Reflection
Stop using these words in your communication
In environments where your confidence and competency are being constantly evaluated, every word you say matters.
Avoid these words.
“Just” - for example, I 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 want to point out.
Adding a “just” undermines others’ impression of your confidence.
“I am sorry” - for example, 𝗜 𝗮𝗺 𝘀𝗼𝗿𝗿𝘆, I have a question.
Adding a “I am sorry” shows that you don’t think you should ask the question.
“Correct me if I’m wrong”
They will, you don’t need to tell them.
You are giving them hint that you are wrong.
All of these phrases and words diminish your “executive presence” as people often refer to.
What other words would you like to add?
I fell hard
On my knees on the rocks.
I had broken skin.
It was not because I wasn’t careful.
It was not because I wasn’t strong.
It was the wave.
The ocean wave was too strong to resist.
You are burning out.
Not because you want to.
It’s because the wave is pushing you.
It’s because others are doing so.
It’s because AI is trying to replace your job.
But I learned how to work with the waves.
I learned to leverage it instead of letting it wash over me.
You, too, can learn how to ride the waves.
You, too, can level up your leadership for yourself and the people you lead.
The places we travel
The places we travel enrich us.
This week my husband and I are traveling to LA to attend our daughter’s graduation ceremony.
She decided to take some pictures at the “airport landing view point”.
Yes, it is a name available in Maps.
We had so much fun, timing the airplane into our frames.
I was the photographer.
But I also took advantage of the opportunity and snapped a picture for us.
The countless airplanes in the sky lined up to land is a live demo of how technology has changed and will continue to change our lives.
What is an elevator pitch?
Imagine you are in the same elevator with a senior leader, you want to leave a great impression to them. So that when they sit at their office, they could say to themselves “that was a very impressive person! “
What you say to them in that short elevator ride is critical.
I met a person during a network event.
I asked them what they do.
They said “just fixing a bug here and there…” and they were looking for a job.
I didn’t know this person, but I felt the urge to add value to their life, because I don’t know whether I would ever see them again.
I said “are you open to some constructive feedback?”
With their permission, I said “you are underselling your expertise. Why would anyone hire someone who ‘just fix a bug here and there’? What impact are you creating? What customers’ problems did you solve? What happens if you are not there?…”
They immediately agreed that they would rethink how they talk about their work.
Yesterday, they told me (through LinkedIn) that they found a job. And they thanked me for making them think about how to create that elevator pitch.
How good are you with your elevator pitch?
What impact are you creating?
Who stole your confidence?
It is not your fault that you feel nervous.
You were taught to respect the superior.
You were told to listen to your parents and teachers.
You were told they knew more than you.
Your senior leaders determine your pay raise and promotion, or whether you have a job at all.
Of course, you are afraid.
But here is something you can do to be fear-less:
If you are a senior leader, do you want your team to be fearful? NO! If you feel fearful, your senior leaders may not have done a great job of making you feel safe
Remind yourself that everyone knows something you don’t know, and you know something that others don’t know. We are equal human beings.
Go out and share the powerful YOU!
Never let a good crisis go to waste
A crisis will happen, big or small, sooner or later.
If it hasn't happened for you yet, I hope it keeps that way.
A leader's response during a crisis sets the tone for the team and organization.
This week, while I was virtually presenting to hundreds of professionals, I encountered a technology glitch.
The screen sharing automatically stopped a few times.
As someone who is obsessed with "customer experience", this was a "Crisis."
The good news is that there was a contingency plan beforehand.
The IT support took over the screen share, while the moderator and I exchanged a few playful comments.
I quit my presentation application, and I resumed the screen sharing.
Afterwards, the producing team did a debrief and agreed on what needs to be done in the future for dry runs.
I got into the root cause mode as I always had done as a technologist.
I have to identify the root cause so that it won't happen again.
For people who love problem-solving, you know that once you root out the cause of an issue, the solution isn't that far away.
Here is what I learned. I'm sharing it so that you know how to handle this if you happen to encounter a similar issue.
I will have to share the technologies explicitly so that you know under exactly what condition it happens; my intention isn't to call out any technology. As a technologist, I knew that no software is free from defects.
Technology Stack:
MacOS, Zoom App, PowerPoint App, Mentimeter
Exact Scenario:
1. There is Mentimeter embedded in PowerPoint
2. Screen share the PowerPoint App Window in Zoom
3. Stop screen sharing on the slides that contain a Mentimeter page (if stopped sharing in any other slides without Mentimeter, it's fine)
4. When re-sharing, there are multiple PowerPoint windows to choose from, but only one has the file name. In my case, it's the last one.
5. If the correct window wasn't chosen during sharing, the screen share will be interrupted automatically with a message "the shared window has closed".
Please take a look at the screen capture below. There are 3 PowerPoint windows available to choose from, but only the last one is the valid "main" window to continue screen sharing.
My guess is that the additional windows are the integrations between PowerPoint and Mentimeter. I will open a Zoom support ticket to start the inquiry.
Don't let a good crisis go to waste.
Learn something from it.
How a leader handles a crisis will impact the morale of a team.
What do you think the root cause is?
What's your learning from some crises?
How did it impact you when and how a leader handled a crisis?
Experience Capital
Throughout my career, I have consistently sought out opportunities to explore something new.
Sometimes it involves changing industry, such as from aerospace engineering to building construction, from manufacturing to IT, and from IT to professional Coaching and Speaking.
At other times, it's the type of companies I've worked for, ranging from academic to startups, privately owned to publicly traded, non-profit and for-profit, and then entrepreneurship.
Even if I stayed in the same line of business, I explored different roles, including individual contributor as a software engineer, manager, architect, DevOps lead, SRE leader, technology leader, and executive.
Kweilin Ellingrud, Lareina Yee, and Maria del Mar Martinez, three senior partners at McKinsey & Company, refer to this type of experience as "Experience Capital."
In their book, "The Broken Rung: When the Career Ladder Breaks for Women--and How They Can Succeed in Spite of It", they discussed how important Experience Capital is.
They argue that 50% of your lifetime income comes from Experience Capital.
Women lack Experience Capital, especially in their early career stages, which significantly contributes to the Broken Rung and Pay Gap.
I encourage leaders, women, and their allies to read this book so that we can work together to fix the broken rung.
What is Broken Rung?
When the first promotions come around, the slide continues. For every 100 men promoted to manager, only 81 women overall and 77 women of color get promoted.
This is something we all need to work together to fix.
Break the Rules
When was the last time you broke a rule?
I am not asking you to break the law.
I am not asking you to break the corporate policies.
Have you ever entered a room or space even though you were not explicitly invited?
Have you ever done anything that is “above my pay grade”?
“Rule breaking and violating social norms to build power fundamentally entail undertaking behaviors - taking initiatives - that are "different" and unexpected. Most importantly, rule breaking requires being proactive and doing something...”
This is Rule #2 in "The 7 Rules of Power" by Dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer
If you want more power, go and break some rules.
I am not asking you to be arrogant.
I am asking you to ask yourself:
Who said I can't?
Do I really need someone's permission?
What's something that I can do to change the status quo?
Who can I reach out to be my ally for change?
Take initiatives...proactively.
The world is evolving, so should be the rules.
The secret of not having any bad day
This is a post-it note I have on my computer monitor to constantly remind myself.
Through my life journey, I found myself get closer and closer to the essence of the following 3 principles and they have shaped every decision that I make in recent years, at work, or in life with my family and friends, people I don’t know, and people I disagree with.
❤️ Love - When conversations are hard, it’s the love toward another human being and love of the cause lead me to heartfelt conversations and often a win-win result.
🔱Truth - Who holds the truth? When the many blind people touch the elephant and believe that the elephant looks like a rope, a wall, a tree trunk, a fan…they all believe they hold the truth. They are all absolutely right with the fact they have. As a leader, I constantly remind myself to be aware of the limitations of my own perceptions, and approaching situations with humility, open-mindedness, and empathy.
🤩Beauty - find beauty in everyone and everything. We are all unique. We are all equal. We are all beautiful. We are all awesome. Nature is beautiful in its own way.
When I noticed that I may be having frustration, stress, judgement, I go back to my principles of LOVE, TRUTH and BEAUTY. This is my secret of not having a bad day. They are now yours.
𝗠𝘆 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗜 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗮𝗯
I am pretty sure I lost my work. 💔
I was in the middle of transcribing an audio file into text.
It took time for the process to finish.
To stay productive, I opened another tab and kept working on something else.
Then I forgot about that original tab and the task.
2 days later, I closed tabs one by one to stay focused.
( Focus is a lost art for many leaders, as the world evolves so rapidly.
They are constantly doing context switching due to frequent pings and meetings.)
My heart sank right after I closed the browser tab.
Only then did I realize what I had just done.
OMG, I have to do it again?!
With the hope of being lucky, I checked the folder.
A new file did exist, but it contained not even a SINGLE word.
Maybe, just maybe...
I clicked "Dictate," then "Transcribe."
There IT IS!!!
The unfinished work is waiting for me for the next step.
This is one of the reasons why you should 𝗘𝗺𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲
1️⃣ Technology
2️⃣ Asynchronous processing
3️⃣ Cloud Storage
4️⃣ AI
5️⃣ Microsoft Word