-profile, but has the ability to make things happen.Their advocacy can get you noticed and guarantee success of your initiative.
• The Mentor
• To best take advantage of your mentor, be prepared with four types of questions for them:
• Stories about their careers
• Situations you're in that you need help with
• Self-awareness is important. Know how you're perceived. Ask your mentor to reflect back.
• Skill building: ask about any new skills you're trying to learn in your role.
• The Sponsor
• Echoing what Jo has said at every workshop I've attended: beyond mentors, you need sponsors.  Women tend to be over mentored and under sponsored. Sponsors should have the following qualities:
• Senior leader with influence
• Well-respected, credible
• Familiar with your strengths
• Track record of developing talent
• Provides exposure and protection.
• How to get a sponsor?  Outperform, make your value visible, ask around to see who has a strong track record of developing talent, network outside of your direct management chain and have clarity about your career goals.

Leadership Brand

Knowing your current brand is important. Do others see you as you see yourself?  You can learn this by:

• 360 Review
• Ask friends and colleagues for 3 things that describe your positive traits, one thing to work on.
• Ask your mentor, friends, tweeps, etc

Most importantly, though, you must be ready and open for this feedback.

You need to identify what you're passionate about and what you're good at.  What do people complement you on that you think was "easy" to do? That could be one of your key skills or talents.  When this lines up with something that your company or industry needs or values - then you've found a career sweet spot.

Funny, quite a few women in this room know what their skills and passions are, but they cannot find how it fills a niche in their current job.  As an aside, everyone here is very successful and on their way up in their careers - so are they really in the wrong place?  Or not seeing the fit due to low self confidence? Or possibly, they haven't found the right end goal quite yet.

You may already have a brand, and it may fit what you're doing now - but it's not your long term goal. Then it's time to update your brand.   Shop it around, let people know what you want to do and where you want to go. Bounce ideas off of your colleagues.

Brands evolve. Entry level brands could be things like: team-player, valuable contributor. Examples of mid-level brands: strategist, innovator, subject matter expert, change agent, fixer.  Senior-level: Visionary, leader who develops leaders, rainmaker.  What do you think your brand is? What would you like it to be?

Visibility

No matter how many accomplishments you make, if your accomplishments are not visible, you will not be rewarded.  Hard workers attract more work, which won't necessarily get you any recognition.  Part of getting this visibility means spending a little less time working on the minutia, and work on making your accomplishments more visible.  Resist the tendency to talk about the busy work. Share the strategic high impact stuff. You'll attract more of what you talk about - so it seems like an obvious choice.  Along those lines, work hard on the right projects.

It's important to share this appropriately - who needs to know what you're doing?

To do this, it's important to choose the right projects. Find things that will showcase your brand and demonstrate your ability to deliver results.

Once you've got all this down, then you need to promote your accomplishments!

This is tough - you don't want to be that annoying person that seems to never shut up about all the little things they do (minutia!),  so think back to what needs to be known and get it in front of your organization.  Here are some easy tips:

• Present in meetings, invite leaders
• Send out a newsletter or regular status updates
• Submit article to your organization's newsletter
• Write a blog or paper
• Ask to be nominated for an award (or ask a colleague to do so, and reciprocate)
• Forward kudos emails to your management chain
• Water cooler conversations, lunch table topics.

Influence

You can't just drop into a meeting and influence decisions - first you have to set yourself up as a person of influence. People have to know who you are and respect your thoughts.  That can be done by simple things - show up to meetings, be engaged, make sure people around the table know who you are. 

Our behaviour teaches others how to treat us.

"It's not what you know, or who you know.  It's who knows what you know." - Norah Denzel, Intuit.

Jo sees there are 6 major sources of influence:

• Positional Influence
• Influence that is inherent in your job title and role.
• Expertise Influence
• The influence that comes from your background, qualifications, experience and accomplishments.
• Sharing your accomplishments is good: speak on panels, at conferences, and in the media. Volunteer for high level assignments, etc. Get your expertise out there!
• Resources Influence
• Negotiating the resources you need to do your job well.
• This will help you accomplish what you need to do, and demonstrate that you use your resources wisely
• Master matrix management
• Suggest special projects as developmental opportunities.
• Informational Influence
• Having a finger on the pulse of what is going on in your organization, industry and profession.
• Keep up to date with current events in the industry - this helps you be on the look out for new projects and opportunities, setting the direction for your team.
• Direct Influence
• Being firm, professional and direct when someone's behavior is detrimental to the team or the organization.
• Be direct and concise while delivering tough news
• Share a vision of their future potential.
• Relationships Influence
• The influence that comes naturally with having a network of authentic relationships across your organization, industry and profession.
• AKA Your Sphere of Influence!

How many of these do you have? Can you think of ways to expand into some of these other spheres of influence?

Your Pitch

Prepare yourself a 30-second commercial:

• Name
• Job title and/or brand
• I am responsible for ...a, b, c
• Come directly to me when you need ... x, y, z

This is an important thing to have in your back pocket. I've written this done a few times, but haven't memorized it. As I won't literally have this written down in my back pocket, I need to take the time to do this.  What's your pitch?

Principles of Self-Leadership

• Confer Leadership Upon Yourself
• Don't be afraid to take the lead. Start with leading yourself: set schedules and meet them. Look at ways you can lift others up around you and lead them to success as well. You don't have to be in an official leadership position in order to do this.
• Act "As if"
• Remember, much of your ability to lead has to do with wether or not others see you as a leader.

Book Recommendations

From my table and from Jo Miller.

• Leading with Questions: How Leaders Find the Right Solutions By Knowing What To Ask
• I'd Rather Be in Charge: A Legendary Business Leader's Roadmap for Achieving Pride, Power, and Joy at Work
• Her Place at the Table: A Woman's Guide to Negotiating Five Key Challenges to Leadership Success
• Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers (A NICE GIRLS Book)
• Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman: What Men Know About Success that Women Need to Learn
• Influence: Science and Practice (5th Edition) (One of my personal favorites: MUST READ)

GHC12: Leadership Workshop: Office Politics for People Who Don’t Like Politics

I always love every single Jo Miller, Women's Leadership Coaching, workshop so was so thrilled when I heard she was coming back to Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing again this year!

The emerging leader's quandary: How do you get to that higher level position that requires more leadership experience than you have - but you can't get the leadership experience without the position?  A challenging question many of us have faced in the past - not just with leadership, either! Jo hopes to give us all skills that will help us become better leaders without necessarily leading a team.

Office politics - nobody likes playing this game, at least nobody in this room. But, would you be willing to join the game if it will get you the promotions and projects that you want to work on?  Could this be a skill, and not just an annoyance. "avoiding (office) politics altogether can be deadly for your career" - Erin Burt

Jo proposes that there is a way to navigate office politics in a way that is both ethical and advantageous for your teams.

Hard work alone won't get you recognized. So, work less :-)  Not exactly, but if you're always so heads down with working and never letting anyone know what you're doing.

"Get out of your in-box!" - Barbara Gee.  Get out and talk to people! Step away from the terminal..

Lets stop calling it office politics - such negative connotations. What about Organizational Awareness?  What does that mean? Being a savvy observer of the communication and relationships that surround you in your organization.

This isn't just about looking at the org chart - it doesn't tell you everything, like, who are the thought leaders, who gets things done, who's been over-promoted and are actually ineffective?   You need to find people that can happily help you get things done - the Shadow Organization. This isn't what HR knows, it's what you know.

Jo had us put together a chart of those people that we work with most frequently, adding solid lines for people that work well together and dashed lines for those that don't work work well together, adding arrows to show how influence flows. Once that is all done, we drew circles around coalitions - people that work well together. Once this was all on paper, we could better think about things, like how did those coalitions form?  Is one person excluded from all coalitions and perhaps everything?  Doing this will help you to gain perspective on your team

The final piece of this shadow organization is the verticals: people who are getting mentored and sponsored by their manager and passing this up. Like a ladder.

Doing this myself, I realized that my "shadow organization" includes many people that are not in my direct org.

Highlights of the Shadow Organization:

• Relationships
• Influence
• Coalitions
• Key Influences
• Verticals

After a group discussion, a couple of questions came up about people in their organizations who are separated from everyone due to something they did many years ago. Jo recommended really focusing over the next few months on rebranding themselves - keeping all work and communications positive to help overcome past mistakes.

How can we gather information to help map the shadow organizations?  Can you do this via face-to-face interactions? What about virtual teams?  A few audience suggestions included organizing "friendship lunches" where you just reach out to people in your organization and field of influence on a casual basis, don't open your laptop in a meeting - connect instead, invite people to coffee (and see who else is having coffee together), and never miss a happy hour :-)  For virtual teams, site visits and video calls, even if just occasionally, should be done, in addition to talking on the phone.

Sophie Vandebroek, CTO of Xerox, once told Jo: "It's not enough to have a bright technical idea. I have seen too many projects led by great, passionate people fail because they tried to be the lone influencer." Can we have stronger teams and more successful projects by building more relationships and coalitions? It sounds like it!

Every organization and every team has unwritten, unspoken "Rules of the Game". It's unlikely that anyone is going to tell you about it - but you can probably ask.  For example, in some teams, no work should start until consensus is reached - while in others, act now and ask questions later is the rule. To be successful - learn these rules in your org.

There are five ways to generate quick wins in office politics:

• In every organization, there is some who is great at navigating office politics - find them and ask them how they do it!
• They navigate well at all levels
• They are the keeper of the "institutional memory"
• They are good at reading people

•  Build and influential coalition
• It can be quicker and easier to get great things done from the grass-roots
• Be an advocate for others, support stuff that's important to them

• Don't like the unwritten, unspoken "rules of the game" - become a game changer!
• If you don't like them, you're probably not alone! This is where you can get those other like minded individuals to  help you to do so.
• For example, you can't make the late night "happy hours" in bars because you have to pick up your kids, or have other obligations - can you create a new social event that happens during normal work hours?

• Manage Upward
• Leading your leaders is easier than you think... 
• Think and act like an executive
• Understand their most important goals, their challenges, and how they make decisions.
• Remember - you're the expert in what you do, don't be deferential.
• Always have a talking point ready
• Executives have to make decisions quickly, be prepared to talk to them if you see them in the hall, in between meetings etc.

• Enlist senior-level sponsors and adocates
• These aren't mentors, but sponsors - someone that's going to promote and be an advocate for you. Someone who will argue your case behind closed doors.

 Again, sponsorship has come up. This seems to be so important. When looking for a sponsor, you want to find someone that is a senior leader with influence, well-respected and credible, familiar with your strengths, has a track record of developing talent, provides exposure and provides cover when you're under attack. Getting sponsors outside of your immediate organization is a good thing, too!

How do you get a sponsor? Turns out, you don't just go out and get one - you have to earn one, cultivate it. You can do this by outperforming, making your value visible, observe the protocols, and network across your organization. You can do a lot of these things by looking for projects and exposure opportunities working with or for senior leaders.

None of this will work, though, if you don't have clarity about your own career goals!  You have to know what you want to do or where you want to go, and make sure that these senior level people in your shadow organization are aware of those goals.

You can find the full slides on Jo's site.

This post syndicated from Thoughts on security, beer, theater and biking!

GHC: Workshop: Building Your Brand as a Technical Expert or Leader

I love Jo Miller. She has an excellent grasp of personal brand. And not that cheesy brand thing you hear every one else talking about, but what do you want to be known for - what do people come to you for. Being well branded helps you to make connections and help others make connections.

Jo gave us a goal to come up with what we want our career niche to be, create a personal brand statement and figure out how make our brand visible. And this has to be something we can really use.

How does one figure out ones ideal career niche? Well, first, I should stop writing like I'm the Queen (as she's already got her niche figured out for her :-). Really, what are you passionate about, what are your skills and talents, and what does your company need/value? If you can find a place where those things intersect, you may have just found your niche!

When you know your sweet spot, it's easier to choose assignments, mentors and sponsors.

For me, I've been in my field for more than a decade. Back in the late 1990s, early 2000s, I was the firewall expert. I knew all there was to know about the complicated protocols, ins and outs of PASV FTP (passive file transfer protocol, used by browsers), and I rearchitected the SunScreen firewall NAT (Network Address Translation) component. I was nicknamed the Goddess of NAT.

But, as the years have gone on, I've become much more general - focusing on more connecting technologies, like the Oracle Solaris Cryptographic Framework. I'm not a cryptographer, but I know the basics and I know the standards. I'm a great public speaker, all the acting I've done really helps with that. I'm great at making connections and helping people to solve their problems, even if I can't solve it myself. I write good code and debug problems. I design software. I am an expert in defect tracking. Certainly those are useful skills? How do I make that a brand?

It may not be as bad as I think, as when I asked a fellow conference attendee what my brand was, she said: "security, beer and bicycling". Well, that does sum up my passions!

Jo Miller also talks about what happens if you've somehow ended up a negative brand? One example was a woman who was branded as "high maintenance". The woman was a QA manager and thought she taking care of problems. She needed to change from being the complainer, to the partner in helping people to solve their issues. Something definitely to think about. (side thought of my own: do men have to worry about this?)

Another place you can get caught is as an entry-level or mid-level type person, which makes it hard to get promoted.

While you're still in school, it's easier to create a brand - work hard and get good grades, and you're branded as a good student. But how does that work in the real world? How do you take results and get to reward and recognition? You've got to add visibility!

How can you do this? Jo Miller's first step, strangely, is work less! Huh? Well, if you're always working and never telling people about what you're doing, nobody will notice. This doesn't mean spend 95% of your time evangelizing yourself - you have to have something to evangelize after all. Just spend 5% of your time doing this.

She asks us to write a "30 second commercial" for ourselves. Mine would be, "I'm Valerie Bubb Fenwick, Principle Software Engineer in Oracle Solaris. I'm known for security, beer and ...." oh, wait. Gotta tweak that. "I"m known for security and as the bug queen. Come to me when you need help learning about security, defect tracking, or finding the right person to help you in the Oracle Solaris organization." "and, we can talk over a beer" :-)

So, that just gets us through the first two steps. Once we pull this all together, we need to have a career-planning conversation with our leaders. Yes, that includes your manager, but others in your organization. Show them your value in the thing you're interested in. And, once you do that - you need to ask for help. Just something as simple as, "Is there anyone else you think I should talk to about this?"

The fourth step sounds so simple: work hard, but on the right projects. How do you know what the right projects are? Something that aligns with your brand or where you'd like your brand to go. And deliver. If you don't deliver valuable results, no matter what else you do, you aren't going to get anywhere.

When picking the project, look for specific roles (as opposed to general), push the cutting edge in your field of expertise, executive special projects, projects that directly support your organizations strategic plan, exposes you to a new department and demonstrates higher level of technical, business or leadership skills.

Now, on to speed network!

This post syndicated from Thoughts on security, beer, theater and biking!

GHC09: Jo Miller's Person of Influence: Another Perspective

I'm so glad I got here early! The tables filled up well before the 2:15 start time, a common theme at this year's sold out Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing! While I'm not the official blogger for this session, I want to take notes - so I figure I can type them into my blog edit window instead of a terminal window and share them with the world.

Jo Miller let us know from the top that unlike other presenters she's met, she's quite happy with people blogging and tweeting during her talk. Right on :)

Miller starts off strong: if you want to be a leader, you have to be a leader! Nobody will ever tap you on the shoulder and tell you they think you should be one - you have to take charge yourself.

She notes that power & influence can be used for evil manipulation, but it's obviously not her goal to send us out of here as her evil minions :)

Miller notes that if you want to become a person of influence, you need to make the impression from the get go that you are someone that has something to say and should be listened to. As an example, she says that at meetings you should arrive early, be prepared with talking points and sit near the main group. Your behaviour teaches people how to treat you.

We broke off into groups to discuss people we know who are influential and try to figure out why. Only one person at our table came up with a fully positive person of influence. The rest we came up with had negative aspects of their personality, but we knew they could get their way when they really wanted it. This is distressing. I like to think of myself as a growing person of influence, but I don't want to be disliked for it.

Elements of Influence:

• Positional Influence
• This is the influence you get out of the gate simply by your job title and role in an organization. What this tells me is that no matter what other people say, title really does matter, though Miller says title is not enough alone, you need a 30-second "commercial" for yourself:
• Name, Job Title, "I am responsible for...a, b, c" and "Come directly to me when you need... x, y, z"
• Expertise Influence
• The influence that comes from you background, qualifications, experience and expertise.
• Make sure you don't downplay yourself, don't defer questions to someone else not in the room if it's something you yourself can figure out, promote your accomplishments and set up presentations yourself to promote your expertise.
• Miller quotes a Newsweek article that women underestimate their own intelligence and experience while men overestimate theirs, which may help explain the promotion disparity.
  
• Resources Influence:
• Having access to the resources you need to do your job well, knowing how to best use the ones you have and demonstrate that you can do so responsibly.
• Informational Influence:
• You've got to try to stay "on the pulse" of the business, both personnel and organizational issues, but you have to be able to filter out the noise and the gossip. Doing this will help you make better business decisions and be able to change directions sooner when necessary.
• Direct Influence:
• You've got to be firm, professional and direct when you've encountered behaviour is detrimental to the team or organization.
• BUT: this can't be how you run your team or organization or you will just have people that are afraid of you, don't like you, don't respect you and are demotivated. Miller recommends doing this for only the 1% of the cases, doing it in private, being direct, giving specific examples and giving the individual a positive vision for how things will change for them if they change their behaviour.
• Relationship Innfluence
• Knowing who the key people are in your organization, profession and industry and building a network of them.

Jo Miller put the entire presentation on-line!