Inviting People to Think Beyond the Moment

For the span of your career, you’ve been an executive at a variety of companies. And I would imagine that there have been numerous career-defining moments, can you share with us two career defining moments? And how have those shaped your approach to leadership?

So, I would say the first career defining moment is actually personal, and that’s becoming a mom. I’m really thinking about what work I think is worth it to spend time away from my son. And he’s now 13, but certainly, when he was younger, and my mom was helping me with him, and I would have to leave him, it really became important to me to make sure I was doing work that I think adds value to people’s lives, is meaningful, and something he could be proud of. I mean, I didn’t actually also think I would be cool. I’m now also cool, because of what I can do.

That’s always a bonus when you have teenagers. I have a teenager too.

So, like, and cool, that’s great, I’ll take it. But knowing that’s just a big issue in the career lives of many women, and everyone figures it out in their own way. And I think that’s one of the ways I have, is really thinking about the value of the work that I do.

And I’d say my other real career defining moment was, you know, I worked in big tech companies for many years, and I often felt pressured to think about my career aspirations within the context of those companies. And so if I was asked the question, I would think about what I wanted to do there. And one of the things I really appreciated, a former Chief People Officer once said to me, “I’m not asking what you want to do here, I’m asking, what do you want to do?”

And so one of the ways I lead is really by inviting people to think beyond the moment. They brought their career with them, in this case, to Waymo, they’ll take it with them. What are the opportunities that will really define the impact you want to have on the world? And he just in that moment, made me think much bigger about my career than I had before.