Becoming a Tech Leader Requires Actually Leading | Crystal Morrison | TEDxStripDistrict

Summary

In this inspiring talk, a scientist shares her personal journey and the challenges of transitioning from technical expertise to effective leadership. She highlights the importance of people, purpose, and engagement in tech leadership, emphasizing that success is not solely based on technical skills but on the ability to empower and inspire diverse teams. Using J. Robert Oppenheimer's leadership during the Manhattan Project as a pivotal example, she calls for a collective effort to bridge the leadership gap in STEM fields, urging the audience to join her mission in fostering better leadership practices to unlock innovation and address global challenges.

Takeaways

• 😀 A scientist's journey often involves early experiments and a passion for exploration.
• 📚 Technical competence is essential, but not the sole determinant of success in STEM fields.
• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Leadership behaviors, particularly positive and empowering ones, are crucial for team success.
• 💡 Observing and learning from the behaviors of successful leaders can inform personal leadership development.
• 🚫 The lack of leadership skills in tech can result in toxic cultures and failed innovations.
• 🌍 Grand challenges, such as climate change, require collaborative leadership and innovative thinking.
• 👥 Building diverse and collaborative teams is essential for overcoming technical challenges.
• 🎯 Creating meaning and purpose within a team can drive engagement and enhance performance.
• 🔧 Leaders must actively eliminate barriers to knowledge sharing and collaboration.
• 💪 Oppenheimer's leadership during the Manhattan Project exemplifies the impact of effective leadership in achieving significant goals.

Q & A

What personal experience does the speaker share to illustrate their journey as a scientist?

The speaker shares a childhood memory of conducting experiments, including burning the varnish off their kitchen table, highlighting their early fascination with science and the challenges they faced in balancing curiosity with responsibility.

What does the speaker identify as the single biggest differentiator in moving brilliant ideas to reality in tech?

The speaker identifies positive, empowering leadership behaviors as the single biggest differentiator, emphasizing the importance of people over technical skills alone.

How does the speaker's background influence their perspective on leadership in tech?

The speaker's background as a scientist and their experiences in various technical environments have led them to recognize the significant gap in leadership skills among STEM professionals, motivating them to advocate for better leadership practices.

What are the three key aspects of leadership in tech according to the speaker?

The three key aspects of leadership in tech mentioned by the speaker are: getting the right people, creating meaning and purpose, and eliminating barriers to build engagement.

Who is J. Robert Oppenheimer, and why does the speaker use him as an example?

J. Robert Oppenheimer was the technical director of the Manhattan Project. The speaker uses him as an example to illustrate effective leadership in a large-scale scientific endeavor, highlighting his ability to inspire and lead diverse teams.

What challenges did Oppenheimer face in his leadership role?

Oppenheimer struggled with leadership skills in his early days, similar to the speaker's own experience, but recognized the need for effective leadership and sought advice and coaching.

What does the speaker mean by 'eliminating barriers' in leadership?

Eliminating barriers refers to the leader's role in removing obstacles to communication and collaboration within teams, facilitating open discussions to enhance engagement and problem-solving.

How does the speaker relate their mission to address leadership gaps in tech?

The speaker expresses a commitment to fill the gap in leadership skills among technical professionals, emphasizing that without effective leadership, brilliant ideas and innovations may fail to materialize.

What grand challenges does the speaker believe the current generation faces?

The speaker identifies grand challenges such as climate change, food and water security, and energy as issues that require the same level of scientific discovery and engineering advances as the Manhattan Project.

What emotional response does the speaker convey regarding leadership failures in tech?

The speaker conveys a mix of anger and sadness towards the failures of tech leaders who lack foundational leadership skills, as these failures can result in toxic cultures and hinder progress in innovation.

Outlines

00:00

🧪 Embracing the Scientist Within

The speaker begins with a personal confession about her identity as a scientist, expressing pride in her profession despite childhood mishaps, such as damaging her mother's kitchen table during experiments. She outlines her educational journey, from rural Arkansas to earning a PhD and working at Los Alamos National Lab. Throughout her career, she has observed the dynamics of teamwork among PhD scientists and engineers, leading her to conclude that the success of projects hinges on people. This realization prompted her to focus on her own leadership skills after a moment of personal crisis, highlighting the need for effective leadership in the technical field.

05:03

🌟 Leadership Beyond Technical Skills

The speaker emphasizes that success in technology does not solely depend on technical competence or credentials, such as degrees or publications. Instead, she identifies positive, empowering leadership as the crucial differentiator in transforming brilliant ideas into reality. Drawing from her varied experiences across different professional environments, she acknowledges the significant gap in leadership skills among technical professionals, which has resulted in toxic workplace cultures. She commits to addressing this gap and stresses the importance of empowering leadership behaviors in the tech industry.

10:04

🔍 Learning from Historical Leadership: J. Robert Oppenheimer

The speaker introduces J. Robert Oppenheimer, the technical director of the Manhattan Project, as a model of effective leadership in a high-stakes technical environment. She highlights the immense scientific and engineering achievements of the project, noting that Oppenheimer faced similar leadership challenges in his early days. He recognized the importance of getting the right people involved, instilling purpose, and fostering engagement among his team. The speaker outlines three key aspects of leadership: assembling capable and diverse teams, creating meaningful purpose, and eliminating barriers to enhance collaboration. She connects Oppenheimer's leadership lessons to contemporary challenges in STEM fields, advocating for the need for strong leadership to address today's global issues.

15:05

🚀 A Call to Action: Bridging the Leadership Gap

In her concluding remarks, the speaker stresses the urgency of addressing the leadership skills gap in the tech industry. She passionately expresses her commitment to ensuring that brilliant ideas and talented individuals are not squandered due to poor leadership. The challenges facing society today, such as climate change and food security, require effective leadership to drive innovation and scientific discovery. The speaker invites the audience to join her mission to cultivate strong leadership skills within technical professionals and organizations, emphasizing that the future of scientific progress hinges on learning to lead effectively.

Keywords

💡Leadership

Leadership refers to the ability to guide, inspire, and influence others toward achieving common goals. In the context of the video, the speaker emphasizes that effective leadership is crucial for the success of technical projects, particularly in STEM fields. They highlight the importance of not just technical competence but also the ability to empower and engage team members, as seen in their personal journey from a scientist to a leader.

💡Empowerment

Empowerment involves providing individuals with the authority, confidence, and resources to take initiative and make decisions. The speaker discusses how empowering leadership behaviors can foster a positive work environment, enhancing team dynamics and collaboration. This concept is illustrated when the speaker reflects on their observations of successful leaders who inspired and motivated their teams.

💡Collaboration

Collaboration is the process of working together with others to achieve shared goals or objectives. In the video, the speaker highlights the importance of assembling diverse teams that can collaborate effectively. They reference J. Robert Oppenheimer's recognition of the need for scientists with interpersonal skills to foster a collaborative atmosphere at Los Alamos.

💡Purpose

Purpose refers to the meaningful reason behind actions and decisions that guide individuals and teams. The speaker emphasizes that instilling a strong sense of purpose can motivate technical professionals to contribute to projects beyond mere job duties. Oppenheimer's ability to convey the significance of their work during the Manhattan Project exemplifies how purpose can drive engagement and commitment.

💡Engagement

Engagement involves the emotional commitment and involvement of individuals in their work and team objectives. The speaker stresses that high engagement leads to increased productivity and innovation. They discuss how Oppenheimer worked to eliminate barriers and promote engagement, allowing scientists to openly share ideas and tackle challenges collectively.

💡Technical Competence

Technical competence refers to the specialized knowledge and skills required to perform tasks in a specific field effectively. The speaker acknowledges the importance of technical competence in STEM but argues that it is not sufficient alone for success. They point out that leadership skills and the ability to inspire and manage teams are equally critical for transforming technical ideas into reality.

💡STEM Professionals

STEM professionals are individuals working in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The speaker highlights the unique challenges faced by STEM professionals regarding leadership skills. They identify a significant gap in leadership training within this group, which can hinder the progress of innovative ideas and projects.

💡Toxic Culture

Toxic culture refers to a work environment characterized by negativity, hostility, and poor communication, often leading to decreased morale and productivity. The speaker expresses concern over the prevalence of toxic cultures in tech companies and how it stifles innovation and creativity. They cite examples of fallen tech leaders whose poor leadership behaviors contributed to such toxic environments.

💡Vision

Vision is the ability to see beyond the present and articulate a compelling future for a team or organization. The speaker reflects on their struggles with defining their vision as a leader and how critical it is to engage others in that vision. They discuss the challenge of gaining buy-in from talented individuals and the importance of clarity in leadership to inspire collective action.

💡Barriers

Barriers are obstacles that hinder progress or communication within teams or organizations. The speaker discusses the role of a leader in identifying and eliminating barriers to facilitate collaboration and innovation. They reference Oppenheimer's efforts to break down silos at Los Alamos, which allowed for more effective problem-solving and information sharing among scientists.

Highlights

The speaker confesses their identity as a scientist and reflects on childhood experiments.

They followed a well-defined path, earning a degree in chemistry and a PhD.

The speaker became fascinated by team dynamics and leadership behaviors in scientific settings.

They experienced a crisis in a parking lot, feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of leading others.

A commitment was made to understand leadership and improve personal behaviors.

The speaker emphasizes that success in tech is not solely based on technical skills.

Positive empowering leadership behaviors are highlighted as the key differentiator in moving ideas forward.

The speaker identifies a significant gap in leadership skills among STEM professionals.

They reference high-profile tech leaders whose failures showcase the need for better leadership training.

The three aspects of effective leadership in tech are introduced: people, purpose, and engagement.

J. Robert Oppenheimer is used as a case study for leadership during the Manhattan Project.

Oppenheimer's ability to instill purpose and engage his team is highlighted.

Eliminating barriers to engagement and collaboration is emphasized as crucial for project success.

The speaker reflects on the relevance of Oppenheimer's leadership lessons to current global challenges.

The call to action: leaders must learn to lead effectively to avoid squandering great ideas and talent.

The speech ends with a strong mission statement to improve leadership in technical fields.

Transcripts

so I'm going to start today with a

confession and that confession is that

I'm a scientist

now this little girl isn't me but she

might as well be I am a scientist and

it's something I'm deeply proud of and

absolutely unapologetic about although I

think that there's probably been some

times where my mother would have

appreciated some apologies out of me

for all of my childhood experiments

including burning the varnish off our

kitchen table yep in fact I did now I

don't know if I actually ever apologized

for that particular incident but my

mother still uses that table and I went

to International Science Fair that year

so early on I follow the very well

prescribed path and signed some

engineering I left my home in rural

Arkansas and I went to college and I got

a degree in chemistry and I went on and

got a PhD and then did a postdoctoral

fellowship at Los Alamos National Lab

you see I believe because I was on that

very well prescribed path that I was on

a path to success and early on I started

paying a lot more attention in my career

to the behaviors of people and teams

around me I was very intrigued by not

only how teams came together but why

some teams were successful and why

seemed some teams weren't I was

fascinated I was very interested in and

not only how ideas progressed but how

projects move forward and became

products now you can imagine my

observations as mostly teams of PhD

scientists and engineers so ponder that

for a moment it was sort of like

watching a lot of kids trying to read

each other's minds

now as I mentioned I was very intrigued

by that how and why that how and why

projects move forward how and why

brilliant ideas were shared and

distilled and what I observed is that

the how and why the how and why always

seemed to hinge hinge on people now I

observed how leaders that I admired and

were successful how they interact and

behaved with their teams and I observed

the behaviors of managers with teams

that were struggling and I really

started to think a lot more about my own

behaviors and how I might behave if some

day I became a leader and I'm gonna tell

you what happened and it wasn't pretty

I've never actually shared this story

before so what the heck we'll share it

with everybody right so I ended up

hiding in my car in a parking lot on the

phone with my mother and absolutely

bawling my eyes out sobbing I was

sobbing uncontrollably

and repeating over and over again I

can't do this I can't do this I'm a

scientist I want adventure and

exploration and discovery and now I'm

gonna have to bring all these people

along with me on my quest I'm a

scientist I don't know the first thing

about leading people how there was this

girl this country girl from Arkansas

gonna get all these brilliant scientists

and engineers to understand her vision

what was my vision and how is it going

to get people engaged when things like

leadership and soft skills in

development and vision were considered a

waste of time how was I going to do that

and I was paralyzed I was absolutely

paralyzed with fear and doubt and

sheer scale of of technical and

professional and personal challenges

ahead of me absolutely paralyzed and I

made a commitment that day to not only

observe the behaviors of all of those

around me it's being more conscious of

my own behaviors and learn to lead now

fast forward many years and my career

has taken lots of different turns and

I've been fortunate to learn some very

significant things along the way and no

matter where I've worked whether it be

academia a national lab a small company

or a huge global corporation no matter

where I've worked the single biggest

differentiator and moving brilliant

ideas and promising technology to

reality that single biggest

differentiator is the positive

empowering leadership of people people

getting the right people inspiring and

motivating people building diverse

collaborative teams of people leading

people and I spend a lot of time working

on honing my own skills as a leader and

working on the development of my teams

encouraging the development of those

around me and the impact was real

engagement improved and the collective

overall effort of our technical

achievements increased dramatically the

impact was real you see what my journey

has shown is that success in tech it's

not about tech success in tech is not

about tech it's not about where you went

to college your number of degrees it's

not about your patents publications or

Citation Index it's not about the number

of lines of code you've written it's not

about any of that all of that is

incredibly important your technical

competence and technical credibility are

incredibly

but those things alone are not the key

to success the key to success is a

positive empowering leadership behaviors

now today today I'm on a mission I'm on

a mission to fill in that missing gap of

leadership for technical professionals

and technical organizations or more

colorfully I'm on a mission to eliminate

leadership in tech I said it I did

we have a significant gap in leadership

skills and stem professionals from the

Harvard Business Review to nature this

challenge is highlighted and we see it

and we feel it in our careers and our

organizations but what are we actually

doing about it almost daily we're faced

with headlines of more fallen tech

leaders tech leaders that have zero

foundation and leadership and disgusting

behaviors that have created and promoted

toxic cultures some of you being

suggested that the likes of Elizabeth

home and Travis kalanick

are just the tip of the iceberg and I

believe it you see these headlines

infuriate me they infuriate me and they

break my heart at the same time because

remember at my core I'm a scientist and

it pains me it absolutely pains me to

think about the brilliant ideas and

technology and inspired innovative stem

professionals that can't move forward

because we can't get our act together

and learn to lead shameful now I could

spend all day sharing horror stories of

leadership and tech with all of you but

I've got less than 18 minutes not 18

hours or 18 days so instead what I want

to do is share with you what I believe

are the three most important aspects

of leadership in tech those aspects are

people purpose and engagement and

instead of just talking about these

three aspects I'm gonna illustrate these

they're a highly regarded scientist and

leader someone I admire a great deal and

someone whom United might not have heard

of J robert Oppenheimer now Oppenheimer

was a technical director of the

Manhattan Project in Los Alamos New

Mexico during World War two and the

Manhattan Project was a massive

technical effort undertaken during the

war to create our first nuclear weapons

now I'm not sharing this example to

debate nuclear weapons I'm sharing this

example because of the sheer scale of

scientific discovery technical

achievement and engineering advances

that occurred over such an incredibly

short period of time less than three

years now arguably there is no other

example in our history that rivals the

speed and scale of the Manhattan Project

I'm also sharing this example because

it's deeply personal I admire and

identify with Oppenheimer and many many

ways

Oppenheimer relished that sense of

exploration and discovery that intrinsic

value of science and the good it can

bring to the world the same belief that

I have and like me Oppenheimer struggled

significantly with leadership skills in

his early days at Los Alamos I remember

that parking lot I shared with you my

crisis in the parking lot that was the

parking lot at Los Alamos National Lab

now I have no evidence that Oppenheimer

ever hid in his car and cried but that

was all me but we both struggled with

leadership skills in their early days

and like me Oppenheimer recognized the

need for leadership and he

accepted advice and coaching and he

learned to lead those three important

aspects people purpose and engagement

the first most important aspect of

leadership in Tec is getting the right

people not only Duty diverse people and

expertise you need people who are

capable and willing of work working

together oppenheimer recognized early on

that he needed highly intelligent

scientists with interpersonal skills in

key leadership positions of the lab he

needed scientists who could demonstrate

collaborative behaviors because without

that the project would not move forward

the second most important aspect of

leadership is creating meaning and

purpose

now as technical folks we need to

understand how things work we need to

understand the big picture and how we

fit in an Oppenheimer recognized that

even though there was a war going on in

the war drove that mission he had an

amazing ability to instill a robust

sense of purpose and every single person

that worked at the lab not only were

they gonna win the war they were gonna

make history and significant scientific

discoveries at the same time

number three is eliminating barriers and

building engagement across the

organization technical challenges don't

get solved with barriers now I don't do

well with barriers but our role as a

leader our role as a leader is to

eliminate barriers rather than create

them and build engagement across our

organizations an Oppenheimer recognized

that even though there was an

organizational structure in place he

needed to work actively to eliminate

silos that might arise in information

and knowledge sharing and he instituted

a

meeting between all technical staff at

the lab where they openly discuss the

technical challenges of the project and

many have suggested that it's because of

that weekly meeting that the Manhattan

Project was able to move forward as

rapidly as it did now Oppenheimer was

indeed a highly regarded scientist in

his own right but he recognized the

importance of leadership and his

technical competence and credibility

were absolutely critical to his role at

the lab but it was only one aspect of

his leadership abilities that

contributed to the overall success of

the Manhattan Project

now the Manhattan Project began over 75

years ago and the leadership example of

Oppenheimer is still very powerful and

relevant today today our world faces

grand challenges that may very well be

more immense than even the Manhattan

Project climate change food and water

security energy each of these challenges

could very well be the Manhattan Project

of our generation the scientific the

scale of scientific discovery technical

achievement and engineering advances

required to actually address these

challenges but scale is immense and

technical skills alone are not going to

address and solve these problems now I

don't know about you but I'm not willing

to ignore these things because at my

core I am a scientist at heart and I

can't bear the thought of squandering

great ideas technology and people

because we can't learn to lead I'm not

willing to ignore toxic tech culture and

more fallen tech leaders and I'm not

willing to ignore the gap and leadership

skills

and stem professionals I'm not willing

I'm on a mission to fill in that missing

gap and leadership and technical

professionals and technical

organizations I'm on a mission will you

come with me

[Applause]