How CTO at Carbon Health Built Executive Presence
Claire Hough brings 20+ years of experience as a seasoned technology leader to her role as CTO of Carbon Health. Carbon Health's mission to democratize healthcare through technology innovations attracted Claire to join the company early this year. In 2016, Claire was named one of the San Francisco Business Times' Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business. In this blog, you will learn how Claire has built an authentic executive presence as well as her guiding management tips and philosophies for ensuring equity within her teams.
Pathway to Leadership
Can you share a bit about your career journey to leadership as a Chief Technology Officer?
After working as a software engineer for several years, I was asked to move into a leadership role, but not for the right reasons. I knew the product well and I knew how to get things done, but I had no idea how to be a good manager. I made a lot of mistakes as a first-time manager when it came to people management, but I knew how to build a strong team that consistently delivered new products, a valuable skill set in a startup environment.
I was recruited to Netscape by a staffing manager I worked with previously. She knew I would fit in well with the fast-moving startup. I did have an amazing experience of iterating on new ideas fast while working with many talented engineers at Netscape. I also got an opportunity to manage the managers as the company grew. Again, I made a lot of mistakes as a second-level manager. I didn’t know how to coach first-time managers and guide them to success. As a result of my struggles as an engineering leader, I am a strong supporter of joining communities and mentoring engineering leaders. It makes all the difference to have a mentor or a buddy that you can rely on to give you impartial feedback.
I worked at several startups since Netscape as an engineering leader. I gradually became a better leader by recognizing my own motivation of being an engineering leader. I love seeing people achieve amazing results often beyond their own imaginations. Because of the joy I found in contributing to the growth of others while continuing my own growth as a leader, I stayed in tech, eventually earning recognition as CTO.
Can you describe a few key moments/choices in your career that led you to a leadership role at Carbon Health?
I met Eren Bali, CEO and founder of Carbon Health, in 2013, when he was CEO and founder of Udemy. Eren shared with me his story of why he started Udemy. He grew up in Malatia, Turkey where all children in K-12 were taught in a two-room schoolhouse. Eren attributes his success to his parents who spent half of their life savings on a computer and internet service for him and his sisters when he was fourteen. His interests in math led him to study higher math beyond his years at school, which encouraged him to compete in the International Math Olympiad, where he received accolades. He earned himself a scholarship to prep-school and landed a place in one of the most prestigious technical universities in Turkey. Upon his graduation from Middle East Technical University, Eren started the first version of Udemy in Turkey with the goal of making education accessible to anyone who wants to learn. He wanted others to have the opportunities he had.
Eren’s personal story touched me. As a first-generation immigrant myself, I know how important education is. I was given many opportunities from the get-go because I had degrees from UC Berkeley. I felt transforming people’s lives through learning is a mission worth getting on board. I enjoyed working at Udemy for five years while the company grew from 35 to 450 people, serving over 40 M students around the world.
My first meeting with Eren and the connection we established by sharing our experiences eventually led me to Carbon Health, a healthcare technology company with a mission of making high-quality healthcare more accessible to all.
What has been your most challenging leadership moment? How did you overcome it?
I think I learned the weight of my leadership responsibilities as I attended a 4-part interactive diversity and inclusion workshop series. What I learned in those workshops heightened my awareness of all the ways people can feel marginalized and unsafe in a workplace. I reflected a lot on my own unchecked biases that may have hurt others in the past and I felt very stressed about them.
As a female tech leader who has been around for a long time, I have faced biases myself, but many do not have the privileges I have had in my career. I felt disheartened to learn more about the experiences of others in less privileged positions encountering those situations. It is difficult to undo the mistakes of the past. The way I can make up for my mistakes is to be a better, more aware, inclusive leader. I commit to continue educating myself and others to raise the awareness of different experiences, embrace diversity, and champion inclusion.
Building Your Leadership Brand + Executive Presence
Over time, how have you continued to build your executive presence?
Early in my career, I was told that I wear my feelings on my sleeve. Even though the feedback was given as a compliment, I felt I shouldn’t show my feelings too much in meetings. Although I tried, I always had a difficult time concealing my emotions. I believe I am a better leader because my emotions drive me to be more empathetic and approachable.
I am not sure I can speak too much about “building executive presence”. I want to be accepted for who I am wherever I work. I speak directly and honestly in meetings. I express strong opinions loosely held. I am always open to hearing other perspectives. I care about the people I work with. I hope this is one way of building an executive presence.
“Although I tried, I always had a difficult time concealing my emotions. I believe I am a better leader because my emotions drive me to be more empathetic and approachable.”
How do you prepare and build your confidence when leading a meeting or presentation? Any strategies or tips?
I have more confidence going into a meeting when I am better prepared. If you are leading a meeting, write down the goals you have for the meeting- what you may want to achieve. Share the agenda in advance. Facilitate the meeting toward meeting those goals, allow everyone to speak and contribute, and take action items to follow up. If you are attending a meeting with an agenda, prepare your contribution in advance with facts, data, and clear recommendations.
For presentations, more practice breathes more confidence, IMHO. Practice with your allies as many times as you can. Take their feedback and iterate on content and delivery. Take a deep breath and tell yourself “you CAN”. Remember everyone has their own fears of presenting!
How have you developed your leadership brand? When first transitioning into a leadership role, what did you want to be known for?
I believe my brand is my experience and my track record: a startup technology leader who can build and scale a team while fostering an amazing engineering culture. I am an engineering leader. I don’t do brands well.
If I had to do it all over again, I would have wanted to be known for vulnerability, approachability, flexibility, and open-mindedness. I commit to learning continuously using everyone’s feedback as fuel. In return, I try to contribute to the growth of all those around me by giving direct feedback with genuine care.
Diversity + Inclusion
Have you faced any challenges in developing and implementing your leadership brand and style?
People who do not know me well may view my direct communication style as “blunt”. I learned to modulate my “bluntness” when I communicate with those who do not know me well. Kim Scott’s book “Radical Candor” taught me to care personally and establish trusting relationships first. It takes time and commitment to establish those relationships. It is a big challenge especially when you join a new organization, but I get so much out of learning from people’s backgrounds and experiences. Taking the time to get to know people and gaining a deeper understanding of their experiences allow both parties to communicate directly and effectively without fear of being misunderstood.
“Our leadership team decided to broaden the way we interview engineering candidates. The candidates can go through our standard tech interview process: one tech screening plus 3 tech interviews. We also offer choices like working on coding assignments at home, presenting their own projects, or coming on board as a contractor to deliver on small to medium size projects.”
How do you ensure you are building a diverse and inclusive team?
We have to work on building a diverse and inclusive organization every day. The work is never done. What I hope is that we as a team are committed to taking steps forward in our awareness and education of what it means to be diverse and inclusive. We must build diversity and inclusion into every aspect of our work: when we recruit, when we interview candidates, when we onboard new engineers, how we organize the teams, how we organize the projects, how we coach, how we evaluate, how we promote, etc. There are so many places where we can continue to improve.
For example, recently, our leadership team decided to broaden the way we interview engineering candidates. The candidates can go through our standard tech interview process: one tech screening plus 3 tech interviews. We also offer choices like working on coding assignments at home, presenting their own projects, or coming on board as a contractor to deliver on small to medium size projects.
Another example is that at Udemy, we had an internship program where engineers from non-traditional education backgrounds can join and work with us for 90 days. We would offer a permanent position if the internship was successful. Our success rate was 90%. Many of them were promoted to senior engineers within 3-4 years and continued their success beyond Udemy. I intend to champion similar programs at Carbon Health.
Are there any management tips or philosophies that you use to ensure equity within your teams?
Equity is measurable. We can measure how we are doing in hiring, how we pay, how people are progressing in the career ladder, the percentage of people in leadership roles, retention, and more. These are output metrics we should be mindful of because the metrics can only improve if you put in the hard work of improving all aspects of your work environment which are input to those metrics. For example, suppose your promotion metrics show the percentage of people promoted from under-represented groups is below the percentage of under-represented people you have across the organization. In that case, we need to dissect all activities leading to promotion and identify where there is inequity. Ultimately, we will need to change our behaviors that are contributing to those inequities. When you effectively create this feedback loop and continue to improve the metrics, you can make progress toward diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Claire will be sharing more about her experience at ModelExpand’s upcoming Women In Leadership Breakfast: How to Build Your Leadership Brand + Executive Presence. The ModelExpand Women In Leadership Breakfast Series provides a space for women to connect, inspire and uplift one another. Check out our upcoming events here or learn more about our sponsorship opportunities.
Carbon Health is hiring! View their open positions here.
ModelExpand: ModelExpand is an inclusive recruiting strategy firm that helps companies build diverse and inclusive workplaces through strategic consulting, workshops, and events.
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