Women are now breaking through the barriers and leading the rapid growth of technology. This was not always the case, and many of the women who broke the glass ceiling early on are now mentoring and sponsoring other women to be the future visionaries of technology.

Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), cohost of theCUBE on the Ground, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, interviewed Michele D. Guel, distinguished engineer and chief security architect at Cisco Systems, Inc., at the recent Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Awards, where she won the Leadership Award.

An epiphany in the lady’s room

Looking for her perspective on the changing roles of tech and engineering, Guel commented about one of the first times she realized more women were joining the technology rank and file.

“Back when I started in the stone ages, in the late eighties and early nineties, literally, I was the only female in the room for so many conferences and events. It was about 2010-2011, I was running a conference and I went to the lady’s room during a break, and we all had an epiphany; there was a line for the first time. We all looked at each other and said, ‘We’ve arrived! There’s a line for the first time.’

“More recently, the big change I have seen is keeping women interested in technology. I mean they’re just as gifted; they’re just as talented. Women are wired for different things, and so I think we can really come along together with the men in partnership. I’ve seen the trenches where women are starting to support other women. I think earlier on it was more like competition … and now, for the most part, we’ve realized if we come together as a team and support each other, we encourage each other, that as a community we are able to make more strides and we are able to encourage the Millennials and even middle school girls. We still have a lot of work to do. Companies have a lot of work to do. We need male advocates as well. It’s all about community and supporting and encouraging one another.”

A vision of the future

The Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision is a gala awards banquet that honors those women who make significant contributions to technology. Guel won the Leadership Award, and Frick asked her how it felt to be honored by the Anita Borg Institute.

“That’s what’s so awesome about this organization. This particular Gala Awards, it’s big for a reason. There’s a lot of media for a reason. There’s Twitter, there’s Facebook and there is social media to get the word out to those young ladies that there are tremendous opportunities and, ‘You can be up here too.’ The way I encourage the ladies that I mentor is, you need to show them what’s possible and encourage in these situations. So that’s why I’m honored about tonight.

“I really think the winners are just a small part of it. It’s about us standing on the stage and being role models for all those people in the audience … [who are thinking] ‘Wow, I want to aspire to be that.’ To me, that is what Anita Borg and Grace Hopper is about.”

Mentorship vs. sponsorship

When asked about the difference between mentorship and sponsorship, Guel talked about the programs at Cisco and expressed the importance of both.

“Cisco does have a very focused effort in the area, because Cisco leadership realizes that the whole diversity, equality, moving the needle is of the utmost importance. I think men kind of naturally tend to talk with one another, encourage one another, and women are a bit more quiet.

“We do have formal mentorship programs. I am a founder of a community where we reach out to mentors. Mentorship is about fanning the flames … igniting the spark, encouraging them, guiding them to a path where they want to be. Sponsorship is when you are really dedicated, that you’re going to a person who is ready for the next level and you’re going to sponsor them, give them visibility opportunities, let them meet other people, leaders to really get them up the ladder. We need both. We can’t just have a lot of mentorships and no sponsorships.”

Before the bathroom line got longer

Guel has a long history in technology, and Frick asked her to speak about the passion that fueled her to break down barriers in order to achieve success.

“I was kind of always wired to just want to be able to succeed. … I’ve been in my career for 30 years. I had kind of a struggle early on, but my start in the cyber security industry was the Morris worm event. I was at NASA’s Ames Research Center, and I had this ‘I want to make something happen, I want to learn’ [attitude]. And what really catapulted my career was I did get a mentor, and I have that mentor to this day 25 years later, Alan Paller, founder of the SANS Institute, now one of the world’s largest, most successful security training organizations.”

“So I know the importance of the mentor. I value that relationship. I’ve had other mentors and even sponsors along the way, even someone I mentored before that, later on, becomes the mentor bee and actually tells me back some of my stories I used to tell him … we all need that encouragement. So, part of it was natural wiring, and really part of it was having a mentor and sponsorship to give me a platform to learn, grow, make mistakes and, you know, push me out of my comfort zone.”

A short tip of encouragement

Guel closed the interview with the following tip:

“I tell people you’ve got to go bold, be bold, get connected and believe you can do it, because you can. And we’re all going to be there to support you.”

Watch the entire interview below with Michele D. Guel to find out more.

Photo by SiliconANGLE