Business & Tech

How to Climb the Corporate Ladder as a Woman in High-Tech

Women's Leadership Coaching is coming to Milpitas on April 15, intent on teaching local women how to get those senior-level, executive jobs they've wanted.

The mere mention of the phrase “office politics” makes many women cringe. Unfortunately, for those trying to climb the corporate career ladder, it’s a world they simply can’t ignore.

Though leaps and bounds have been made in the realm of women’s equality over the past half-century, many women still say they struggle when it comes to navigating the career ladder at their companies and proving that they can be just as successful as their male counterparts—particularly in high-technology companies like those right here in the Silicon Valley.

Jo Miller, CEO and founder of the company Women’s Leadership Coaching, said that’s exactly where she found herself roughly 13 years ago, in her own career at a high-tech company in her hometown of Sydney, Australia.

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However, within months of implementing a simple plan of success she learned from a coach, Miller found herself being offered more promotions than she could have ever imagined.

Today, Miller has been called one of “40 People to Watch under the Age of 40” and one of Silicon Valley’s top “Women of Influence.” And she is coming to Milpitas on April 15 to share her road map for success with women of the Bay Area.

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Learning How to Get the Promotion

Little more than 12 years ago, Miller was working at a high-tech company in Sydney, dreaming of the promotion that would earn her a top, executive position.

”In my previous corporate career, I was very ambitious and career-driven, and wanted to advance into top positions,” Miller remembered. “I started looking into how I could advance my career.”

She sat down with several top executives at her company and asked them what they looked for in a leader and what she should do to help earn herself a promotion.

Miller took their advice to heart—and she was offered three promotions in just 12 months. In fact, the third promotion was for a job she felt was even a little out of her reach.

The experience got her thinking, and she decided to enlist the help of a professional career coach.

“I wanted to build my confidence, to feel more successful in my current role and also to achieve some financial goals on behalf of the company I was working for,” Miller explained.

Her experience with the career coach was enlightening. Less than two months later, she quit her job to pursue a career as a coach herself.

“It really inspired me,” she said. “I thought, this could be what I was meant to do.”

Thus, Women’s Leadership Coaching was born in 1998.

“I was able, personally, to really see the need for women to have personal career advice and mentoring, to learn how to step up into leadership positions—and that’s ultimately what I ended up offering to my clients,” she said.

She started by offering one-on-one counseling sessions to women who found themselves in a position much like the one she had been in. From there came the idea for larger workshops.

Poised for Leadership

“[We at the company] found that so many women were coming to us with the same challenges, and when they found a solution, we wanted to be able to tell all our clients about them,” said Miller.

Miller and her employees took all their knowledge and expertise and designed a comprehensive, one-day workshop to help women learn the skills they need to get promotions and land senior-level, executive positions.

“[Through our experiences], we identified a core set of skills, that when women built those skills, they advanced more rapidly into senior-level leaderships,” Miller said, explaining the idea behind the one-day workshops they decided to call “Poised for Leadership.” “The workshops are all centered around helping women create a ‘roadmap’ to senior-level positions in business.”

At first, word spread through the company’s individual coaching clients, as they went back to their companies and shared their successes with their colleagues and friends. As their network of contacts grew, they started inviting large companies to send groups of women interested in advancing their careers to the workshops.

“We’re really growing quite rapidly, as a company,” Miller said.

Now after more than 12 years of business, Women’s Leadership Coaching has helped women achieve their career goals all across the U.S., as well as in Canada, Australia and even Israel.

Headquartered in the Bay Area for its first 10 years, the company has since moved to Cedar Rapids, IA, after Miller’s husband’s job was transferred there. However, with many top Silicon Valley clients such as Google, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo! and Intel, Miller often finds herself traveling to the Bay Area to lead workshops, such as the one she will teach at Lifescan in Milpitas on April 15. Lifescan offered to host Miller and her workshop after the one she taught at JDS Uniphase Corporation (JDSU) in Milpitas just a few weeks ago on March 3 quickly sold out, leaving many interested women without a ticket.

Many who attended the March 3 “Poised for Leadership” workshop say they found Miller’s material very valuable.

“I thought it was wonderful,” said Marcie Kapaldo, director of workplace solutions at JDSU. “The engagement in the room was amazing. The women that were there—every one of them was overly pleased. We had about 60 women [in attendance].”

Kapaldo said the company conducted an internal survey of attendees after the workshop.

“We got very positive feedback. Everybody was very impressed with it, and we got great comments about it,” she said. “We are very focused on empowering women here at our company, and [Miller’s] workshop really hit home with everybody.”

Though most of the attendees were from JDSU, the workshop was also open to women from other local companies, said Mindy Aiello-Mihelic, director of global talent acquisition at JDSU.

“Many of the women who came said they work in companies where there are more men than women,” she said.

Aiello-Mihelic said she heard a lot of positive feedback from attendees as well.

"I heard a really great buzz from everyone in the room, and everyone thought it was well worth their time and would recommend it to other people,” she said. “In the feedback I heard, people thought the information in the workshop was important and that they felt confident they could immediately take it back to their workplace and implement it.”

Women’s Leadership Coaching in Milpitas

Now Miller is looking forward to returning to Milpitas for her workshop in April. There are still 19 spots available, open to women from all companies. So far, women from Lifescan, Intel, WebEx and Avaya have registered.

Skills taught to women in the one-day workshop include navigating office politics effectively, building an influential network, creating a brand for themselves as an up-and-coming leader and taking on the assignments that make them visible.

“We also cover different ways to influence others, regardless of whether they report to you—so, influencing with or without authority,” Miller said.

Miller said it is rewarding to hear from women who have taken her workshop and found success.

“I received this terrific email recently that said, ‘I was promoted to senior manager three months after taking your workshop,’” she said. “I just love it; it really makes my day to hear from women who have attended my workshop.”

For more information, or to register to attend the April 15 "Poised for Leadership" workshop at Lifescan in Milpitas, visit womensleadershipcoaching.com/pfl.htm or call 319-365-0228.


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