Katherine Plumhoff
Writer and editor who crafts stories about travel, food, feminism, and communication. Formerly at a hedge fund in NYC, currently a content-creator-at-large roaming around Latin America. Big fan of carrot cake and honesty.
Find her at kathmeetsworld.com or on Instagram @kplumhoff.
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June 25, 2020
Career Advice
“Should I Join a Startup?”
Clyde's Kelly Hall Shares Tips for Moving from a Big Organization to a Startup and a Framework for Making the Decision
Kelly Hall broke a major rule of negotiation when she was interviewing for her current job at product protection startup Clyde.
<p>She'd gotten an offer to join Clyde as VP of Channel Strategy and wanted to take it, so she went to tell her previous employer she would be resigning. But instead of accepting her resignation, they responded with a surprising counter-offer. She brought it back to her hiring manager at Clyde, who happened to also be the CEO, and waited for his response.</p><p>Using a counter-offer to drive up a starting salary is a classic negotiating move, and one that<a href="https://blog.powertofly.com/how-to-negotiate-salary-2588227014.html" target="_self"> we've encouraged women</a> to consider. But the waiting was getting to Kelly—"I was losing my mind, emotionally," she remembers—so she reached out to her former employer and told them that she couldn't accept their counter, then got back in touch with her future boss and told him what she'd done.</p><p>Even though she could've kept negotiating, Kelly wanted to start her new job off with as much transparency as possible. "I believe that honest communication pays higher dividends," she says. "So it was important to me to let him know that I had officially declined the counteroffer."</p><p>What are rules good for, anyways? They're guidelines to help you get what you need, and when they work, that's great. But Kelly learned that following her instincts and her values got her to where she needed to be in the end. (Including with her offer: Clyde's CEO came back with what she calls "a very compelling addition to the original offer," even after knowing she'd turned the counter down. She accepted it and joined the team a couple of months ago.)</p><p>We sat down with Kelly to talk about her career path, the framework she used when deciding to leave a large, established company to join Clyde (a startup), and her tips for other women who are negotiating job offers with startups. </p><h2>From startups to major players and back again</h2><p>Kelly's current role as VP of Channel Strategy at Clyde has her focusing on understanding new verticals and markets, determining how to position the company within them to reach their target market. Though she's excited to be part of a fast-growing team, she acknowledges that for her, having worked for enterprise-level companies helped her to get to this point. "Personally, I think I'm in a better position to be successful because I'm bringing experience into the startup. I don't know that I would've been able to pull this off as my first or second gig; I wouldn't have had the foresight or experience to really shake things up had I made this leap earlier," she explains.</p><p>When Kelly kicked off her career in sales, it was with a small company called Hands On Systems that provided billing for mobile carriers right as mobile and internet technology were converging. "It was literally guys in their garage who built this platform," she says. She loved the fast-paced nature of scaling her sales as the market grew.</p><p>When that company was acquired by Verisign, she found herself transitioning into a much more structured environment. "It was 'small and scrappy' versus 'large and secure,'" says Kelly. "In a smaller organization, you have the opportunity to touch things more directly, which I love. But there's something to be gained from working at a larger organization that has tremendous resources and support." </p><p>Kelly then spent several years working with other big players (Asurion and AmTrust) before she met the Clyde CEO and COO, Brandon Gell and Jereme Holiman, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas this year. She'd been running into issues in her sales cycle and realized she didn't have the resources to solve them. "It started to be apparent that a partnership with Clyde could move forward some of my other deals," she says. Kelly set up a dinner with their team, thinking they could discuss that objective. She walked out of the dinner with a job offer.</p><h2>Deciding to make the leap: a framework for joining a startup</h2>
<p>Kelly didn't take the job immediately. Although she was very interested, she wanted to make sure to do her due diligence. Her process for deciding went as follows:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>First, she <strong>checked the financials</strong>. She wanted to make sure that the company was well set up financially, so she asked the founders to circle back with her once they'd raised their Series A round of funding.</li><li>Then Kelly asked for <strong>investor access</strong>, with the goal of understanding their belief in the company. "The bigger the investor, the more open the dialogue, I found," says Kelly, who encourages women considering taking a high-level role at a startup to do the same. "It lends insight from another perspective."</li><li>She also wanted to make sure she <strong>liked the people</strong> and not just the investors. "I've always prioritized working in a company with people you really like. And that was my experience with the Clyde team," says Kelly, who appreciates the company's focus on creating a positive working environment with a diverse group of employees.</li><li>It was also important for Kelly to <strong>understand the role and its growth potential</strong>. "A startup gives you an opportunity to do a lot of different things—including stuff you're probably not even qualified for," she says, smiling. "I asked questions around the role itself, but also how I'd interact with other projects because I think it's really important to own your career path."</li><li>Then it was time to <strong>listen to her intuition</strong>. "It's our greatest ally," she says. "If you listen, the answers are always there." She was excited about the company and their vision and knew it was the right move for her. "It felt like their platform was just coming at the perfect time. This industry needs it."</li></ul><p>Before officially accepting the job, Kelly asked herself three questions she'd learned from a previous mentor for how to evaluate a new opportunity: </p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><strong>"Am I being paid fairly? Am I learning? And am I having fun?"</strong> </li></ul>
<p>Clyde seemed like it would check all of those boxes for her, so it was time to move forward—and into that fateful negotiation.</p><h2>Negotiating salaries at a startup as a woman</h2><p>To prepare for her salary negotiation, Kelly did start by following the "rules." First, she did her research on what the market range looked like for the role. "Sometimes we miss that step and go in with a growth percentage on top of our previous salary, thinking, 'Oh, if I can just get 10% more than I'm making now, I'll be happy.'" she says. But she wanted to have a solid base rooted in fact, so she came up with a number that she felt represented her worth and the market.</p><p>"Then you beef it up a little bit," she says. "Go for it, but don't get too crazy!"</p><p>That's the number she went into the negotiations with. As she was working through Clyde's offer, her then-employer's counter, and the final package, she had to consider equity and other benefits, too. "Even though I obviously believe in the vision, my advice is that you can't really bank on equity," she says. </p>
<p>One thing that did stand out to her as a clear pro and added value (beyond salary), was Clyde's open vacation policy. "Early in my career, I was wired to believe that being busy and not taking vacation was a medal of honor. And I learned very quickly that it's just going to burn you out. I really loved that Clyde's policy is to take as much vacation as you'd like as long as you're performing," she says. She was pleased with the company's vacation fund matching, too, where employees can allocate a percentage of their paychecks for vacations, which Clyde matches up to a certain point.</p><p>"You have to look at your package from both a financial perspective as well as flexibilities or perks that go a long way in terms of your mental space and happiness in your role," says Kelly.</p><p>Even though she was negotiating this particular offer just as the Coronavirus pandemic was beginning, Kelly didn't settle for less than what she thought she deserved. "Barring situations where your livelihood is at risk, you shouldn't lose sight of your worth," she says.</p><p>And as we revealed above, it all worked out. She suggests that women looking to join startups follow her same approach—even if it means backing off from some of the traditional ways of negotiating. "In trust-basedrelationships, there's really no negotiation," she says. <strong>"If you know your value and your company knows your value, it's really just a discussion on what will make it feel like you're making the right decision."</strong></p><p>Kelly's first few weeks with the Clyde team have confirmed to her that she did indeed make the right decision. If you're interested in joining her, follow<a href="https://powertofly.com/companies/clyde" target="_blank"> Clyde's page</a> for updates on open roles.</p>
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June 24, 2020
Diversity & Inclusion
Finding Community at Work: How Viasat's Suzanne Marchi Leans In and Lifts Up Women and Families
About a decade ago, Suzanne Marchi sent an email out to all of the managers on her floor. She was a technical operations manager at global communications and satellite internet company, Viasat, and reaching out to managers to garner support for the participation of women on their teams to connect with other women in similar positions to build a community.
<p>Unfortunately, not a single woman received her email. That's because ten years ago, all of the other technical ops managers at Viasat were men.<br/></p><p>That's no longer the case, thanks to Suzanne's organizing and Viasat's commitment to diversify their workforce and foster an inclusive environment for all.</p><p>Now, as Viasat's Director of Technical Service Operations, as well as the founder of the Denver branch of Viasat's Women in Technology employee resource group (ERG), Suzanne's emails regularly get read by hundreds of women interested in supporting each other at work. She's also the founder of Viasat's Families Helping Families ERG, through which she organizes information sessions, bonding opportunities, and mutual support for parents and families.</p><p>We reached out to Suzanne, who took our call from her beautiful Denver garden (complete with birds chirping and chickens pecking at the ground!), to discuss how she found and fostered community at work, how her career has developed over 13 years at Viasat, and how her management style has adapted to the challenges of the coronavirus crisis.</p><h3>Creating the community she wanted to see—with support</h3><p>As you may have guessed from Suzanne's title, her role requires significant technological know-how. She manages Viasat's Network Operations Center, which is responsible for identifying and resolving systems issues. She works with a team of engineers and oversees everything from training and documentation to incident management and capacity planning.</p><p>Suzanne remembers two specific "lean in" moments in her career. The first was the event that prompted her to send the email mentioned above. She was in a meeting with 20 people and realized she was the only woman in the room, and not for the first time. "Up to that point in my career, I thought it was just something I had to deal with. Then I realized that it was something we should fix, because women bring so much to an organization and a team," she remembers.</p><p>Suzanne started with the women on her floor, and then partnered with Viasat's People & Culture team to identify women across the company, in management, technical and support roles, to set up introductory meetings.</p><p>"In that first meeting, the group of attendees was inspired, engaged and it ultimately grew into the ERG it is today, with the goal of educating, empowering, mentoring, and increasing the presence and influence of women at Viasat," says Suzanne. They accomplish that goal by hosting classes, informal get togethers, speaker series, movie nights, webinars, and a book club.</p><p>It was when her Women in Technology group was reading <em>Lean In</em> together that Suzanne had her second personal "lean in" epiphany. "I started to look around the room [in meetings] and see that we had those side chairs and that a lot of women were sitting on the edge," says Suzanne. "That gave me an opportunity to coach them and bring them to the table and help them realize that they needed to be there."</p><p>Suzanne credits the Women in Technology ERG's success to having the full support of the larger Viasat team and its culture of prioritizing community and learning. The ERG's partnership with the People & Culture team has helped make candidates and new hires feel welcome to Viasat from day one.</p><h3>What "family" really means at work</h3><p>Suzanne's success in building communities didn't stop with her work with the Women in Tech ERG. While at a baby shower for a coworker, she realized that there were ways to actively and systematically support parents-to-be that would give working women the best chance of successfully coming back to work, if that's what they wanted. "It makes it so much more pleasant and attractive to stay at Viasat when you have support and a community," says Suzanne, who has been a working mother herself for all of her career.</p><p>With this in mind, she started another ERG, this one called Families Helping Families, with the goal of providing a supportive environment, resources, and respect for parents, future parents, and families. It's now spread to several other Viasat offices as well.</p><p>Families Helping Families hosts learning sessions, where they explain Viasat benefits and resources like the company's parental leave policy and the nursing rooms available in-office. They organize gifts and assistance for new parents—everything from baby blankets to prepared meals—and give people space to share advice, problems, and stories. "People are able to realize they're not alone, and that their challenges are exciting and taxing all together," she says.</p><p>Celebrating life is a big part of what the group does, but Suzanne notes that their goal is to "support families in all seasons of life." Personally, she struggled last year with the stillborn birth of her grandchild. She organized a candle lighting ceremony and support circle last October 15th, during infant pregnancy and loss month, to connect with other parents and grandparents who had experienced similar losses. "One of the people who came to the event in Denver said it was the first time he'd ever told anybody about his loss," Suzanne recalls.</p><p>The Families Helping Families ERG has grown organically within Viasat that employees now sometimes go to Suzanne to help them find support within the group. Recently, after a coworker reached out to her, Suzanne organized a private Slack channel for couples who had to pause or give up on their IVF cycles during the current pandemic, as the treatments weren't deemed essential. </p><h3>Always evolving: managing through COVID and beyond</h3><p>Suzanne has now been at Viasat for 13 years, and in that time, she's seen a lot of change. "Being an engineering company, innovation is our focus," she says. Throughout her path into different management roles, Suzanne says her inspiration has always been to "take a team, make it better, and move to the next thing," which she says helped her develop "as well as serve the company."</p><p>None of that change quite prepared her to manage during a pandemic, though. Luckily, Viasat's been there to support Suzanne and her peers, offering seminars on how to manage remote teams, flexible scheduling options for employees, and upgraded screen-sharing and video conferencing software.</p><p>With her own team, Suzanne has increased their team meetings from weekly to multiple times a week to check in on how everyone's holding up. One of the team meetings has no agenda aside from bonding and stress relief—they've even done show-and-tell sessions and remote scavenger hunts.</p><p>Through the Families Helping Families ERG, Viasat and Suzanne are offering virtual panels on how to juggle work, parenting, and teaching, as well as increased resource-sharing and support. "It's helping us not feel so isolated and fearful and desperate," she says. "I think that connection to the outside world and to work is really a lifeline to a lot of people."</p><p><strong><em>If Viasat's commitment to their employees sounds appealing, check out their open roles</em><a href="https://powertofly.com/companies/viasat" target="_blank"> <em>here</em></a></strong><em><strong>.</strong></em></p>
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June 18, 2020
Diversity & Inclusion
Why Juneteenth Matters—And How Companies Are (And Should Be) Celebrating It
When did you learn what Juneteenth was?
For many Americans, particularly white Americans or those living outside of Texas, the annual holiday celebrated on June 19th isn't something they know about and certainly isn't something they celebrate. And that's a shame. I, for one, learned about it several years ago on Twitter; none of my primary, secondary, or post-secondary education included even a mention of the day, and it took the tweets of a Black critic to make me look into what the holiday was and why it should be celebrated.
<p>Let me say that again: it should be celebrated.</p><p>Especially now. Especially while the country is on day 20-something of nationwide protests over police brutality and the murders of Black Americans like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Especially when the President is sowing further division and spreading more racism (to the point where <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1266231100780744704?s=20" target="_blank">Twitter itself has to censor him</a>).</p><p>Let's talk about what Juneteenth is and why it matters, and then we'll cover something we care deeply about as an organization committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: why companies should recognize it and how some of them are already doing so.</p><h3>A brief history of Juneteenth</h3><p>Some people understand Juneteenth as the celebration of the end of slavery. But that's not quite it.</p><p>Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. That was technically the day slavery ended in the U.S.</p><p>But enslaved people in Texas didn't know that until two and a half years later, on June 19, 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and told still-enslaved Black people there of their freedom and of the end of the Civil War. (<a href="https://www.pvamu.edu/tiphc/research-projects/juneteenth-the-emancipation-proclamation-freedom-realized-and-delayed/" target="_blank">Some historians note</a> that slave masters may have withheld the information from their slaves in order to get another harvest out of them, and others highlight the lack of Union troops in the state to enforce it.)</p><p>The day turned into an important holiday for the Black community in Texas and beyond, particularly so <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/juneteenth-day-celebration.html" target="_blank">after 1872</a>, when a group of Black community leaders bought 10 acres of land in Houston and created Emancipation Park.</p><p>Now, big cities—including Atlanta, Washington D.C., and Houston—hold large events, parades, and festivals celebrating the day, and individual families and communities often gather to share food and celebrate.</p><p>Juneteenth is currently celebrated as a holiday in 46 states and D.C., though it's <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44865.pdf" target="_blank">not a federal one</a> and comes with no guaranteed time off.</p><p>It might be a paid holiday in the future, though, particularly if individual states and companies keep moving to make it so on a smaller scale. The governor of Virginia <a href="https://twitter.com/GovernorVA/status/1272950441865736192" target="_blank">stated this week</a> that he wanted to propose legislation to make Juneteenth a paid state holiday, and big companies like Twitter, Nike, Postmates, and the NFL have made the day a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/us/juneteenth-twitter-square-holiday.html" target="_blank">company holiday</a>.</p><h3>What companies are doing—and what they should be doing</h3><p>Before diving in and highlighting what companies are doing, I want to share an important framing, inspired by<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aaishajoseph_twitter-makes-juneteenth-a-permanent-company-activity-6676417649070665728-GyR4/" target="_blank"> this LinkedIn post by Aaisha Joseph</a>: no amount of PR-friendly corporate statements or flashy moves will make up for investing the time, effort, and money in pursuing actively anti-racist policies at work.</p><p>That means that without a thorough policy review for unfair hiring, evaluation, or promotion policies; without doing a salary analysis and salary adjustments to identify and close the wage gap between Black and white employees; without asking for diverse slates of candidates in your hiring and creating environments for those candidates to succeed and move up the ranks of your organization; and without putting Black employees in leadership positions (and ensuring they're not pushed off the "<a href="https://t.co/NQaf05R26l" target="_blank">glass cliff</a>" while doing it), saying you're anti-racist—or celebrating Juneteenth—isn't enough.</p><p>It's a start. But we all need to push our companies to keep going long beyond that.</p><p>That being said, let's take a look at ways that some companies <em>are</em> acknowledging their mistakes and making steps to create more inclusive workplaces by commemorating Juneteenth:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><strong>Reddit </strong><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/reddit-com_rlosangeles-i-wrote-a-book-about-the-compton-activity-6679020843751743488-F2mC/" target="_blank">has made Juneteenth</a> a company-wide day of education and activism, and they're encouraging employees to clear their meetings and instead spend the day engaging meaningfully with Black history.</li><li><strong>Amazon</strong> is also encouraging employees to cancel meetings and spend the day focused on "online learning opportunities" and "reflection," per CEO Jeff Bezos's <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/17/read-the-memo-jeff-bezos-sent-to-amazon-employees-about-juneteenth.html" target="_blank">memo to staff</a>. </li><li><strong>Facebook</strong> is <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/11/facebook-chief-diversity-officer-report-sheryl-sandberg-juneteenth/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALYxyGPd1CqlZ0VqHao_12TGmj6kSQ_a-URwW0VQKf0jpbAQT3M9rR6qfDF56W90ctfuYxR8x6dhbFy6P7QtXZAe3U-QsnVXbITkOqsBAhvU6U1DKT7yTPWTDpH2qDNAGRWqBKgRkxcFlJDs3o59qyKKH9qAQtPhGftlUxiYODtW" target="_blank">taking a similar approach</a> and cancelling all meetings to engage "in conversation about the history, experiences and issues that Black Americans still face."</li><li><strong>Adobe</strong> is <a href="https://theblog.adobe.com/listening-learning-and-taking-action/" target="_blank">giving employees the day off</a> to focus on reflection and advocacy.</li><li><strong>Autodesk, </strong>part of a group of companies participating in the <a href="https://www.hrdive.com/news/major-us-companies-form-coalition-to-support-worker-well-being/579946/" target="_blank">#RecoverStronger Initiative</a> has made the day a company-wide holiday</li><li><strong>Packet </strong>has also made the day a company-wide holiday</li><li><strong>PagerDuty</strong> is giving employees the day off and asking them to get involved through <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KPwZtPYyK_30RBfxC98T0ZzYXRRtStAZNqd9Tqg0FRM/edit" target="_blank">identified resources</a> focused on giving money, volunteering time, advocating for justice, and educating themselves and others.</li><li><strong>Lyft</strong> is <a href="https://twitter.com/lyft/status/1271598512694681600" target="_blank">making Juneteenth</a> a paid holiday now and in the future.</li><li>The <strong>New York Times</strong> is <a href="https://twitter.com/jeligon/status/1271520974731710465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1271520974731710465&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wusa9.com%2Farticle%2Fnews%2Fnation-world%2Fbusinesses-making-juneteenth-company-holiday-friday-june-19%2F507-f51a2ceb-eb4b-4126-b5e8-da2f3354243a" target="_blank">giving employees the day off</a> and giving a flex day off for employees who need to cover news that day.</li></ul><p>Many of the above companies have also given money to racial justice-focused organizations, lifted up the voices of their Black employee resource groups, and committed to revising their internal policies and procedures to create a more inclusive workforce.</p><p>If you or your company are looking for other ideas of things you can do, consider:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><strong>Digging into anti-racism resources as a team</strong>. Center your next team meeting around one of the films, books, articles, or chats on<a href="https://blog.powertofly.com/anti-racism-resources-2646155955.html?rebelltitem=5#rebelltitem5" target="_self"> this list we've put together</a>.</li><li><strong>Listening directly to Black people about their experiences. </strong>Join us for <a href="https://powertofly.com/career/live-chats/280704-chat-series-lift-every-voice-act-the-black-experience" target="_blank">our chat with artist and activist Maryella Marie on the Black Experience</a>, or listen to other interviews or news stories from these past few weeks featuring Black voices.</li><li><strong>Speaking up to HR and asking them to do more. </strong>As our Director of Global Diversity and Inclusion, Dionna Smith, recently <a href="https://blog.powertofly.com/how-to-be-an-ally-to-your-black-colleagues-and-peers-2646167792.html" target="_self">shared in a chat-and-learn</a>, "If you ever had a fighting chance to have your company pay attention to Black issues and how it affects a company, it's now. Don't give up easily on this. There is no middle road on this, and you have more leverage than ever."</li><li><strong>Making a diversity scorecard for your organization. </strong>Dionna addresses what that should include—from special project distribution, leadership makeup, and attribution—in<a href="https://powertofly.com/career/live-chats/81543-how-to-create-a-diversity-scorecard-for-your-organization" target="_blank"> this video</a>.</li><li><strong>Offer extended self-care options. </strong>Can you offer or expand therapy benefits? <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/06/how-organizations-can-support-the-mental-health-of-black-employees" target="_blank">Racism is traumatic</a>, and your Black employees or coworkers may need extra help right now.</li></ul><p>How are you going to commemorate and celebrate Juneteenth this year?</p>
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June 15, 2020
Career Advice
Navigating Being an “Only” at Work: How NGA’s Ichesia Veal Learned to Be Her Own Best Advocate
If you'd told Ichesia Veal when she began her studies at Norfolk State University that one day she'd end up being the chief of the Commercial GEOINT Discovery Division at NGA, she wouldn't have believed you.
<p>First, she didn't know what NGA was. If you don't either, here's a primer: the<a href="https://powertofly.com/companies/national-geospatial-intelligence-agency" target="_blank"> National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency</a> provides world-class geospatial intelligence to policymakers, warfighters, intelligence professionals and first responders. Its work is used in disaster response, wars, and cellphone navigation, among other things.</p><p>Second, Ichesia didn't plan on studying anything STEM related when she began her undergraduate degree. She thought she'd pick a liberal arts major until the university reached out and told her they'd give her a scholarship if she studied physics. Although Ichesia liked science and math classes in high school, did very well in them, and was even encouraged by teachers to pursue that kind of major, she didn't think it was for her. </p>
<p>"I didn't know anyone that had focused on STEM. I definitely didn't know any women who had pursued that path. And so it wasn't something that I ever seriously considered," says Ichesia. "It just never dawned on me, and part of that is representation. It's what you see around you, what fields you know about, what jobs you know about," she says.</p><p>Being at the historically black college and university NSU helped change the representation she was exposed to. Half of the students in her physics classes were women. </p>
<p>"It was a confidence boost, being in an environment where you're able to see people that look like you. I was able to focus more on physics," Ichesia says.</p>
<p>Surrounded by smart, determined Black men and women, Ichesia leaned into learning and signed up to do a master's in material science at NSU after finishing her undergraduate degree.</p><p>Now, decades into a career, including 10 years at NGA, that has often seen her as the only woman, the only Black person, and almost always the only Black woman in the room, Ichesia has become an example of representation in the male-dominated field of technical intelligence and imagery science. </p>
<p>After just a few months in her biggest leadership challenge yet — running NGA's division in charge of learning about commercial geospatial technologies and innovations with a team of 23 reporting to her — we sat down with her to reflect on her professional path and how she's grown to be her own best advocate.</p><h3>Measuring opportunities in terms of impact</h3><p>When Ichesia started at NGA as an imagery scientist, she leaned on her physics and materials science background. "Understanding how materials in the environment interact with different things really translates into imagery science," she says. She did that for years and enjoyed it, but came to realize that she wanted to be able to make a bigger impact.</p><p>"I'd get a question from a policymaker that I couldn't answer, not because there wasn't an answer, but because we just didn't have access to the technology for whatever reason. It started to become a little frustrating, and I started thinking about the impact I could have if I was willing to step away from doing the science to advocating for the technology and the capabilities," remembers Ichesia.</p><p>She didn't set off to become a supervisor or a manager. Instead of thinking about a specific position she wanted, she focused on the value she could bring to the agency and to her team. By prioritizing value and impact, she found herself taking on jobs that didn't even exist beforehand, and she encourages other women to do the same. </p>
<p>"I've been the first person in a position because it was brand new. If I waited for a path, or the idea that you have to know exactly where you're going every minute, then I wouldn't have taken those positions and I probably wouldn't be where I am right now," she says.</p><p>Ichesia's strategy for planning her professional decisions involves evaluating opportunities by assessing the likelihood of three things: being successful, making an impact, and both growing and learning new things.</p><p>She suggests that women looking for their next opportunity ask themselves the following questions:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>What am I good at?</li><li>What am I not quite as good at, but need and want to get better at?</li><li>Where can I add some value?</li></ul><p>Above all, Ichesia encourages women to start asking those questions early. She recommends, "not waiting until a job has gotten stale or hoping that someone notices that you might be right for the next position, but instead actually going and trying to get that position." </p>
<p>One way to do this at NGA, Ichesia explains, is to take advantage of the learning opportunities that are available, such as classes and conferences. </p>
<p>"At NGA, you're actually evaluated on your ability to develop your career and think about how to become better at what you do. I always tell my employees that it's not just about the job you're currently in. It's also about the things you want to do for the agency moving forward."</p><h3>How she deals with being an "only"</h3><p>"With almost every position I've ever had in any job I've had, I was either the only woman, the only Black person, or the only Black woman," says Ichesia. "I can probably more easily count the amount of times I was <em>not</em> in that situation than [the times] I was in that situation."</p><p>Being an "only" was hard, particularly in terms of networking within her field, she says. </p>
<p>"I didn't know how to navigate those kinds of activities. I felt like I was kind of standing on the outside watching it happen," says Ichesia of her first few years on the job. </p>
<p>She identified networking as one of the things she wanted to get better at; enlisted some help, including her husband and a male mentor, who coached her; and found a way to make it work for her. </p>
<p>"I learned how to get myself into that conversation and not allow myself to be an observer of it," she says.</p><p>Now, as a division leader and a conduit for connecting the organization's leadership and her workforce, Ichesia is paying it forward and actively seeking to include others. </p>
<p>"I'm not generally a person that likes to put themselves on the forefront, but I really do enjoy being an advocate, especially for women's issues and minority issues," she says.</p><h3>Advocating for herself — with help</h3><p>One of the most important things Ichesia has learned in managing her career is how to be her own best advocate. </p>
<p>"I am now willing to talk about my accomplishments. There's no effort to play them down. And if someone gives me a compliment about the work I've done, I own up to it," she says. "The idea that you sit back and hope that your work speaks for itself does not really work that well in large organizations, and for women and minorities in particular."</p><p>That has meant that Ichesia has learned to move beyond her introversion and be confident about her work. </p>
<p>"Speaking up and saying, 'Yes, I worked hard on that, and that's the kind of effort I bring to most of the things I do' is one way to advocate for your own career," she says.</p><p>She didn't learn how to do this alone. A year or so ago, when Ichesia was up for the big promotion into her current role, she found herself stuck in a competitive and challenging process and wondering if she deserved the promotion. A friend of Ichesia talked it through with her and walked her through all she'd done to deserve it. A grateful Ichesia named that friend her "confidence champion."</p><p>"The further you progress, the more competitive things may become, and when you're having those moments of self-doubt of whether or not you really can do something or whether you really deserve that promotion or award, [a confidence champion] can help you take that step back and say 'of course you do,'" says Ichesia, who's now appointed herself as a confidence champion for her friend, too.</p><p>Having that peer support is key, but so are mentors, says Ichesia, who didn't have any early on in her career, but counts several as her key advisors now. </p>
<p>"I learned that you can have mentors for different needs and purposes," she says, highlighting that she has one mentor that provides technical guidance and another she goes to for politically-savvy advice.</p><p>As Ichesia continues to grow her career, she's looking forward to continuing to be a mentor and confidence champion for others, including the "passionate civil servants" she works with. </p>
<p>"The people who work at NGA care about this country. They care about our mission, and they want to do a good job," she says. "We're all in it to do the best we can, together, for our country."</p><p><em>If you're interested in learning more about NGA, you can sign up to follow their job postings</em><a href="https://powertofly.com/companies/national-geospatial-intelligence-agency" target="_blank"> <em>here</em></a><em> or reach out to Ichesia in the comments below!</em></p>
<p style="text-align: right;">Approved for public release, 20-588</p>
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June 11, 2020
Diversity & Inclusion
5 Tips for Building an Inclusive Company (& Sales Team) Culture, From Greenhouse's Mo Moran
"How can I bring my authentic self to work and still be seen as professional?"
<p>This is a question that <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mo-moran" target="_blank">Mo Moran</a>, Director of Sales Development at hiring software company <a href="https://powertofly.com/companies/greenhouse-software" target="_blank">Greenhouse</a>, gets from her team on a regular basis. And with professional norms evolving constantly, it's not an easy one to answer. </p><p>"Being your authentic self doesn't mean saying or doing anything that crosses your mind. It's about finding a balance between how you present yourself in a professional setting without compromising what makes you unique. " she explains. </p><p>Understanding that some professional "norms" privilege certain groups and disadvantage others is an essential part of Mo's strategy for building a more diverse and inclusive culture. The answers aren't always straightforward, but when her team asks tough questions, Mo says she's primed to be "explicit about the fact that there are groups of people who have been [historically] excluded from the conversation." </p><p>That means advocating for underrepresented groups, investing in Greenhouse's core value of belonging, and above all, constantly exploring new ways to be a resource for her team.</p><p>We sat down with Mo to talk about building inclusive cultures on sales teams and throughout Greenhouse as a company. Here are five of her top tips:</p><h2>1. Champion the Voices on Your Team</h2><p>Mo relies heavily on input from her team to understand their needs and how she can best serve them. "There's not one right way to build an inclusive or diverse sales team," Mo explains. "It has to be created by the individuals on the team, and particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds."</p><p>Mo explains that Greenhouse empowers employees to take the lead. For example, Greenhouse's Sales Team has a culture committee made up of individuals of all levels who get together to talk about what's going well and what could be improved in the organization, including topics related to diversity. "It's up to them to say, 'Hey, here's something that we want to turn into an initiative and run with' or 'Hey, leadership team, this is something we'd like for you to consider,'" says Mo.</p><p>The company has a series of employee resource groups (ERGs), including Women Grow: a networking and equality group for women at the company, Blackhouse: a space for the empowerment of employees of African descent, Rainbow House: a safe space for our dedicated LBGTQ group and Shades of Green: which serves as the inclusive community for people of color.</p><p>Many of these groups include members who intersect and ultimately determine what the purpose of the group should be (e.g. the extent to which it should function as a community vs. provide feedback on company initiatives and strategies).</p><p>That level of thoughtfulness around inclusion applies to team-building events, too, says Mo. "Events where the main [activity] is beer pong aren't going to be for everyone," she explains, noting that she polls her group to make sure events focus on activities the whole team wants to spend time doing, like volunteering in their community.</p><h2>2. Embrace Objectivity </h2><p>Championing underrepresented groups at work also requires knowing where their pain points are and working to solve them. Mo highlights a common issue—career paths being unwieldy, hard-to-navigate routes that require lots of interpersonal relationships that might introduce extra bias—and what Greenhouse has done to solve it: creating standardized career ladders. </p><p>Knowing what's required to move to the next level and what that next level looks like "removes the need to have to lobby for anything or rely on personal relationships to be promoted," explains Mo. "The intention is to set people up to be successful in their careers, which I think is really meaningful."</p><h2>3. Make Diversity a Real Business Goal</h2><p>In our<a href="https://powertofly.com/what-women-want-in-2020" target="_blank"> 2020 What Women Want report</a>, we found that only 28% of women are satisfied with the level of diversity and sense of inclusion and belonging at their company.<a href="https://womenintheworkplace.com/" target="_blank"> A McKinsey report</a> from the same year found that while 87% of companies said they were "highly committed" to gender diversity, only half of employees believe that their company actually valued it. There's clearly a big disconnect between diversity used as a buzzword and diversity showing up, over and over again, as a real business goal—and Mo notes how important it is for a company to pursue the latter.</p><p>She explains that just ten years ago, diversity and inclusion felt like a "line item" where companies "maybe had a title of 'head of diversity & inclusion' that was a cool nice-to-have at the company." But now, diversity goals are "an integral part of a company's roadmap," says Mo. That doesn't mean the roadmap has to be direct with no pit stops; Mo explains, "Greenhouse's approach is to realize it's better to talk about things badly or awkwardly than it is to not talk about them at all."</p><p>For Mo and Greenhouse's leadership team, taking diversity seriously means measuring and communicating timely, accurate metrics around diversity and inclusion, including which groups are represented in Greenhouse's workplace and which aren't. "When you're talking about data, you don't get to make up how you think you're doing. You have to capture the data and let that sort of tell your own narrative," she says.</p><h2>4. Call People In, Not Out</h2><p>It's important to recognize that people with different experiences and perspectives won't all naturally be on the same page when it comes to understanding inclusion, whether that's in how comfortable they are asking for preferred pronouns or what their allyhood looks like.</p><p>"Diversity and inclusion best practices are evolving quickly, which is an excellent state to be in, but it does mean that nobody is exempt from trying to understand better," says Mo. Learning together means asking questions, recognizing one's own inexperience or ignorance on certain topics, and being open to feedback.</p><p>Mo notes that Greenhouse's executive team has adopted a particularly useful version of "calling people in" instead of "calling people out." The team points out when somebody says something in a way that could be articulated more thoughtfully or when they make an assumption about somebody that shows bias. "It encourages everyone to take a step back and ask, 'What might I be missing here when I say something in this way?' As a leader of anything, you have a lot of responsibility and it's important to be speaking to people very intentionally and with a lot of awareness," says Mo.</p><h2>5. Build Self-Awareness and Understanding</h2><p>"A huge core of being a salesperson is the ability to communicate with anyone effectively," says Mo. "That means you identify and meet your prospects where they are. You're asking questions to better understand their current state so that you can identify the best way to partner together and the best way to add value to whatever their function is. And all of that exists completely outside of your own identity and ego."</p><p>The same applies to being an ally, or someone with privilege who takes action to support underrepresented groups.</p><p>"For an ally, there's a part of understanding that someone's experience is likely different than your own. Especially if you're white and especially if you're a white male," says Mo.</p><p>Since salespeople have the opportunity to interact with a diverse group of individuals on a daily basis this gives them a leg up on building awareness around their own identities and working to understand others."Starting at a place of awareness is really important to build inclusivity," she explains.</p><p>Non-sales teams can take the salespeople's approach too, of course. "It's about being aware of the space you take up and embracing what you do and don't know. It's okay to admit fault and apologize, but use every interaction as a learning opportunity to increase your level of social awareness" summarizes Mo. </p><h2>At the End of the Day, Culture Comes from the People</h2><p>Mo admits that she's been lucky to work at great companies for most of her career. "I've always had a lot of strong female leadership to look up to," she says. </p><p>But it hasn't all been down to luck. She's also been very intentional about the companies she's chosen to work for, and she encourages others to do the same: "When you're evaluating an opportunity, you want to understand how an organization thinks, talks, and takes action about things like diversity and inclusion." </p><p>This starts in the first few touchpoints with a company. As a candidate, ask yourself how a company represents the diversity of their employees on their website. Consider how they treat you as a potential employee interviewing with them. The hiring process is a great tool to uncover how a company truly approaches diversity, equity and inclusion. </p><p>She knows firsthand the difference it makes to work at a company that celebrates everyone's voice. "Early on I saw some really strong, powerful queer female leaders, which spoke to me and kind of gave me something to aspire to," she explains. "And hopefully in my position now, even if it's in some small way, I can be that for someone else, too."</p><p>---</p><p>If Greenhouse's culture sounds like a good fit for you, be sure to check out their<a href="https://powertofly.com/companies/greenhouse-software" target="_blank"> company page</a> or leave a comment for Mo!</p>
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