“Invited CTOs” was the second panel I attended at this first morning
of the
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing here in Orlando, Florida.
Represented are Chief Technology Officers from Mayfield, Intel,
Symantec, Thoughtworks, and Network Appliance. I was pleased to
see Mark Bregman (CTO of Symantec), with whom I worked on the Silicon Valley
Heart Walk last month. I was sorry to see just one woman on the
panel, but that is reality.
One of the first themes discussed by this panel was how a CTO is
different from a most-senior Engineer or most-senior Manager or
Executive. From what the panelists say, this is also a regular
topic of conversation both inside and outside of companies.
“CTO” may stand for Chief Talking Officer or Chief Travelling Officer.
Justin Rattner of Intel said: “My job is about communication –
talking about our technologies. The ability to communicate effectively
across a broad range of technical subjects is very important. Influence
directions, nudge people, guide people – get them to make crucial decisions.
Cultivate technical workforce and then communicate with them.”
Another panelist said that being a CTO is being a technology
influencer rather than being a technology innovator.
(I am sitting in the way back of a big room because that is where
the electrical outlet for my laptop is so I can’t see who is talking…)
The most fascinating topic for me was:
What does it take for a woman to become a CTO or Fellow? Why does the
population of women in technology companies drop dramatically in the
mid-grades and higher? The first answer when this topic was raised was that
persistence and determination matter – you can’t get promoted if you
leave. Maria Klawe (President, Harvey Mudd College) then asked an
applauded question – “Do women choose to leave or get driven out?”
The panelists discussed management track vs. technical track and how they
often saw talented women encouraged to shift to the management track
(that is, discouraged from staying on the technical job ladder).
In answer to my question about how they had worked against the problem
that many women lack confidence in their own ideas and get lured away
into non-technical executive jobs because they don’t think they will
ever get promoted to Fellow, Mark pointed out that this could be a
cultural problem as well as a problem for women. He then said that
mentoring could help: a one-on-one encouraging relationship with a
very senior person promotes persistence and success. (The benefits of
mentoring was a regular theme and favored remedy mentioned by all of the
panelists.) Rebecca Parsons (CTO of Thoughtworks) said that
each of us needs to take responsibility to push back when arrogance
or agressiveness shut down questions or new ideas. Being shut down in
public will make many people stop trying and leave. None of us can
condone or sit silently listening to this kind of bad behavior if we
want to support the flow of diverse ideas and people in technical
leadership.
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