Key Takeaways:
- Dealing with adversity
- Attracting and retaining diverse and inclusive teams
- Embracing innovation
- Defining your unique value proposition
Meg Mckeen (00:10):
Good morning everyone. Thanks for being here. Thanks for making time for Learning Track three Women in Technology. I will be your guide this morning for the next hour and a half by Meg McKean. In just a couple seconds, we're going to kick off our first panel and then we'll be followed up by our second panel, and I hope that you stick around till the end. Right before lunch, we're going to do an open Q and A. We'll ask everybody that's spoken on stage to stick around if they're able and answer any questions that you all have from the audience. I know you're welcome to come and go, but I do hope that you'll stay and be with us for the whole session. By way of introduction, I am Meg McKeen. I am the founder of Adjunct Advisors, a consultancy I started five years ago after a period of burnout and doing sessions just like this is my absolute favorite thing and I can't believe after 24 years I get to be here and be part of conversations like this. We're going to introduce ourselves. These women are amazing and they know themselves better than I ever will. They're going to tell you a little bit about them. We're going to keep it brief because we just don't have a lot of time this morning. But your name, who you work for, a little bit about what you do, and then some experience either in your business or your life that was pivotal for you that maybe changed your career trajectory or your life in a significant way. Sheila?
Shelia Anderson (01:34):
Hi, I'm Shelia Anderson, US Chief Information Officer for Aflac. I've been there a whole nine months, so I'm excited to have, you'll see my very diverse leadership team. You'll see this whole team of ladies here are on my team at Aflac, so very excited to have them. Pivotal moment for me, I'll share one that actually happened earlier in my career and it really applies to, I would say, a view of diversity and inclusion and how it was all those years ago When I started compared to today when I was a senior director, I came back after having a second child to working those ridiculous hours. I was running a major transformation for A,T and T at the time and just hit a roadblock and said, I just can't do this. I'm not showing up as well as I need to either at home or at work. So that day I went into the office and I had made the decision. There was no diversity and inclusion support, there was no discussion of that. So I went into my leader's office who was a male and said, I think I'm going to have to turn in my resignation. I'm just not showing up well at work or at home. I'm working ridiculous hours. It's not working. He said, time out. Wait, what do you need? So to me, that was my first example of an ally that actually kept me in the workforce at a time when I was really struggling trying to figure it out, wanting to do really great things, but was having a trouble with balance. And he worked with me and helped me out during that time, and it's the first example of what I now know to be an ally at the time. There was no discussion of what a real ally is. So you'll find those people in your life that make a difference in your career and help to carry you forward.
Janine Kane (03:02):
Janine Kane, vice President IT Solutions and Governance for Reliance Standard Life. I've been there coming up on 26 glorious years and it is my fifth insurance company. My pivotal point was I came over from the business side. I was an underwriter for almost 20 years and I had worked as the underwriting SME for our legacy admin platform replacement, not the one that we're replacing now, the one prior to that. There's that 26 years right there. So after we went live in production, I continued to try and help maintain it and because there we didn't have any bas, it was just it and it was a very, very small shop, and when they started working on looking at replacing our legacy billing platform, they asked me to come down to it and I embraced my inner geek and crossed over to the dark side of it. And I never thought I would be working in technology. I don't have the background. I came from the business and now I'm fortunate enough where I get to straddle both sides of the business in IT
Chaitanya Baddam (04:13):
My name is Chaitanya Baddam I work as a Chief Data Officer, my pivotal moment was when I left my previous job at John Hancock after a successful career of six years, I had to make a decision as to why sit around and wait. Be stagnant on someone having to promote you. You need to trust yourself to be able to take the risk. It was very unknown to me at that point where I was one year into my MBA doing part-time. I didn't have a job on hand and it was adding to the stress of making the decision if I have to move on or not. But one thing was very crystal clear to me that moving ahead and taking a decision is the only way for progress and not staying where you are. And that's the day I made a decision. I took a risk and I moved forward and there were many unknown things like age, like no one talks about in the industry overall. But I think one thing I want to let everyone know, if you want to move forward, take a risk, move forward. I was right there sitting and viewing other panels six years ago and I took a risk and good things follow when you take risks and if you need any support, I'm here to help you all.
Meg Mckeen (05:39):
I love it. I just want you all to tell stories. Could you just tell stories and how ironic to be talking about risk taking in a room full of insurance professionals? The irony of that will never be lost on me. We want, fundamentally, as human beings, we want to know that these chances that we're taking are going to come out to our advantage and all want that crystal ball and we want the path laid out. And what you've reminded us, each of you individually, because your experiences are very different when you share those pivotal moments are they're happening all around us. And this idea of transition and change is happen. It's happening constantly. We're in it right now. One of the things that I find and that I reflect on listening to each of you is that right now many women are in transition and it's maybe job transition, but it also could be in their home situation. Maybe the pandemic really upended that whatever work life balance even means anymore, but maybe some of the division of labor in their household is changing and needs to change. And the beautiful challenging thing is we don't leave that at home. When we come to work every day, we're living that change and those transitions in the workplace as well. We're going to talk next about adversity and adversity may have been the root of some of these changes, but to the extent that can, one of the risks that we fall into in a panel discussion, we talk about the present tense without remembering how we got here. And that happens the more years we accumulate and the more success that we have. And so I'm going to ask each of you to the extent that you're comfortable, that's always a ground rule with me. Can you talk about adversity in your career or in your life and actionably, what was a step that you took? What's a takeaway that someone who's in the audience and might be in a period of transition right now and Chaitanya, we're going to start with you, but what would be an actionable step that we could leave with today?
Chaitanya Baddam (07:41):
Okay, so one thing I would say is taking risks. I think we did talk about that, but as you move up, make sure that you'll pull other folks with you and never forget that always to hinge on and to make sure that you'll have mentors and allies in the workforce, not just in the workforce, but anyone who is with you. And I especially call upon men here that we have no idea how much it means to just stand and support your workforce or your people in at home or at work. The pandemic has also influenced us to a great extent where I've seen many women who had to take a step back from their careers, who had to take more on their plate. Just having that support overall helps a lot. So I think this is a call for everyone out there and an action to just stand up for and make sure that you support anyone, have allies in the workforce and bring people up who have great potential.
Meg Mckeen (08:56):
I'm going to stay there for a moment. We're going to stay there because I want to dig a little bit deeper and I love and reflect and appreciate what you've said and I want to add, it can be really hard to ask for help, fundamentally, and many of us were culturalized to be independent and to figure it out. And I don't understand why we get help when we're kids and we celebrate when you can do things on your own, but we don't come back around and celebrate when you ask for help again, because we are not self-sufficient beings. We do not exist on an island and we need community and support. I would like either maybe Janine, we'll move on to you. Can you talk about a time when you have had to put your hand up in the air and ask for help? And I'd like you to, how did that feel and what happened when you advocated for yourself in that way?
Janine Kane (09:49):
I asked for help all the time. I'm actually very fortunate in that I have counterparts and peers who are very, very supportive. So again, I don't come from a technology background. So oftentimes for me, I have to ask for clarification, help me understand things like that. But what has ended up happening by doing so is I've developed relationships where the guys who are helping me on the tech side are the ones who are coming to me. Well, okay, so the business said this. I don't understand what that means. It's a symbiotic relationship. And when you build that trust and that relationship together, adversity kind of falls by the wayside because you're going to help each other and you're going to support one another. You know, do run into those people who want to score points off you and make you look lesser than what you are and stuff like that. And honestly, I just kind of let it go. They can take that, you know, always take the higher path and build the relationships and build the trust and it's always ended up working out.
Meg Mckeen (10:51):
I love that. And I think those with the highest emotional intelligence win in this business, there's a lot of ego, there's a lot of posturing that happens every day inside of our organizations. I think women have an inherent ability to ferret that out and then to do with it what they need to. And we're seeing a shift. I love it. I'm here for it, that we're having this conversation, that we're having this level of transparency I think is a step in the right direction. Shelia, we're going to stay there. I'll ask you to go whichever way you want to go. We can talk about adversity, we can talk about some tactics wherever you'd like to go with the question.
Shelia Anderson (11:29):
And my team here can relate to this. We were just talking a little bit about this. I came into my role, no. So I'll share a very recent experience coming into my role at Aflac. I have a peer and there were some challenging situations around what I'll call role definitions and boundaries. So boundaries are important I think whether it be in your personal life or your work life. And for me, one of the tactics that I take, and I've learned this over the years, is to have the crucial conversation. So if I had not done that with this individual, I think we would've ended up at a really tough spot. So what I did is I said, Hey, we clearly aren't aligned on some of the expectations, so let me take you to lunch. So I had the conversation over a very informal lunch, and this is a new person that I'm getting to know clearly had a different view of what the boundaries were around our roles, and so I was able to establish that in more of a casual setting. I think that made a huge difference and we still don't always agree, but that really reset the relationship for me going forward. There's a mutual respect, don't always agree. And I will tell you a lot of it really came down to our relationship styles and our leadership styles are polar opposite. I lead with, and I'm not saying he doesn't have integrity, but I lead with integrity intent always and really thinking through how would the other person perceive the decision that I'm going to make and how do I think about the whole situation rather than coming in and telling a team without understanding the impact of your conversation. So to me that's a tool that I use. I use it every day. And we were just talking about prior to this, the focus of crucial conversation, some that we need to have in our team, and the transparency lead with transparency and integrity always, and you're going to be happy with the outcome because it'll sit well with you is what I would say.
Meg Mckeen (13:31):
Good stuff. Are you hiring? No, I'm just kidding. I love that and appreciate the, there's this push, it's the softer side of business. And again, I think that's something that as women we can leverage in a different way. You talked about neutralizing the geography, changing the location of these difficult conversations. What that does is it creates an even playing field and you can leverage that the other way. If you're trying to exert authority, you put them at the head of the conference table and you intimidate the heck out of them, but what do you get in return? You get a disengaged, disenchanted, disenfranchised employee and who wants that as a leader? But who wants that as an employee? Nobody wants to work in that environment. Culture is first right now. Culture wins every time and culture comes from the top. And we know that. I love to see you exemplifying that. I have no doubt each of you are in your role in the interest of time, and I wish we had four hours for this and not 30 minutes. We're going to talk now about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the industry. And what we're not going to do is talk about how we have a problem with DEI and B in the insurance industry because we all know that and that's a very safe place for us to go. What I want to talk about now is solution. One of the things that came up on our planning call was the difference in the education system here in America versus in other countries. My mind was blown. I learned a lot already and I'd like each of you to reflect on your introduction to some of the things that are very inherent within the insurance industry as far as your education goes, as a starting point. And I was supposed to give you a heads up, but Chaitanya looking at you. So you're first, I think you can do this on the fly.
Chaitanya Baddam (15:21):
Yes. So I'm originally from India and when I have two kids, 10 and 12, when I was in my fifth grade back in India, we had a computer language. It was mandatory and I was learning COBOL at the time. So that's the focus that we had on technology when we started in India. Now when I compare that to the education system here in the US, my kids don't know computer languages. It's something that I do outside of school. I have to have some extracurricular activities. I work with STEM groups and STEM classes outside of school to teach them about robotics, to teach them about incorporating this on a daily basis and if the whole infrastructure itself is broken, how do we bring on new technology? How do we adapt that as a core thing for women? How do we adapt that as any kid? And that's something that I want to call for action saying that, hey, this is a broken system, but what we can do is do something outside of it or do some extracurricular activities to be able to instill that within our kids.
Meg Mckeen (16:43):
Thank you. It also mirrors the overall talent crisis that we're in that we all saw coming, but we didn't necessarily address proactively. And this idea that really building insurance and technology into our vernacular as much younger children so that we're not leaving the college environment if that's the path we take and scratching our head saying, I don't understand insurance, I don't really understand this ominous thing that I know I have to buy when I turn 16 so I can drive my parents' car. But beyond that, there's so much more. Obviously as we all know we're here. We've chosen a career here. Janine, what are your thoughts? I know you had a little different background, but some similar sentiments.
Janine Kane (17:28):
So I'm Canadian and I grew up in the Canadian educational system except for three years down in the states. I've gone back and forth between the countries a couple times now, and we were laughing about this. So in Canada we had our first computer classes and we had computer classes. They were mandatory in high school and that was back in the old Vic 20 days. So you got to be fairly up there in age when you remember Vic twenties came to the schools and we learned Doss pro gaming language and stuff like that. And it was your goes functions and all that kind of stuff. It was a lot of fun. Now I also have kids, they went to a STEM school and honestly what surprised me is one of them took computer sciences and one of them, it was an option, which surprised me because I always felt like if you're going to go to stem, be technology should be part of it. But they still had, it was an optional course, so one of them took it and one of them didn't. And it's a shame they both probably could've done some good with it.
Meg Mckeen (18:30):
And I think to some extent it's becoming a life skill. Some of the other things that we're just sort of automatically learning along the way that having this knowledge because whether you join a traditional company and you work there for 40 years, which we all know isn't happening anymore, or you are a gig worker or you start your own company and you do that two years into the workforce, not 20, a lot of us are doing, these are all life skills I would say that become increasingly valuable. Shelia, I know your experience is maybe a little bit more traditional for those in the room, but what do you have to add to that.
Shelia Anderson (19:04):
Sure, I'll share a little of my experience. So I'm actually the first in my family to ever graduate college. So interesting, very from a very small town in southeastern Louisiana where I would say higher education at the time was not attainable for everyone. So for me that was always a focus on my family. Thankfully, neither of them had college degrees, but that education, there were rules in our family. Education was important and you had to learn a musical instrument. So there you go. So I learned piano and clarinet and organ. So yes, for me that was always just something that was really important and went to college, full scholarship to university. And one of the things that I always say, and I look back at this and the people who've made a difference, one of the jobs that I took was in the math department. So I actually supported the dean of the math department at my university, Dean Maxwell. So math at the time was probably. I worked really hard at, it wasn't the greatest. And so my calc teachers and all of the other teachers in my first year said, wow, your progress has been amazing. You're like top of the class now. And my secret sauce was I really befriended Dean Maxwell and he became a mentor to me through all of my college. And he said, Sheila, you need to do this engineering program, try computer science or electrical engineering. And so he supported me through four years of college and really helped me to believe in myself. That was a path. And I didn't even know the possibilities at the time. When you come from a small town, there is pretty much no technology that you see. There were a bunch of farms. So for me that was pivotal to have a person who really supported me in that I fast forward to the difference that it's made for me. I have two children also. Both of mine ended up in the health and sciences. My daughter is actually a physician today. She's finishing her last year of residency. So I paid that forward with my children. Really investing in education as a key thing. Whatever you do, choose something that you're going to love and that you can carry forward as a fantastic career. So you just pay it forward for all of the early investment that you've had as well, where people have taken time to invest in you and your journey.
Meg Mckeen (21:19):
That's mentorship.
Shelia Anderson (21:20):
Mentorship, yes.
Meg Mckeen (21:21):
Mentorship at its foundation is someone out there in the world seeing the potential in you and choosing to invest in that potential. And I just got chills when I thought about what, you wouldn't be here. You just wouldn't be here.
Shelia Anderson (21:33):
That's right. That's right. I wouldn't.
Meg Mckeen (21:34):
And what a gift to be able to be a mirror for someone when they cannot be that for themselves. I think of how potential women, we all know in our families or communities who are sitting on great ideas or have great potential and for whatever reason, are not able to see that within themselves and not able to take that first step. And so when we think about, we have a kind of a bum wrap sometimes as women in business and women in leadership where we can be nasty to each other. And I've seen it play out. I confess I've been that woman at times in my career when I have felt threatened or that scarcity mindset that there isn't enough to go around and if she gets some then I won't get any. And being aware of that and recognizing when it's happening and when you can step in and create a different path for that young woman on her career allows her a seat at this table, if you will, because often we don't see that in ourselves. Does anybody have any reflections on that? Not scripted, not where we thought we were going to go. But on the topic of mentorship or Yeah, we'll leave it there.
Chaitanya Baddam (22:47):
So I would like to just give an example, and this was when I didn't know there was something called mentorship. It was that bad. And suddenly I saw a woman in tech panel and I was like, okay, there's something called mentorship. Let me go about look about it. And I was struggling to understand who my mentor was. And then I signed up in my company where they had started a mentorship program. You can select what you're interested in and they pair you with an executive who actually excels in certain industry or skillset, right? So they paired me up with one of the CIO's and I was talking to her about what I want to do. And she always used to say that I see that you have everything, all you need is a push. And I really did not understand that I'm here asking know how can I get to the next position? How can I move forward? And only thing she said was, I know I'm confident in you, but I never understood how to get there. I think unless I took that risk saying No, I'm confident in my skills, I can move forward. I think that's mentorship, just telling what you're really good at and just reframing what you're saying, right? I would say something as simple as, okay, I did this for a company. I grew it from 40 people to like 60 people. And she would just reword it saying that you ran the whole company, you grew it from the ground up, just reframing it and instilling it in you that you can do it. I think that's mentorship. That's an example from my personal experience.
Meg Mckeen (24:36):
Thank you. Thanks for taking the bait there too. I put you on the spot and yeah, how many times have we sat through a performance review and we get nines out of tens and tens out of tens across the board and then we get the seven, which is not bad, but it's not a nine or a 10. And so therefore we fixate on that seven. And we believe that that's the thing that if I can just solve this, all the doors in the world will open up to me. And sometimes it's having that person who will gently, not gently take you by the shoulders and say this, this is not the thing for you to be focusing on. Focus on the nines and tens and go leverage the heck out of those things instead of fixating on the seven. And that idea of perfection, which we all know in our intellectual brain is not possible, but yet that's what we strive for. And anything less, we just won't take the chance. If we don't know that it's going to work out perfectly to bring this back to the beginning, then we just won't put our hands up in the air and how powerful it is to have those people around us. This room is full of those people. And that's what I would like to leave you all with today is we can be those people for others in our organizations and in our lives and in our communities. And whether you want to end up on a stage talking about your experience or you are a one-on-one, believe it or not, I am an introvert at the heart. I will collapse after this day of people, but we all show up in different ways and each of them is meaningful and has impact. So thank you ladies for being here. Thanks for being such advocates for other women in the industry out there. We're going to do a quick set change and we're going to invite Margo in the next panel to come up. And then please stick around to the end and we're going to do an open Q and A. Thanks.