娇色导航

Welcome to 娇色导航Leadership Live.

I'm Lee Rennick, executive director of 娇色导航communities for cio.com,

and I'm very excited and honored today to welcome Christine

Bongard, CEO, co-founder of the WIT Network. Christine.

Please introduce yourself and welcome to the show. Hi there.

Lee, thank you so much for having me on today. Yes.

Christine Bongard, CEO and co-founder of the WIT network.

I have been a woman in technology my whole career.

I had the fortunate, fortunate experience of being part of a Techstars

up in the New York metro area and, had the opportunity to grow business

from start and learn all about everything

technology, how to manage teams, how to run a business.

It was just such an incredible opportunity for me

and, that that led me to being a woman in tech.

And I got to build a great network, over all of that time and, have the fortunate

experience to then take my, career as an entrepreneur

and in the tech industry and build a global network for women in tech.

as my my second part of my career. So loving it.

Wow.

Wow, that sounds really amazing.

And we'll dive into that a little bit more.

And, you know, I'm a member of the Witt network.

Our organization is, I'm so proud that

we have that connection with this organization.

and all that you do to ensure that women have a safe

place, a place to network and learn and share.

And, so I'm looking forward to having this interview today.

So I really do appreciate you joining us today.

Christine, thanks so much.

We have created this series to support diversity in technology

and really listen to women working in this space.

and how, you know, they're building and supporting out,

other women in, in, in our industry.

And so the first question and I ask everyone this question,

could you please tell us a little bit about your own career path and maybe

provide some insights or tips on that role path, especially as a women woman?

Excuse me, are there any lessons shared that you could, you know,

any lessons learned that you could share?

So a couple of things. You know, as

I mentioned, just a great opportunity to come up in tech throughout my career.

And I will say that just about the whole way through,

I was, consistently one of the only women in the room, whether we were

with a customer, a partner, at a conference, at networking events,

you know, leads to feeling isolated.

and, you know, some of those events were golf events and whiskey tastings

and cigar, events, and those were things I really couldn't relate to.

And, you know, it was hard to break into conversations

with people and I thought, where were the women?

You know, we have to

the technology industry is such an incredible place to be.

And, you know, just felt like, how do we bring more women into this

and, and make, you know, bring gender parity to these events?

so that you mentioned the word safe, you know, so that that women feel

more comfortable, you know, being in, being in the room and being present.

So, you know, I really took those experiences that

that fueled, my need to, to want to be a part of starting this network.

But you asked about, you know, what are some lessons learned?

And I would say, you know, given

that we haven't seen a ton of change in the numbers for gender parity,

in this industry, you have to really be bold and go for it.

And, you know, I think, you know, sitting back and kind of waiting for

career paths to materialize in front of you or for your manager

to take the time to help you build it out, or for even HR teams to, to do that.

We're we're in a,

we're in a place now in the world where they just don't have the time

to do that stuff. Right.

So I think we have to really inspire women to get clear on their vision.

Where do they want to go?

What skills do they want to build, and then look at the networks around them,

look at, you know, look at where they can take advantage of learning.

You know, we've got lots of stuff on LinkedIn learning, and there's lots of,

technology companies and organizations like the Witt network that provide

skills training and different, you know, educational opportunities.

And so I just really encourage women to be bold. Go for it.

You know, get out there and and capture,

you know, the skills that they need to help accelerate their careers.

Yeah, I think that's great advice.

I was just speaking to a friend and colleague about just this very thing.

I have my own personal like networking bank book that I have on It's

a rainbow and it's on my desk, and it's like I look at it and when I

need those moments to kind of plan and, you know, speak to others.

And I have a business coach I work with, you know, that's super important.

And I didn't really learn this until, like now in life or like, you know, when I,

when I, started working with organizations like the IT network.

So, it's really impactful to me.

So maybe we could, we could the segue as well into the next question.

could you please tell our audience a little bit about the Witt network,

you know, what is it?

How is it formed?

And, you know, we talked about this a little bit, but why it's important right

now, especially for women in tech, to have organizations like.

Oh, gosh, I could talk about this for, for a long time.

It excites me so much.

So the network was formed about six years ago.

We just celebrated our anniversary, and the idea was in the beginning

that we wanted to build,

a global network of women around the, around the world, obviously

in tech to have this safe place to come and be with like minded people,

to find other women that were facing some of the same challenges,

that they were right.

Building peer groups, you know, connecting to help one another, maybe

get connections into potential prospects or helping them with jobs.

You know, there's all sorts of ways that your network can serve you.

And so we thought, let's build this, this wonderful community

where women can reach and connect arms around the world to help one another.

That turned into let's start to build education for women, for skills

that we know they're not getting education on, either within their own companies

or within their own communities.

And so we built out webinars, workshops.

We've got leadership development.

We have technology training consistently hearing from women.

They don't get offered the technology training that their male counterparts do.

I don't know why that is still happening, but they're consistently telling us

they're still not getting, you know, the same kinds of opportunities with that.

So we're trying to build technology cohorts for women.

We've got mentoring circles right where global women can come.

We're talking about issues that are facing women today, all sorts of topics

like workplace balance, building confidence, negotiation skills,

you know, things that, you know, the women can sometimes struggle with.

But we want to help them.

And we have incredible speakers and facilitators.

Come on, teach best practices.

A lot of times there's role playing.

We do breakout groups.

And, you know, it's just another wonderful way for women to build their network

because they get to connect with the women

who are in all of these different programs,

and you make friends and, you know, also help one another.

We also have 53 communities around the world

who are getting together in person.

So I like to say a membership to the women network is really two pronged.

You have all the virtual education, and then you have the in-person

networking where you can get together in your local community.

They do all sorts of things like charity events.

They have book signings, they do wine tastings, they do crafts,

they do speed networking, you know, all different,

whatever the community feels like, they are independently, run

and they plan their events and they work with a lot of the technology companies

in those local areas to sponsor the events and provide that additional networking. there's also an

in-person conference that we do every year for International Women's Day.

We had to take a little hiatus on that because of the pandemic,

but we are bringing it back in person in Dallas this year.

It's going to be incredible.

It's called Igniting Excellence.

We're going to have a celebration of women to our Women of Excellence

awards program that's brand new, that's coming out, and,

it's going to be just a wonderful time for us all to come together,

celebrate our accomplishments, but also get fueled up on what we still need to do.

And so the subtheme of the conference is all about

kind of what I spoke to in the beginning, is inspiring women

to really take charge of their destiny and their career path.

And understand what skills they'll need in this new era of AI, which again,

presents an incredible opportunity for us to to level the playing field.

There with regard to gender.

And so we're going to have an AI workshop helping women build skills,

and then we're going to have a lot of inspiring speakers

that will all be talking about, really, how to take your career to the next level.

So I'm so excited about that.

We have last thing, we have almost 14,000 people

in the network and we are in 80 countries around the world.

And when we started the network, I interviewed many women around the globe

because it was really important for me to understand.

Did the needs of women differ depending on where they were in the world?

And it was really interesting to me and fascinating to find that know.

And they want all need and wanted the same thing.

They wanted access to education and training, technology training.

They need mentors and they need to help build their network.

And so those are our main pillars.

That's what we built a network on access to education and training,

access to the global network and then also mentors.

We have a new program called Wick Connects that provides real time

AI, mentor matching for everybody in the network.

So that's a lot to make.

But that's what we do. Wow.

That's incredible.

That's, that's really wonderful. And,

what I love about it is the

opportunity to connect, you know, online, but also connect in person.

you know, because, well, we find

is that, often we're just, you know, so busy in our roles.

And then there might be an event that we can attend in person.

And that's just a way to

meet people face to face that you might have connected with online.

I love the training aspect.

I love the, upskilling aspect.

You know, I talked to a lot of CIOs right now

about the ways in which they're looking at, how their staff need to learn

about Chennai, what implementation they want to put in around that.

So, you know, I thank you for being ahead of the curve on that and making sure

that those resources are available to women who are in the tech space.

I really appreciate that.

well, thank you for that description.

And we'll make sure we have a link

to it, in our in our post on social media and on our website.

so one of the mandates of it is to enable more women to attain

leadership positions and career advancement.

Now I speak with several next generation leaders,

and I don't even know if I want to call them next gen leaders.

I just feel that there's a group of individuals who are leading in tech

right now who have, you know, there's sort of a longevity of that.

But I do speak to a lot of women who are building up their careers.

And, you know, they say they often come to a conference and it's just to see if

suits and and men, I feel that way when I go to conferences.

I bet you you you talked about it earlier, you felt that way as well.

So, we'd love we talked a little bit about the ways it supports networking

and but also, you know, that idea of building the leadership skills.

I know you had the weight management program,

so maybe outside of weight and within weight maybe.

What are some of the tips

you could provide to women listening in on how to broaden your networks? Yeah.

So I think this is this is one of the areas

where when you look at the data, you know, we we are still losing ground.

And in some way, you know, going negative with regard to representation

at all the levels of leadership,

I guess is this is something that's

just going to really take a lot of time, you know, to chip away at.

So what we try to focus on is how do we help the women,

you know, skill themselves up to be best prepared

for those opportunities to get put into the to to the leadership spots. Right.

Like I'll give you an exciting storytelling example.

I had met with, a colleague of mine, and I went to his board

of directors page and they were all white men.

And I said, You know, this is interesting.

You know, where are the women?

And he said, oh, Christine, Christine, we, we believe

in appointing people to the role based on skill, not by checking boxes.

I said, fair enough.

I think that is the right way to do it.

But where is your pipeline of women

that are, ready getting ready to step into roles like.

And how are you nurturing them and how are you preparing them for it? And he went,

oh yeah, we don't have that. Okay.

So for companies out there yeah.

You know that's number one right? We get it.

We're not asking to be put into roles that we're not ready for.

But what is the process for helping women prepare for that and to get helping them

get ready for those roles. Right.

So that's the one side on the on the on the side of the individual.

It's we're looking at how can we help them build those skills.

So we have a ten week leadership cohort

that we partner with Athena International on.

And that's a great way for women to go through and helps them assess their

skills, understand their strong points, understand the areas that they need.

What are their goals like, what is that dream?

And so that's the process that helps them discover.

And then I think the second part of it is they need to work

with allies, within their company.

And so I would encourage

women to it goes to you said how do they build their network.

Networking externally is very important.

We all think about that going to events. Right.

getting out and meeting new people that way.

But I like to coach folks to also have an internal networking plan.

What are you looking at? You know, internally,

just not your manager, but your manager's manager.

What about the C-suite?

People across the C-suite, right?

Or the SVP roles? Can you reach out to them?

Can you ask for 15 minutes for coaching a mentor session and phrase

it under the guise of you want to learn more about what their role is?

What are their goals

for their team within you know, how will it impact the business?

Is there any way that you can help being from the role that you're in?

Start those dialogs, get to know those folks

and and learn what is their experience being on the leadership team?

What do they think are the most important skills

that they contribute to the leadership team?

Like take it on as a research project, right.

And and use that information to help build your roadmap

to becoming a leader in that org.

And also those relationships are key

for when they're they are looking at who are they going to going to consider.

Yeah, step and take some of the next leadership roles in the company.

Now you've established relationships with everybody through your mentor

sessions with them, you've been able to articulate what projects

you're working on and what you're looking to do with your future.

And that's how you build a network internally, and that's how you help

to make sure that your work is visible across the leadership team

and potentially get you poised.

So it's a lot of different.

It's a lot of different components, right?

It's at the company has to be open and have a framework to support women

to move up the pipeline.

It's a the woman has to build skills to be ready for those leadership positions.

And then also that the woman has to build a network around her

that will support her, lift her up, pull her up, talk about her in the room

when she's not there in a positive way and and in really help.

And so it's kind of like that three pronged magical approach,

you know, that that I think women should look for in terms of

if that is an aspiration that they have right to climb the ladder.

I love that, you know, I really love that.

And I was reflecting on what you were saying about your internal network.

So that's such great advice.

you know, I think

I would add to that too, that so many companies right now

are struggling with profitability and growth. And,

you know, we've seen a lot of layoffs, unfortunately, and things like that.

So, you know, I, I also think just if you're in a role and you know,

you see ways of improving an organization, right?

You can let people know, you know, you can let your manager know.

But if you if you're, you know, on a call with others that, you know, are different

roles like marketing or, or other places, you know, it's okay to say, you know,

I've been listening in.

Here's one way I believe we could improve our output of our organization. Right.

And I always find that people are who are in the high, higher positions,

are very open to learning and hearing that because they want to learn from people

that are doing work to build,

you know, the organization and looking at ways to improve it. Yeah.

Lee, I love that. I love that advice.

I think you're you're you're dead on there.

I mean, we've have had a lot of layoffs and there's still some going on right now,

but I think a lot of that is still like overcorrecting from the pandemic. Yeah.

We're going to see that settle out. Yeah.

and so I think for, for women today, you're right.

It's two things that how can you look re-envision your job

to be more of it, to be more efficient, to be more productive, to serve customers better.

Yeah, right.

Like all of those things that will potentially impact the bottom line.

We know based on data that comes from McKinsey and Gartner,

that teams that have broader diversity on them.

Yeah, will see greater profits, greater

customer sacrifice into like all those statistics. Yeah.

I think we just kind of have to, you know, a some of it is a little bit of timing.

But the other part of it is what can we control?

They always say, right, don't focus on what you can't control.

Focus on what you can control.

You can control how you do your job. Yeah.

And so I would say to your point,

how can you tie AI in to potentially re-envision

the work that you do and, and help your company,

like you said, come up with fresh ideas about how I could potentially

be used to change some of the outcomes for how your company does business. Yeah.

Is that will definitely make you stand out to the leadership as well. Yeah.

Love that. Love that. Thank you so much. All right.

So lastly Christine, I'm asking because we're we're in 2024 now.

Just hit November 1st.

Actually there's a lot going on in the world.

so you know I really think thank you so much

for all you're doing to support women.

Women in business, women in tech.

You know, thank you so much for sharing all of these experiences you've had.

And what the network does.

So listen, hey, for all those tech companies out there listening in,

I would really love to hear from you.

As to the types of things they could look at initiating in 2025

to support women in and to create really safe, inclusive workplaces.

Yeah, that's a great question.

I think, you know, many companies have them, but like an employee

resource group or a business resource group or an affinity group, whatever,

whatever they're called, that's a great place to start, right?

Build a place for women to come to be, to want to be with one another.

have somebody that runs the erg that is

into, in tune with the needs of the group,

opens up, pulls, you know, dialogs

with the women, often to understand what are those needs.

Look, we're learning that employees

really want to feel, that they belong

to the organization, that they they're in an inclusive environment.

We know that that's important.

If you care at all about employee retention, then, you know,

I think it would be a mistake to not have somebody responsible for looking at

how inclusive is your organization, how what sense of belonging

are you fostering a culture, you know, for the employees?

Those employee resource groups are a great start.

They're a great, they're a great way to do it.

And, it, it it allows,

what how do I say this?

It allows, like, a connection point to from there voice

to leadership about things that are happening in the organization.

I also like to say, if you're a leader

in any way, shape or form, get out and talk to people.

You know, sometimes just taking 5 to 10 minutes, even virtually. You know,

I know we're not all back in offices yet, but if you can have a virtual chat

with somebody, you know, what's your experience like here?

You know, tell me, tell me candidly, how are we doing?

How do you feel safe.

Do you feel that,

you know, your work is contributing to the bigger picture of what we're doing?

And and opening up those dialogs, I think goes a long way towards building

trust, building relationship with your employees

and ideally keeping them right, especially if you know

you get feedback that you're able to take action on partnering.

I'd be remiss if I didn't start with that work.

Yeah, you know, is a great way to support the women in your organization because,

somebody said you're like an outsourced DRG and we're,

you know, we're this whole ecosystem

that individual companies cannot reproduce on their own.

And we also have tons of programs

that individual companies cannot produce on their own.

So why not partner with us and snap in and connect

the women in your org to this whole framework of education and mentorship? Yeah.

And I mean also for the people

in the organization, like you're always looking for women in management

and tech to present at, you know, at conferences, at panels.

So, you know, if you're a member of the network,

I'm sure there's that opportunity to include the women in your space,

you know, to be a part of the network, but also to,

you know, have the opportunity to present and share what their own journey.

So it's it's yeah, it really is really great program.

And thank you so much for founding it and for all you do. Yeah.

Thank you.

It is an honor and a pleasure.

And I enjoy every single day.

because I get to work with incredible people all supporting the network

and our technology partners and the women in the ecosystem.

And we have so many volunteers and people who help stand it up all over the world.

So it's not just me, it's it's an army of people all working together.

And I'm so proud to be a part of it.

Thank you, Christine, and thank you so much for sharing today.

And as mentioned, we'll include a link on our post on our website

and on our social media to the web network if you want to learn more information.

And thanks so much for being here.

Thank you for having me.

I really appreciate you

giving me this time in the space today, and it was a pleasure chatting with you.