Women Of The C-Suite: Kim Sentovich of Rachio On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Whether you are male or female, there is a certain amount of effort you put into your appearance out of respect for the people you’re meeting with. As a leader, you also represent your company and should ensure your appearance is a reflection of that company when you’re out in public.
As a part of our interview series called “Women Of The C-Suite”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Kim Sentovich.
Kim Sentovich is a senior-level executive and experienced outside board director with over 30 years of experience. She is currently the CEO of Rachio, a manufacturer of smart outdoor technology for residential consumers that advances the smart home. Kim has worked with organizations of all sizes, from Fortune 50 public companies to private companies, and private equity portfolio companies to startups.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
It took many different industries and positions to lead me to where I am today as the CEO of Rachio — from working in regulatory affairs and retail, to operations, logistics, and various other fields. I always tell people the biggest thing to consider when looking at your career path is whether you’re pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone. I was constantly looking to take on new positions and treating every job as an opportunity to learn something new. Having a variety of job experiences can be more beneficial to your career path because the versatility gives you insight into so many parts of the business operations. Pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone also teaches you how to ask better questions and have more empathy for those in different parts of the business, two key skills you need as you move up in your career. My experience working in different fields and areas of business helped me transition into leading a smart home tech company, making it less intimidating and a challenge I welcomed.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading Rachio?
Leading a small, growing company that is now totally virtual after spending most of my career working at larger corporations has been interesting. In some ways, leading an entirely virtual team has been very familiar, as I held meetings virtually when I managed stores since I couldn’t physically be at all locations at once, and in other ways, it’s been completely new. Now that everyone at Rachio is virtual, we’ve developed an extra layer of familiarity among our team, with dogs and kids often making appearances on calls. As a working mom, while I wish I had this level of flexibility when I was younger, it is fun, and rewarding, helping set that culture now and figuring out how to be a company that offers a great work-life balance when there isn’t a rule book showing you the way.
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?
One of the funniest mistakes I made early in my career was not really understanding what an engineer was — even though my husband is an engineer. He is a mechanical engineer, so I was familiar with that type, and also electrical engineers, but didn’t realize there were many other variations. It wasn’t until later that I realized just how many different engineers there were, with people talking about software engineers, computer engineers, etc. While my husband won’t let me live this down, it is a good reminder to not take things at face value and to have a level of curiosity. It’s also a great example of why asking questions is important. If you’re ever unsure about something you see or hear, don’t be afraid to ask for more context or information.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Bruce Merino, whom I worked for at Home Depot, played a pivotal role in helping me get to where I am today. He recognized my potential and encouraged me to jump into a new field, even though I had zero experience. One day, he called me into his office and told me I was no longer in merchandising and that he was moving me to operations. You can imagine my surprise, as I had never run a store and didn’t know anything about operations, but he put me in charge anyway. I realized later that he saw how much I knew about stores and that the ability to run one is not as important as the ability and willingness to ask all the right questions about what we’re doing and why. If he hadn’t moved me to operations, I would have never made the switch on my own. He believed in me and knew that I trusted him to be a good mentor and sponsor if I ever made a mistake or had questions. It’s good to have mentors, but it’s even better to have sponsors as they put you in the jobs that they know you can perform well in.
As you know, the United States is facing a very important self-reckoning about race, diversity, equality and inclusion. This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have a diverse executive?
While Rachio is a small company of about 40 people, we do have a diverse group. Not only do we have women on the senior leadership team, but we also have a strong group of women engineers. We have a very open and accepting culture that our team is proud to be a part of — not just because we talk to them about it, but also because we live it. When you’re a bigger company, you have to talk a lot about your values and diversity efforts because there are so many employees but when you’re smaller, you have to walk the walk. Creating a diverse team is also important in being able to serve and support a diverse set of customers across all geographies, ethnicity and incomes.
As a business leader, can you please share a few steps we must take to truly create an inclusive, representative, and equitable society? Kindly share a story or example for each.
Creating an inclusive, representative, and equitable society is very important to me and something I’ve spent a lot of my career on. I have strived to be part of the solution by speaking at events about women in business, starting the Women at Home Depot initiative, and serving on the Global Women’s Officer Council at Walmart. One of the main obstacles is just getting people to understand how important it is to help women be confident and encourage them to ask for what they need, as well as sponsor them. Over the years, I’ve required the men to join the women’s events to help facilitate conversation and learning, so they can better understand how to best support the women on their team. Listening to their colleagues’ lived experiences and the challenges they face helps foster a better work environment.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a CEO or executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?
One of the biggest differences is the level of communication and empathy required from a CEO for different parts of the business. As CEO, you are the one meeting with people across different divisions or business groups and it’s up to you to keep the right people informed on certain conversations, to ensure the overall company needs are met. Since we are now virtual and aren’t running into each other around the office, as I hear updates in meetings throughout the day, I make sure the relevant people on the product team or the customer experience team are aware of anything that could apply to them.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive? Can you explain what you mean?
That CEOs know everything that is going on and have all the answers. I ask a lot of questions so I can help put the pieces together and determine what our next steps should be. People assume that when an executive comes on board, they just show up with a plan already made. During my first week starting at Gymboree, I came to a meeting and informed the team that I didn’t have a plan to discuss. Instead, I asked them for the three things they think we did well and the three things we could do better. They were the ones involved in the day-to-day and knew better than I did what needed to be done at that point, I just had to prioritize everything.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
What I have consistently seen throughout my career is women doubting themselves and lacking confidence. Many women have to get past internal barriers to find their self-confidence and trust themselves, and we need to create supportive and safe workplaces that encourage women to ask questions, while also offering opportunities for sponsorship.
What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?
The most striking difference is working with a completely virtual team. While I was accustomed to the occasional virtual meeting, I’ve worked for large corporations where I had the opportunity to interact with people from across the business in person and on a daily basis. Now, you must make a more conscious effort to create those connections with people outside of your team that you don’t regularly work with. This has been a learning experience for us at Rachio but has made us more proactive and efficient communicators.
Is everyone cut out to be an executive? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful executive and what type of person should avoid aspiring to be an executive? Can you explain what you mean?
To be a successful executive, you must be curious and ask questions. Curiosity is the number one thing I hire for — you can teach functional skills, but you can’t teach someone to be curious. I will take someone who knows nothing about what they’re doing but is eager to learn. For example, at Rachio, we had someone in customer service who wanted to make the move to the product team. Despite not having any product experience, he was eager to learn and had a deep knowledge of our customers and the product, so we were happy to switch him to a different department.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
I consulted for Rachio three months before coming on as CEO, so I was familiar with a lot of the responsibilities before I started. However, one of the main things I wish someone told me before becoming CEO is just how heavy the head is that wears the crown. As CEO, you are the one making the big decisions and being held accountable for them. There is no one else above you and a lot of decisions are made based on your gut and the information you are receiving from your team at that time. This is why it is important to hire the right people and create a team that will deliver all the right information and results so you can make informed decisions.
I work in the beauty tech industry, so I am very interested to hear your philosophy or perspective about beauty. In your role as a powerful woman and leader, how much of an emphasis do you place on your appearance? Do you see beauty as something that is superficial, or is it something that has inherent value for a leader in a public context? Can you explain what you mean?
Whether you are male or female, there is a certain amount of effort you put into your appearance out of respect for the people you’re meeting with. As a leader, you also represent your company and should ensure your appearance is a reflection of that company when you’re out in public.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I would inspire a movement that makes people more aware of their water use and the impact it has on the environment. Many people would be surprised to learn that 60% of water use is outside and most water waste stems from outdoor water usage. When we think about water savings, we tend to focus on things like low-flush toilets and taking shorter showers when the reality is that 10 extra minutes watering your yard on the wrong day and at the wrong time, cancels out all your water efficiency efforts. While there is still a lot of work and educating to be done, I am very proud of all our Rachio users who have helped collectively save more than 50 billion gallons of water to date and counting.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment 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’d love to have a meal with the queen of the internet, Mary Meeker, and pick her brain about the internet of outside vs. the internet of inside. I’m interested to hear her thoughts on this as we continue to expand Rachio’s product offerings and look for opportunities to leverage our technology to help connect people outside.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
