By Margaret Steen
omen who
are leading their industries provide insight on how you can realize your
own achievement.
* Don't wait for permission. "Figure out what you really want
to do, and then go do it," says
Esther Dyson, chairman of EDventure Holdings, in New York. "When I was 23, I
couldn't
persuade my boss at Forbes to send me to Asia, so I took vacation time, paid my way,
and got
permission to represent myself as a Forbes reporter. I spent a third of my salary
that year on that
trip, but I got a cover story ... and valuable experiences and contacts for years
later."
* Don't burn bridges. "I'm constantly amazed at how frequently
I end up doing business with
someone I've known for years, usually from a different context," says Heidi
Roizen, a technology
industry professional who focuses on corporate governance, in Atherton, Calif. "I've
worked very
hard at leaving every transaction with a positive experience at both the individual
and the personal
level. Not only do I sleep better, but I've built a pretty incredible asset in people
who like to do
business with me."
* Respect others. "I value others' time and only ask for what
is really important to me," Roizen
says.
* Think two steps ahead. "A particular career move could appear
to be
a promotion, whereas in fact it's moving you into a part of the business
that's not critical to the business," says Ellen Hancock, president and
CEO of Exodus Communications, in Santa Clara, Calif. "Look two steps
out ... and then ask very candidly, `What would be the next step?'"
* Be a team player. "One of my mentors told me early on that I
would
not get ahead if the people who worked for me didn't want me to,"
Hancock says. "If there's general consensus that you are trying hard,
working to support them as part of the team, it really helps you build
your support as a manager. It facilitates promotions because there won't be people
blocking the promotion."
* Be flexible. "It's important to be extraordinarily open and
flexible and understand that there are
as many paths to a result that's required as there are people involved in the project,"
says Linda
Starr, president and chief operating officer of Who?Vision Systems, a biometrics
company in
Irvine, Calif. "You have to recognize the opportunities as they're appropriate."
*
Have confidence in your decisions. "There have been a couple of
decisions I've had to make where my superior and I have been a little bit
at odds," says Alison Andrews, director of worldwide education
services at MicroStrategy, in Vienna, Va. "I've had to stick by those
decisions, and luckily I've seen them play out successfully. It's a matter of
negotiation, explaining thoroughly why I made those decisions."
* Learn the technology. "Teaching clients how to implement the
system helped me understand how they were using the tools, and I
became a nice link between our technology teams and our clients,"
Andrews says. "Those experiences gave me a solid foundation as I've moved up
-- understanding
how those two integrate."
* Find a champion. "I define a champion as someone who sees your
potential and really opens
opportunities for you, making sure your name is out in front of the right people,
and who gives
you a very good idea of what kind of skills you need to develop or brush up on,"
says Linda
Cabot, director of customer support in the office of information technology at the
Georgia
Institute of Technology, in Atlanta.
* Be both patient and tenacious. "You need patience to wait for
the right events to line up, and
tenacity to drive continuously while you are waiting," Roizen says. "Of
course, the most tenacious
of us work in subtle ways to help the alignment along!"
Copyright
© 1999 InfoWorld Media Group Inc.
