FountainBlue's January 2023 Newsletter
FountainBlue's January 2023 Newsletter
A ROAR of wishes for 2023 in hopes of a year that:
Reaches and stretches you personally and professionally, in ways which excite and define you, in ways you never thought possible before;
Opens doors to new opportunities, leveraging your talents and desires;
Aligns and connects the people, projects and plans which inspire and drive you;
Reveals the truest, most passionate version of yourself you’ve met yet.
We are celebrating not only the new year but the 18th birthday of FountainBlue as well. Every single person receiving this newsletter has contributed to this community in ways big and small over the past 18 years.
Whether you’re just joining us or you’ve been involved since the beginning, thank you for showing up. What you’ve done to fuel the success of this community and its programs and services fuels each of us.
As I transition FountainBlue’s monthly newsletter to Substack, both free and paid newsletter offerings will be available.
If you’re already in our database, you will continue to receive our free monthly newsletter with event summaries and invitations, as well as an original leadership or innovation article.
Whether you’ve been with us for years or whether you’re just joining, you can subscribe to our paid newsletter at the $10/month level, and receive admission to this month’s When She Speaks or Front Line Managers Online program.
If you subscribe for one year for $100, you will receive a monthly admission for either the When She Speaks or Front Line Managers online program each month for a year, AND also receive one no-cost, no-obligation 15-minute coaching session on the theme of ‘what’s next’.
If you subscribe for a lifetime membership for $250, you will receive a guest pass for either the When She Speaks or Front Line Managers Online program each month on an ongoing basis PLUS an ANNUAL no-cost, no-obligation 15-minute coaching session on the theme of ‘what’s next’.
I look forward to remaining in touch with you in this new year!
Until we next connect,
Linda
About FountainBlue's When She Speaks Series
Launched in Silicon Valley in May 2006, FountainBlue's monthly When She Speaks luncheon panel discussions feature senior women leaders from partner tech companies speaking on leadership and innovation topics. Our interactive conversations are known for being inspiring, educational, practical and fun. For more information, visit www.whenshespeaks.com
Register Now to join our upcoming program!
2023 When She Speaks online programs, all scheduled from 11:50 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. PST
Bring Your Full Self to Work, January 20, 2023, hosted by Jade Global
Lead with Passion, Agility and Resilience, February 17, 2023, hosted by BOLD
Manage Your Mindset, March 17, 2023, hosted by Coupa
Build Employee Experience as the X Factor, April 14, 2023, hosted by Reputation
FountainBlue's December 9 When She Speaks program, on the topic of 'Men Who Open Doors'. Please join me in thanking our hosts at Reputation and our esteemed nominees and awardees:
Facilitator Linda Holroyd, CEO, FountainBlue
Introductory remarks by Lauren Larson Diehl, Vice President Global Customer Success, Reputation
Men Who Open Doors:
Michael Erisman, Chief People Officer, Reputation
Michael Gialis, Managing Director, KPMG
Gerald Miaille, Vice President Of Engineering, Renesas
Stefano Zanella, VP of Product Marketing, TDK
Recognized in Absentia:
Ravi Chandra, SVP, Engineering, Cisco
Prashanth Chandrasekar, CEO, Stack Overflow
Thank you also to our nominating executives:
Pooja Agrawal, Director Firmware & Software, Wireless Charging, Renesas
Courtney Rainville, Director of Customer Success, Reputation
Sabitha Krishnamurthy, Senior Director, Cisco
Debbie Shotwell, Chief People and Culture Officer, Stack Overflow
I was honored to facilitate such an inspiring and thought-provoking program celebrating men opening doors. Our nominees and awardees shared their thoughts on the business benefits for opening doors and best practices on how to open doors for others. Below is a summary of their remarks.
Our panelists spoke eloquently about how opening doors for others facilitates both innovation and leadership for the recipient and others they touch.
The 'Men Opening Doors' awardees had much in common:
They each recognized how both men and women opened doors for them throughout their career and expressed a desire to give back and do the same for others.
They are sincere and authentic communicators who truly care about the important people in their lives, and deeply committed to the success of people they touch.
They wholeheartedly believe in the power of innovation and collaboration and facilitate that culture into the teams and organizations they lead.
Our awardees discussed the merits of:
providing access to opportunities to a wide range of high-potential candidates
expressing their confidence in the abilities of others,
making strategic introductions to new networks, and in general,
supporting the growth and expansion of others around them benefit everyone.
Below are some best practices shared by our Men-Who-Open-Doors Awardees:
Provide stretch assignments to promising people and support them in building confidence and developing competence so that they can succeed.
Be open-minded and invite diverse people and thoughts into the team and organization, for that is the foundation for innovation.
Align your thinking, speaking and actions and communicate as an authentic, purpose-driven, passionate leader who is incrementally delivering on goals while building relationships.
Put your people first - show up for them, be there for them, deliver for them, and work with them to address and manage both opportunities and challenges.
Upon reflecting on what I learned from our interactive and inspiring conversation today, I realized that no matter where you sit in an organization, we should each strive to be that difference-maker, the person who makes a difference for a person, a project, a team, an organization. In this way, we can each do our part in making the world a better place.
Join us for this Month’s When She Speaks program, scheduled for Friday, January 20, 11:50 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Bring Your Full Self to Work
With our Hosts at Jade Global
Link to online program will be e-mailed to registered attendees
Find the balance between being uniquely and unequivocally YOU, while also conforming and flowing with expectations and requirements.
This month's panelists share their strategies and best practices on how to stay original and creative while also following and stretching rules, protocols and requirements, minimizing risks, maximizing opportunity."
Facilitator Linda Holroyd, CEO, FountainBlue
Panelist Amber Barber, Senior Director, Program Management, Jade Global
Panelist Cynthia Gao, Sr. Director of Global HR HMI, ASML
Panelist Tejal Thakkar, VP, Transformation PMO and Chief of Staff, Malwarebytes
Panelist to be confirmed
with executive introduction by Karin Maday, SVP, Customer Success, Jade Global
About FountainBlue's Front Line Managers Online Series
FountainBlue's Semi-Monthly Front Line Managers Online series features a panel discussion of HR, product, engineering and business leaders, presenting on leadership and innovation topics of interest to front line managers. Our meetings feature interactive conversations on topics raised by our corporate partners and the larger FountainBlue network.
2023 Front Line Managers Online programs, all scheduled from 11:50 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. PST
▪A People-First Mindset, January 13, 2023
▪Honing Your Leadership Style, February 10, 2023
▪The VUCA Reality - It's Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous, March 10, 2023
▪Resolving Conflict When Stakes are High, April 7, 2023
▪Leveraging Data to Make Decisions, May 5, 2023
For more information about our Front Line Managers programs, visit www.whenshespeaks.com/frontline.
Notes from our discussions are available online at http://fountainblue.blog/category/front-line-managers/.
Notes from Last Month’s Front Line Managers Online Program
FountainBlue's December 2 Front Line Managers Online program on the topic of 'Open Hearts, Open Minds'. Please join me in thanking our panelists.
as a People Leader - Roxanne Dos Santos, Samsung Research America
as an Sales Leader - Thenu Kittappa, Zendesk
as a Business Leader - Lara Bliesner, ARM
We were fortunate to have such inspiring and practical advice from a diverse set of open-hearted, open-minded leaders and managers. Our panelists shared their advice and strategies for:
embracing the business opportunities for being open-minded and open-hearted
thinking, planning and executing on these strategies to produce measurable outcomes
welcoming the opportunities and challenges around the unknowns and
amplifying the ripple effect - where success builds on success
Below is a compilation of their advice:
It takes leadership.
See the up-sides in the challenges and courageously venture forth strategically, methodically, and collaboratively to build both relationships and results.
Clearly communicate the North Star - the values and direction for the organization - and inspire and lead others to collaborate and make incremental progress.
Focus on the long-term plans while navigating the short-term challenges and opportunities.
Choose to regularly perform the tasks and actions which move the needle forward, in alignment with corporate goals, market trends, and customer demands.
Challenge your team to do more with less, but make sure that they have minimal support and resources to succeed.
Build a culture of trust.
Communicate clearly and transparently in a way which connects and informs in order to build a culture of trust, where people feel comfortable stretching themselves, taking calculated risks, while learning and growing.
Help your team see change as an opportunity and provide them with the support, training and resources so that they can pivot and flex with the changes, both anticipated and not.
Adopt a can-do, positive attitude especially through challenging circumstances.
Be clear on the guardrails around change so people can better take measured risk and more likely succeed.
Have the back of your team members as they take risks.
Stretch yourself.
Leverage your experience and connections to position yourself for expansion, growth and impact.
Be willing to make the best of challenging circumstances - they are character-building opportunities.
Choose to make an impact within and across roles, products and functions with an open mind, and an open heart.
Be curious about the challenges of others and sincerely offer your support.
The bottom line is that having an open mind and an open heart is the foundation for leadership and innovation, which in turn keeps companies, teams and leaders productive and successful.
About FountainBlue's VIP Roundtables
Launched in December 2015, FountainBlue convenes executive leaders in monthly conversations on innovation and market trends. This invitation-only event is designed for senior executives and facilitates connections between peers in the context of sharing best practices on today's hottest opportunities and challenges.
Our executives in attendance have consistently remarked on the breadth and depth of ideas introduced and the quality of the connections made through participation in the series. See our notes from all our past roundtable at https://fountainblue.wordpress.com/category/vip/.
FountainBlue's December 9 VIP Roundtable was on the topic of 'Smart Cities, Smart Buildings'. Our executives in attendance represented a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, roles, industries and organizations, but they agreed on many things.
Foundational to the success of smart cities and smart buildings is the collaboration and infrastructure to 1) design, create and deliver a wide range of connected sensors, 2) integrate these sensors with the tools and applications which will track, measure and disseminate the volumes of data generated by these sensors in a secure and efficient manner, and to 3) create, implement, and sustainably deliver actionable real-time dashboards leveraging the most relevant information. It takes leaders and innovators working in collaboration throughout the process to envision, manage, integrate, implement, maintain each piece of this puzzle.
Below is a summary Smart City and Smart Building use cases provided by our executives in attendance:
Smart Cities:
Proactive management of transportation systems can lead to more reliable, more efficient, and more popular commuting options.
City-wide adoption of sustainability and Net Zero standards can be supported by a host of tracking, measuring, reporting, and usage applications. The trick is to determine which solutions provide the most useful data, which dashboards will lead to timely decision-making, and which stakeholders can collaborate to achieve win-win results.
Tools and solutions which leverage AI and ML can make predictions on autonomous cars for example. With large adoption and implementation, traffic may be improved with more functional, useful cars and more plan-ful maintenance of all vehicles on the road.
Disaster management may be supported at the city-wide level, again with the adoption of collaborative solutions which benefit all stakeholders.
Smart Buildings:
Detailed metrics on energy usage can help track and report on current and projected future usage, with the intent of reaching sustainability goals.
Managing, tracking and integrating various IT solutions and applications within buildings can help manage energy and water usage as well as carbon emissions goals.
Automated solutions can help manage wasteful use of energy and water, as well as optimize heating and cooling, in order to better serve employees and residents.
Proactively designing office space for the hybrid, collaborative, and flexible workforce of the future supports the bottom line, while also better serving employees.
Proactive building management might also focus on the safety of residence - protecting from gas leaks, unapproved access, and even IT and data privacy and security breaches.
Studies around the 'fingerprinting' of individual water and energy usage patterns can help operators and managers more proactively serve building renters, owners and lessors.
Our executives concluded that we have come so far, but there is so much more to do to better equip our cities and our buildings, and to better serve people living in them.