Susan Wojcicki, YouTube CEO, Teaches Us 10 Invaluable Lessons

Susan Wojcicki, YouTube CEO, Teaches Us 10 Invaluable Lessons Dont interrupt me.Its something weve all thought and probably mora than onceBut YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki isnt one to leave anything to chance. Though shes a powerful woman with an estimated net worth of $500 million who oversees hundreds of employees, the chief executive and business leader isthe first to speak upwhen her tech-industry colleagues talk over her or her female counterparts.Even when people are well-meaning, there are sometimes microaggressions people will just cut you off,the senior Google leader (and 16th hire) said at the CNNMoney American Opportunity breakfast.Who is Susan Wojcicki?In work and in life, Wojcicki doesnt take things lying down and neither should you. She leads the second-largest search engine company in the world, has five children, andstill finds time to advocate for womens rights.After graduating from high school in Palo Alto, Harvard University, the University of California Santa Cruz with a master in economics, and University of California Los Angeles with an MBA, in 1999 she says she joined the startup that founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin had recently started in my garage. Thats right Larry Page and Sergey Brin co-founded Googlein Wojcickis garagein Menlo Park.Since that time, Wojcicki has played an important role in Googles strategy and business development. In 2006, she advocated for the acquisition of YouTube. Chad Hurley and Steve Chen sold YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion.10 things we can learn from Susan WojcickiHere are a few ways in which we could all be more like Susan Wojcicki boss, chief executive officer, business leader and all-around badass.1. Be open to new opportunities.Wojcicki is.We cant all have a unicorn grow up in our garage heck, I dont even have a garage but we can be open to trying new things. Next time someone presents you with a new challenge or opportunity try saying yes instead of a reflexive no.2. Make work and life wo rk for you.Wojcicki was the first Google employee to get pregnant. Seemingly undaunted by the situation, she took that opportunity to shape the tech giants parental leave policy and later pushed to expand it even further.Not content to stop there,she then explained to the business world why they should be following suit in The Wall Street Journal When we increased paid maternity leave to 18 from 12 weeks in 2007, the rate at which new moms left Google fell by 50 percent. (We also increased paternity leave to 12 weeks from seven, as we know that also has a positive effect on families and our business.) So takecontrol of your approach to pregnancy at work, andplan your return from leave accordingly.Schooling your entire industry on parental leave afterwards? Optional.3. Act like an owner.Particularly in large companies, theres a tendency to accept the status quo even when things could be run better or more smoothly with a simple change.Wojcicki cuts through this. At The New York Tim ess New Work Summit in 2017, she said,If you come into a company and see something is bedrngnis working, fix it. It can be daunting to question long-standing approaches. But if theyre not working, people will thank you.4. Use your personal experience to your professional advantage.On the topic of maternity leave,Wojcicki points out thatmothers come back to the workforce with new insights. I know from experience that being a mother gave me a broader sense of purpose, more compassion and a better ability to prioritize and get things done efficiently. It also helped me understand the specific needs and concerns of mothers, who make most household spending decisions and control more than $2 trillion of purchasing power in the U.S.Boom. Dont discount your maternity leave as irrelevant to your professional life. Ask yourself, what have I learned? How can I leverage that at work?5. Have a clear vision and strategy.Wojcicki cites her toughest leadership lesson as to not give up and to know where you want to go. She adds, When you feel like youre part of the kollektiv and you have a goal, you can work through a lot of challenges and issues. A good place to start?Try SMART goalsto quickly make your objective more manageable and strategic.6. Be open to receiving feedback.Like so many of us are still,Wojcicki used to be defensivewhen she was told what was doing wrong or what people disliked about her performance. But she cites changing this approach as a valuable lesson learned, adding that As you get more senior,your jobis to hear whats not working so you can make it better. Business always feels personal,but you can learn from criticism,and its often more well-intentioned than you might think.7. Coach, dont manage.Anyone can be a manager, but to be a Wojcicki-grade powerful woman and leader, you have to endeavor to get the best from the people around you to take an interest in what drives them and what they want to achieve and figure out how you can use that informati on to support your team and company goals. In other words, you have to be a coach. It may be a real challenge at first, but get into the habit of asking your team members what they like about their work and try to weave that into your subsequent asks.Like Googles best managers,Wojcicki learned this early on.8. Listen well and communicate effectively.You cant solve a problem until youve heard what it is and you cant hear it until youve shown people that youre willing to listen. In plus-rechnen to being a good listener,Wojcicki points outthat the growth of technology in enabling communications has made it all easier than it was even ten years ago. We just have to remember to do it.9. Hire more women.We all know that women in leadership roles are sorely needed, butWojcicki makes the case for breaking up the Silicon Valley boys club beautifully in Vanity FairThere is a solution that has been proved to address gender discrimination in all its forms, both implicit and explicit hiring mor e women. Employing more women at all levels of a company, from new hires to senior leaders, creates a virtuous cycle. Companies become more attuned to the needs of their female employees, improving workplace culture while lowering attrition. They escape a cycle of men mostly hiring men. And study after study has shown that greater diversity leads to better outcomes, more innovative solutions, less groupthink, better stock performance and G.D.P. growth.If youre in a position to hire particularly if youre in Silicon Valley hire women.10. Dont let others put you in a box.Wojcicki is frequently asked a variation on the question How do you manage to have it all?And she frequently answers. But she points out the inequality of the question. The fact that Im a woman CEO and I have five children is unusual. Other women want to understand, Well, how did you do that? and How do you make life work? But, theres a time and a place. When Im at a business conference talking about business and all of my peers are talking only about business, I think its important that were treated in the saatkorn way.Truth, Susan Wojcicki, truth.--Ellie Hearne is an experienced leadership coach and founder of