Lean In and Level It UP

FountainBlue’s April 12 When She Speaks event was on the topic of ‘Lean In and Level It Up’. Below are notes from the conversation.

We were fortunate to have such an inspiring and accomplished panel to speak on this month’s topic. They represented a wide range of academic and professional backgrounds and experiences, yet they had much in common:

• They juggle as much as the rest of us between work and life.
• They try to plan as best as they can, and roll with whatever life has to offer when the plan doesn’t work out.
• They are humbly human, and grateful for all those who helped them to level up to where they are in life and work.
• They are reaching today to become an increasingly better version of themselves.

Below is some advice they have on how to support each other, and reach for what we’re seeking in life and at work.

• Embrace and create new opportunities as they arise. 
• Have the self-awareness to know what you want and the courage to reach for it.
• Build the network of others to support you in the journey. It’s not just the obvious senior executives who can help you. The people who can help you come from many backgrounds and they are above, below, beside and within you.
• Know your value-add. Grow that value-add. Communicate that value-add.
• Be open to the opportunities which arise from failures and mis-steps. They provide the greatest learning opportunities.
• Be clear on your priorities. Make proactive choices to respect those priorities.
• Be clear on your expectations of yourself and others. Communicate clearly and regularly to ensure a clear understanding of expectations, especially as it evolves.
• Know yourself and what you need. But be flexible enough to bend, but not compliant enough to break under the will of others and their agenda. Your own needs are also important.
• Be clear on what you’re seeking, direct on how you ask for it, and collaborative on how you deliver it. 
• Learn from people who can show you how something should be done.
• Create a work and role you enjoy and look forward to. One where you can stretch and grow and contribute. Shift the role and responsibilities as needed to ensure that you remain happy and satisfied.
• Be yourself. Your full self. The best version of yourself.
• Grow a network with people who have your back. People who would stand by you in the good times and more so in the bad times. 
• It’s OK not to want to level up. Lean in to help others get to where they want to go, even if he/she doesn’t want to level up.
• Create calm from chaos.
• Be resilient and persistent. 
• Shoot for the stars. You might reach the moon.
• Don’t be a fair-weather friend. Don’t hang around with people who are fair weather friends.

The bottom line is that regardless of whether you want to level up, choose to be a good person. Make the tough choices in alignment with that choice, even if that means you’re not going to level up to a position you’re seeking. Doing the right thing is always the right thing to do.

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Please join me in thanking our gracious hosts at Synaptics and our panelists for FountainBlue’s April 12 When She Speaks event on the topic of ‘Lean In and Level It Up’:

• Facilitator Linda Holroyd, CEO, FountainBlue; Director Vonzos Partners
• Panelist Deepika Bajaj, Serial CMO and Vonzos EIR
• Panelist Sharmistha Das, Director, HCM Applications Development, Oracle
• Panelist Carina Fang, Director, IoT Program Management, Synaptics
• Panelist Christina Lewis, MBA, Finance Director, Devices BU, Western Digital
• Panelist Preethy Padmanabhan, VP of Marketing, Panzura

with opening remarks by Jean Boufarhat, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Synaptics and Tamara Lucero, Director; Inside Sales / S&OP, at Synaptics.

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The Future of Work

FountainBlue’s April 5 VIP roundtable was on the topic of ‘The Future of Work’. Thank you also to our gracious hosts at Citrix and to our executives in attendance for their input and advice. Below are notes from the conversation. 

The Future of Work will address the emotional, physical, spiritual and intellectual needs of the whole, integrated human. It will focus on creating connections between people, and also on providing platforms, processes and opportunities so that people can get things done in the way that’s convenient for them.

All these opportunities arise because, for the most part, we have the foundational technologies and infrastructure necessary to create more scalable, more sustainable, more versatile, and more powerful solutions which make us more productive at work and more fulfilled and satisfied outside work.

Predictions for the the future of work include:

• The work scenarios will be impacted by whether the workforce is from Gen X and Gen Y and Gen Z. Each generation thrives under different parameters. 
• The future of work will include many people working from home. 
  • Provide them with the hardware, software, network and tools so that they can efficiently, securely and productivity do so.
• There is and will continue to be an abundance of software and device options brought into enterprises. 
  • IT professionals and executives must be proactive about communicating and restricting what is allowed on-site and how it is integrated with other solutions. 
  • Develop and manage standards for interoperability, security, scalability. These standards and protocols will help advance opportunities for all.
  • There will always be a balance between a need for security and a need for privacy, and a need to conform to relevant policies and standards.
• There will continue to be a trend toward working with shared physical space and shared equipment at work. 
  • Manage that scenario so it’s clear how everything can be equitably and securely shared efficiently.

Below are some thoughts on how to further facilitate advancements in technologies and solutions to fit into our new work requirements.

• Collaborate across roles, across companies, across industries to meet the complex and complicated needs of a very demanding customer base.
• Focus on and deliver on what the target customer is looking for.
• Get data on how customers are using current solutions, for this will provide insights on what other services and products you could provide.
• Accept that professionals in industries such as healthcare and financial services may be more reluctant to embrace new hardware and software offerings. Find a way to make the transition easier for them, for it’s necessary for that adoption to take place.
• No matter how advanced we are in video and audio communications, there will never be a substitute for face-to-face communications. Factoring in this truth will help plan for a more realistic future.
• Measure how productive the workforce is under differing circumstances. Use the metrics to optimize performance.

Below are some thoughts on some growth opportunities.

• Although we have made great strides in providing efficient internet access, particularly in metropolitan areas, there is still room for more reliable, more efficient access.
• Voice and video innovations will help support the future of work.
• The data around customer usage will help us proactively understand and serve customers. 

To conclude, no matter where you’re sitting, embrace the inevitable technology, process and business shifts around the future of work. Think from the outside in and from the inside out about what the future of work will entail and plan accordingly.

Embrace Your Creativity

This month’s post is a follow-up to last month’s post on Awaken the Creative in YOU – Part One, Why? and talks about the HOW. I’ve always been a bit of an original… a little bit ‘edgy’. But I’ve been trained and conditioned to streamline my thinking so that I can better communicate and understand what others mean.

This thinking inside-the-box is very efficient and useful – a standard to which most of us conform. But there are times when we need to embrace that creativity within us – times when breaking out of that box actually helps yourself and others think, speak and do things differently, in a way which would be embraced by all. Below are some tips for Embracing the Creative in YOU – Part Two, How?

1. Accept that there are times to think ‘inside the box’, and times to think ‘outside the box’. Manage your creative releases accordingly.
2. If you’ve been rewarded for thinking inside the box, it’s often hard to think outside that box. Try rewarding yourself (and others) for thinking, speaking and acting differently within specific contexts.
3. Bring people from different backgrounds together on a common project and watch the magic unfold. How are they more similar than they thought and more different than they thought? What new idea, concept, occurrence took place when you combined them?
4. Combine two different processes or solutions in solving a complex problem.
5. Leverage a success from one circumstance and apply it to a completely different scenario, which might actually make sense.
6. Combine elements of ‘wrong’ solutions might bring you closer to one that’s ‘right’.
7. Bask in the people, processes, circumstances etc., which make you feel uncomfortable. Consider them learning opportunities – a chance to stretch and grow in new ways.
8. Recall some early memories of judgments for those who aren’t following the rules, and how others respond to them. This ‘over-socialization‘ is likely impacting your creative edge. Choose to stretch your own boundaries if it would give you an edge.
9. Shift your own perception about the creative people who have touched you in your life. The less you judge them for being ‘different’, the more welcome you will be to the parts of you who also want to be ‘different’ – in a good way.
10. Embrace that creative spark in yourself. It’s not just for people who ‘live on the edge’.

Have fun with it, while you’re also solving problems with it!