18. Lift As You Climb - A Talk With Ryan Tabrah (Intel Corporation) & Donna Donnelly (NXP Semiconductors)

Listen and get insights about Lift As You Climb in this talk with Ryan Tabrah (Vice President & General Manager of Xeon and Compute Products at Intel Corporation), and Donna Donnelly (OEM Account Director at NXP Semiconductors).

In this episode we talk about Lift As You Climb - a philosophy that emphasizes helping others as you achieve success in your career: 

• 1:06 - Meaning Lift As You Climb & How it Helps Your Career 
• 15:29 - Your Career & Lifting Others Up While You Climb 
• 18:34 - Career Question 1: Who's a Woman You Admire & Why? 
• 21:39 - Career Question 2: What is the Best Career Advice You Have Ever Received? 
• 24:47 - Career Question 3: Which 3 Ingredients Go into Your Career Recipe?

Guest Info

• LinkedIn: Ryan Tabrah
• LinkedIn: Donna Donnelly

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:06 Meaning Lift As You Climb & How it Helps Your Career
• 15:29 Your Career & Lifting Others Up While You Climb
• 18:34 Career Question 1: Who's a Woman You Admire & Why?
• 21:39 Career Question 2: What is the Best Career Advice You Have Ever Received?
• 24:47 Career Question 3: Which 3 Ingredients Go into Your Career Recipe?
• 27:52 Outro

Transcript

[00:00:00] Intro: 
Hello! Welcome to the Women in Big Data Podcast, where we talk about big data analytics and career topics. We do this to connect, engage, grow, and champion the success of women in big data. 

"My advice to any young individual out there is - I also got this advice - not to think of your career as this slope that you can draw on a board or like some kind of ladder that goes up. And if you think of your career as a circular thing, sometimes you have to take a step back. Sometimes, you have to take some wild chances that will set you back. But it will spring you forward to other places. It's way more fun.." - Ryan Tabrah 

[00:00:44] Desiree:
In this episode, we talk with Ryan Tabrah and Donna Donnelly about 'Lift As You Climb.' Ryan is the Vice President and General Manager of Xeon and Compute Products at Intel Corporation. Donna is an OEM Account Director at NXP Semiconductors. 

Let's start.

[00:01:05] Desiree:
Ryan, Donna, welcome to the Women in Big Data Podcast. Today, we are going to talk about Lift As You Climb. So Ryan, let me start with you. What does Lift As You Climb mean to you and how has it helped you in your career so far? 

[00:01:18] Ryan:
I think it's all about making sure that as you build out your career, you focus on your team, you focus on your peers, you focus on people you work with, you focus on your customers, you focus on making them have better outcomes, and you actually learn more about yourself. You learn and receive even more back. And, it allows you to climb to your goals of whatever you have in your career, your job, and what you're trying to accomplish in your own life. 

[00:01:49] Desiree:
And Donna, do you want to add something to what Ryan is saying? 

[00:01:54] Donna:
Sure. I agree with Ryan. And it is about bringing others on your journey.

I use the analogy of climbing up a mountain in a battle, and your colleagues, they get hit, and you need to bring them up with you. Some people go to the top of the mountain, but for myself, others in my career, help me lift me up, and bring me to that top. 

And I'll use an example with respect to my activities in college and having opportunities where my coach provided me an opportunity after being cut from the team to have a second chance. And it changed my whole academic career. It changed my business career, everything. And I look to that as an example to bring me and bring others with me on that climb. 

[00:02:46] Desiree:
So Ryan, how have you been helped within your career by others? 

[00:02:50] Ryan:
If you look at anyone's career in any industry, there's like these little pivot points where you have like: your first manager; you have the first person that hires you away from the first company that you started out from college; an individual that fundamentally changes the way that you look at the world and helps you grow - not only at work, but also as a human being.

Donna and I had a unique relationship where she was actually my manager's peer, but we worked very closely together and we got to know each other very well. Then we were peers for a while, then eventually she reported to me, but she was still my boss, like I was supposedly her boss. And it was just a unique relationship to go through that.

What didn't change was our mutual respect for each other and pushing each other to grow regardless of the role of position we were in. And that changed me and it changes how I work today. And I think it fundamentally changed the way that I view my relationships with anyone that I work with. Whether they report to me today or I report to them.

[00:03:50] Desiree:
So, was that at the beginning of your career? Because you also said lift as you climb. It's not only about your professional career, but it also impacts your personal life. 

[00:04:00] Ryan:
Probably midway through my career, I shifted to my current company, Intel. I was like in this new engineering role, a new environment, a new culture. And I'd come from the bro culture of Silicon Valley, where you didn't really think about your actions or your culture. And how they might actually impact your colleagues and their ability to bring their best selves to work. And Intel is one of the first companies where they allowed people to talk about it.

One of my heroes, Amber Huffman, who at the time was a principal engineer. It was like my second week at Intel. And I was at my first all company meeting, a couple of hundred people in a big auditorium. They asked if anyone had any questions after they talked about our financial results. And instead of talking about the results or worrying about where our company was going - or our group was going or some other things - this woman, you know, raised herself up in front of hundreds of men and called out our leader asking: hey, when are we going to look at why? There's such a small amount of women in the pipeline of our technical leadership at Intel. And at the time, I remember horribly that I thought to myself: oh my gosh, what company did I just join? Like this is what they're focused on. I got to know her more as I worked within the group, and then I realized she was one of the best engineers on the planet, just results driven. But she also wanted to leave the planet a better place. She wanted to leave the culture a better place. And that's why she had the bravery to do that. And of course, I'm sure that I wasn't the only one in the room judging her. I now list her as one of those people that, like, kinda pivoted my understanding of what we needed to do.

And it wasn't until later that I had another very strong leader push me to be more active as a male leader: how I could help people like Amber have a voice so that our daughters - the young women that are in college today - when they join a company like Intel or a small startup or whatever, they have the tools, they have the leaders in place that can make sure that they can bring their technical achievements and make the world a better place. And don't just let someone be kind of like squished down or left down just because of their differences.

My other thing to everyone is that as a leader, I think you have to just be cognizant that everyone's watching your actions and what you do versus just what you say. And that is actually what creates change in the right direction. 

[00:06:35] Desiree:
Well, thanks for sharing. And Donna, what do you remember from working with Ryan? 

[00:06:39] Donna:
I'm very humbled, Ryan, first of all, because - and you described it exactly - I remember joining Intel, and I've worked in automotive electronics, having a career before Intel. And Ryan and I were deeply engaged in a lot of tactical activity. We're chasing parts. But we developed a bond, and we were both worked hard. And I liked his enthusiasm and passion for just doing the right thing. I always say: when you leave a company, you really don't remember exactly what you did, but you remember certain people. And Ryan is one of them. 

And as we worked together, we had a common goal: to be successful in the business. I stayed in pretty much the same role. Ryan went from the product area, and then your ambition was to move up. We had different ambitions, but I applauded you. 

I was tough with Ryan. He knows that. I would critique him because I was more seasoned. But what I loved about Ryan was you listened with the intent to understand and were coachable. Cause I always say: you can have a teacher and a student, both have to be willing participants. So with Ryan's ambition and the way the business was moving, there was an opportunity to him for move up.

And so, I remember having a conversation with you, Ryan saying: I will support your ambition. And one of the things I'll never forget is you doing a forum where you spoke and you had to tell a global community of an update. And after that, you came to me and you said: how did I do? You sought feedback and we sat down and I was able to be totally honest, tell you what you did and you reacted.

And I'm very proud of you because you also went into the Intel diversity women's day. It was mostly women, but there were men, they were nervous, and they said: Donna, I'm not sure what to say. Like they didn't know what was proper. What could they say? And I remember that light bulb went on my head and I said: oh. Then, I realized their hesitancy to participate. Because I work in an automotive electronics field where I walk in a meeting and there's 50 men, and Donna. And they know my name and I, you know, I got to take notes. It was a reverse for them to walk into a room with a hundred women and one of them. You know, my career, I'm used to it and I've learned throughout with good coaching, good mentoring, how to act, how to have a voice, how to be firm, how to be bold.

But Ryan, that is a day I remember both for what my male colleagues learned and what it meant to my female colleagues. And I think toward lifting the climb, that's about what we do when we see opportunities to embrace. It makes your business stronger, better and more successful. Because to your point about Amber, we all have preconceived ideas of what they are, who they are.

But as you go through the journey, and you get to know each person personally, you always match up with people that have that same drive. I walk in a room, there's 50 people, why do I connect with one or two of them? What drew me to them? And I think that's from that inner part of us. We see that through people's eyes and their questions and talk. Ryan, you're one of them. 

And I think when we find people, that have that same value system and the same passion. We seek each other out, and we lift them. And it is a beautiful thing when you see the results of doing the right thing, having the right passion. It is satisfaction from the inside out. I don't need validation from my company to tell me who I am because I wear the same hat every day. I need validation from the people that I meet and the people that I respect. 

For me, I've had mentors along the way. You know, give me advice because as you climb up and you have a broader scope, if you think you can do the work of a hundred people that report to you, you will fail. So what you do is you work for them. You eliminate roadblocks to make them successful. That's one of the main things I learned by someone in my career. And then he also said: tell people what they need to know, not what you know. Because we all want to start with once upon a time and give every detail. And I respect those that have a large responsibility. They are time-bound. They just need to know what they need to know. 

So, a couple things to that point. Be prepared, focused, but start with the end and work backwards if you get questions. It is very effective. And thank you, Ryan. I'm happy that we're here today, and I'm happy that we still talk continuously because you are a joy to work with.

[00:11:32] Ryan:
To give people context, I think Donna and I had a 30 minute meeting every morning for like three months, solving some pretty critical business issues. And we had no other help. And you get to learn everything about a person in that moment. I didn't know everything about Donna's background. I didn't know her history at the time and what a change agent she had been in the automotive industry.

But what I did know is she wasn't going to quit. I wasn't going to quit. And I also knew that she had the same passion that I did to make the business successful, the product successful, to make sure that our team was successful. And that's all that mattered. 

[00:12:10] Donna:
As I told Ryan: loud is love. And that's what I would tell him. If I'm loud with you, it means I love you, man. If I'm silent, it means I don't have time for you. 

[00:12:21] Ryan:
We all knew when Donna really raised her voice that you needed to stop and listen. I really think that the love that we had in the work that we did together was that passion that: hey, we spend time with a bunch of other people outside of our families, and we're doing it because we all want to just really win. And it is so fun to create that atmosphere. 

[00:12:44] Desiree:
Okay. And Donna, for the listeners who are at the beginning of their career and who don't know so much yet about lift as you climb, what do you recommend them to do? 

[00:12:55] Donna:
I tell the youngsters: reach out, ask questions. And what I love about that energy and that passion of younger people is those that do reach out, I know:
A. they want to learn
B. they're not afraid to say: I don't know this, can you help me?

Even today, sometimes I say: ah, I didn't really nail that; I could have done this better. And that's another thing: seek feedback when you're young. It's okay not to be perfect. So, you need to get the feedback and not take it personally. I used to tell my kids, sometimes life isn't fair, sometimes the workplace isn't fair. It's not about that. It's how you respond to that.

[00:13:34] Desiree:
Okay. And Ryan, do you have kids? 

[00:13:36] Ryan:
I do. Yes. A boy and a girl. I think that as a society, especially in the Western culture, we don't really prepare men who have not experienced their partner go through childbirth or have a child to understand to be able to support women that are having babies. It made me a better leader: understanding what a woman goes through as they have a child, what a family dynamic can go through.

And just even in my career lifetime, I'm so jealous that now it's acceptable in society for men to take time off to have bonding with their children. When I had both my kids with my wife, I think the first kid I took one week off and the second kid, I think I might've had two weeks off. And if I look back, that's one of my regrets because your kids grow up way too fast. One's 20 now, one's 16. And at the time, I felt so much pressure to provide for my family that I made some decisions to travel a lot and to try to go up in the business. But at looking back, I might've done it a different way so that I was spending more time with my children. 

But also having a daughter at the time, seeing how people treated my daughter way differently than my son. And we spend a lot of time as a family, making sure that my daughter has the same opportunities that my son has had, but it takes a lot more effort. And we're fortunate enough that we both cn do that. 

I married a very strong woman. I had a very strong mom. I have a history of strong women in my family. So to me: why couldn't you be a doctor? I want to make sure that when my daughter goes to college and looks at whatever evocation that she wants, that she's seen for what she can do and her attributes versus the color of her skin, her gender. And that she's also has the character skills to overcome those things. 

[00:15:25] Desiree:
That's really great that you are helping your children like that.

And Donna, anything else you would like to add as a step that people can do who are listening right now to progress in their career or to also lift somebody else up? 

[00:15:39] Donna:
You know, what I tell my kids, and they do that, I said: experience life, experience life in any shape or form. So, take trips, read books, look in the community, see if there's opportunities.

I even volunteered for one of the local gardens. I garden in my backyard, but I just did that. And I come from a background, you know, we love to cook. I've taught my children that. And I see them teaching their friends that. So, for the passions you hav: seek out and have a bit more of a balance. So that's what I would tell young people.

We work to live. I don't live to work. And that's the way I've treated life. Find your rhythm, find your style, and just work hard and play hard. 

[00:16:21] Desiree:
And by having all these experiences, you also learn a lot of skills, of course. 

[00:16:26] Donna:
Absolutely. And I listened to actually a professional from the Boston Red Sox. He recommended having your child play multiple sports because it develops different muscles. I think it's both mental muscles and physical muscles and it creates an overall balance of strength - not just a singular strength. You can use that analogy to life: don't just work a hundred hours a week because the experiences you are missing from doing that are too far greater, and you'll probably burn out. So that's what I would recommend. 

[00:17:03] Desiree:
Well, I absolutely agree with you. What do you think Ryan? 

[00:17:06] Ryan:
You can see why I channel my inner Donna sometimes. My advice to any young individual out there is - I also got this advice - not to think of your career as this slope that you can draw on a board or like some kind of ladder that goes up. If you think of your career as a circular thing, sometimes you have to take a step back, sometimes you have to take some wild chances that will set you back, but it will spring you forward to other places. It's way more fun. 

And I think that at the early part of my career, I got really frustrated. I set off in this beautiful time when it was dot.com, and I was making a huge impact right out of school. And then, I kind of petered out and I realized it was because I thought that like the vector of my growth would be the same throughout my entire career. And you focus on that and it becomes kind of an echo chamber. And finally, when I got told by someone: hey, stop thinking of it like this straight-up path. You're going to have to take some chances, and they were right. So as you hit kind of a glass ceiling or you're not as passionate anymore, or you're just tired, then make a change, make a change - and it's okay. And it's going to be hard. But every change that you do, to Donna's point, you've learned more things and you apply those things again. As you move forward, you channel your inner Donna and go kick some butt and take names, and you're successful in different ways, in different avenues. 

[00:18:27] Desiree:
Okay. And now we have talked about Lift As You Climb. I also have three career questions for each of you. 

So, let me start with you, Ryan. You were already talking about your mom and that you admire her. If we look at Women in Big Data, who's the womean you admire and why? 

[00:18:44] Ryan:
I already named Amber Huffman. There's actually too many. I don't think of them as women. I just think of them as leaders, and they happen to be women. I can tell you the leaders that are out there that are successful are because they are amazing people. If you look at people like Sandra Rivera, I had the opportunity to work for her. She had a great career at Intel. She's now a CEO of a company that spun out of Intel. I know why people are flocking to go work with her, her business is going to be successful, because she has the skills to continue doing awesome things. 

[00:19:17] Desiree:
And Donna, who's a woman you admire and why? 

[00:19:20] Donna:
I mean, from a business lens, there's many women I admire. 

A couple come to mind. One that I had worked with is Lisa Su. That is a CEO of AMD. She worked at Freeskill when I worked at Freeskill years ago. I just admired her, the intellect and her ability for innovation at the time, it was just evident. And her communication style, her ability to see a bigger picture. I just remember that it made an impression, and now look at her today.

And another woman is Mary Barra, who's the CEO of General Motors. First woman CEO of any automotive company. And being an automotive, I appreciate that she's around my age. She has two kids, so she did it all the way. She's from Michigan, which is I was born and raised. I've been to local events where she has spoken, and I think she has a combination from a leader that I admire, which is: communication. She has empathy, integrity, and just results driven, and I like her. 

I always say: I'm a tough voice but I am empathetic. So while I can challenge people, I will always bring it back before I leave the table with the lesson learned of why the toughness, what is the bigger picture? Why are we pushing harder? Why is my voice getting louder? I'm a very patient person, but there are certain deliverables for your customers. And I can listen for 45 minutes with a phone call of engineers and listen to them talk, and then that's when I get loud. I said: I've been in this call listening for 45 minutes and I do not know what your objective of this call is. And that's the toughness because I have to sit in front of my customer with this answer, and we need it. 

And I've told Ryan this: when you're a leader, like a Mary or a Lisa, when you're on the podium, and it's successful, it's 'we'. If you think you can lead the team by yourself, you will fail. It's all about 'we'. Leadership sets a culture. The team does the execution. When there's failures, I use the word 'I', because: I might have done something wrong, I could have done something better. And I see Mary and Lisa take that responsibility. You have the authority, but with that comes responsibility. 

[00:21:39] Desiree:
And Ryan, what is the best career advice you have ever received?

[00:21:44] Ryan:
I was at a point in my career where my gregarious nature of just wanting to have fun with people was getting in the way of me getting higher up in the ladder. I liked getting to know people, I liked playing foosball, I liked playing ping pong. And that's how I actually got a lot of stuff done. It was kind of the back channel breaking through kind of organizational barriers.

One day, I got frustrated that I wasn't promoted. And I found out that the CEO had been walking into the break area and always saw me playing foosball and ping pong and just thought: I was a total slacker the whole time. And so, I went to my boss and I was like: I don't understand, I've delivered all these results, I've done everything that you've asked and more. He said: hey, the CEO killed it because he thinks you're a slacker. And it was a wake up for me. And they were like, by the way, Ryan, don't change. You have a secret thing of getting stuff done - but you also have to be super hyper-aware of what the people above you, what their issues are.

And you know, I had to be aware that when the CEO walks in the room, that they're probably stressed out, not seeing enough overall results in the engineers. Then they see a bunch of slackers playing foosball. And they're working their tail off, and it's got to be not fun. So, I took that opportunity that as I went to a new company. I was still going to have fun, but I was going to do it in a way that my leaders weren't always visible to. I would still have fun, but they didn't always have to see the fun side. You do have to have different personas, but I didn't change. I modified myself to fit into the culture of where I wanted to go. But I still bring my genuine true self to the table and it's still my superpower to work hard and play hard. So, that was some really great career advice I got one day, and it totally changed my path. 

[00:23:24] Desiree:
Yeah. Sometimes, our biggest failures are our greatest gifts. And Donna, what career advice for you was very important? 

[00:23:33] Donna:
I came from a manufacturing background, distribution background, and I started in an environment that, you know, I'll say, the management was very tough and very loud. You know, they're just pounding fists on the table. And I thought that was the way to get things done or for a coaching style. And one of my managers said: you know Donna, you're very good at what you do; you have the ability to be detail-oriented yet also see a bigger picture quickly. But she said to me: you need to take - and I'll use this phrase - the plant mentality out of your persona when you come into an office. And it really resonated with me. Because you have to know your situation and your environment, which is what she was saying, to be effective. 

And she said: in a plant, the loud, the fist pounding, that's effective, that's the style. But when you're in corporate and you're in the glass house, we call it, in order to drive business, you need to be calm. So, that was really good advice. 

[00:24:46] Desiree:
Indeed. And that brings me to the last question. Ryan, if we want to give the listeners a kind of career recipe, which three ingredients should go into that?

[00:24:56] Ryan:
Work hard, play hard is a key ingredient. That's just bringing passion to everything you do. Continuous learning. You have to push yourself to not get in a rut, especially as technology is changing so quickly. And also have confidence without attitude. It's a phrase from the Berkeley Business School. It's just that you need to set yourself up with the data and what you know, do the homework, do the practice.

And have confidence, but make sure that people don't take it in a way that puts them off when you deliver the message, when you deliver the data. Always remember that communication is a two-way street. So, those three things. 

[00:25:33] Desiree:
That's really nice. And Donna, you like cooking. So, which three ingredients go in your career recipe?

[00:25:40] Donna:
For my recipe is 'team first'. A quote from one of my role models in sports, she said: being part of a team is a privilege, a responsibility, and an honor. And I think that's very powerful, and I think about that every day - team first. 

The second thing is nothing replaces hard work. I grew up in my family, a large number of kids. My father passed away when I was little. We had to work hard for everything we got. I paid for my own college. I mean, I worked hard and I loved to work. You know, you can't be lazy. When I played athletic sports, I wore the number two. And I wore that number on purpose because it gave me motivation. I said to myself: there's always going to be somebody better than you in every phase of your life. And I wore that on purpose to remind me that the best way I could try to be number one was to work harder than anybody else. 

And number three, while you stay focused, we got to think of bigger picture. Whether it's any part of your career, in work, at home: you got to stay focused on what you're doing, but don't lose sight of the bigger picture, because the bigger picture is what really matters.

I always say: you can't see the forest if you're in the trees. So you need to do all the work and be prepared, but in the end, what is the objective of what we're doing? And if someone says: I don't know. Then I said: well, find out before I dig any deeper because data is data. It's not information until I formulate it into something. So, find the bigger picture. Those three things is my recipe. And for me, it's worked out well. 

[00:27:19] Desiree:
Thanks for that, and also Ryan, because I think it will help the audience. 

And before I close the podcast, Ryan, is there anything you want to tell us that I didn't ask you yet? 

[00:27:30] Ryan:
Just remember to channel your inner Donna, and then you'll be successful. Yeah, just channel your inner Donna. You're totally fine. 

[00:27:35] Donna:
Ryan. Thank you. I'm humbled. And thank you both. 

[00:27:39] Desiree:
Well Donna, Ryan, thank you for being on the Women in Big Data Podcast. And for sharing your story and a lot of insight. So, thank you very much.

[00:27:47] Donna:
Thank you.

[00:27:28] Ryan:
Thanks for the invite.

[00:27:52] Outro:
Thanks for listening to the Women in Big Data Podcast. For more information and episodes, subscribe to the show or contact us via datawomen@protonmail.com

Tune in next time!