I had the privilege and amazing opportunity to attend for the 2nd time the HITEC Leadership Summit hosted by Cisco Systems in the bay area.
I must highlight that all the logistics and organization of the event was very exciting and pleasurable. We all need to recognize the great work the Cisco team put together to get it well done. This outstanding team was formed by: Maria Medrano – Director Human Resources, Jessica Graham – Marketing Market Manager and the Cisco employees from the Conexión team that also helped in the activities and coordination of the summit.
Now let’s talk about the people deal!
HITEC is a great conference because it gives you the ability to learn, get connected, be inspired and equipped through all the sessions presented from leaders and executives of the technology industry. The vision of HITEC is resonating pretty well because the main idea is to CONNECT, INSPIRE, GROW and EMPOWER the number of Hispanics Technology executives and to develop the next generation of Hispanic Technology leaders and executives.
The 1st day was overwhelming and busy meeting people because 125 Cisco high-potential employees participated on a special session with Francine Katsoudas – EVP and Chief People Staff, Maria Martinez – EVP and Chief Customer Experience Officer, Guillermo Diaz Jr. – SVP/CIO, Laura Quintana – VP Corporate Affairs and others great leaders that have come together to mentor, guide and sponsor all the Cisco employees that attended the summit.
Guillermo Diaz Jr. Session
Francine Katsoudas Session
During the round table there was a great moment where we shared our stories about how we got here and it was nice to heard the experience that each of us shared.
Every individual has pursued different dreams and achievements. We absorbed a lot of information from each other during this countless time.
Round table discussion with Sr. Leadership
Our leaders influenced positively and pronouncedly to:
- Celebrate our career journey
- Learn from our mistakes
- Prepare us to lead and be successful
- Expand our network
- Have the privilege to mentor
- Change the equation for diversity and inclusion across every industry
- www.multiplydiversity.com
- Start connecting and building our network
- Build a community, a family of members that share knowledge and help each other
- Get a sponsor
- Build a board (your board) of directors
And obviously, Cisco shared about our values and what really makes us stronger as a company, which I also think was extremely important for us as individual contributor, managers, directors, VPs and Executives.
María Martinez, María Medrano and Conexión Leadership Team
Cisco employees @ HITEC Leadership Summit
Some of the outstanding comments from the sessions:
- Ask this question to yourself:
What will guide you:
-
- In your career to move forward?
- For your family?
- For your community?
- To help others and give back?
The culture: Change the hearts and minds of the organization that are not used the way we traditionally do things. Everything starts at the top changing the culture with leadership, diversity and culture.
Create and give: Is not about finding a resume but creating a resume and give opportunities to grow. Give opportunity and take chances to promote the talents and leaders that are providing value to the company and are helping with the foundation to grow.
The talent, the perspective, the creativity and the energy that can help you to grow is key in the success of any company. Different experiences create different perspective.
Do not fall behind: Don’t be shy to reach out and ask for help.
Advice to the HITEC community:
- Work really hard on what you do.
- It’s all about focus and do few things very well.
- Don’t say Yes to everything. Say No to some things you can’t handle or don’t have time so you can be successful with what you said Yes. Just make sure to what you say Yes you do your best do it right.
- Demand excellent. Is not bad to demand nothing but the best.
What can keep you motivated:
Love what you do: Hold yourself responsible, positive and accountable for every commitment you do. That will keep you on fire.
Be proud of your heritage: Be proud of it and don’t be shy to be yourself. I always see as an advantage to know Spanish.
Don’t worry much about the title: Sometimes don’t worry about the title or the things that will help you to grow, worry more about the things that will help you to do your job well and everything else will be in place to get you there!
Create opportunities: Create the opportunities so people can get involved and can have the opportunities to do what they like.
Inclusion and Diversity: If you want to be successful as a company you need inclusion and diversity. Don’t look at diversity because we need to make the numbers. Look at diversity because if you want to grow you need to have it, if not you will fail.
Nothing very special: There is nothing extremely special about anybody. Everyone has different talents and gifts. Just make sure you work hard and put the effort and dedication in everything you do and you will get it and you will achieve it. I have seen it so many times: Effort and hard work can beat talent.
How to measure the success of a project?
This can apply to anything that you do: Make sure you get things done and do it well so you can start working on the measurements of it.
Focus on results: If you don’t start seeing results quickly and the tasks are not clear and the focus is not oriented to results then you won’t get anywhere.
Stay away from doctrines: Dogma doesn’t have any place in leadership. You need to use data to be able to answer questions and to be able to achieve a great outcome.
Handle your feelings: You need to handle your emotions with connection and relationships with other people. Always seek for support.
Be a disruptor: Are you active or are you passive to disrupt the kind of work you are driving in your development career? If you don’t go for changes to challenge yourself, you won’t be able to growth in your career.
Changes: You can’t change your manager but you can change yourself. You need to find a place or environment where you can keep growing.
Do not be pretentious: You need to be humble and be vulnerable to learn new stuff because we don’t know everything. Expose yourself to learn new things to be a better person and professional.
Always seek out for feedback and guidance: We need to teach the importance of becoming a better professional and leader. Organizations like HITEC help to address these things because can guide you to get a mentorship, get connected and get a sponsorship.
Last but not least: Write down your career objectives:
Write down your goals and career objectives and make sure you are moving in the right direction to achieve them. Make sure you can share your goals and achievements with your champions/sponsors/mentors and obviously your leaders. Always seek for advice and make sure your management is aware of what you want and where you want to go to move forward in your career.
