Jennifer Lawrence (of Duo Security) offers seven concise leadership tips for women and early-career people in tech: 1) jump in before you feel ready; 2) say thank you and show gratitude; 3) assume positive intent in others; 4) value and invest in the doers on your team; 5) care about people, not just metrics; 6) hit your number (deliver results) — but after the preceding behaviors the numbers will follow; 7) always hustle. The tone is practical, people-centered, and encouraging.
Chapters
Advice for other women in tech who want to be leaders. So where are my girls at? Got got a few here. All right, all right. So this is really for women, and it's also for people who are early career who want to be leaders. So, number one, jump in before you believe you're ready. Number two, I think this is super important. We all get really busy. We expect a lot from people, but remember to say thank you. It goes a long way. Three, this is something that I learned. Probably it was my biggest learning at Duo is to assume positive intent, right? Because you're going to get that email from the VP of marketing that signed you up for another conference the last week of the quarter, and you're like, what a doofus. Why is he doing this? And it's actually like, it's a really important thing that you can learn to pause and before you have a negative reaction, you have to assume positive intent. Like, we're all in the same boat, rowing together. We're all trying to do big things for the organization and hit the same goals. So to pick up the phone and have a conversation like, assuming positive intent, I think takes you a really, really long way. And then I firmly believe the most important people in an organization are the doers. Like, thank them and invest in them. They're the ones that matter. You treat them like anything else, and you won't be successful. Care about the people around you. It's not just about hitting the number. And you'll be surprised at what you get back. And then almost last. And you can see that this is just about last. If you want to do big things at a company, you need to hit your number. And you notice that that wasn't first, because I believe if you do these other things, the number takes care of itself. And then finally, I've got this big sign in my house, actually, that says, always hustle. And I teach my kids that and I teach my team that. I think hustling is super important. So I just wanted to end with some pieces of advice for people who want to do big things at their company or go big places.
