WOW LEADER

Sara Lyke

Interview by Stephanie Lowder

Of all the interviews I've conducted, this was the most difficult "get," this subject the most reticent. But I persisted. Enjoy.





In 1980 I entered the software industry. My husband and another fellow owned a software business. It was growing fast, and they needed an accounting manager, so with my background they invited me in. We started growing faster and by 1985 I had moved from COO to president. As we'd planned, I positioned the company to sell, and we got a good buy from a much larger company in North Carolina that needed our software solutions. I continued working there as EVP till 2001. My leadership role was in the largest division - implementation, project management, and training, working with the biggest banks in the nation and their mortgage loan portfolios. I'm glad not to be there now.

It's bleeding edge and high pressure, the software industry. You always need to know the next thing your customer base will want or expect while keeping your systems updated with the latest new technologies.

The thing I miss is the risk. I really do like managing risk, working with millions of dollars of development and trying to achieve a vision. Constantly strategizing while keeping the customers pleased.

I've led men and I've led women. I'm always asked is there a difference? I think the biggest difference is that men are raised to understand their responsibility to leadership, they value it and what comes with it. Whether they are actually good leaders or not, whether they want to lead or not, they are expected to lead - in their sports, in their homes, in their jobs. When you have been given no other choice, you learn to lead, to negotiate, to look forward. I think women have been taught to nurture and support, and are just now beginning to embrace leadership. Today professional women are developing skills for both.

Leadership is not innate, it's an expectation.

The furniture industry's biggest challenges, and WithIt, are similar. To be open. To embrace change and be flexible. And the main one: to make a decision. You can be as open and flexible as anything, but if you don't make a decision, you are lost. You can't move forward.

Vision is everything. A leader has to first put forth a vision, a vision that people understand and will want to follow. Then to find talented people to do the work with you. Then to think. And finally, to perfect the vision while everything else is happening.

It's hard to prepare once lean times arrive. You have to prepare in anticipation of the future. Once lean times come you adjust your budget, work your fallback plan and call on your talents.

Entrepreneurs vs corporate executives:  I think entrepreneurs love new visions and the excitement of those visions. They usually have a following and are idea bound, but they don't care as much if followers carry it out, because if not they will just do it themselves. I think most corporate executives develop a vision and carry it out as a group, they are more collaborative because they are focused on what is best for the corporation.

WithIt is tougher than a for-profit corporation, because there isn't a tangible product and the measurables are not as defined as in corporate leadership. It's trying to get the consensus of a board that changes every three years and leading a volunteer organization where people move as fast or as slow as they want. Sometimes it's funny, like the movie Groundhog Day, all over again.

Corporate training for executives should involve a tenure managing people who are volunteers and receive no financial reward from them. You develop much stronger management skills and learn how to tactfully evaluate and communicate.   

Next year, two goals will be especially important to WithIt: increasing regional participation and improving our website as an interactive resource for members. Long range: global growth, a greater presence at key markets, substantial education, more opportunities to network, and meaningful research for the industry.

We have the talent, we've leveraged it for members, now we want to offer it to the industry. The industry has been generous to WithIt, they've insured our success, so we want to give back. We could easily, for a company, initiate a focus group or a brainstorming group with very relevant talent, for instance.

My degrees? English lit & psychology, accounting & economics.

Poetry and economics are similar, they share discipline, a theme and creativity. Both are trying to get to a place. In economics, you're trying to solve/observe a problem or invent a solution to a problem that doesn't even exist yet. And all poets are trying to get to a place or an observation.

Accounting explains and gives order. Economics takes order away. Economics taught me - just like poetry - that even though there is discipline, there are also multiple forces moving in different directions at the same time. That's the best part, paradox. It forces you to look at things and experience things differently. It's tough, and that's exactly why I like it.

Playing sports gave me three things:  Knowing how to compete and play - a great help when you work with an all-male staff. Understanding how to lose and then go right on. And recognizing that moment when everything comes together, your body, your thinking, and you know you're doing the right thing, perfectly - that's the moment I look for in my work, in business.

Teaching creative writing, poetry and literature to 7th, 8th and 9th graders for four years let me observe the extremely bright, creative way students that age experience things. They are open, they tell you exactly what they think about a piece of writing and don't worry about how someone will be measuring or evaluating them. Their thinking is pure and insightful.

Basically, I just think life is good and everybody brings something of interest to the table. I try not take situations personally, I just observe and let it go. A lot of that comes from years of customer service and managing hundreds of people. I think people are really trying to do their best, it's usually communication, or a lack of communication, that gets in the way.

Professional accomplishment of which I am most proud? I just don't think in those terms. Yes, when I became president of that corporation, or when I sat in meetings doing business with clients like First Union, it's like wow - but look, there were whole rooms of people making those things happen, I was just the voice. Something I actually "feel proud" of - maybe getting my daily to-do list done.

I want to learn another discipline, one I don't have to change my job for - another language, a new software program. I'd also love more time to paint. Watercolor most appeals to me, because watercolor you can't change, you are committed, you have to learn and then know and then trust. Very Zen.

To someone entering corporate life, some hindsight: Understand your strengths and if you don't, get someone to help with that. Get your MBA if you want to move into a leadership position. Don't be afraid to ask, no matter what the question. Have a personal professional vision (which has nothing to do with the corporate vision). Observe and listen, that's how you can make strategic moves in a corporation. Never say I'm not qualified - say yes, then learn and make it happen. And finally, if you're in the wrong corporation or business, identify why, and then just move on.

Sara Lyke is Executive Director of WithIt, the premiere international organization dedicated to the support and development of female professionals in the home industries.