How Two Cisco Girls Leaned In and Supercharged Their Careers

Worldwide Girls in Engineering Day supplies us with the chance to acknowledge the work and achievements of girls engineers all the world over. In the present day I have fun all of our Cisco Girls in Engineering by spotlighting two extraordinary ladies, Priya Aiyer and Christelle Mombo-Zigah. Each share their profession journeys, together with their expertise collaborating in Cisco’s Exemplar Numerous Feminine Mentee program which has been sponsored by Cisco SVP and Normal Supervisor Alistair Wildman and can proceed beneath Cisco SVP Buyer Expertise (CX) Americas Harry Caldwell.

Priya Aiyer: A ardour for course of enchancment

Priya Aiyer is a System Engineering Chief who has been a know-how chief for greater than 15 years at Cisco. She started her profession in India as a individuals chief and transitioned to customer-facing buyer expertise roles in the USA. With a give attention to know-how transformation and providers, she supported prospects throughout service suppliers, enterprises, and the general public sector. Later, she moved to Gross sales management. Cisco is an organization that gives many careers, and Priya has skilled these in her journey.

“I knew I used to be excited by a customer-facing function, however on the enterprise unit, I used to be restricted in what I might do,” says Priya.

Priya all the time knew that she needed to land a customer-facing function. Her ardour for course of enchancment, for addressing gaps and for offering end-to-end options was acknowledged with a supply excellence award. She is an lively member of Girls of Cisco and at the moment, she leads the Chicago chapter of the Girls in Science and Engineering. The inclusive group is concentrated on making a optimistic influence within the lives of girls and women in STEM fields inside and out of doors of Cisco. She is captivated with supporting ladies early of their careers and connecting them to alternatives.

Participation in Cisco’s SVP and Normal Supervisor Alistair Wildman’s mentee program vastly expanded Priya’s community. As part of the mentee program, Priya and different mentees have been launched to every of the senior management group members and he or she’s grateful to have had the chance to listen to from senior executives about their management journeys.

“Once I take into consideration mentoring and sponsoring, it’s a journey,” says Priya.

“Every of the mentors gave me a distinct perspective and shared helpful nuggets that helped me broaden my very own perspective and helped me in my management journey,” she added.

Christelle Mombo-Zigah: A life-long learner

Christelle is a Buyer Success Americas Regional Chief who has labored at Cisco for 9 of her 15 years as an expert. Christelle started her profession in France the place she was born and raised and labored in a number of industries, together with luxurious items, shopper items, and banking. She began her journey in know-how at Cisco Meraki for 4 years earlier than shifting to Gartner. She then returned to Cisco to affix M&A integration. She later discovered her present house in Buyer Expertise (CX). Her first function in CX was as a Success Program Supervisor in GES West earlier than being promoted to the function of Buyer Success Americas Regional Chief.

With greater than 15 years of expertise in gross sales, enterprise improvement, M&A integration, and buyer expertise in varied industries, Christelle has taken benefit of quite a few skilled improvement alternatives at Cisco and past.

Having all the time seen her profession as that of a basic supervisor, Christelle knew that what she wanted was to be taught from totally different enterprise capabilities, improve her management abilities, her visibility, and publicity. She participated in Cisco’s Subsequent Era Chief program designed to assist underrepresented minorities develop management abilities. She additionally participated within the firm’s Soar Girls’s Management Program, the Government Shadow Program yearly and within the Multiplier Impact, which leverages sponsorship to foster range and inclusion and speed up the pipeline of numerous expertise throughout the tech business.

She was additionally an lively member of the Related Black Skilled (CBP) worker useful resource group (ERO), the place she served as a co-lead of the San Jose chapter. She then joined the Girls of Cisco San Jose Chapter management group together with the Accountable AI committee to align her work, values, and objective. Via the CBP, she has mentored 10 to 12 early-in-career professionals yearly to provide again, elevate as she climbs, and develop her individuals’s management abilities. Serving as a mentor additionally provides her a chance to grasp what her personal mentors count on from her.

A lifelong learner, Christelle accomplished Stanford’s LEAD program, an government training program by way of the Stanford Graduate Faculty of Enterprise (Stanford GSB) the place she now serves as a course facilitator. This system proved to be a transformative expertise for her. She subsequently launched improvements at Cisco to unravel issues impacting buyer expertise by way of provide chain and cross-functional alignment and was quickly promoted.

Need to supercharge your profession? Use Priya and Christelle’s 5 key takeaways

1. Have a transparent imaginative and prescient.

“Be intentional. Know your passions. Make your plan. Have a imaginative and prescient to your future and imagine in it and the universe will conspire to make it occur,” advises Priya. “This program has helped me construct my mentorship tree. I’ve mentors and sponsors throughout totally different verticals in addition to in industrial because of this.”

2. Be daring and brave.

When Cisco’s SVP of International Buyer Expertise Alistair Wildman joined the Americas from the EMEA area in 2018, Christelle reached out as a fellow European residing in the USA, to welcome him to Cisco’s Americas group and to let him know that she loved his All-Palms assembly. She additionally made positive to share her work in Buyer Success International Enterprise Gross sales West by cross-functionally aligning buyer success, gross sales, and renewals. She additionally shared her two improvements. Later, she was nominated to take part in Alistair’s Exemplar Numerous Feminine Mentee program in addition to Gross sales Champions 2022.

3. With mentors or sponsors, attempt to make the dialog as useful for them as it’s for you.

“When you have a mentor, all the time summarize what you be taught and ship a thanks be aware,” says Priya.

“At all times observe up and share your learnings. Share your perspective and your takeaways from these conversations. Probably the most important is to be intentional along with your relationship along with your mentors and sponsors. It will go a great distance.”

4. Deal with sponsors, not simply mentors.

“Most of my sponsors have come by way of the Government Shadow program by which I shadowed and added worth,” mentioned Christelle. “Certainly one of our executives was new. I used to be working in M&A so I might share insights on Cisco tradition, and our acquisitions integrations working mannequin [with him].”

Completely different from mentors, sponsors, “will use [their] personal capital to advocate in your behalf so you must be in a trusting relationship in order that they are going to symbolize you effectively and advocate for you while you’re not [in the room],” she continued.

“In any case, you’ll be able to enhance your skillsets by way of on-line studying by way of Coursera [and] LinkedIn Studying however tapping into the connection you develop with a sponsor two ranges above your individual is a useful asset with an amazing influence in your profession.

5. Make your work seen and get as concerned as doable with a wide range of packages.

“[There are] many elements you’ll be able to’t management however having a sponsor in a task advocating for you, saying try to be thought-about is most essential,” says Christelle.

“One important program I participated in was the Government Shadow program. It helped me discover my mentors who then grew to become my sponsors. Get as concerned as doable with these packages. Make the most of these to be taught, develop your abilities, and construct relationships at Cisco.”