Jenn Whittingham

I would say it's my parents and my kids. They have always encouraged me when things got rough. My kids were always my why - I was a single mom, raising them pretty much on my own, and I wanted them to be strong individuals. I wanted to provide for them without them lacking anything, but I also didn't want them to have everything. I wanted them to be strong women as well, so I knew I had to be that for them and show them that versus just talking about it. That was my why - my family always, my parents always encouraging me, being proud of me regardless of how hard it was or the little roller coasters I was going on. And then my kids being that why behind what I was doing.

I think it's to just remain calm, and when people are not being kind or acting in a bad way, to really not take it personally. Look at it factually and understand that they're probably reacting out of something different, whether it is insecurity or maybe they're having a bad day. Just keep your cool, ask questions versus getting upset, and kind of turn the conversation around.

It's tough out there, but you can do it. I was one of two women in the entire engineering school when I graduated, and at that time, we had a lot of help and everybody was very nice. I've been in the industry for 25 plus years, and I think you just don't give up. Don't let anyone tell you you can't do it. If you're being ignored or not heard in a room - I've worked at a lot of companies where I was the only woman as well - you've got to stand up for yourself in a good way. Learn how to have your voice, learn how to stand up for yourself, and be strong. I think that's something women struggle with, because you'll either be called bossy or bitchy for being confident. So learning how to balance all of that and stand up for yourself, I think, is really important.

I think in my 30 years, you see these waves of new technology come in that everybody thinks is going to take over the world, and then for 2 years or so you experiment with it and realize it's good for some things, but not everything. I think we're going through that right now with AI, so kind of riding that wave. Some of the challenges are how you move from an individual contributor into a leader - I think that's a big learning curve, and there's really no one that teaches you it. You get thrown in the deep end and you figure it out, and it would be nice if they had something to help managers, I think that would help organizations a lot. And then probably understanding executive presence now - that it's not necessarily anymore about what you know as much as how you handle yourself and what you say, which has been an interesting thing to figure out as well. Right now, I think it's - I'm in my 50s now, so I would say it's age. I don't want to say it's age, but I almost wonder if I'm hitting that point where I remember when I was younger and looking at older people coming in and thinking if they weren't in the C-suite by now, they don't know everything I know. I sometimes get that feeling as I'm hitting the mid-50s, so I think it's really struggling with how do you navigate that right now.

I think trust and your moral compass are probably the two main ones.