Dr. Jennifer Beyer reflects on authentic leadership in Ed Tech - embracing individuality, overcoming doubt, and lifting others while leading with purpose.
There are days when I think, how is it that I have ended up as the Chief Product Officer of one of the fastest growing SIS companies? And then there are days when I realize that each turn in the road led me to exactly this point. I often say that I started my career walking backwards as a tour guide while an undergraduate student. I fell in love with the admissions world - helping incoming students find their right fit was the stuff that magic was made of. I was fortunate to grow my career in enrollment management and never thought I would leave the college campus.
Yet when given the opportunity to take a role with an ed tech company, I thought, why not? That could be fun for a couple of years. My passion for supporting students find their fit all of a sudden could be executed at scale. Over the next several years, I grew from a consultant working with individual schools to reach their strategic enrollment goals to working on the product team designing solutions that would be used by all institutions and their students.
I had the benefit of working with great peers and growing with the support of strong mentors into the product leader I am today. Learning to question everything to get to the real problem that needs to be solved. Championing good ideas with quantitative data to drive results. Trusting your gut to understand where the industry might be going to take the risk. Learning to spot good talent, hire them into the right roles, and then get out of their way so they can perform.
Yet, it hasn’t always been easy. And it hasn’t always felt natural. I have had that imposter voice ring loud in my head, questioning if I was making the right call. I know there have been times where I have tried to fit the mold of what I thought a technology leader should look like. I struggled to find my fit in rooms of peers where I was the only woman.
With a penchant for cheesy jokes, a love of dresses with pockets, and a handful of (mostly natural) purple highlights on my head, I also know that I was in the room because I had earned it. I am a problem solver. I thrive in collaborating with colleagues across the business to develop solutions for our clients. I relish the challenge of working with our talented team members and helping them to develop their own skills. I get really excited thinking about how we take advantage of new technology to help our clients better serve their students and community.
And that being in the room meant that I needed to find a way to bring more people with me. Working to identify growing talent, finding ways to bring diverse voices into the conversation, and creating more space for everyone to show up as their authentic selves. It’s rare in the day to day that I think about what it means to be a woman in tech. Maybe it was because I was walking backwards that I found myself falling into the world of ed tech – whatever the reason, there is no where I would rather be.