3 Ways to Accelerate Change as a Woman in Tech
Being a woman in tech has never been easy. It’s certainly not gotten any easier over the past eighteen months. We’ve all been wearing many hats: full-time employee, full-time parent, part-time teacher — and at times, it can be overwhelming.
I joined Slack in an executive leadership role last summer, right in the middle of the pandemic. Establishing relationships, building trust, and developing a team around me was a unique challenge unlike anything I’ve experienced before.
I learned that we’re all more resilient than we ever thought we could be. Everything changed overnight; from the way we work and communicate to the amount of time we spend with our families. Yet we overcame it all, and we’ve emerged stronger on the other side.
I’ve spent my whole career in tech, first as an individual contributor, and now as a leader of a fast-paced, growing team at Slack Platform. I recently spoke on a panel at the Women in Tech X Collision conference. The discussion explored whether the pandemic would be the tipping point for change for women in the workplace.
It stuck with me, and I had several reflections I wanted to share.
- Champion Other Women..
When you look at the senior leadership of your company and don’t see anyone that looks like you, it’s tough to imagine a future where you’ll be in that position. Women of color are dramatically under-represented in the tech industry. Things are changing, but we need them to change faster.
For most of my career, I didn’t see anyone that looked like me. But as I started to take on increasing levels of responsibility and high-profile leadership roles, the chance to increase the opportunities available to people like me has become a driving motivation.
I’ve found that the best way for me to promote representation for women on my team is by acting as a champion on their behalf. Bring up their names behind closed doors in management meetings. Seek them out and involve them in discussions around important, strategic issues. Become a mentor, and share your advice and wisdom — and maybe a missing page in a career manual that you once had to figure out by yourself.
As a leader, that’s how you champion those who don’t have access to the areas and relationships that you do. It’s that simple — anyone can do it, if you have the access and privilege to lift other women up.
2. Remember that You Belong.
Those were the first words that were said to me when I joined Slack. Those words were repeated throughout the onboarding process, and then every day at work.
It’s such a simple, but powerful message. As a woman of color entering a huge leadership role, it meant a lot to know that everyone stood in solidarity with me — even though they didn’t know me yet.
But making someone feel like they belong requires more than a powerful message. At Slack, we recently set up a program called ‘Rising Tides,’ where we pair women of color with sponsors in our leadership team.
The women get a six month sponsorship with the executive. They shadow them, ask questions about the business, their career — whatever they want. They sit in on executive meetings and learn what’s discussed behind closed doors. In short, they get intimate access to leadership and visibility they’d struggle to get otherwise.
As women get further into their careers, and rise up the technical ladder, there’s fewer of us. This is starting to improve for the next generation, but that doesn’t necessarily help the women on my team today.
That’s one of the reasons we’re prototyping close-knit circles of our women leaders and our women engineers at Slack. As women, we owe it to each other to lift each other up. That applies to all underrepresented minorities — all women, all women of color. Forming small circles where we can learn from each other, and leaders can share what they know, is another step to making leadership roles and opportunities more visible and accessible.
3. Push through discomfort, that’s where growth happens.
That transition from being an independent contributor to becoming a leader can be uncomfortable. I spent a lot of my career as an independent contributor. Like many others, when I was first offered a leadership role, I had my doubts.
Here’s the thing: You can always go back if it’s not for you. But you’ll never know if you don’t try.
One of my mentors, who was my CTO at the time, told me that. That assurance helped me take the leap into engineering management, and eventually into bigger leadership roles. As you grow into more senior roles, it’s helpful to have mentors to help you fill specific gaps.
When you’re trying something new, you’re going to be afraid. I certainly was when I stepped into that first management role. But fear and courage go hand-in-hand. When I’m most fearful, I evaluate opportunities with a decision razor of “Will I regret not taking it on?” Every time I’ve done that, growth has happened.
My advice? Embrace the opportunity, own the fear and courage, and take the chance. By not trying, you have a 100% chance of not making it.
