I’m often asked for my professional advice based on what I’ve learned in my long career as an engineer in the oil & gas industry. In this blog post, I’ll give an overview of the insights I presented October 3rd at Emerson’s Women in Innovation luncheon, during the 2017 Emerson Global User’s Exchange. I summarize my advice as 3 E’s - Excellence, Endurance and Empowerment.
• Be good at the job you have. It’s a common mistake for employees early in their career to be focused on the next job or promotion & forget to be EXCELLENT at the job they have right now.
• Technical expertise counts. Learn how to differentiate yourself; have a special technical skill set that makes people want you on their team.
• Presentation skills matter - especially when English is not your first language. Your work may be excellent, but if you can’t communicate it to others, it won’t matter. Public speaking is one of the best skills you can cultivate, especially if you aspire to manage a team.
• There is value in line experience. Understanding how to tackle a hitch in the line can help you learn how to react when something unexpected happens in business. This type of management experience can be hard to teach, which is why engineers who start on the line are promoted to management more often.
• Don’t sell yourself short. Women usually don’t think they are qualified for a position unless they have 100% of the skills, while men are often confident at 60% and assume they can learn the rest. Ladies, don’t take yourself out of the game.
Endurance, also referred to as perseverance, grit or resilience, is the ability to bounce back and work through the hard times. It is important to focus on endurance when life does not go as planned. No one starts out thinking they will become a single parent, or that their employer will go bankrupt or that commodity prices will collapse. Yet, these things happen. Resilience, endurance and perseverance are key skills to hone that will help you learn to stay afloat in tough times. These same qualities can also help you make it to higher levels in your company. Sometimes life will be hard; so you have to be strong enough to make it to the other side.
• Develop your network before you need it. Invest time building connections among your friends, advisers, mentors, sponsors and in professional societies like the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), The Global Home of Chemical Engineers (AiChE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). It’s very important to not expect anything in return. If you give first, help will come later when you really need it.
• Develop and guard your reputation. Reputation counts - especially on a technical ladder.
• Be willing to bend & compromise at times. Having it all is a myth. You can have it all, but not at the same time. I don’t know anyone who is 100% successful at being a boss, a parent, a partner, an athlete, etc. They may have conquered each of these realms, but not at the same time.
• Try to balance family and career if possible. Rather than dropping out of the workforce, consider working part time or consulting. Technology advances so rapidly these days, it can be extremely hard to reenter a technical field after several years of absence.
To help build & preserve Endurance, here are some additional tips:
Endurance is a hot topic in the business world. Below are two recent books on Endurance, I recommend:
• Option B by Sheryl Sandberg• Grit by Angela Duckworth
The concept that I wish I focused more on when I was beginning my career is Empowerment. These days, the people on my floor at work know I can always be counted on to make a pot of coffee for the next person, I call it Coffee Karma. In other words, do good to others first, so that goodwill will be there for you when you need it. Pay it Forward - create a bigger pie and more opportunities will flow to you.
People often think that empowering others is an act of leadership. However, you can be at leader at every level in your organization. Here are a few ways to lead:
Thank you to all the women (and a few brave men) of Emerson for hosting me at the EmersonGlobal Users Exchange. I always enjoy speaking to external audiences and sharing my experiences and points of view. Also, a special thanks to Stephanie Sirt who connected me with Emerson’s Women in STEM team. Stephanie worked with us at Chevron for many years and was an excellent ambassador for Emerson.
I really enjoyed this session at Exchange !