Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: HP’s Sue Richards On The 5 Leadership Lessons She Learned From Her Experience

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

Sue Richards, HP’s Global Head of Print Microfluidics, Technology & Operations. Sue is responsible for leading the R&D print horizontal for HP Inc. where she helps create and develop platforms for future print opportunities. Most recently, she served as the Head of HPS Global R&D, leading research, product development and delivery for the Home Printing Solutions business including Page Wide Technology on behalf of Office Printing Solutions. Sue joined HP over 20 years ago as a manufacturing development engineer delivering HP’s first color Deskjet printer and cartridge to market.

Thank you for joining us in this intevriew series, Sue. Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company?

Over ten years ago, I was abroad for a press tour covering a new product launch into the market. As part of the press event, I was giving a technical explanation of the product features. One of the questions that I was asked was “Isn’t it funny (strange) that you are a woman technology leader?”

Clearly, it didn’t seem funny to me — or strange. But it did open up my eyes to the fact that I had been lucky to come up through the ranks at HP, a company where I always felt part of a team and valued and appreciated as a woman leader and technologist, and in a country where it was possible to be both. My father was an engineer, my sister was an engineer, and it seemed completely natural to consider a career path in engineering as I was growing up. It was a bit of an awakening, going into an environment where the press and social expectations found it such an oddity. That experience reinforced my commitment to engage with organizations to drive a pipeline of women into STEM fields, starting as early as grade school.

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

I joined HP in the summer of 1990 as a college intern when I was studying mechanical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Hard to believe this was over 30 years ago! The intern program was focused on getting interns from underrepresented groups, including women, into the STEM workforce to build a more diverse pipeline of talent. I immediately fell in love with HP’s culture during my internship because it was collaborative, team-focused, and promoted an environment of equality.

After my internship ended, I stayed close to family and worked in the automotive industry for a year, but I truly missed the environment at HP. I found myself back at HP, where I had the opportunity to continue to grow working on our (new at the time) inkjet printing business. Over the course of my career, I have had opportunities to re-invent my career multiple times. I had the unique opportunity to start up a new site and live in Puerto Rico for a year, multiple opportunities to travel and work on various global programs and projects in Ireland, Singapore, and the U.S., as well as hold different positions across management, R&D, marketing, and more. And now I’m leading HP’s print and microfluidics technology development business. With so many potential opportunities to invent in microfluidics into new application areas, it’s an exciting space to be in!

Ultimately, the combination of great culture and continued opportunities to work on innovative technologies has kept me at HP, and in this career, for the last three decades.

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

I am really excited to take our microfluidics capability at HP from the inkjet printing space into new spaces that support life sciences and healthcare applications. The HP D300e BioPrinter with inkjet printing technology is enabling automated laboratory dispensing to “print” samples for drug discovery and development instead of ink. The BioPrinter is being used by labs and pharmaceutical companies all over the world, including the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) in the Antibiotic Resistance (AR) Lab Network, to perform antimicrobial susceptibility testing for health departments and hospitals nationwide.

We have an opportunity to bring microfluidics to a space where it can make a large difference in the development and distribution of vaccines and therapies and we are partnering with top tier academic institutions and life science companies to make it a reality.

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 don’t think any of us should be satisfied with the status quo regarding the gender gap in STEM. There are still so many challenges women face, and for me, it’s important to educate, represent, and advocate for women to break down the existing barriers. We all have a part to play.

For example, one of the biggest issues for women, primarily those at the mid-career level, is the societal pressure to balance caregiving responsibilities for families, in addition to, or instead of, work. COVID-19 has exacerbated this trend, with over 2.2 million women leaving the workforce to provide childcare support and schooling to their kids during the pandemic.

Additionally, young females at the college level have gone through so much change & uncertainty over the last two academic school years. Many young learners fell behind given the shift to remote learning or weren’t able to secure internship and job opportunities with hiring freezes across many companies.

At the corporate level, companies need to prioritize attracting, recruiting AND retaining female talent in STEM (at all age levels), support mid-careers females by offering flexibility in terms when, how, and where they work, as well as ensure job-relevant training is available for women.

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?

I find that one of the biggest challenges women in STEM face, more-so than their male counterparts, is “Imposter Syndrome.” This is where women take themselves out of the running for greater responsibility because they feel internal doubt that they are qualified or good enough. I personally experienced imposter syndrome early on in my career, but I eventually realized that I could contribute in different ways across the business that aligned more with my “Native Genius” the further I got along.

Females are often trained to not self-promote, be polite, and operate under the banner of “There is no I in team.” But to effectively address imposter syndrome, some of the onus is on leadership to ensure we are providing female colleagues with the space to voice their point of view and express their unique leadership styles — whatever that may be. On top of this, I personally credit my mentors and sponsors in pushing me to take a chance on myself and go after opportunities or promotions that I originally thought I was unqualified for. Providing our female colleagues with positive recognition and affirm their value is a simple, yet often overlooked, solution.

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.

Don’t Limit Your Own Potential — In the middle of my career, I was asked to consider applying for a promotion after only nine months in a new position. I didn’t “feel” ready or qualified for the job, but I went ahead and applied for the position and was offered the job. I was able to grow and develop new skills that I needed even though I had doubted my own readiness.

Follow Your Native Genius — Identify your strengths and the things that keep you energized and engaged and use them to maximize your contributions for the benefit of the organization. Don’t play to your weaknesses, play to your strengths.

Mentorship is Great but Sponsorship is Critical — I didn’t understand this earlier in my career, perhaps because I didn’t ‘feel’ the difference. I began to see the difference when my sponsor started pushing me to take on stretch assignments and when he used his position to expose me to new opportunities. Now that I understand what it looks like, I invest more of my time sponsoring others and building the leaders of the future.

Build Diverse Teams — It is very important to have a diversity of voices and points of view on the team that are different from yours as a leader. In my experience in developing products or technology, the strength of the team comes in uncovering and addressing blind spots that can occur with group think. The more diverse background, experience and perspectives that can be brought to the team, the more powerful the outcome.

Build a School of Talent — Investing time to develop your organization and team will pay huge dividends for the future. In today’s dynamic environment, we are constantly being asked to learn new things. It is critical to keep the leadership teams aligned on the changes that are coming and armed with the tools and skills they need to adapt.

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

My leadership advice for other female leaders is to ensure their teams have internalized the diversity of experience levels, and engagement styles of their colleagues, as well as level of extroversion, to ensure all team members have the confidence to contribute their ideas equally.

For example, if you’re aware that a teammate is more introverted than others, one tactic might be to call on that person to create an opportunity for them to share their ideas or offer to create a safe space outside of the meeting, taking the time to coach them on how they can show up within their organization and team. Making an effort so that everyone feels heard, appreciated, and seen is fundamental to maintaining morale and building a strong, thriving team.

Also, I find that teams respond better when you lead with authenticity and transparency. I was more prone to mirroring the leadership style of my male colleagues earlier in my career, which was objectively more aggressive or demanding. I think this is because I had a perception that this is the way I had to be in order to survive or be respected in the corporate world. But I realized that my authentic way of leading is more empathic and vulnerable, and I’ve felt more comfortable with this approach as I’ve become more senior in my company.

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

I think with large teams, it’s incredibly important to make sure all team members have mentors and sponsors who understand their contributions and can advocate for them at work. Sometimes individuals can feel ‘lost’ within a big team, especially in a remote or hybrid environment, which is why it is so important to build a culture where people can celebrate and support each other so that no one feels underappreciated or overwhelmed.

And make sure you’re building teams made up of people who don’t necessarily think or look like you. For instance, I will often make it a point to add critical thinkers and pessimists to my staff since I have positivity as a key strength, and I tend to be more of an optimist and idealist. This has really helped me consider different points of view and integrate them into our strategies and plans.

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

I’ve had two leaders who used their influence and position to help me get to the next level in the organization. They pushed me outside of my comfort zone, created opportunities for senior leadership to see what I was capable of, gave me stretch assignments and tapped me to work on new strategic projects. They also encouraged me to take on new responsibilities that were outside of my domain knowledge: for example, after 20+ years in technology development, I pivoted and learned a whole new functional area of product management. Without the help and influence of these leaders, I would not be in the position that I am in today.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

When I first joined HP 30 years ago, there were no female technical executives at my current level. One of the things I’m most proud of, and one of the ways I’ve helped drive positive change within the wider industry, is simply showing up and being an example for other women and girls who want to pursue STEM careers.

Whether it’s advocating for closing the gender gap internally at HP, being involved with organizations such as the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) or being a mentor for Harvard’s Society of Graduate and Undergrad Women Coders, I’m very proud to be a visible female leader so that other women know it is achievable to succeed in this industry.

You are a person of 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?

If I could inspire a movement, I would like to instill a profound consideration of climate change in our actions and in how we design our future products and services. Climate change is the defining challenge of our generation and it demands immediate action and investment. The recent extreme weather has brought this into more focus as so many communities across the globe have been so deeply impacted with unprecedented events.

At HP, we have set ambitious goals to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions across our value chain by 2040, with a 50% reduction by the end of this decade. We are driving towards a fully regenerative economy while engineering the industry’s most sustainable portfolio of products and solutions. And we are committed to maintaining zero deforestation for HP paper and paper-based packaging and counteracting deforestation for non-HP paper used in our products and print services.

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

My favorite quote is from … surprise… David Packard: “Take risks. Ask big questions. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes; if you don’t make mistakes, you’re not reaching far enough.”

Over the years, this has morphed for me, especially with my kids, into: “He/(She) who does not challenge himself/(herself), does not improve.” In business and in life, being able to stretch your thinking, and even your physical limits, is a key part of how you can drive new strategies, new performance and out of the box thinking.

I never dreamed I would run my first marathon in my forties- I never considered myself an athlete, but if you set goals and reach far, those limits on what is “possible” will start to drop away.

We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. 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?

I would love to have breakfast with Melinda Gates. She is an inspiration in her drive to make the world a better place. I really admire her empathetic approach and the work she has been able to do, immersing herself with the communities she is serving to achieve a deep understanding of the issues they are facing. She has used her position to influence global action in a relatively short amount of time. I’ve been listening to her book Moment of Lift and I’m so impressed and humbled by what she is able to do.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.