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Submarines, Code, and Women in Leadership: Spotlight on Kristin Platzer

KP
Feb 10
5 min read

The first in our "Spotlight Series", where we profile incredible women in leadership and share their stories.

It’s a frigid Saturday afternoon when Kristin Platzer and I begin our conversation. Outside my window, the snow has hardened into ice, but the sun come through the upper windows of the office, filtering through the multi-sided crystal orbs, casting mini rainbows on the walls.

Kristin’s voice is round and calm, full of life and warmth. She laughs with a sincerity that makes me feel warm despite the outside. She is talking to me from her home in upstate Washington, where she works remotely as a lead software developer. We are in similar industries, both tech, and while we have not worked together directly, our paths have crossed through our mutual connections. She and her team have the difficult task of coding a highly complex and customizable product for customers in distribution and manufacturing. We dive right in.

I ask Kristin to share about her career journey as an entry-level developer that rose very quickly from mid- to senior- to team lead to dev manager in a few short years. She had been part of a small, close-knit company that eventually was purchased by a larger company and many of her team members were let go as part of the integration. As I would come to learn throughout our discussion, Kristin values people and the work she does with them greatly, so the change in the team makeup was a challenge to which to adjust. Throughout it all, she says the key to working through this challenge has been to focus on the people and mutual respect.

Kristin describes her leadership stye as “hands-on” with a focus on individual face time to build trust in the relationship. She describes a process she calls “Peer Programming” where developers work together through a task and troubleshoot. This gives the team a “sense of co-working and bonding”, and it also serves as way for her to be available to her team members to ask questions and work through problems. Kristin relates to me that early on in her career, she was often afraid of asking questions for fear of looking stupid (something we all have felt, I’m afraid), but has learned that helps no one, especially herself. By creating an approachable team environment, Kristin helps others in her team feel comfortable to pose those questions, judgement-free. An added bonus, she says, “is that it gives people an opportunity to tap into each others’ intelligence, creativity, and personality”, and she always learns something in the process as well.

Leadership is easy when everything is going well, but what about when you have a difficult situation to face? I ask. The story Kristin shares next is an incredible lesson in empathy and understanding. Kristin was hiring for a developer on her team and had several candidates that were eligible. One candidate in particular was a second-career developer, having gone back to school to learn how to code after pivoting from a long stint in another area of expertise. Kristin hired this candidate, and found that although they were very eager to learn, the pace of the role didn’t quite align with their work style. Instead of simply giving up and firing this person, Kristin made an effort to help them find another role in the company that was more suited to their skillset and aptitude. By taking a little extra time and effort, Kristin was able to help transform the professional trajectory of someone in a positive direction, something of which she should be proud.

When I probe Kristin further on her leadership style and what examples she emulates, the importance of being a humble human emerges. Specifically, Kristin mentions having a high EQ and vulnerability as two key things she both tries to exhibit and looks for in leaders to which she looks up. “Just being a person, a human, and compassionate” are so important to getting buy-in from team members and the organization at large, Kristin says in talking about a leader she admires. “Setting the precedent that we don’t know everything as managers and it is incredibly valuable for all to bounce ideas off each other,” she continued.

Shifting gears a bit, I ask Kristin about her experience as a woman specifically in a tech role and industry. She laughs nervously and says, “I was afraid of that question, I wasn’t sure if I would have anything to contribute,” (a feeling also common to many of us women). But for Kristin, her reasons surprised me, in a very positive way. She goes on to explain that she has been really fortunate to have worked in small, supportive company with progressive values and strong women in leadership. She feels she hasn’t “had it bad”. To which I said, “That is amazing! Tell me more!” Examples of where things have gone right can be such helpful roadmaps to creating inclusive cultures.

“To foster women in leadership,” Kristin tells me, “The people have to come first, and it has to be part of the DNA where everyone is empowered and everyone has a voice, not just the managers.” One of the things that stands out to Kristin is that every person was required to watch a video about a submarine. Not the Yellow Submarine (although that would have been fun), but a nuclear submarine that was ranked the highest ever in its inspections by the US Navy. What did this submarine captain do that set his ship and crew so vastly apart from the rest? He empowered his crew to make decisions based on the intent of what they needed to accomplish. This captain was not giving orders; instead, he was giving his crew the freedom to be the experts in their roles and execute the highest of their collective ability - not just the highest ability of one person, the captain. This fundamentally changes the responsibility of the organization from top-down to people-first. (Watch the full video here - it will be worth your time).

In Kristin’s view, in order to foster gender equity in the workplace, the burden falls on us all to set the example for being respectful to everyone, where people feel welcomed from the outset. Additionally, she explains that inclusion task forces can be helpful in furthering a company’s individual needs for their employees. These things together she feels worked to create an environment that was productive for women in leadership.

As a woman in tech, Kristin has also been one of the youngest, if not the youngest, person in the room. When she first started her leadership role, she told me that she was quite shy and unsure of her value-add to the conversation in management meetings. (Hello, Imposter Syndrome!) She quickly found that the things she wanted to say were often said by someone else, validating that she really did know what she was talking about, and she should feel confident to jump in. Now she asserts, “don’t limit your voice”, or let Imposter Syndrome dictate your actions.

Kristin has already succeeded in ways many haven’t, and still has an incredible career ahead of her, but looking back over the years so far, she had some advice to share with others. For those starting out, “put trust in mentors and take feedback,” it all leads to adding to your confidence. Add confidence to competence and you have a dangerous combination setting you up for success. “Trust people you respect and take it to heart” Kristin continues, especially for the day-to-day work and challenges. And in those challenging times, “rise to the occasion” and “take it on”. To sum up the wisdom of a woman far beyond her years, Kristin believes in truly being your best self. And for Kristin, those standards are sky high.