There is no solution or perfect model you can follow. The best thing I can say is you've got to get close to what you really value. When you strip away your role as a parent, as a mother, and as an executive, what really makes your heart sing? How can you make your mark?
These qualities - things like deep listening, collaboration, flexibility, tapping into our emotions - seem to me to be the kinds of qualities that are intrinsic to women. I think that's the thing I'm most excited about: continuing to promote women in the workplace.
I think being able to sit in the shoes of a woman and being able to manage products that are mostly sold to women, alongside a lot of female employees, is really helpful because you hold that empathy to the situation. You can understand where the customer is coming from.
When I first started out in my career, I'd been a lit major in college so I didn't have a lot of choices. The traditional options were management consultant or investment banking, and I hadn't even taken an economics class so those were pretty much out. I didn't want to go into academia. For me, research and instinct were my unique tools that seemed to work best on a marketing and merchandizing path. It's kind of right-brain and left-brain.
It's important to look for mentors all around you.
