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When given a compliment, more often than not, Padmasree Warrior says that women tend to say "my team did it." "Women are very collaborative in nature," explains Warrior, Cisco’s Chief Technology and Strategy Officer. "If someone compliments you, we [women] never say 'thank you.' We just say, 'Oh, that was nothing.'" While Warrior acknowledges that strong leaders should share credit, it’s instances like these where she believes women can unknowingly "diminish the power that you have."
As one of today’s most notable women in business (she ranked #57 on this year’s Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women’s list), Warrior now understands how potential pitfalls like this can impact a career, readily admitting that she too has been vulnerable to giving up her own power in the past.
Yet Warrior clearly grew from experiences such as this while ascending the corporate ranks. After an impressive 23-year stint at Motorola, Warrior joined Cisco in 2007 where she’s since emerged as one of the tech industry’s most influential leaders. In the past 15 months, the Indian-born CTO has led Cisco through an astounding 15 acquisitions, and her engineering background coupled with her unique strategic vision for the tech giant landed Warrior on CEO John Chamber’s short list of replacements this past April. What’s more, this power woman embodies what it means to be a “connected” leader, having amassed a community of more than 1.4 million Twitter followers. Warrior also remains a committed advocate for advancing women in tech.
I recently sat down with Warrior to discuss the leadership lessons she’s learned, often the hard way, throughout her dynamic career as well as the new challenges she believes that leaders must now contend with in today’s hyper-connected world.
When You’re The Only Woman In The Room, Use It To Your Advantage
"It’s pretty intimidating and very lonely at times," admits Warrior when it comes to working within the famously male-dominated world of STEM. "You go to a technology conference or an engineering conference, there are very few women there. At the same time it’s a blessing in the fact that you do get noticed," says Warrior. "People tend to remember you as the only woman in the room 'who said that', or the only woman in the room who was an engineer."
Rather than being intimidated, Warrior feels that scenarios like this can create a "unique platform" for women; one that she believes has created opportunities for her to get her message across and be heard. "I tell woman to use that to your advantage," urges Warrior.
Don’t Just Manage, Lead
When asked about her toughest leadership lesson, Warrior recalls her first meeting as a newly- minted manager with a room full of former peers-turned-direct reports. After laying out her expectations, the team was "just kind of rolling their eyes and walking out of the room," recounts Warrior. "I learned that they accepted the fact that I was their boss, but they didn't respect me."
Driving home that evening depressed and dejected, Warrior realized that she needed to earn their "respect and credibility" before telling them what to do. "That's the difference between creating a followership," explains Warrior. "People will follow you even though you may not be their manager versus just managing a group of people."
On The Need For Digital Detox
Like many successful executives, Warrior found herself working 24/7, an option made easier thanks to the hyper-connected world she herself is helping to create. The consequence: "You’re just mechanically responding to things," says Warrior. "I found I was being less thoughtful and more reactive…And one day, I said to myself, 'You need to stop' because it wasn't allowing me to really process the information the way I should be."
Warrior now takes Saturdays as her "digital detox" day, swapping the time she once used for emails to pursue hobbies which include painting and writing haiku poetry. The result? "It makes me a better leader," describes Warrior, "because it allows me to just step back -- and especially if you're dealing with a complicated issue, to go back with a fresh point of view and a different perspective to tackle it."
"While technology empowers us to remain connected all the time," Warrior admits, "it's up to us as people to decide when is it not appropriate to be connected… to opt out when you need to."
Disrupt Yourself
Leaders today constantly discuss the need to disrupt an organization or an industry, but Warrior believes you also have to make that goal personal. Although she quickly rose within Motorola’s engineering ranks, she avoided making lateral moves that may have exposed her to other areas of the company earlier in her career. Instead, she chose to stay on a linear path "just because I was doing well and I was comfortable."
The advice she would have given to herself 20 years ago? "I would have told myself to take risks in my career sooner. I would tell myself to disrupt myself more."
