Susan Mallon Whelan

I've been very fortunate to have some really good leaders, and I've also been very fortunate to have some really poor leaders, because I listened and I learned from those that I respect, and I listened and learned from those that I didn't. I take the ones that I struggled with and I made sure that that was not me - this is not how you do it. I had one VP that I left the company because I could not report to him, he was just awful. He reached out to me about a year later about a position, and he said before I say no, I won't report to him because he knows I struggled with him. I've learned just as much from him as I have from those that have reached out and tried to help me grow. Women in general need to take the time and watch those that they don't like or don't respect or don't approve of the way that they lead, and you've got to take something from it. You have to tell yourself, what would I do different? How would I take this situation and do it differently? I struggled with my mother, so the way I mothered my kids was completely based on doing the complete opposite of what my mother did. I've taken that same mentality into the workplace - if this worked over here, that's great, I'm gonna take it, why reinvent the wheel? If I didn't like the way somebody did something over there, I said okay, I'm never doing that, so what am I doing instead? I ask myself questions all the time and I force myself to answer them.

When I was an airport manager, we had directors' meetings once a month and I was the only female. I was getting really frustrated because when I'd start to talk, a couple of the men would start talking over me. Wayne, the COO, pulled me aside and said, 'Susan, you're gonna have to stand up for yourself. You have to stop them. If I go in there and say hey, stop talking over her, let her give her a chance to speak, they're not going to have any respect for you. You're going to have to learn to do that on your own.' I said okay, as long as you're giving me permission, because my thing was I never want to be disrespectful to people even if they're being disrespectful to me. So the next meeting, the same thing happened - one of the directors sitting right next to me started talking over me, and I turned to him and said, 'Excuse me, I was speaking.' He said okay, okay, okay, and everybody looked at me. Nobody said anything. I got out what I needed to say. I looked over at the COO and he just winked at me and said, 'Yep, that's it. That's good.' That was him telling me that I deserved to be there as much as they deserved to be there. He gave me a seat at the table and he gave me permission, because men don't seem to need permission to step out and do and say whatever they want, but women try to follow the rules a little bit. When the rules aren't being followed for you, you're still trying to be following the rules. I wasn't rude, I didn't yell, I just cut him off and said excuse me, I was speaking, and then I went on. He never spoke over me after that.

You have to believe that you belong. You have to believe that what you have to contribute is just as important as what anybody else has to contribute. It is okay to get upset, it's okay to cry, but it's not okay to get upset and cry in front of these people. Excuse yourself, walk away, scream, look at the wall, I don't care what you do - get yourself under control and then go back out. Don't let them get to you, or don't let them see that they got to you. Men in general believe that they're the best qualified for a position even when they're not - they have that confidence. We may be best qualified for the job, but we don't believe it. Your voice counts, what you think counts - you just have to believe it. That's the hardest part, just getting them to believe that they have a seat at the table. As soon as we have a meeting, the men will come right in and take up every seat around the table and we stand around the edges. Get in there and grab a seat. You have to take the time and watch those that you don't like or don't respect or don't approve of the way that they lead, and you've got to take something from it. You have to tell yourself, what would I do different? How would I take this situation and do it differently? Being empathetic and compassion is a strength, it's not a weakness.

There's a regional vice president role that's out now that my boss wants me to apply for, and it would add an additional 10 airports to my oversight, which is great and I'm glad they appreciate that. But a part of me starts to wonder, if I dilute myself too much, am I giving the best that I can? Right now I have an opportunity to do one-on-one with a lot of people even though I have multiple stations, but if I more than triple my workload, what does that look like? I don't know what that looks like, but I did apply for it because I still report to him and I just want to see and make sure that I can do it. I know I can - my whole thing is it's not that I don't think I can do it, I just want to be a good leader for the people. I'm happy where I am right now, I could finish out my career where I am, but I don't know what's behind door number 2. Maybe door number 2 has something waiting for me that I don't know about, and maybe whatever that thing is, it'll be good for other people as well. The biggest challenge right now is financial because with the war going on in Iran, in the aviation industry the price of gas - companies are all pinching pennies right now. I can't acknowledge milestones like I used to. We had people celebrate 28 years, 30-some years, and typically we would host a lunch and have a cake and a big celebration because milestones are important, but there was kibosh - we can't spend any extra money. I don't like not having an opportunity to acknowledge the contributions that people bring into the industry. Having the brakes put on the things that actually motivate people to be better employees, that one I struggle with a little bit. The struggle for me is maintaining that talent, retaining them in the industry so we don't lose the industrial knowledge, so they don't go somewhere else for 25 cents. If I lost somebody with 20-some years for 25 cents somewhere else, you can't put a dollar figure on that - it would take me 25 years to get that knowledge back.

For work, the fact that my boss trusts me is most important. He will call me and say, 'Hey, can you take care of this for me?' and he's told me before, 'I know if I give it to you, it'll get done. It'll get done right.' For my own personal peace of mind, if I say I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it and I'm going to give it everything I have, I'm going to give it 100%. Whether I tell my customers 'Hey, we got this, we can handle it,' we will have it and we will handle it. I tell people in my organization all the time, especially those that want to move up, 'I'm not a mind reader. If you want to move up with the company, you have to let me know.' When you let me know what you want to do and you want to move up, then the ball's in my court and it's my responsibility to help you, mentor you, and get you to where you need to be so you can move up. In my personal life, I just want peace and calm. I don't like drama. I don't yell. People tell me all the time, 'You're the easiest boss,' and I'm like, 'Yeah, I was also the easiest mom.' I never yelled at my kids, I never beat my kids - I just set the ground rules and tell you what the ground rules are. This is what we do, this is how we do it. I'm the same compassionate, loving person at work as I am at home, because I love every single person that I work with. May not like you, but I love every single person I work with, and I think they all have what it takes to be successful if they're willing to grab it.