March is Women’s History Month, and there’s no shortage of inspiring women worthy of celebrating.
Take Grace Puma, former PepsiCo COO, and Christiana Smith Shi, former Nike president of consumer direct. The pair have shared their secrets to profession success in a latest book, “Profession Forward: Strategies from Women Who’ve Made It” (Scribner), during which they revealed often surprising work advice.
“We all know that navigating a profession may be difficult, especially today,” said Smith Shi of the book’s origins and easy, no-nonsense approach. “We also consider it’s value it. We’d each found ourselves giving advice to our adult children, who were millennials progressing on their very own profession journeys. Now we considered extending that mission to the ocean of younger professionals on their very own journeys … And we agreed that we’d give our readers the straight scoop. That’s the type of conversation that has benefited us essentially the most through the years, and that’s the type of book we wanted to jot down.”
Smith Shi joined Nike in 2010 because the chief operating officer for global direct-to-consumer, answerable for overseeing global operations. In 2013, she became president of Nike’s DTC business, leading Nike’s retail and e-commerce business globally. During that point revenue grew from $4 billion to $8 billion.
After retiring from Nike in 2016, she proceeded to function a director on the boards of UPS Inc., Columbia Sportswear Company and Habitat for Humanity International. She also leads Lovejoy Advisors LLC, an advisory services firm for digitally transforming consumer and retail businesses.
Along the best way, Smith Shi, who relies in Portland, Ore., realized you must never leave a job until you consider what it’ll take to make you stay.
“I learned this lesson the primary time I attempted to quit my job as a consultant [at McKinsey & Company] after getting back from maternity leave,” said Smith Shi. She was working 12 hours a day, then staying up late into the night together with her baby. “I figured I couldn’t handle the job and told my boss I used to be going to depart. He gave me that advice, which led me to coming back with a proposal to go part time.”
Smith Shi stayed at McKinsey for one more 17 years.
Puma, who resides in Tampa, Fla., served as chief operating officer and executive vp of worldwide operations at PepsiCo Inc. from 2017 until her retirement in 2022. As COO, she was accountable for setting PepsiCo’s global operations capability strategy, operational execution and achievement of business deliverables.
Before joining PepsiCo, she held positions of accelerating responsibility at Motorola Inc., Kraft Foods Inc. and United Airlines Holdings.
“Each company has its own culture, business practices and processes,” reflected Puma. “I learned that agility and embracing latest business practices applied in numerous firms and industries accelerated my technical and leadership capabilities and ultimately had a key role in my profession trajectory.”
Here, the facility duo’s top suggestions for climbing the ranks at work.
Being underestimated may be a bonus
As Smith Shi highlighted, it’s not unusual for ladies to be underestimated at work, sometimes without even knowing it. The previous Nike executive cites McKinsey’s report on Women within the Workplace, which said that girls leaders are “prone to experience belittling microaggressions, akin to having their judgment questioned or being mistaken for somebody more junior.”
Smith Shi shared that chances are you’ll be surprised to know that this may create unexpected opportunities you’ll be able to leverage.
“Although you almost certainly wouldn’t decide to be an underdog at work, it could actually be very motivating to come back from behind and prove yourself,” said Smith Shi. “Actually, research has shown that having a slight perceived drawback is typically correlated with higher outcomes. The secret’s to acknowledge the challenge of being in an underdog position and never let it break your spirit.”
Never take the primary offer
The typical woman employee in her lifetime loses greater than $530,000 due to gender wage gap. “If a girl falls behind, she may never close the gap,” said Puma, who stressed that compensation is sort of all the time negotiable,
Puma advises doing all of your research on what fair compensation is thru sources like Glassdoor and Levels.
“You may also seek for information through skilled associations and in informal peer discussion,” she said. “Having the facts means that you can plan a method for negotiation.”
To spice up your pay, Puma’s go-to tactics include asking for the best base salary going right into a latest job and starting together with your ceiling, not your floor.
Also, consider the compensation more broadly than simply base salary (e.g. stock equity, PTO, advantages). You must also request salary re-evaluations while you tackle more work, while timing conversations about salary appropriately — “use logic whether management is receptive to the ask based on current conditions,” said Puma.
Embrace the chance and discomfort of unconventional job moves
No risk, no reward, because the saying goes.
“If you’ve got a growth stock mentality, you’ll embrace latest and unfamiliar environments where you’ll be able to stretch yourself, develop latest capabilities and gain confidence in your ability to succeed in numerous environments,” said Puma.
She experienced this when she left a stable company, Kraft, to simply accept a job within the historically difficult airline industry at United Airlines. To make matters worse, the financial crisis hit during her time there.
While she recognized that this job was certainly one of the hardest jobs and business environments, Puma also knew that it could “yield one of the best growth and opportunity to contribute.”
Puma was able to have interaction with the strategic decision of the corporate beyond her functional role. The experience boosted her skilled equity and served her well long run.
“In the long run, the airline weathered the financial crisis, transformed the performance and successfully accomplished a strategic merger,” she said.