Women in Tech

The Women in Tech event hosted by the Puget Sound Business Journal's TechFlash on May 12 offered a lively discussion with Dawn Lepore, CEO of drugstore.com. While Ms. Lepore and several audience members noted and puzzled over the continued dearth of women and female leaders in the tech field, there were signs of hope: over half the women in the room raised their hands when asked if they had mentored a young woman in the field. Ms. Lepore's advice to other women tech leaders is to build a network of peers to support each other and to support STEM programs for a long-term solution.

Here a some of the key take-aways from the evening for me. Check out the Twitter feed at #techflash or the post on TechFlash for more.

• The CEO shouldn't be the smartest person in the room. The CEO's role is to create the conditions for others to shine.
• The more comfortable you are being yourself, the better leader you are.
• Know your strengths. Future CEO Dawn Lepore took her first big leap to CIO thanks to her skill dealing with ambiguity and taking risks.
• Future leaders can learn from hearing how people think, what they worry about, what questions they're asking.
• Mentors are all around you. Ask folks how they do it, keep learning.
• Be a good mentee when you have a mentor - do your homework and use the time well.
• Dare to reach. If you don't allow yourself to believe you can do something, you won't do it.

- Peg Giffels