9. Command Attention

—Diana Ruddick (Leading Life Insurance Firm)

It's hard to get noticed. Even if you're hard-working and intelligent, managers don't always notice you. That's because managers are only human: They can overlook people who don't fit their picture of success. Diana Ruddick shows how you can command attention and work your way up the ladder, even if you're not what your boss considers to be leadership material. Diana's story isn't just for women: Men can learn from her because anyone can get stuck in a certain task or department where they are sidelined and never promoted. "It's easy to get classified as a 'process' person—someone who is good at something," says Diana, "but you have to go further and see the big picture." Her knack of seeing the big picture—and commanding the attention of her bosses—helped her advance through the ranks from insurance claims processor at a major health insurer to vice president of a leading life insurance carrier.

"I never got sucked into a really technical role," Diana says. "I had the opportunity to do this, but I didn't want to be cast as someone who was a process person. I found that leadership was a lot more fun."

However, at first, neither her bosses nor her coworkers saw her as someone who could be a leader. Diana's story isn't like Kevin Noland's (Chapter 6, "Be Distinct or Be Extinct"), who wowed people with his computer programming skills and enrolled in GE's management trainee program. Diana impressed people with her efficiency as a claims processor, but no one offered her a management trainee slot. And there were other obstacles: Coworkers disrespected her when she was supposed to supervise them, and one boss actually laughed when she asked for a promotion. But instead of letting them drag her down, Diana commanded their respect and ended up getting leadership roles—and doing very well at them.

What's so inspiring about Diana is that even though she had a few knocks early in her career, she kept at it and eventually changed people's opinions—and she didn't become bitter. Even though she wasn't offered her first opportunities, she pushed until she convinced people she could handle being a leader. Then, when she was recognized as a valuable go-to person, Diana worked to change her industry to make it easier for other women to command attention as well. Instead of souring her, those early knocks became Diana's inspiration to be the kind of leader who helps people better their job performance.

Starting from Scratch

Her first job, processing claims at a health insurer field office was just a way to bring in some extra cash when Diana was looking for a way to supplement her husband's income. After a few weeks on the job, she found there were a lot of jobs she could do at the health insurance company that she'd never dreamed of.

For instance, when Diana's supervisor quit, there was an opening for a claims processor to manage the unit. Several people had been there longer than Diana, but none of them wanted the job. So even though she was the low man, Diana went to the manager and asked to put her hat in the ring. "I figured he could tell me I'm not qualified or I could get the job," recalls Diana, who did get the job. But the promotion was a mixed blessing: Her former coworkers copped an attitude and ostracized her for her ambition. "It seemed like it took forever for these people to speak to me," Diana recalls.

Here's where Diana came upon her philosophy of leadership. She knew very well that the people she was supervising knew their jobs better than she did—they'd been there longer. And she understood their resentment. So she didn't bluff; instead, she admitted that they knew their jobs and commanded their attention with charming honesty and firmness. She sat down and said, "Look, here are the things that I can do for you as your leader. My job is to break down barriers, help you get what you want, help you get things done, help you solve problems that you think are insoluble. My job isn't to tell you how to do your job if I think you're doing it well."

And for good measure, Diana went to her boss and asked to have the person who continued to undermine her removed from the unit. Very assertive.

Diana led her unit as a problem-solver and learned a valuable lesson that she used throughout her career: It's more important for a manager to learn about leading people than to know the minutiae of a job. Her coworkers in the claims-processing unit, for instance, were good at their claims-processing jobs, but they didn't have the desire to be leaders—to be the ones to take responsibility and solve problems. Being a newbie was actually an advantage because Diana wasn't tempted to micromanage. "Often, what happens is the best technicians get promoted to where they're supervising others, but they still want to do things," Diana says. "So they're breathing down people's necks, not leaving them alone to do their jobs, not delegating. I have no problem letting people get their hands dirty. My job is to see the big picture."

While Diana scored a big victory in getting people to take her seriously, her battles weren't over.

Underestimating Obstacles

Next Diana heard of an opening for a claims investigator. Typically, the health insurer hired recent college graduates for the job and groomed them to manage claim offices. It sounded like a cool job. But when Diana told her boss she'd like to apply for the position, he laughed. "He didn't take me seriously and hired someone who knew nothing and expected me to train this guy," Diana recalls. "He said, 'It's not a job for women.'" So Diana marched to the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), the federal agency in charge of enforcing civil rights laws. She could have asked for reparations, such as back pay, but all she asked for was to be considered for the job. Diana ended up getting hired, and both she and the man who'd been hired were trained together. (Eventually, when another opening came up, the man moved and took that job.)

The job, it turned out, was fun. "It was interesting because I wasn't chained to a desk every day," Diana says. Her job was to interview people on disability to see if they truly had the injuries they claimed to have.

As she had hoped, that claims investigator job led to more responsibilities and promotions and landed her in the managed care unit of the insurance company's home office. But then her momentum slowed. That's because the managed care unit she'd worked so hard to get promoted into was a very price-sensitive business. And it was at the time when HMOs (health maintenance organizations) were replacing more traditional plans. So Diana found much of her job was about her taking the heat when employees found out what their insurance didn't cover. "It wasn't very rewarding," Diana recalls. "You climb the ladder of success and realize you're leaning against the wrong building."

Getting sidelined in an unexciting, low-growth part of the company is something that happens quite often to people. It might even be an obstacle you're facing right now or will face sometime in the future. If and when you find yourself sidelined, it's important to realize it's not the end of your career—it's just another obstacle to overcome.

That's how Diana looked at it. She continued doing a good job, continued commanding attention, and got noticed—this time outside of her company. A headhunter called and recruited her for a job at a smaller life insurance company. Even though she'd never heard of the new company, the new job represented a chance to get out of a rut. It just goes to show that if you make a name for yourself in one company—but your employer doesn't continue to challenge you with rewarding work—the solution might be to pack up and take your talents to a smaller company doing something slightly different.

Working at a smaller company, Diana had many opportunities to get noticed. For instance, at her first employer she'd been assigned to JCPenney's managed care program, which covered about 70,000 employees. At her new company, the group life and health business was trying to sign up employers with 100 employees or more. Diana knew how to help her new company get the business it wanted, and she dug into the job. After a time, she was running the group health and life unit at her new employer and traveled overseas to set up the company's Ireland subsidiary. Diana's skills got her noticed and promoted up to second vice president. And then something else came along.

Building Momentum—Helpfully

We all get comfortable in our jobs, yet Diana shows how rewarding it can be to accept change and new challenges. Working in the health insurance field had been her whole career. And her employer had given her opportunities to command attention across all its different business units. She'd sat on a leadership board with the man who ran the company's individual life insurance business. Out of the blue, he called and said, "Are you open to a different career opportunity?" Her new boss-to-be said her ability as a good leader and communicator was what he needed, and he wanted someone with a different perspective who would ask, "Why are we doing this?"

But the move had its risks. For one thing, Diana had never heard of anyone who jumped from health insurance to life insurance so late in their careers. Second of all, she wasn't sure she understood the life insurance business: "I didn't know anything about life insurance except that I had it." Still, the opportunity was attractive, so Diana jumped.

At first, Diana spent her time learning the business and the financial drivers behind the life insurance industry and learning what the problems were. A big part of her job was to be a liaison between the company and the independent agents who sold the company's life insurance. She got to know the agents, set up annual conferences for them to attend, and found a glaring omission: Very few women were selling life insurance.

The way she saw it, recruiting productive agents—men or women—is very important to the life insurance business, and not having many women agents meant that her employer was missing out on 50 percent of its possible recruits. Life insurance sales seemed like a wonderful business for women, who usually have great listening and problem-solving skills, Diana reasoned. So why weren't women attracted to this business?

She asked her employer for $250,000 to start various women's initiatives, and without many details, her boss gave it to her. By then she had a reputation as a problem-solver who makes things happen, and she didn't need to explain herself. Then she gathered up seven women to explore the barriers that kept women from getting into life insurance sales. She treated the group as an incubator for ideas, trying to break the code on this issue of the lack of women agents. It was a bold move.

And like many bold moves, it paid off. That first group became a women's advisory board that helped advise her employer on issues such as how the company appears to women, how to improve its marketing materials, and how to provide support to women agents. The program is still alive and well, and there are now 13 advisory boards throughout the country in markets that Diana hand-picks. These boards sponsor projects to improve financial literacy among women and girls in each community where they are active. They also act as mentors to women insurance agents.

Once a year, Diana and the chairs of the advisory boards get together and give the company feedback on its advertising and marketing materials. "They've become part of our company family, and they've become great friends of mine as well," Diana says. "I can call these women and say, 'Hey, I need a favor,' and they'll drop everything and help."

As she learned early in her career, helping others do their jobs is the best way to lead: "If you're going to survive and be effective in a large company, you have to help other people get what they want. Because sooner or later you're going to have to call on them to get what you want."

Taking the Next Leap

Diana loves where she is in her career, and it's not just because of the money. It's because she commands attention and respect. Not only does she have the eternal gratitude of her boss, she has something that money can't buy: "The real gratifying part is I have a reputation in the company. I've been here now long enough that I know a lot of people and I have a lot of influence. To me that's as important as anything."

For example, as vice president of communications, she has a seat at the table of the agent's association, which includes all the agents who sell her employer's insurance in the field. Although they're not technically employees, they need to know important information about the company's strategy—and they need to weigh in on it with their opinions. Once a year, Diana organizes a huge assembly of all the field agents, and it's something she looks forward to each year. "That's really the funnel through which we get intelligence, products of competitors, what customers want; it's really a way for us to keep our career agency system vibrant and healthy," she says. What happens in those groups is crucial to the future of the company, and Diana loves the work.

So far, the advisory boards that Diana set up have raised awareness and helped increase the number of women agents from 10 percent of the field force to 16 percent—and it's also helped build business for her employer. For example, a woman general agent in the D.C. area was trying to open markets for her agents in the area's small businesses and put together a video seminar to illustrate problem-solving for family-owned businesses. When the seminar was unveiled to the advisory board, one of the members was the CEO of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce. The CEO was so impressed with the seminar that she wanted it presented to her Chamber. "In one fell swoop, the general agent got access to the 3,000-member companies of the greater Washington, D.C. Chamber of Commerce, and not just women-owned business," Diana explains. "The ripple effect from these advisory boards is very great."

Diana has come a long way from her days as a claims processor who got the silent treatment from her staff, and she's never forgotten that her first job as a leader is to help people. Diana says she loves her job so much that someday she may "rewire" and cut down on her hours, but she could never see herself retiring. She loves having her finger on the company's pulse, and she loves putting together the annual agent meetings: "It's like having a party for 3,000 of my closest friends." When you push the envelope and command attention, the sky's the limit.