In order to “win” in the workplace, “You have to learn to play the game,” said global technology leader Sandra Johnson, a former chief technology officer for IBM in Africa and currently a tech entrepreneur in North Carolina.
Johnson, who discussed being the first Black woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in computer engineering, also shared her career advice with University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science students. She dubbed her overall approach “soft power,” or the exhibiting of kindness, competence and confidence, to influence workplace culture and advance one’s career.
Try to find a work sponsor that will go the extra step...
Shaylin Williams, an assistant professor with the First-Year Engineering Center, moderated the February conversation with Johnson as part of Black History Month.
Johnson was a member of the IBM Academy of Technology, which consists of the top 1% of IBM’s over 250,000 technical professionals. The prestigious appointment reflected her career of innovation and adaptability. Among her many successes, she was a key member of the design team that built the prototype for what would become the Deep Blue chess computer project. IBM’s supercomputer ultimately beat the world’s chess champion in 1997.
Johnson also worked on teams that developed parallel and shared memory systems, including the Vesta Parallel File System, and she was influential in helping improve aspects of Linux, the free, open-source operating system that’s still used by supercomputers and retail systems.
“Now Google, Amazon, all the big boys and girls use Linux,” she said.
Building relationships along the way — strategically, but always genuinely — was fundamental to her career path, she said.
“Try to find a work sponsor that will go the extra step for you,” Johnson told students. “When someone reaches out trying to fill a position with your type of experience, you want them to say your name.”
That’s what happened when the position of chief technology officer of IBM Central, East and West Africa came open in Nairobi, Kenya. Another executive pushed for a different candidate, but Johnson’s boss was able to more persuasively make the case for her.
She received the job offer during a Labor Day weekend, and she began the new position the following Tuesday.
Despite her success, which includes 40 issued or pending patents, Johnson told the students that the path could be challenging. As one example, not everyone was convinced that Johnson would be named to the IBM Academy of Technology. One person even took her out to lunch “as a friend” to tell her so. Yet when she ultimately received the designation, she made sure to politely touch base with that person at the reception for honorees, reaffirming, “I am here.”
Here are some more tips Johnson shared that reflect possible ways to use “soft power” to enhance a career:
- Understand that compensation is negotiable. Don’t accept the first offer.
- Don’t be too focused on compensation, however. “If you are passionate about what you do and you are one of the best at it, the money will come.”
- Look for a mentor or mentoring process, but “you have to believe in yourself first.”
- Invite people who don’t seem to accept you or your views to have lunch. But focus on commonality rather than contention. Of one colleague, she said, “After that, anything I wanted from him, all I had to do was call him up.”
- Don’t express anger. “I knew it wasn’t going to help me, or anyone else who came after me.”
- Don’t forget that you must back your passion with ability. “Don’t try to be a professional singer if you can’t carry a tune.”
- Remember: People are people. “No matter where you are in the world — and I’ve travelled the globe — they want to have a good life, and they want their children to have a better life than they themselves had.”
Post-IBM, Johnson founded the financial tech startup company Global Mobile Finance Inc. in 2018. She serves as chief executive officer and chief technology officer. In addition, she has served as the chief executive officer of SKJ Visioneering LLC, a technology consulting company, since 2014.
She is also the author of several books, including her latest, “Soft Power for the Journey: The Life of a STEM Trailblazer.”