Unleashing Your Superpowers

I had the opportunity to speak at Microsoft’s 8th Annual Women’s Leadership Conference this past week in New York City. The theme of the conference was “Unleashing Your Superpowers,” and surrounded by 300 colleagues and newfound friends, I shared a story about developing my own superpowers in life and at work. Sharing stories and perspectives is a powerful mechanism to shine a light on the evolving story of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The more we share, the more we learn, and the more we grow. Here is a brief recap of my remarks (with a call to action!)

I like to think of careers as long stories, or epics. Every career has ups and downs, unexpected twists and turns, and moments to define – and refine – your skills. Positioning your career as an epic tale sets you up as the heroine. Epic heroines have incredible strengths (or superpowers), but they are also imperfect. They go through journey after journey, starting in the world of the comfortable and venturing off into the unknown to address significant, unexpected challenges. They win some, they lose some, and they always come home transformed. Doesn’t that sort of sound like a normal work week to you?

The question is what do you do, Ms. Heroine, to ensure you are aware of those Monday through Friday moments that define and refine you? How are you taking time to reflect on where you have strengths that can be leveraged, and where you need to grow and develop? Are you working with your peers and surrounding work community to ensure others are included in the journey?

I was inspired recently by seeing the movie, The Post. It’s a tale about Katharine Graham (played by Meryl Streep) finding her superpower early in her epic career, and it made me think about my own work journey. While mine has been far less public and controversial than Ms. Graham’s, it has been full of adventures, for sure. I am an engineer by education and have worked in technology for the last 20 years. Throughout my career, I’ve developed three strengths: truth, love, and change.

First, I can’t help but tell the truth – which has helped me disarm, engender trust, and bring agility to various organizations. It has also gotten me tossed out of the boardroom on more than one occasion, as not all executives love transparency as much as I do. I’ve had to learn to bring a filtered approach (blended with ample doses of humor) to my truth telling so that it remains more of an asset than a liability. Like most superpowers, it’s a work in progress.

Second, I love to love my teams. I first learned to do that as the mother of two great kids, and I’m not afraid to use some of those ‘mom skills’ at work. Empathy, a focus on the “total person,” and driving team unity are ways that I build high-performing teams at home and at work. The flip side of these traditionally female-oriented skill sets is that not every culture calls for these softer skills at the top. At Microsoft, empathy is most powerfully modeled by CEO, Satya Nadella, as he transforms the company.

Finally, change leadership is the superpower upon which I have based my career. It requires clarity of vision, energy to harness the power of the organization for momentum, and maniacal focus on delivering successful results (so the shareholders get what they deserve). I’m good at leading change, but I aspire to be GREAT. That’s why I came to Microsoft: every day presents a new change leadership learning opportunity, as well as the chance to participate in the magnificent transformation of an iconic technology company.

Okay, time for some truth telling. It was extremely hard for me to write this post, because as many women might agree, talking about my “superpowers” seems terribly immodest. But I gave myself a permission slip to reflect on my experience and call out some strengths and how I can improve them. I now want to ensure that every person in my organization at Microsoft – and beyond —feels empowered to do the same. You can’t hone your skills if you can’t identify your skills!

So tell me, heroines everywhere, what are YOUR superpowers and how are you going to leverage them to drive impact? And how about the heroes out there – yes, all of the men who can help us accelerate the pace of inclusion both inside and outside of the workplace – let us learn from your heroic feats by sharing them here, too.  

Help me shine a light on the opportunity to drive greater inclusion of diverse superpowers across the globe.