Thinking Outside of a Linear Mindset

How would you describe your own leadership journey? And what kinds of roles do you take on? What was the growth strategy behind learning to do those jobs?

Yeah, I graduated from Stanford, I went to work for Hewlett Packard, an amazing company. This is when Dave Packard was still walking around.

Legendary company, yeah.

Amazing. They had this style of managing by walking around, that’s what Dave Packard used to promote, just managers will just stop in people’s cubicles and talk. And so it’s just an amazing place. And I learned a number of things, but at the time, when I graduated, I had a very linear thought about how my progression was going to go. And in one of these management meetings with my manager at the time, it became very clear that that’s not how the world actually works. I mean, shockingly…

Imagine that.

Quite shockingly, the world does not cater to the way you think always. So, I remember a conversation with one of the managers, who came in, he’s like, “Look, we need we need a manager in the test group.” I don’t know if you know the dynamics of chip organizations, like you, as an engineer, you’re really thinking like, “Oh, I want to be the architect. I want to define what the next thing is.” I don’t want to be testing stuff. It was a very false sense of understanding of how progression works. And that’s when somebody described to me, he is like, “Look, your scope of influence is not linear, it’s actually these concentric circles that expand. And your trajectory, in your own mind might be linear, but opportunities revolve around the circles at a different pace than when you’re ready. And so, if you’re going to say, I’m only going to wait for the architect job to open up, it may take a while.