CEO Today Business Women of the Year Awards

www.ceotodaymagazine.com 40 CEO Today Business Women of the Year Awards 2018 USA structured calendar of deliverables, such as writing and submitting reports to our CEO or outside groups, meeting with individual department heads to identify priorities and must- do activities, handling and tracking escalations that come in related to client needs and requests, or addressing operational issues, but my day may end up in responding to a ‘fire” found in one of my daily 300+ emails, which I prioritize according to importance, urgency and level of engagement required. What would you say has been your greatest achievement so far at Numerix? A reasonwhy I feel successful in my role as COO is that I was able to integrate all my career experiences in a fashion that permitted me to unhesitatingly make the kind of decisions and take the types of actions necessary to help get Numerix to the point where it is today. When I joined, we were a small company with only 32 employees and we had many growth demands that had to be achieved in expeditious ways. We grew at a rapid pace. For me as COO, I knew we needed to be fluid during that growth process—by that I mean I needed to be able to look at the different stages that we were in at any given point and make the right decisions accordingly. I understood, based on my experience, that the only way that an organization such as Numerix could grow successfully was to be able to build and destroy and rebuild processes and policies in quick succession in order to sustain the growth it was achieving. How has your 40 years’ experience in management prepared you for your current role? My extensive executive and management experience has taught me the importance of creativity in decision making. I strongly believe that creativity in business improves strategic planning. I have found that some of the most successful senior executives are the ones that have thought the most creatively, not only in terms of product, service or organizational and infrastructure development, but through all stages of company growth and evolution. What skills would you say are vital to great management and leadership? Do you have any examples that establishes this? I think one characteristic of great management is to be inclusive and to whenever possible drive decisions by consensus with your team. I have found that leaders and managers who prioritize inclusion generally attract better talent and perform better. By being inclusive, I am letting the team know that I embrace the notion that every person counts. Inclusivity also allows me to unleash creativity because I am inviting original thinking that is beyond my own. Another key characteristic of great leadership and management is to be flexible and adaptive. In my view, flexible and adaptive leadership is essential for most managers. It is especially important when faced with substantial change, unusual events, or an emerging threat or opportunity. All of these examples would require quick revisions in strategies, tactics, plans or schedules. Finally, it is also important to recognize the talent around you and to target your messages to be received by your specific audience. In other words, you need to know your people and know what is important to them and what motivates them to be the best they can be. In 2014, youwere recognized by Smart CEO with an Executive Management Award—can you tell us more about this achievement and what it means to you? To receive an award such as that was exhilarating in terms of being recognized for both my leadership skills and accomplishments, but was also extremely humbling. If you’re going to be successful, you have to have a team of people behind you helping you to be successful. To use a sports example, the Golden State Warriors won the 2018 NBA championship finals, a win they achieved for the third time in the last four seasons. They won the 2018 championship against the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have the best basketball player in the world, LeBron James. He had a stellar performance in the finals, averaging 34 points per game in the four-game championship. But it was not enough to get the Cavaliers to win. So how did the Warriors win? Because they played the best together as a team. Awards are never achieved by the individual. They are won by the team. It’s all about teamwork. What lessons would you say have been most valuable during your career that you continue to utilise to this day? A lot of people talk before they have all of the information. So, listening is the best thing any manager can do. The second most important thing is “A reason why I feel successful in my role as COO is that I was able to integrate all my career experiences in a fashion that permitted me to unhesitatingly make the kind of decisions and take the types of actions necessary to help get Numerix to the point where it is today.“