Leading from the seat you are in

I’ve known Anne for many years and in my own words, before I get into hers, I have to describe her as a very caring and calm person who is always ready for innovation and adventure. I had a wonderful time interviewing her about her career and the professional world. We discussed the trajectory her job and career have taken, the highs and lows she has had, and her advice for the women of the future. 

Anne is a non-profit kind of gal. She has been with various associations and nonprofits since 1999. She told me that the mission of the companies she works for means a lot to her. The most rewarding part of her career has been feeling like she is making a difference. Currently, Anne works for CASSS, an association that serves the bio-tech industry. They connect individuals and organizations internationally who are working on drug development and manufacturing, including novel biotechnologies like cell and gene therapies. Anne is the Senior Manager of Business Systems and Strategic Initiatives. 

She started this role in 2019 and has helped lead various projects for the organization including a website, mobile app, and databases. Anne is the go-to when the company wants something new when they want to, well, innovate. For this reason, Anne has had a lot of experience when it comes to adapting and changing.

In her job, she faces many opportunities for adaptation. When I asked what the most important part of adaptation is, she said communication and I couldn’t agree more. It is so important to communicate with your team and others when you are trying to make a change. If you don’t communicate, the rest of your team can’t get on board. Anne also said that you have to remain flexible, in life and in work when adapting. There will always be parts of your job that you don’t like and you can’t stand doing but you have to do them anyway. She recommends spending time on the things that you don’t want to do first, and the tasks that you enjoy more can be a reward. 

Along with her expert advice on communication and being flexible, Anne had other advice about working with colleagues, especially during times of change and advancement. She used her new database project as an example, some employees had not yet caught on, and Anne was struggling to explain to them the changes. But she had one employee who was doing everything right. Anne saw this as an opportunity " 'Let's show how you are using the system to the rest of the team', it becomes a collaboration at that point". She shared this employee’s use of the system as an example to explain the change better to the rest of her team. 

In addition, Anne gave me a four-step process to ensure everyone can perform to the best of their abilities. It is your job after all as a boss to help your employees do their job. Anne says you need to start by telling them what to do, sounds like that would be the end of the road, but too often employees leave their supervisor's office with more questions than answers. The second step is to make sure they have listened and heard you. But it doesn’t stop there, ask them if they have any questions, and be willing to answer anything, no matter how simple. The fourth and final step is asking them to repeat back to you what they understood. This step will weed out any miscommunication or errors so that everyone may move forward. "Tell me how you are going to do this back to me", It’s not to micromanage or put them on the spot, it's simply to make sure you both understand each other. 

Because I’ve known Anne for so many years, I know a little bit about how she maintains relationships and friendships but I wanted to dive a little deeper. Anne validated all of the things that my business professors have been teaching me, professional relationships are important. Anne expanded that you never want to burn a bridge. You never know who you are going to come across in 10 or 15 years and it is so helpful to have connections and a community. Anne revealed that the most important part of making new connections with people is speaking their language. We both agreed that while she works in the bio-tech industry, neither of us is fluent in science, but she tries because it is important to be able to communicate how you and your company can add value to others' lives and businesses. Understanding what it is that they do in their jobs is also extremely important for you to communicate how you add value.

With all of this learning, I had to ask Anne about the hardest part of her career, how she faced it, and how she grew. There was an HR issue within her company and some bullying. An issue, now resolved, that upset the flow of the workplace and the employees for a while. I, relatively fresh out of high school, thought I left the bullying behind but Anne told me that unfortunately it remains an issue everywhere and we all must make conscious efforts to create safe workplaces. This was such a difficult time because Anne empathized deeply with everyone on her team and couldn’t stand to see them hurt. She said a positive attitude is what got her through and she stayed in her lane and did not get involved in the drama or frustration. 

Through all of these highs and lows in her career, Anne has learned a lot, about herself and the workplace. One thing that she has noticed, like the rest of us, is the different treatment of women. “As women we get labeled as being emotional and you know, I don't think that's a bad thing”. As women, we may feel more but that doesn’t have to be a weakness. Of course, the office is no place for rants or outbursts but compassion and empathy are vital. This is also the #1 skill that Anne thinks everyone should have. Empathy. 

There are so many different people in the workplace, all with different stories and lives that we may never know. Treating them kindly and with empathy is essential to business so that they may feel safe and be productive. We have to understand our privilege from wherever we stand and know that others may not have been afforded the same and we should never make assumptions. Women are too often expected to apologize when they express these caring qualities or over-apologize in general but Anne’s advice is to apologize once, mean it, and move on. Women no longer need to dwell on repenting. 

Another strength of Anne’s is a good work-life balance. It has come with some practice. Her job allows her to work from home so she can be close to her mother and take care of her, an important and necessary part of her life at the moment. She tries to stick to a 40-hour work week and since she works at home she makes extra effort to visit with peers and friends.

Hobbies and health are also very important. Her face lit up when she started unraveling her love for paddleboarding. As an extrovert, Anne loves to be around other people but sometimes, like we all feel, people are too much. For this reason, Anne enjoys yoga and paddleboarding. There is something about the water and movement that allows her to feel grounded. These things help her connect to and focus on herself especially as she gets older. This exhibits not only the work-life balance that is so important but also the internal and external balance that we often forget. This mirrors her career in the sense that sometimes you have to take a leap and experiment with different adventures, "I am willing to try new things and take a chance...I may not like it, but what if I do”, paddleboarding was exactly this.

In Anne’s closing words I found some deep wisdom and advice for us as young women and humans in general. Being a woman can come with many trials and I think like many other women, early on in her career Anne faced men who did not respect her knowledge and experience. In a reaction that I can empathize with, she became defensive and often got labeled by other men as aggressive, difficult to work with, or argumentative. It has been a long road to change this in herself, to find a workplace that accepts how exceptional she is, and to be confident in herself and her abilities to communicate and show her value.

Women are changing the workplace, especially as new generations are entering, but some men still aren’t catching the message. Younger generations seem to have more respect and are asking for things they need. Women are no longer simply doing what they are told, and in this, Anne sees a great future. Her piece of advice that she never got when she was younger, that she wished she had, was that you don’t have to be a CEO to lead. “You can lead from your own seat”. By exemplifying the qualities of a good leader, you can be a leader. Women can no longer let men follow the path to leadership without being questioned. Women, being themselves and learning from one another, can rise and take action.

I hope you all learned a little bit about what it is like to be a professional and how to adapt, connect, and communicate in your career. Tune in next month for our March Speaker, a woman who runs her own venture in addition to her job and is putting small businesses first.