5 Simple Keys to Success and Influence to be Digital Leader — with Erik Qualman
Earlier this year, IBM received the prestigious 2018 Catalyst Award for leadership in building a workplace that values diversity and inclusion. In fact, IBM was the only tech company honored this year — and the only company anywhere recognized for a fourth time. It’s a testament to how much IBM invests to advance diversity and inclusion. And it’s one of many reasons I’m proud every day to say that I’m an IBMer.
I’ll give you a specific example.
GROW (Guidance, Resources and Outreach for Women in IBM Hybrid Cloud) dedicates itself to offering IBMers the resources, tools and networking experiences to help them navigate and achieve their career goals. GROW is particularly eager to foster a stimulating and engaging environment for women, where they can form relationships, share stories, swap strategies and provide mutual support.
Given the importance of the work, I want to call out GROW’s executive sponsors:
- Janine Sneed, Chief Digital Officer, IBM Hybrid Cloud
- Alison Say, Director, Business Partners, EU
- Rachel Reinitz, Fellow and CTO
Besides our commitment to GROW, Janine and I have parallel lives at work. She leads digital transformation for all of IBM Hybrid Cloud, while I lead digital transformation within a segment of IBM Analytics. With that context in mind, several months ago, Janine had sent me a snapshot from a book that she was reading and recommended that I take a look:
GROW in Action
On August 30th of this year, GROW hosted an event at IBM Austin where Erik Qualman was invited as a special guest speaker. For those who don’t know Erik, he’s the best-selling author of Socialnomics about the way social media has transformed business and life. I was already excited to participate when I found out that Janine herself would be in Austin to host the event.
It took some juggling, but I made sure to attend.
Janine Sneed (Chief Digital Officer and VP, IBM Hybrid Cloud) and me
Janine greeted me with a warm hug, and Erik talked about the practical key steps for leveraging technology to become a better leader and to help reach your full potential.
I learned many things from Erik, but here are the top 3:
#1 Learn to live in discomfort
#2 Tell yourself things happen “for” me (not “to” me).
#3 Post it forward — the digital version of “pay” it forward.
In fact, this blog is my first attempt to post it forward — spreading the word about this event and especially about GROW and its mission.
Erik left us with a compelling question: What will your digital stamp be?
It’s one I think we could all stand to think about.
