Raise your Hand

You do quite a bit of serving your community. For example, you're on the board of Year Up a nonprofit that provides skills, training, internships, and coursework for young people from under-resourced communities. And it's really intended to help close the equity gap that we see in society. For young emerging leaders, what advice would you give them on how to increase their influence and their impact as a leader?

So, I bring all the Year Up interns that we have had in all the different companies. I've had Year Up interns and some JVS interns at each of these companies. And every year I'll do one or two lunches with these teams. And I often get a question like what is the advice that you would give me? And I bring it back to relationship and whatever organization that you are in build as many relationships as you possibly can. You want to be somebody who is known. And so how do you become somebody who was known? The way I became somebody who was known early in my career and it's still to this very day. I am the annoying person who sits in the front row in all hands forum or conference forum. And I'm the one who's raising my hand. I'm the one who has a question. So, it's that curiosity again, right? I am the one who has a question and I asked thoughtful questions. So, I love it when people say there's no such thing as a stupid question, there is such a thing as a stupid question. And so if you're in these big forums and you're going to be asking a question, make sure the question you're asking is a smart question.

So, if you know what the topic's about, do some research on that topic, come up with some thoughtful questions before you go into that session. If you're going to be at an all hands, what's the agenda for that all hands, who are the speakers going to be? What are your questions? And every single time, raise your hand and ask a question. Having the reputation as being the smart person, who's asking good questions, is a very effective way to be able to start to build your reputation. And people start to know you from all around the organization. If you only have a great relationship with your boss and that person's the only one who knows you, that will not be a long-term recipe for success. You have to be known broadly. And so that also means volunteering and saying yes to everything. Anytime there's hey, does anybody want… yes. Work on that… yes. We don't even have to explain what it is. I'm going to raise my hand. And that's another part of where the courage comes in and the fearlessness.