From women in IT: The power of allyship

Each year, March marks Women's History Month – a time to celebrate the bold, resilient and fearless women shaping their communities, and the world at large. 

Across the vast portfolio of professions housed within our teams at ASU’s Enterprise Technology, we proudly recognize all women for their creativity, innovation and leadership. This month, we are kicking off a series that amplifies the shared and unique experiences of women across our teams. 

In the fifth and final installment for this year, Zella Muro talks about the power of allyship in the workplace. Muro reflects on her own doctoral research in women leadership to share strategies to enact meaningful allyship through coaching, mentorship and advocacy. 

“So at the end of the day, allyship is about working together to advance the collective whole, changing history one day at a time, one female leader at a time,” Muro shares. 

Learn more from Muro and our other women leaders: 

Question: How can allyship bring women into leadership roles they have historically been kept away from? 

Answer: Allyship is a strategy geared to promoting greater focus to help under representative populations succeed in leadership roles. And we all know that this is done through many of the strategies we've all heard about: coaching, mentorship, advocacy. 

However, allyship in action, it's about coming together, working towards a common goal, helping women gain a seat at the table where we have not historically been. This occurs when our allies, both men and women, come together to help create that supporting workplace culture where women can feel empowered to be their authentic self. 

I mean, we all know having more women leaders is a good thing. Research keeps showing us time and time again that having women in the front lines of leadership increases innovation, creativity, diversity of thought just to name a few.

However, through top down driven allyship, that's changing history, for organizational leaders have become intentional in their hiring practices and are placing women in leadership roles.

These allies are the catalysts for change creating a much more level playing field for women in the workplace. Allies helped create a safe space for women to have effective communication and discussion around their desired career advancement, goals away from judgment and away from risk. 

In today's ever changing and challenging climate another allyship action that has really helped reshape history is when these champions combine voices, calling for less tolerance in old ways of thinking that historically has kept women from leadership roles. Champions who call out unconscious and conscious biases by fostering a progressive mindset and holding ourselves accountable to have an inclusive behavior throughout the organization.

Through my own doctoral research, I've personally seen several female personas surface –  driven by the experiences that women have along the way. These experiences can either propel or impede their efforts as they continue to seek greater career growth.

One who specifically stood out to me is [a woman named] Hope. Hope works in a technical environment where she epitomizes the spirit behind allyship. She continues to grow her mentorship circles, she strives towards advocacy where she supports other women as they seek their own professional growth.

Hope continues to leverage her own leadership role by identifying leadership pathways, reaching back, pulling up other women into leadership roles. Allyship strategies help us find our voices, encouraging our own willingness to talk openly, take risks, be vulnerable and support each other.

So at the end of the day, allyship is about working together to advance the collective whole changing history one day at a time, one female leader at a time.

So please join me in replicating Hope.

From women in IT: Michelle Hernandez’s journey to and through a career in tech.

In the fourth installment, ASU Senior Cybersecurity Analyst Michelle Hernandez shares how she came into the tech industry. From her experience in the military through earning her master’s at ASU, Michele’s passion for IT security has been a constant throughout her career. 

Question: What first sparked your interest in working in the tech industry?

Answer: My interest in tech was a happy accident. I joined the military after high school and I was able to choose the field of my job, which happened to be technology. 

I learned all the basics from hardware, software, networking, troubleshooting and security. But what really sparked my interest was IT, and specifically security.

So IT security is often an afterthought [for organizations], and I wanted to change that. After my time in the service, I came to ASU and I received my bachelor's in computer science with a concentration in information assurance, and later received my master’s in cybersecurity.

Now I work for ASU cybersecurity and I focus on IT vulnerabilities. I can bring security to the program and help ASU be more proactive in the security posture.

From women in IT: Jennifer Tweedy explores more inclusive working environments. 

Jennifer Tweedy, executive director of governance, builds upon the first two installments – which focused on reflective leadership and embracing professional ambition – to reflect on how the inclusion of women in IT has shifted across her career. 

Jennifer speaks on the practice of vulnerability as a women leader in IT, noting "When teams have leaders that they see embrace vulnerability – leading by example –  they themselves feel empowered to take healthy risks to try to fail, to try again." Hear more below:
  

Question: How have you seen the inclusion of women in IT change over the course of your career?

Answer: Women possess a natural and unique set of leadership skills and approaches that allow for empathy, measured decision making, strong communication, persuasion and perseverance, and a lot of adaptability. We are also often very intentional and inclusive leaders, unafraid to take risks.

One of the changes that I've noticed over my career is women leaning into the unique strengths and qualities that they bring and doing so out loud – leading with them rather than simply relying upon them quietly as part of a larger leadership toolkit. 

An approach that's been forefront for me as I see inclusion for women in leadership evolving, and often a differentiator, is our practice of vulnerability. When teams have leaders that they see embrace vulnerability – leading by example –  they themselves feel empowered to take healthy risks, to try, to fail, to try again.

A practice of vulnerability also sets the table nicely for building high trust and functioning teams through transparency and respect shared values. Vulnerability isn't always the easiest of practices, but one that I've been encouraged to see us as women embrace, to great benefit in advancing the inclusion of women in leadership.

From women in IT: Itzel Morales reflects on embracing career ambition. 

In our second installment, we spoke with Assistant Director of Web Experience Itzel Morales as she reflected on some of the most impactful advice she’s received. The advice was to “embrace my natural drive to speak for myself and for others.”

Question: What is the best advice or guidance you’ve received from other women in IT?

Answer: So the best advice I've gotten from one of my previous bosses, who is a woman, was to embrace my natural drive to speak for myself and for others.

I've always been very assertive and honest and as a woman, sadly, that's not always positively received in the workplace.

So for the longest time I modified this side of me, but then I got older and I realized that those were qualities or assets that I can use to affect change and move things forward for myself and for others.

From women in IT: Shimara Mizell speaks to the power of mentorship and reflective leadership.

Shimara Mizell, director of People Operations, kicked off the series on March 8 – International Women’s Day. With a background in human resources, professional development and people management, Mizell shares two pieces of advice for women navigating career advancement – including the importance of mentorship and inclusive leadership that is reflective of the teams they serve and lead. 

Question: How can we support or encourage women to advance their careers, in IT and beyond?

Answer: When it comes to supporting women and advancing their careers, there are two things that come to mind. The first is having a mentorship program where they can get advice and guidance from a female colleague on how to navigate advancement.

And then the second, although it may kind of sound a little cliche, is by ensuring they have a voice – and it starts with leadership. Good or bad, employees take their cue from their leaders on what and who is important in the organization.

Leaders need to exemplify a culture that promotes diverse thought and places value on differing perspectives. This allows space for voices to be heard and acknowledged. 

In my own experience, when you're the only person like you in the room, it can be intimidating to speak up and put yourself out there. It's better to be invisible than perceived as aggressive, opinionated or just dismissed altogether because there is no value in hearing what you have to say.

But I found in groups and in organizations where the cultural norms encourage diverse thought, I'm not intimidated and I'm willing to engage. Being a part of the conversation, being heard is empowering and opens up so many possibilities when you see what impact you have and what impact you're going to have.