Turn on That Airplane Light
New fiscal ‘years’, new roles, and sales in general can sometimes leave you on the road traveling, which is such a great opportunity to experience many different local cultures. It was a beautiful day just before fall in Boston when I got the chance to spend time with 7 other Cisco engineers. Collectively, there was 148 years of Cisco experience in the room and we were talking about ways to be stronger than ever before. The next day, we were on a train to New York to visit with even more great engineers and experience that amazing connection between all #CiscoSE.
After another amazing day with partners and our own engineers, I had to catch a late night flight to return home in time for an opportunity to join the fabulous Michelle Greene, VP of IT at Masco, and Alex Yeung, CIO for Amway on a Panel around technology trends and leadership at an Inforum event. We had interviewed Michelle Greene for Diva Tech Talk Ep 88, so I knew she would have years of wisdom and experience.
The pressure was on. I happened to randomly run into Guillermo Diaz, Cisco Chief Information Officer, in the airport security line and was floored when he took a few minutes to talk me through some of the panel questions from his perspective as I prepped. On the flight,I noticed I was the only one on the flight with my little overhead airplane light on looking through my work. It was a mix of anticipation, excitement, and nerves, but I was ready to take on the next day even if I got home past 2 am. They closed off all the airport lights as I waited for my ride, but I was still shining.
That next morning, the Inforum Technology NEXT Conference was a gathering of women from various technology companies. I loved connecting with old friends, bringing new women along, and meeting some new faces. For me, it was so cool to see some the work from our Diva Tech Talk Podcast come full circle. I was given a scholarship from Inforum about 4 years ago to join the InGage Growth startup cohort with this podcast, the concept was to help empower more women in technology through our platform. Now, I sat on a panel sharing collected wisdom from our over 90 episodes from our 6 time award winning podcast series. I was also able to add my own leadership experience from Cisco and various community boards. It was so much fun and truly an honor. Thank you to the great panel host Sarah Brodhead and Inforum for this opportunity.
After the panel, my heart was warmed when Teresa, the Associate Director of Philanthropy for the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors, came up to saying she was so grateful for Cisco’s Corporate Responsibility as Cisco recently gave a them a grant. I did some research and it was touching to see the work that the organization does. It’s moments like this where I am proud to work for a company that really wants to make a difference. Read about the connection between this group and Cisco in this blog.
The theme of corporate social responsibility continued as I left for the next event. I headed to Lansing Community College, where I have spent several years teaching and advising, to celebrate the importance of Security and our Cisco Networking Academies with the "Michigan's Next Generation Workforce" event. It was great to connect with Networking Academy instructors and meet our new United States Director for the Networking Academy (NetAcad), Rebecca Chisholm. I always love seeing our regional NetAcad lead Cyldene who has helped me stay connected for many years and truly gets so much joy out of helping the students.
The event was supported by the honorable Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and they had this diverse group of students share their NetAcad experiences. Congrats to all the students for their success in the program and the wonderful job they did presenting to such a prestigious audience! One gentleman even said:
“Cisco Networking academy is one of the best things that has happened to me and it changed my life.”
For my professional/IT friends, you can actually create your profile and get matched to NetAcad opportunities to give back and connect to students by completing your profile here: https://www.netacad.com/portal/connect/giving
After the cake (because priorities!), I was off to the Annual Michigan Charity Golf Tournament being held across town. I missed the golf portion, but was excited to come back again to volunteer for this great local push to support the VanAndel Institute (VAI) in Grand Rapids. It was a mix of fundraising, fun, video making, networking with partners, and learning about Parkinson's. We were able to raise over $30,000 for this great cause and also make an additional $1,000 donation to honor one our fellow Cisco employees in memory of his late father.
Since I speak often on balance, I am reminded during weeks like this that balance is not a perfect flow. Sometimes you have a big flood of activities at one time. The week ended with an amazing event called 'Live 2 Lead', a very inspirational leadership broadcast and event, featuring John Maxwell, Chris Hogan, Rachel Hollis, Marcus Buckingham and Angela Ahrendts. Some takeaways from that conference start with a wonderful method to take concepts beyond a leadership training that I would love to share:
A - What can you apply?
C - What do you need to change?
T - What do you need to teach others?
Here are some short inspirations from the conference:
Inspire yourself and you can inspire others
90% of leaders don’t develop leaders. If you grow leaders, you grow the organization.
Connect before you lead
Understand what motivates your people
Life’s most urgent question is what are you doing for others – MLK
Create an environment that you can’t imagine leaving
If today was your last day, would be proud of your life.
Make space with walls made of love
You don’t want to have fans, you want to have friend
In fact, if you like that speaker lineup, you can work with Lisa Nowak to get it re-broadcasted either in totality or by speaker at your organization to spread this great knowledge!
As I emerge in my own continuous transformation as a leader, these weeks open the floodgates to connect, learn, giveback, and grow. It is those times in life when you may need to "turn on your airplane light" and find the extra time to make the most of a career opportunity while getting out of your comfort zone. Weeks like this are worth months in professional and personal growth and clarity.
It's not easy and sometimes things are put on pause to execute on my career goals, but the weekend was full of princesses, playgrounds, and hugs with my supportive, amazing family. My three year old may not understand now, but mommy gets on an airplane for her. Not just to provide for my family, but to make for progress towards equality and empowerment for all women. Much gratitude to my husband, friends, and family that supports me everyday on my journey in life and especially in these magical 72 hours.
One love and may you all find that right time to turn on that light!
