How to Be a Successful Woman in a Technical Field

I’m on the workforce development committee for one of the professional organizations I’m involved with. Recently there was a conversation about how the girls that were being recruited for a technical program (with the expectation they would take technical jobs in a field that’s predominantly male) were not the right girls. My knee-jerk reaction was to take offence to this comment, but when I thought about my early career for just a second, I realized the speaker was absolutely right. It’s not for everyone.

Back (20+ years ago – yikes!) when I was starting out as an Electrical Engineer, there were pictures, cartoons, and calendars in the labs that you’d get fired for today, the older engineers called you “honey”, and the VP in my organization was well known for feeling up all the “girls” he could get near. We all learned real quick to stay an arms length away.

The focus on sexual harassment has changed the most overt issues, but it still takes a special kind of young woman to be successful in a predominately male field.

I think my initial visceral reaction came from a sense of justice – it shouldn’t be this way, but you know what, it is.

Until we reach that state of utopia, what’s a young woman to do? My feminist friends may take issue with some of this, and I’d love to have a discussion about it, but here are my thoughts:
1) Have a sense of humor - Running to HR every time you overhear a raunchy joke is going to do nothing for your career, or your relationships at work. Am I saying women should put up with harassment – NO, absolutely not, but not everything is harassment.
2) Have a thick skin – Men (and women) can be rough. It’s usually not personal. Men don’t usually have an issue with this, but young women sometimes take things too personally.
3) Stand up for yourself – If you’re going to be intimidated by a big gruff crusty old engineer who yells and swears, it might not be the right field for you. If you are going to back down to the young male engineer who’s threatened because you’re smarter and work harder than him, then maybe it’s not the right field for you. Believe me, it’s not always easy to do, but it’s the only way to earn respect.
4) Work is work – Men get this. Watch them. They can argue like crazy about business issues, then go out, and have a beer together.

Remember, one of the big keys to professional success are the relationships you form, and if you’re working in a male dominated field like engineering you MUST be able to form healthy, professional relationships with those in your field – men. I’m curious to hear what other women think of this.

Making ethical decision making easy

When I was joining my firm, I spent a lot to time talking with my future partners about a wide variety of topics – compensation, benefits, division of responsibilities, growth strategies, future personal plans, and values – many, many conversations about values. I thought this was odd at first, not that we talked about it, only how much we talked about it. I don’t know why I thought it was odd, considering I had left my prior position in part because of a mismatch of values.

Five years later, I am still in awe of what a strong foundation we’ve been able to build because we share the same values.

I was listening to a speaker recently talk about when leaders have to make tough decisions, and how sometimes they make those decisions consistent with their values and sometimes they do not. He made me feel so grateful about my situation. When we’ve had to make those “tough” decisions, it’s actually been fairly easy. When one of us wavers, and it happens, the other is always there to be steady. I can’t think of a single instance where we’ve made a decision that went against our values.

In fact, we were participating in an RFP and the purchasing agent suggested we do something we weren’t comfortable with. It was not so egregious as to be called unethical, but it was not consistent with the way we wanted to run our business. He subtlety suggested we’d get more business if we did it. This was about a year ago and getting more business was a HUGE challenge! We talked a lot about that decision and in the end, we decided to stick to our guns, and if we lost the business, so be it. Turns out that was one of the best tough decisions we ever made. We did not lose any business, and MUCH more importantly did not lose any self-respect. Shared values are critical to making ethical decision making easier.

How to tell your customers they’re wrong

We often find ourselves telling our clients they’re wrong. Of course, we don’t say it like that – “You’re Wrong! Mr. Client!” No.

Sometimes they have a problem and already have a solution in mind. Our engineers can often tell very quickly their solution is not going to fix their problem. These discussions are usually easy. The engineers can come up with better solutions and it’s obvious we’re working in our customers’ best interests.

But what if you think they’re solving the wrong problem? This is a much more difficult conversation. Especially, if they are passionate about solving a problem that you don’t think is a problem. Maybe you’re not the one having this problem, but other’s are. Maybe they’d appreciate the solution. Who’s to know?

I heard a great suggestion on how to handle this just the other day (Thanks CS!). I love it because it’s open, and honest, and all about starting the relationship off right. Just ask – at the beginning of the relationship, or conversation, or wherever you happen to find yourself, just ask if they’re open to questions about their assumptions if you hear something that does not make sense. It might sound something like this “You know, Mr. Customer, sometimes I’m talking with other CEOs and they say things that just don’t make sense, they find it very helpful when I question these statements. Is that something you would find valuable?” I’d be shocked to get a no, but whether they say yes, or no, at least you know where you stand. And who know, you may just learn something.

Soul Searching in Saudi Arabia

In mid May, I was offered the amazing opportunity to be part of the inaugural Global Women’s Leadership Institute, held in Saudi Arabia. The purpose of the institute was to develop women leaders and create a cross-cultural network of those women leaders.

Once I was accepted into the program, reality set in. Two weeks in a very conservative Muslim country - What would I wear? What local customs are important to know and follow? Would I be able to run outside, or would I have to resort to the dreaded treadmill? Could I learn enough Arabic to be polite (Hello, Please, Thank you, etc.) before I go? We had an orientation, which answered most of my questions, but the most notable thing was the caliber of the women – CEOs from a variety of industries, Heads of Non-Profits and NGOs, women from State and National Government as well as academics. This was going to be an interesting trip!

After 24 hours of travel, we finally arrived at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) where the program was being held. A good night’s sleep and our adventure began with a tour of the amazing campus. KAUST was designed to rival the worlds’ elite technology universities, and from my point of view, they are off to an amazing start. Some of the highlights included the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Laboratory with ten of the largest electromagnets in the world and the Visualization lab, where we were able to see a picture of El Capitan at a resolution high enough that we were able to zoom in far enough to see license plates on the cars. Perhaps the highlight of the visualization lab was the 3D chamber, where we put on a set of goggles and a hat with motion and position sensors had the sensation of entering an atom. I could see it all around me, and as I moved my head, it moved too – amazing!

During this tour, we began to get to know each other. I have to confess – initially their outer clothing made me feel like we were different, but it wasn’t long before that feeling went away. Just like us, some of them were more outgoing, some more thoughtful, some quietly funny, and even a poet in the group.

The syllabus was chocked full, so the interesting conversations took place offline. I had so many misconceptions, like, how do you marry if you can’t talk with men you’re not related to? Answer, they actually do talk with men. Another – how can you run a business if you can’t handle money – Answer – they can and do handle money. I had so much misinformation about Saudi culture, but they set me straight. One of the most amazing things about the trip is how fast Saudi society is changing. The Saudi women come from a culture where women in the recent past have had very few rights and opportunities, now they instrumental making changes. One of the women is an executive at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce where previously women had not even been involved. Many Saudi women own and run businesses, including doing business with men, One is the head of the Saudi National Dialog, one of King Abdullah’s pet projects whose aim is to get people talking, in a constructive way, about the contentious issues of the day.

Another example of rapid change is in voting. Women currently can’t vote, even in municipal elections. The women I met all fully expect that to change by the next election in 2011. In fact, some of them are even working on projects to prepare women to run!

One of my favorite parts of the trip was learning more about Islam. Unlike the United States, where we work hard to separate religion from government and business, religion is their culture. The Quran is their law, and religion permeates everything they do. Five times a day the Adhan sounds, a beautiful soulful call to prayer coming from every Mosque. Without even knowing what it was, I immediately found it connecting me with that spiritual place in my center, like the sound of Om. The absolute highlight of the trip, was sitting on a rooftop of a building in Old Jeddah at sunset, hearing the Adhan sound across the city, each Mosque on a slightly different timeline, spiritual, spooky, amazing!

Their religious ties were also interesting in other aspects of the program. During a discussion on environmentalism, I learned that Islam teaches that we are all custodians of our planet, that God gave us, and it is a moral obligation to take care of the planet, as if it was a temple. Hmmm, not a bad way to look at things, if you ask me.

The last bit of religion I found interesting is the liberal use of the phrase Insha'Allah (God willing) in a business context. As in, “We hope to have 30 women registered for this program, Insha'Allah.” We may think something like that, but we hardly ever say it!

There’s so much I take for granted. That I can vote, run a business, and for the most part, be judged on merit vs. gender. Although I can’t imagine what it’s like to walk in the Saudi women’s shoes, the closest I can come is the civil rights and women’s movements of the 60’s in the US. The big difference I see is that the changes in Saudi Arabia are happening over a matter of years instead of over a decade or two. I feel truly blessed to have had this opportunity, to meet such amazing women, and gain such clear perspective about both their culture and my own.

KAUST: An Amazing Example of Project Management

As part of my experience with the Global Women's Leadership Institute, we were treated to a presentation on the creation of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) by Nadhmi Nasr, the Executive Vice President of KAUST. What an amazing story!

This incredible, 9000 acre, state-of-the-art University was built and operational in approximately 1000 days. Mr. Nasr was asked to take on the leadership of this important project by the King in July of 2006. He assumed that he was responsible for building something that had already been designed, but within a week, discovered that it was just a concept. He quickly brought in partners, consulting firms with various specialties to help with the planning, which he attributes as one of the keys to his success.

Mr. Nasr is very humble. It was apparent in his presentation that his unwavering focus on the vision was, in my opinion, by far the most important reason for the success of the project. I know software companies that have not been able to build a product in 3 years. This man was able to create a magnificent oasis in the desert, taking it from an idea to a thriving high tech community. On September 5, 2009, the first day of classes were held on schedule. Having managed many projects myself, and being here and seeing how incredible this place is, I’m in awe of what he’s accomplished.

The Life of a Consultant

I had lunch today with one of the smartest people I know (no, I didn’t have lunch alone!).

He’s a software architect for a large global financial services firm and has found himself with an interesting job – he’s the “go to” guy for all of their most difficult software challenges. He referred to these projects as simultaneously repulsive and fascinating. He and his small team of equally brilliant people move from project to project – usually the ones that no one else want to take on, and unsurprisingly (to me at least) they are successful at solving these seemingly impossible problems.

The thing I found most interesting, is that the things he likes about his job are exactly what our consultants like about consulting: New challenges all the time; staying up to date on cutting edge technologies; and focusing on new design as opposed to maintenance.

I know this kind of group, (architecture, special projects, internal professional services, etc) exists within many big companies. This could be an alternative for engineers and programmers that crave the challenges and variety of the consulting life. Anyone have any experiences working in this kind of a group? What do you think?

One Of My Favorite Innovative CT Companies

I had the pleasure of crossing paths with the Dr. Moinuddin Sarker of Natural State Resources a few years ago at a Connecticut Technology Council event. For those of you that are not familiar with this company, they have discovered a method to make fuel from recyclable plastic. You can read about them here.

Dr. Sarker was gracious and generous enough to give me a tour of his lab, and I was blown away! First of all, what a brilliant idea – talk about killing multiple birds.

As noted in the article, the EPA estimates that Americans produce about 31 million metric tons of waste plastics annually and only about 10% of this is recycled. I can believe this. The “tree hugger” in me wants to recycle everything, but until just last month my garbage company took very little – only 1s and 2s, and I think this is very common. What a great solution as to what to do with all that extra plastic.

On the output side of the equation is the fuel, and at the point that I first met Dr. Sarker gas was still hovering around $4 per gallon. Natural State Resources is currently estimating they can produce fuel for as little as $0.75 per gallon. With gas prices getting ready to do their annual summer-time rise, this sounds mighty attractive!

I’m thrilled to see Natural State Resources, Inc. getting so much press and recognition. I wish them all the best. This is the kind of ingenuity that America needs! Kudos to you and your team, Dr. Sarker!