I'm so excited to be here today and I've been, you know, really enjoying this women Tech Global conference and uh I've been enjoying all the amazing speakers around the world.So today, I'm here to talk to you about developing into leadership and convincing others and sometimes yourself that you're ready. But first, a little random fact, I'll throw your way. Did you know that American stress bought all the baby chicks in the spring of 2020. Um My pet chicken a hatchery in Connecticut reported that by the first week of March 2020 their sales were already 98% of the previous year's figures. And by the end of March, that number increased to more than 500%. So, OK, maybe not so random. I was one of those people who bought chickens. So outside of working at Yelp for the last six years and leading technology teams for about 10 years. I am now a flock keeper and the neighborhood egg lady. Uh So now that you know a little bit about me, uh I'll get talking to you about my journey into leadership. So what we'll cover today is um leadership from an individual contributor to manager and how that can take shape and change over time, how to recognize the opportunity and harness that momentum and advocate for yourself. And then once your manager in that leadership role, what's next? Ok.

So leadership, I love this quote about leadership from Oprah Winfrey. Leadership is about empathy. It's about having the ability to relate to and connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives. And this really embodies a lot of the important aspects of leadership.

And early in my career, I found that I was responsible for managing projects. So management comes in all kinds of shapes and sizes, right? So managing projects meant that I was accountable for delivery of systems or functionality and ultimately meant that I had to ensure that others were delivering functionality as well. So we all had a role to play in the project as a business systems analyst or a Scrum master.

I was managing the, the deliverables and the business expectations without really being responsible for growth or performance of other project team members. And I call that managing, without managing or managing without authority. So that really was my first experience in managing and I was really building that foundation of leadership um as part of the process. And I realized that the part of the job that I was really enjoying was motivating other team members and partnering with them to deliver great systems and results. So as I gained more experience and was delivering more complex and impactful projects, I was able to hone in on my communication skills, have more interactions with senior leadership and um really start to drive uh some, some results there. Sorry, I was plugging in and um I was really also open to new challenges, places, um experiences. And so I think it's one of those things that's helpful along the way as well. So I remember one time there was a project that I heard my manager talking about that I knew and he knew was going to be really challenging and nobody really wanted to do it. And so I raised my hand and I said, well, I'll do it.

I was open for challenges. And, um you know, I wanted to try something new, something that maybe took me out of my comfort zone, something maybe I hadn't done before. And, um you know, trying to recognize these opportunities that come to you when you see them um can also help kind of develop your, your leadership skills there. So I took the challenge head on all the while building up my leadership skills by managing contractors for that project, there was a budget associate that I had to manage and business expectations. So all of these things you're doing right now are the foundations of leadership, you are already leading. So once um you continue through that new experiences and you're growing in your career, um you're recognizing some opportunities that come up. You know, next thing is maybe finding your voice and owning your growth and talking up your impact that you're having along the way and this will set you up nicely for, um some leadership opportunities. So I like this quote too. You get in life. What you have the courage to ask for another Oprah Winfrey coach. She's one of my favorite people. Um, but, you know, raising your hand, continuing on your path, having those conversations with your leadership to get you going into the next phase of your career.

So some things that come into play around, recognizing opportunities can be timing, um being prepared for opportunity when it comes to you, being prepared, when you see an opportunity, whether that's within yourself or your team or you see a gap somewhere and you think about, you know, starting to kind of be prepared around presenting yourself for an opportunity.

So I tell this story. Um I've told this story a few times, uh in this kind of capacity. Uh I've started a new job at my, uh the company that I was at before Yelp and my youngest child, uh, was just about a year old. He'd been sick for a week and I'd had to miss, um, some work and things were pretty stressful and I'd um gotten to the elevator after a project meeting, um that week and, uh that I had to present the status of my project and I had early success with projects and was making an impact.

And my manager um asked me in the elevator. Have you ever considered being a manager? And up until that point in my career, I'd really never said no to an opportunity, which now I know was kind of what that was in that moment and it caught me off guard and given where I was at in that moment, I didn't think I could do it. Uh But I'm here to tell you you can. And the point that I'll make here is that for some reason, I thought that being a manager meant I had to give more of myself like do the same job and then more and that's just not the case like the job changes. And um I think the other thing, um I didn't really have a lot of role models, you know, at that point, or mentors in technology who were moms and I couldn't picture myself doing this because I hadn't seen anyone else do it either. So having mentors and allies and people you can talk to in these situations where you can say, hey, what is kind of this leadership or management role really about is really gonna help you um along the way.

And so I really didn't think about this elevator situation for a while. And later, when I felt my growth slowing and I thought about that elevator conversation and I was kind of on rinse and repeat in the job. And I thought, well, you know, maybe that is the next step that I, that I want to take in my career. And I started kind of talking to people about, you know, whether or not this was the right kind of step for me to take. And it really kind of helped nudge me into moving my career in that direction. So that's where I started to really think about finding my voice, right? And being ready to tell my story and celebrate um the achievements I've made, whether they're big or small. And so I think a lot about my mom. So my mom is 5 ft one and fiery. She's done, do whatever she's had to do for our family. I remember her stocking a cheese wall when I was little stretching up high, hauling heavy cases of cheese while I was sitting in the grocery cart watching her do her job. And she would say to me my whole life, Tracy, you need to speak up, speak up Tracy. And what I know she meant was be your own advocate. So I think this is the point uh today where women are starting to come to the forefront and know that they need to be in rooms where decisions are being made.

And everyone actually really needs to advocate for their self at some point and get more comfortable with telling your story and being aware or beware of imposter syndrome. And don't let that voice inside you say I can't do that. Like I think I did in that moment on the elevator uh in that conversation. So recognizing when, you know, things are changing in your career, putting aside kind of that voice, that's maybe saying, I don't know if I'm prepared to do that. And, and again, starting to um build your allies and mentors at Yelp, we have a mentorship program in our awesome women and engineering employee research group. And you know, sign up for those programs if you have them at your company or find other ways, networking opportunities where you can do speed mentoring or things like that where you can meet women and other um organizations that maybe are in leadership and you can learn from them and then um sorry about that analysis and then what's next.

So, you know, I then took my, my um opportunity to talk to my manager. And the next one on one I mentioned where um I had a desire to be a leader and go into management. I wrote out my contributions that things I had already been doing and managing. I came up with a plan for how I could build a team around functionality, alignment and mentioned my desire to move into, to leadership and helped I had him kind of help me also build this plan so we can work on that together and um told, you know, stories about my impact and why I thought I was ready now, this didn't happen overnight.

But, um you know, once I started leading a team, then you're in this manager position and it's OK. So you're a manager now and, and uh what are we doing? Right. So, leading with authenticity, this is a big part of being a leader, um bringing your authentic self to work and um you know, having empathy, you're starting to delegate and you're watching others succeed. So delegation is a big part of that. Another thing my dad used to say to us was uh if you want something done, do it, right, do it yourself. And that's not really what management is about. You wanna be delegating, celebrating wins of your team and you're starting to mentor and give back to other people who are ready to build, you know, build themselves into leadership as well and you also can continue your own growth. So um have your growth plan at the forefront for yourself and be comfortable with negotiating, find response opportunities to practice negotiating whether it's for your own conversation, resources, for your team, a project uh that you want your team to take or even buying a car.

I decided um the last time we need to buy a new car that I was going to negotiate the whole thing, all the terms myself without any support from my spouse, because I wanted to know that I could do this this myself. So um and don't be afraid to learn from others, you know, um reach out to other leaders in your organization, be humble sometimes around um things that you think, you know, around leadership and continue to learn from others. And um you know, you can also learn, sometimes I think about, I learn a lot from my own kids. Just boy. Are they good, good negotiators? Right? So there's lots of ways that you can con continue to grow. Also formalize a succession plan when you're a leader, because you can move into um more scope and more leadership um capabilities as your team is also building um their skills with you. So, having a good succession plan is actually a great way to continue to grow and then your job kind of is changing where you're influencing people uh and decision being made above you and also across and you're working with peers at your level and you're continuing to grow.

So that um for me, I hope what you guys have learned in 20 minutes goes by pretty fast is, you know, recognizing um what when you're ready for leadership, key factors associated with that, how to address your readiness with your leadership and continuing the conversation for growth?

Thanks so much, Tracy. So much good information about being a leader for us here. Can you hear me? Yeah. Oh OK, perfect. Um We had some trickiness earlier today. Um Tracy, I think that there's so much in there that we need to kind of pull out. Right? Do you think? And I know like you were saying, 20 minutes goes so fast. Is there one kind of call out? Like we knowing we have one more minute here together. Is there an extra call that you'd love to just use one minute to share or the most important kind of point that you want to call out for us?

Yeah, I really think it's about, um, like seeing the opportunity, recognizing if there, if it's happening, if it comes to you, grab onto it, say yes. And don't kind of let any fears you have around it, stop you from taking that opportunity. And I really want to see more women at the table with me. I'm still in rooms with many lots of men and, you know, I just hope that people find the courage and know that, that you can do

this. Absolutely. What, that's a perfect message for us to end on today, Tracy at the end of a big, big day. Uh I'm not sure how much time you've spent in different time zones here with us. We've had speakers on here starting at what would be probably three in the morning, your time all the way through to now in the evening, if we, depending which coast you're on, if you're on Pacific Coast, we're getting into the evening. So we've had so much fun. Thank you for closing us out today. Tracy. Good to see you.

Thank you. Hi, everyone.