Dana Ryan: Why Natural Talent Is A Myth For Success In STEM And Tech

As a part of my series about “Lessons From Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dana Ryan.

Dana Ryan is the General Manager of Global Accounts within Lenovo’s Solutions and Services Group. She is responsible for the end-to-end management and growth of Lenovo’s global services footprint across all industries for Fortune 500 companies and global system integrators. Her scope also extends to Lenovo’s as-a-service platform, supporting these customers in their digital transformation journeys and driving industry solutions. Prior to her current role, Dana held leadership positions in Lenovo’s Data Center Group and Global Accounts businesses. She joined Lenovo in 2014 from IBM where she led teams in the delivery of strategic enterprise solutions into both major and growth markets. Dana has over 20 years of experience supporting Fortune 500 technology companies within the enterprise IT solution space across manufacturing, finance, telecommunications, retail, technology, healthcare, and the public sector. Dana holds a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University and lives in Michigan with her husband and two active children where she enjoys sports, reading, volunteering and family hikes with their 6-year-old English Labrador.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I have always been interested in innovative technologies and how it impacts our daily lives. I was connected into IBM from a friend many years ago, but I like to think it was the universe aligning my interests in technology and strengths in building relationships that brought me into this career path.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Lenovo stands out because of our investment in people. We are dedicated to our employees, customers, and partners. Everything we do is to lead the change we want to see in the world from driving diversity and inclusion, helping companies reach their sustainability goals and creating solutions that drive business outcomes for our customers. During the pandemic, we have helped communities around the world with donations, providing product and services to support companies developing the vaccinations and providing services and solutions to help our customers when working and learning from home. I also am proud that Lenovo recognized we wanted to do better with our Diversity & Inclusion goals. We decided to publicly state our goals and report on our progress annually. I love that we are holding ourselves accountable!

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

I’m working on many exciting projects and love that they are centered around helping our customers deliver business results. We are continuing to invest in our Smart Verticals solutions, as part of Lenovo’s “3S Strategy,” that we design based on customer input to address specific industry needs in retail, manufacturing, telco and education. This service-led transformation will ensure Lenovo can meet the needs of individual workers and students as well as large organizations as they utilize and depend on technology more and more. Our vision is to provide smarter technology for all in every market where we operate and serve customers.

Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Are you currently satisfied with the status quo regarding women in STEM? What specific changes do you think are needed to change the status quo?

I am not satisfied with the status quo regarding women in STEM. We need to attract young girls to math, science, and technology at a very early age so they can build the confidence in their abilities to choose any field of interest as they progress through their schooling. We need to teach our children to be curious about how things work and to think about how to make things better.

Lenovo remains committed to diversity and inclusion through its internal organizations such as Black Leaders Achieving Success in Technology and the Mosaic Leadership Development Program. To change the status quo, people and organizations alike will need to remain committed to DE&I efforts with a plan in place to achieve true equity. This includes a pipeline for women in STEM.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women in STEM or Tech that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts? What would you suggest to address this?

Women with direct leadership styles can sometimes be described as aggressive or emotional when they are just being passionate. My suggestion is to embrace it — own who you are, be authentic and do not apologize. State your leadership style out loud and wear it proud!

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a woman in STEM or Tech. Can you explain what you mean?

It is a myth that it requires natural talent and a strong inclination toward STEM to be successful in STEM. It requires passion, drive and effort to be successful in anything, including STEM. There is no natural talent required, just put in the effort and you will succeed.

What are your “5 Leadership Lessons I Learned From My Experience as a Woman in STEM or Tech” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)

Be a servant leader. You will achieve great success when you serve others versus yourself. Customer and employee satisfaction are my number one priority. I pour my energy into making them successful, which in turn drives growth, success and personal pride for my business.

Recognize areas of development and put yourself in situations to grow. When I was a salesperson, I asked for special approval to attend the annual conference that trained the technical sellers every year. I recognized that I wanted a better understanding of how things worked so I could best support my customers.

One of the leadership lessons I have learned is the power of reflection. In Lenovo, we have a practice called Fu Pan. Fu Pan is a Chinese term borrowed from the game of chess (weiqi) which translates into replaying the chess board or analyzing the moves you’ve made so you can do better the next time. We also use this process to reflect when things go well so we can take all learnings and incorporate them into future actions.

Be a sponsor. I take personal responsibility to recognize and grow female talent within Lenovo. When I recognize talent, I proactively reach out to create a relationship so I can help them develop and progress in their careers. The best reward is seeing someone you have helped drive success for the company and achieve their personal goals.

Always start with why. Ask yourself, why is this important, why do I care and why will this help my customer or my business. I was asked to move into a role several years ago and learned that my mission wasn’t something I thought was good for the company. I asked the whys and then used that to build a strategy to invest in other areas that would drive faster growth. In order to believe in something, you need understand the value and you do this by asking the whys. Once you are a believer, you will put the time and energy in to drive success.

What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?

Lift as you climb! Lift your team up. Recognize talent and offer to sponsor them in the organization. Treat your team as the CEO of their business, let them own operations end-to-end and leverage you to block and tackle when they need help. At Lenovo, we offer women a platform to learn from others and create change in the organization by pairing some of our talented, rising female employees with other leaders in the business, enabling a symbiotic learning opportunity for everyone.

What advice would you give to other women leaders about the best way to manage a large team?

It starts with hiring and building the right team. Know your strengths and do not hire people who are just like you. Hire diverse candidates that have strengths in your development areas so you can learn from them; they will bring diversity in thought, experience, and business function to your organization. Also, you need to trust your team to own and manage the business their way and help when needed.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person whom you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I had a colleague very early in my career that recognized my ability to build trusted relationships with customers in my services delivery role. The strength he saw in me led him to connect me into the sales organization, which I had never considered. Today, I pride myself on building customer relationships that deliver:

Business outcomes for customers’ success

Augmented offerings for customers

Increased customer productivity

Financial growth and cost savings for customers

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

Some of our company’s principles revolve around service whether it is serving our customers, or team colleagues through teamwork. Service is a principle we can all carry throughout our lives. I think it would be awesome if everyone 10 years of age and older were required to volunteer one hour of time to a non-profit per quarter. Think about what humanity would look like if people realized and appreciated the value of giving versus receiving.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My favorite life lesson quote is an oldie but goodie. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” I’m a curious person by nature so I want to learn how things work. I try to lead this way in helping my team and even teaching my children to be the CEO of their schoolwork and bedrooms.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why?

Warren Buffett. He is a brilliant business leader, investor, and philanthropist. I admire how he walks the talk; he lives his life in a way that supports his philanthropic mission.