Find a Way to Pay it Forward

You have held multiple executive roles at Varian, and I have a few well-placed sources inside your company that tell me you have long been groomed for top leadership at Varian. Can you share some advice on how to build that foundation to be viewed as a leader within an organization and keep strengthening your impact as you build your career there?

The sooner you realize it’s not about you, the faster you’re on the path to get to that point. People think of leadership as a hierarchical organizational chart, it’s actually the flip. Your job as a leader is really to work for the people in your organization, and help to enable them. And it’s a bit why I was saying what I did before about, do something that you truly feel like when the results of it take place in the world, it’s made a positive impact, because that gives you the motivation to constantly be grinding to help your team resolve issues and go forward.
The other piece is, you know, I’ve been very blessed. I’m very fortunate. I had people take time early in my career and invest in me. I never really understood why. But I would always ask, what is it that I can do to ever repay you? And the comments that always came back, were: “Just make sure you pay it forward.” And so I would say to everyone, you’re going to have different points in your career, and think about those who took time and invested in you. And the best way to give back is to pay that forward in other engagement and involvement—to just help people navigate because, you know, life’s not easy, right? There are bumps, there are highs, there are lows, and you need that guidance in the process.