10 Leadership lessons from Nora Denzel as a Silicon Valley Tech Executive

Not often do we get the opportunity to interact with women who have made significant strides in their careers, and this was one of those exceptional experiences.

1. Take advantage of opportunities and make the most out of them.

When Nora was starting out as a software engineer at IBM years ago, it was a tricky path because she came from a school that IBM wouldn’t necessarily hire from. Regardless, she was determined to crush the expectations set for her to fail.

Some said, ‘I’ll interview her but I’m sure we won’t take her,’ another said, ‘Let’s take a chance.’

2. You’re a leader before you get the title.

Leaders are great influencers even for those who don’t follow them.

She goes to add that when you get the title, you’re positioned by your followers. Therefore, you need to be a better version of yourself; use your strengths, guard your integrity and be a positive leader.

3. Always learn from the best wheel maker

Through informational interviews, Nora made time to identify, meet and learn from different people who were the best in their field. Her determination at the time was to learn how to operate a smaller company, and she needed to understand how people who had money and time in bigger companies developed their products, so that when the time came for her to lead, she would have the knowledge of it.

She insists that she never wanted to be a know-it-all, but instead a learn-it-all.

4. Change your mindset about listening: Approach like a scientist

When listening and trying to learn from someone, stay curious to uncover the difference and similarities in ideas. You never have to agree with someone, but it is important to hear the person out, identify the facts and find the middle ground.

5. Strive to stand out, not stick out.

Nora shares that she couldn’t control sticking out as a woman in male-dominated panels, but she needed to modify people’s expectations of her because she didn’t want to be differentiated by her gender, but to stand out for her capabilities.

She ensured that in whatever she needed to do, she wasn’t just fast, but effective.

6. Startups bet on jockeys, not horses

Nora strongly insists that the startup world especially in Silicon Valley bets on the people.

Therefore, are you able to adjust? How do you handle criticism? Do you listen? How do you handle failure? Can you learn? Those factors separate the high achievers, from those that do well.

7. It’s not what you know, it’s how fast you can learn

From her experience, Nora believes that in startups, for exponential growth, your ability and speed to learn is paramount.

In developing products, her hypothesis is that the target market needs the product, but when she would go to test it, she would do it as though she didn’t know, and that is the difference.

8. Success takes commitment

Nora mentions that most people look at her success now and imagine that it happened overnight, and she describes how hard she worked since the very beginning.

In those days, the computers were mainframe and so they’d take systems down on the weekend, and no one could log in. Regardless, she would go to the IBM branch where she sold their products and would request to speak to customers; which was unheard of!

9. Learn how to project more self-confidence

It’s important that women understand their traits and learn to be more confident, learn to have a more executive presence, even when filled with doubt.

10. Stay on a vertical learning curve

“When you crave learning, you will always be on the hunt for knowledge. It is important to develop this attitude for self-improvement,” she sums up.

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