Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Sony’s Maya Wasserman On The 5 Leadership Lessons She Learned from Her Experience
An Interview With Penny Bauder
Treat every job you do like it’s the most important job in the world: My dad always gave me this advice and it really contributed to my work ethic. No matter how menial the job, I always took pride in what I did and tried to be the best at it.
As a part of our series about cutting edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Maya Wasserman.
Maya Wasserman is marketing director at Sony Electronics and currently leads marketing planning and communications for the Television and Video & Sound divisions.
She is experienced in driving real business results through creative and integrated omni-channel marketing with an emphasis on thought leadership, team building, cross-functional consensus building, and a data driven approach.
Prior to marketing, she managed product public relations for various Sony Electronics products, including tablets, e-readers, headphones and TVs.
When she isn’t working, she is spending time with her husband, two kids and newly adopted puppy or practicing yoga.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I have always been a passionate storyteller. I love to create and forge meaningful connections with people — whether that be customers, colleagues or clients — and am interested in where the art and science of marketing intersect.
Early in my career, I worked in TV development but was looking for a change. When a close friend made a career jump to travel public relations (PR), I was instantly intrigued — I loved travel and hotels, and the idea of crafting stories to build a company’s brand. I quickly made the leap to travel PR too and even accepted a demotion in order to learn this new field. After working in PR for several years, most recently at Sony Electronics, I started looking for my next career challenge. After speaking with friends, colleagues and mentors, I determined that marketing would fit my skillset and match my long-term career goals. So, I made one more career jump, this time to the Sony Electronics marketing team. After that, I never looked back. I fell in love with all aspects of the field — from the data-focused strategic thinking and planning to the innovative creativity and storytelling.
Every day is a new challenge, and the industry and landscape change so frequently — I am never bored.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company?
I have had so many fun and exciting adventures throughout my career. However, one story that stands out was when I still worked in PR at Sony. The team and I hosted a group of press in Park City, UT to test Sony’s products “in the wild.” We skied and snowboarded with an Olympic skier and tested our Sony cameras on the Olympic bobsled course — a once in a lifetime “G-Force” experience at 80 MPH and 5Gs of force. It is always a perk when your job affords you amazing life experiences like that.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
My first job out of college was at a major talent agency in Los Angeles, working in the mailroom and temping on agents’ desks when their assistants were out. One day, I was temping on the desk of one of the biggest agents at the firm who had a huge A-list roster of clients. The head of a major studio called for her, and I made the mistake of not instantly putting him through to her. She called me into her office, and I walked in right away without a notebook (which she commented on right away). She quizzed me on the names of all the studio heads, many of which I did not know, told me to always carry a notebook and pen to take notes, and handed me a list of all the studios and their heads to study and memorize. It was a great lesson on the importance of always being prepared and doing your homework! I temped for that agent many times after that and never made those mistakes again.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Sony Electronics stands out because it truly embodies its values — supporting diversity and inclusion, integrity, sustainability and curiosity. And, I believe in its purpose: To fill the world with emotion, through the power of creativity and technology. Our products are instrumental in bringing the best creative content and entertainment to life. Our cameras capture the creators’ eye, our TVs then display that unique vision and our audio products record and play every note as the artist intended. It is exciting and satisfying to introduce customers to products that bring such emotion and joy to their world.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Always! Every day is exciting and fast paced. With the pandemic pushing customers to spend more time at home, our products have been essential in connecting people to their entertainment and work. Our TVs and soundbars help customers create an at-home theater experience, and our noise canceling headphones improve the work-from-home experience, and more. It is always exciting to launch new products that are meaningful and helpful in people’s lives and see the joy it brings them.
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Are you currently satisfied with the status quo regarding women in STEM? What specific changes do you think are needed to change the status quo?
No, I still think traditionally male leadership characteristics, like assertiveness and competitiveness, are valued and rewarded more than traditionally female strengths like collaboration, even though we know companies with more women in leadership tend to perform better. The highest levels of leadership are still mostly male, which reinforces an endless cycle of keeping the status quo. I would like to see more women in STEM at all levels of leadership, and we need to remain focused on how to ensure women can continue to rise in the ranks.
One critical issue I’ve observed is a lack of female role models who can inspire younger women and guide them through their careers. We need to put a spotlight on women leaders and connect them to younger women in STEM.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women in STEM or Tech that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts? What would you suggest to address this?
As I mentioned before, traditionally male leadership skills are more often rewarded. I think more men need to undergo stronger trainings around gender differences in leadership and ways they can change their perceptions and better support up-and-coming women in their companies. I find most are not aware of their biases. They often mean well but need to be educated on their implicit biases so they can be more mindful.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a woman in STEM or Tech. Can you explain what you mean?
One myth is that there aren’t as many women who want to be in STEM or in the highest leadership levels of STEM and that the gender parity is due to a lack of available talent. There are plenty of talented and deserving women who aspire to be leaders in their fields, but as you look up the chain of command, you see less and less female representation. We have to continue building the pipeline from the bottom up and top down. We need to mindfully create more opportunities for women in leadership so we can break through old patterns and change the dynamic for women in leadership.
What are your “5 Leadership Lessons I Learned From My Experience as a Woman in STEM or Tech” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)
Success is about results not activity: One of my early bosses used to tell me this and I find it to be so true. Most of the time, people don’t care who worked the hardest or the longest hours, they care who generated the best results. Efficiently manage your time and resources so you can generate the most results for your business. Focus on structuring your team to be the most efficient and results focused.
Be your biggest advocate: On the flip side, if you have great results but nobody knows, it doesn’t matter. Don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself. Share your wins, and make sure other VIPs are aware of you and your team’s successes.
Be curious: Never stop learning or questioning things. Just because something has always been done a certain way, doesn’t make it the right or only way. Always look at data and try to find meaningful insights that can influence your strategy and activities. Encourage your team to ask questions and never take things at face value.
Make mistakes, and learn from them: It is okay to take calculated risks, and have a test and try attitude. Create a culture where your team feels supported in suggesting new ideas and activities, and can try them, and possibly fail, without repercussion. Every test is an opportunity to learn something you can apply to your next project.
Treat every job you do like it’s the most important job in the world: My dad always gave me this advice and it really contributed to my work ethic. No matter how menial the job, I always took pride in what I did and tried to be the best at it.
What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?
Most importantly, lead with authenticity and lean into your strengths. Find your own leadership style that works. Also, allow your team to fail and foster an environment of curiosity. Build a culture of ‘test and try’ and let them know it is okay to take calculated risks, and fail, as long as there are learnings from those failures.
I want a team that is curious enough to question things, feels supported enough to voice those questions, and has an organizational culture that supports trying new ideas and strategies.
What advice would you give to other women leaders about the best way to manage a large team?
Be a strong advocate for your team, especially for those who are doing the work but aren’t necessarily the loudest. Provide plenty of development opportunities, invest in one-on-one time and help them find their growth path. It is so important for your team to be heard and feel like they have access to their leaders. Build other leaders who can support you and be additional strong advocates for the team. Also, invest your time in finding a trusted network you can meet with, share challenges and bounce ideas off of. I am still learning every day from colleagues on better ways to lead.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I have a strong network of female friends who are all incredibly successful working women in their own right and who are my cheerleaders and support. We share our challenges and successes with each other often, and it’s always nice to have people who understand your day-to-day life and can provide great advice and encouragement. There are also many leaders I’ve met along the way that I am very grateful for that I have admired and who inspired me to continue to grow.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I try to lead with empathy and lift up others and help them in their careers, whether that is through mentorships, providing helpful on the job training or advocating for my team and supporting them in their career pursuits.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Just to be kinder. Kindness is powerful and transformative, and something everyone could use a bit more of.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“You don’t need permission to take responsibility.” This is relevant to me because I have made it a point in my career to not wait for someone to assign me projects I wanted to work on. I looked for opportunities and took them. Often times throughout my career, I took on projects that didn’t seem to have a clear owner, or identified issues no one was fixing and suggested ways to resolve them. With this mindset, the projects I wanted to work on became my scope and responsibility.
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)
I would love to chat with Raissa Gerona, Chief Brand Office at Revolve. She was instrumental in Revolve’s success by leaning into community marketing and leveraging the power of influencers, when it was still relatively new and innovative. She also was able to pivot her career a few times and leverage challenges into opportunities.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
