ABC to CEO Interviews Shellye Archambeau

Sharon Fiehler: Welcome back to ABC to CEO “Preparing for the Possibility” Podcast. I'm Sharon Fiehler. We have a wonderful guest for you today that I am thrilled to have the opportunity to speak with. Shellye Archambeau is an amazing woman. You will love everything she has to say. I know it ahead of time. A Fortune 500 board member, former CEO of MetricStream, advisor and author. Shellye is an experienced CEO and board director with a track record of accomplishment building brands, high performance teams, and organization. She was ranked one of the one hundred most influential business leaders in America by Newsmax. 

She currently serves on the board of Verizon, very impressive, Roper Technologies, and Okta. She's also a strategic advisor to Forbes Ignite and an advisor to the President of Arizona State University, go ASU, and has over 30 years of experience in technology. She's the former CEO of MetricStream, a Silicon Valley based governance, risk, and compliance software company. During her tenure, MetricStream grew from a fledgling startup into a global market leader. What an impressive background and I've only read a portion of what I could have read here. You have an amazing list of accomplishments, Shellye, and we are thrilled to have you with us here today. 

Shellye Archambeau: Well, thanks so much, Sharon. I've been looking forward to the conversation. 

Sharon Fiehler: So, we are about preparing young women for this possibility of CEO, and you were one of the successes we all look up to. So, can you tell us a bit about your incredible journey and how you got there? 

Shellye Archambeau: [laughs] Certainly. Frankly, it started with a conversation with a high school guidance counselor. As simple as that sounds. 

Sharon Fiehler: Wow.

Shellye Archambeau: I was a junior in high school, and you know, you have that obligatory conversation with a guidance counselor, "Are you going to college," all that good stuff. And in my family, my father didn't have a college degree. My mom was a stay-at-home mom, and it was all about education. You get the best education you can, so you can go to the best college you can, so you can get a job. That was the path. Okay, so she says, "Well, are you going to college?" I said, "Yes." She said, "Well, what do you want to do when you graduate from college?" And I said, "Honestly, I have no idea, but I know I want to keep my thermostat at 72 degrees in the wintertime, I want to be able to eat out in restaurants, and I want to be able to travel." Those were all things that I couldn't do. [laughs] And she laughed, but I was actually dead serious. 

Then she said, "Well, what do you like to do?" And for this, I give her a ton of credit. I said, "Well, clubs." I'm in everything, American Field Service. I'm at National Honor Society. I'm in the French Club. I'm even a Girl Scout. Don't tell anybody, right? And she said, "Well, you know, business and clubs are kind of the same. You pull people together and get things done, so you probably like business." And I went, "Oh, well, you know I run these clubs. I'm president of the French Club and I'm head of the American Field Service and I'm vice president of this and I'm this." I said, "So, if clubs are like business and I like to run clubs, then I'd like to run a business, I assume." I looked up, and the people who ran businesses were called CEOs. So, I said, "All right, I'm going to go run a business." [laughs]  

Sharon Fiehler: I hope we get to spread this to so many young women. Can you tell us why being a CEO became important to you at that point? 

Shellye Archambeau: Certainly, because honestly, what I really enjoyed was working with teams of people and doing things. And frankly, I enjoyed leading, because I liked the ability to influence what we did. What I found is if I was leading, then I had a higher than just one vote input on what we did and what our priorities were. And frankly, I enjoyed that. I liked pulling people together, and I liked getting things done, and I liked organizing. So, all of that fit in. But I'll be honest with you. When I decided, "Okay, I'll go be CEO," I really didn't know what that meant. I was just like, "If it's like a club and like running a club, then that's what I'll go do." [Sharon laughs] Honestly, but the key is that just became a goal, and I just kept pursuing it, and it turns out I really did enjoy it. [laughs] 

Sharon Fiehler: What was your first role, and how did it evolve into what it became later? 

Shellye Archambeau: Right. Well, my first role was in sales. I'll tell you, it's not because I was like, "Ooh, I love sales, and I want to go ask for the order, and I want to be on commission, and I want to be--" No, it wasn't any of that. The reason I went into sales was because I'd done the research. I'm a big believer that I need to work on improving my odds to get what I want. As a black woman, I learned growing up, and very early that the odds were not in my favor. So, if I wanted to be a CEO-- When I looked up, and we're talking now in the-- I came out of high school at the end of the 1970s, college, early 1980s. So, when I looked up, I didn't see people running companies that look like me. 

Sharon Fiehler: Right.

Shellye Archambeau: I was interested in tech, because tech was a growing space, and I definitely didn't see people look like me. I even see women forget African-Americans. And so, I'm like, "All right, the odds aren't in my favor." So, how do I prove the odds? Well, the way I improve the odds is I do the research. I try to figure out, "All right, what has to be true for me to actually become a CEO because I had no idea." When I did the research, it turned out most CEOs-- I was focused on tech. Most CEOs at IBM, which was the biggest bohemian at the time, they started their careers in sales. So, I said, "All right, the way I have to improve my odds is I've got to start out in sales, because that must be the path to power." 

So, I tell people, "Don't take jobs because you love the job." You're not going to be in that job for 50 years. No, take jobs to build skills, so you can get the job you ultimately want. That's the key. So, this whole thing about sweating over, what's the first job. Don't sweat. You want to be in and out of that thing quick in a few years. Build skills. Don't worry about if it's the dream job or not. You're working towards the dream job. Build skills along the way. So, I will tell you, sales was the best thing I ever did. For the rest of my career and even to this day, I use more skills that I learned as a salesperson than any other job I've held. 

Sharon Fiehler: Right. Because you've got connections with your company and you've got connections with the customer. So, it's probably the ideal place to learn both about the company and the customer base all at the same time. 

Shellye Archambeau: Absolutely. But more than that, even Sharon, what you really learn in sales is that you have to ask for what you want, because nobody's going to walk in and just give you an order and put it in your lap. You have to ask. So, you learn how to ask, number one. Number two, you learn that getting a no, it doesn't mean no. It means something's not right. When people tell you no, it doesn't mean no forever. It means something's not right. So, now the job is to figure out what's not right and how do I fix it? Is it timing? Is it price? Is it value proposition? Is it delivery? You figure it out, so that you can make a no or yes.

Sharon Fiehler: Yes. 

Shellye Archambeau: Well, you can spend your whole career asking people for things, and you're going to get nos. So, learning that you don't get a no and go home, you get a no and say, "Really, why not?" [Sharon laughs] And then once you understand why not, you fix it and then you ask again, and it turns into a yes. So, those are just some of the examples of what you learn in sales. You learn the path to power, you learn how to read a wrong, you learn how to create win-win situations, so that you want X, I want Y. Okay, how do we get an X and a Y that where you get most of X and I get most of Y and we're both happy. You learn how to do that in sales. You need to compromise your whole life, personal and professional. So, anyway, I think sales is just a phenomenal place to build the skills that you need to do any job and create any career you want. 

Sharon Fiehler: What great knowledge. I have learned from you, here I am, past my main career. If I would have heard this 40 years ago, who knows how my career could-- I had a great career, don't get me wrong, but it didn't end up the way I really wished it maybe would have, which is the way yours did. And this, what you just said is amazing. I can use it today. We do a lot of things today, fundraising, for example. That's no fun for me. What I just heard you say, it's like, "Don't take no for an answer, figure out why." What great knowledge is all I can say. 

Shellye Archambeau: Good. I'm glad. 

Sharon Fiehler: So, what company were you with initially then? Was it IBM? 

Shellye Archambeau: It was IBM. I spent 14 years at IBM. Honestly, when I joined IBM, I thought, "Okay, this is a great company. I'll go be CEO of IBM." [laughs] I spent my entire career working towards that at IBM. I actually got to the point where I was running a multi-billion-dollar division over in Asia Pacific. I was living in Japan. My boss reported to Lou Gerstner, the CEO. There wasn't anyone higher than me in the company that looked like me. I had done really well, but I wasn't getting signs that I was truly going to get the opportunity to compete for a CEO job. 

Sharon Fiehler: Okay. 

Shellye Archambeau: That was my goal. You know I could have stayed. Here's one of the keys, really. I could have stayed at IBM. I would have had a great career. I would have been a senior executive. It would have been just fine, but that's it. It would have been fine. It wasn't my goal. So, I had to make a change, so that I could actually go after my goal, and that's what forced me to leave IBM and work my way towards Silicon Valley, where I was the Chief Marketing Officer and EVP of sales for two public companies before I got my opportunity to be CEO of MetricStream. So, the key here is as you're building your career, two things. One, set goals and put a timeline to them, because otherwise, you get comfortable. Trust me, you get comfortable. 

All of a sudden, you're not pushing quite as hard, you're doing the job, you're getting good feedback, and things are comfortable. But then you wake up and you're 32, 41, 55, and you're like, "Gosh, I'm just not where I thought I would be." So, set your goals, but put timelines to them such you can hold yourself accountable, because if things aren't tracking, then you want to find a different way to make them track, so that you can stay on path to what you're ultimately trying to achieve. So, always set timelines to things that you're doing. 

Number two, stay true to your goals. You'll get roadblocks, things will happen. The job won't open up, whatever might happen. But it's almost like going to the grocery store. You wouldn't get in your car, drive to the store, come to a roadblock. They're doing construction, park your car and wait. 

Sharon Fiehler: [laughs] I love that analogy. What a great analogy. 

Shellye Archambeau: Right? You also wouldn't turn around and go home. No, what do you do? You pull out your tools. You pull the GPS, you pull out your phone, you figure out a different way of getting there. Your career is the same way. There are going to be all kinds of construction, and roadblocks, and things in your way. Don't stop. Don't go home. Just figure out another way to get it done. 

Sharon Fiehler: Right. You did an international assignment. I think for a lot of young women, thinking about things that broad is so foreign to them. But do you think it really helped you with your career and helped you with your own confidence by taking that international assignment? 

Shellye Archambeau: Absolutely. So, first of all, the reason I took it, when you say took it, I also lobbied for it because I looked up. I'd done my research, got to do your research. All right, I looked at who are the people that report to the CEO? What were their career paths, the people who are actually running businesses? And it turned out every single one of them had done an international assignment. 

Sharon Fiehler: Wow.

Shellye Archambeau: Even though nobody tells you, you  have to do this, obviously, you have to do this. By the way, the majority of them had done it in Japan. So, I didn't know why Japan was big. It wasn't our biggest market. But for some reason, there's something about Japan. So, I just decided, "All right, I've got to go to Japan." And so, when people asked me, "What I was interested in," I said, " One day I want to do an international assignment in Japan." [laughs] And fortunately, several years later, I got that opportunity. 

But here's what you learn when you go overseas. Two big learnings. So, one is, you learn creativity. You learn how to work in a different environment with a different business culture, which all those things are important. But the other thing that I learned, which causes me to tell all women do an international assignment, because we grew up in an environment and I say grew up, I mean, career grew up, in an environment in which, for many of us, in many industries, we're one of the few women that are actually rising up and as leaders. So, we learn how to deal with a lot of stereotypes, discrimination, all kinds of negative innuendos. We learn to deal with a lot. 

Well, guess what? When you go overseas, and you're now in a different environment, a different culture, we're used to how to push through, how to be successful anyway. A lot of my male counterparts over in Japan, it was their first time that they walked into an environment where everything they'd done before their title didn't just carry them forward. They had to prove themselves all over again and they're not used to having to do that. We have to prove ourselves all over again every single time we show up in a new job. So, we're used to it. So, what I'll tell you is you have strengths that you don't even realize that can really pay off when you go international, because you know how to get things done anyway. 

Sharon Fiehler: Tell me a little bit about, is there some advice you could share for young women when they're faced with these kind of adversities for the first time? Because you're a woman, because you're African-American, because of this. How do you just put all that aside and get themselves through it the way you did?

Shellye Archambeau: The way that I always dealt with it, because I knew that when I walked into a room, people were going to assume that I was there for reasons other than my competence, all right? 

Sharon Fiehler: Mm-hmm. 

Shellye Archambeau: And so, I knew. Walking into any job, I had to prove myself. But the way I always treated it was, I'm a servant leader. So, when I took over a job, I didn't walk in to say, "Okay, I'm now the boss," blah, blah, blah. No, I didn't. I walked in with, "Okay, team. Here's what we need to get done. What challenges are you having? What problems can I solve?" My whole way I approach things is, how can I remove the roadblocks, make your job easier, get you the resources you need, so that you can be successful. Because if you're successful, I'm successful. What that does is it creates really strong teamwork, typically creates some good loyalty because you deliver on it. You know what? It works. You help people underneath you be successful, you are going to be successful. 

So, it's not about me. It was really all about them. And that was the same approach that I use when I show up in Japan was, "Okay, what are your challenges?" What can I do to help? You know your market better than I will ever know your market, because this is a new market to me. So, let me figure out how we do this together." That's my biggest advice. Just be a servant leader. Focus on your team on helping them be successful. And trust me, you will then be successful. 

Sharon Fiehler: I love that term, servant leader. I've never heard that before. When I've talked to, actually, young women and men in the past, and they talk about leadership, one of the things that I tell them is, "Look behind you to see if someone's following, because they have something to gain by following you." If you're a leader that helps them, they will follow. 

Shellye Archambeau: Oh, Sharon, I couldn't agree more. I tell people all the time, "A title does not make you a leader. You, people do. You don't need a title to be a leader." 

Sharon Fiehler: That's a very good point. So, you've done so many things. So, tell us a couple of things you're very proud of having done. What sticks in your mind that, I am really, really proud of this. Let me also diverge just a little bit here, your book, Unapologetically Ambitious. The title is amazing, and I'm sure everybody who's listening to this would love to read this book, because the insights you have are just amazing. As much as we've been talking now, reading this book is multiples of this. But maybe you can tell us a little bit about what you are very proud of. 

Shellye Archambeau: Yeah, I'm proud of a number of things. I am proud of the fact that I have an amazing family. I was able to help, raise with my husband, my late husband, two amazing children who grew up to be independent and self-confident and caring, which is all that I asked for, while also building my career and achieving the goals that I set for myself and that we set for our family. I'm proud of the fact that honestly, Unapologetically Ambitious, the book, when you sit down to write a book, you have no idea whether or not it's really going to resonate with people and whether or not people will really take hopefully the advice and the gems and the learnings that you hope to be able to share. That has happened based upon the feedback. So, I'm really proud of that as well. I'm proud of the people that I've impacted that have gone on to do things bigger and broader than they ever thought they could. So, I feel very, very fortunate. 

Sharon Fiehler: Well, you've got so much to be proud of. What inspired you to write the book? The title is just so intriguing. Tell us a little bit about the process of deciding, you know what, I've got so much information here I want to share, how did you get to this point? 

Shellye Archambeau: Yeah. So, I actually decided I wanted to write the book over 15 years ago. Here's what happened. Because I grew up from a career standpoint in tech, and in tech, there just weren't many women leaders, definitely weren't many people of color that were leading. Whenever people approached me to say, "Ooh, can I pick your brain? I want to understand your career, what you've done, whatever?" I'd say, "Yes," and I'd try to spend the time. But as I took on more and more responsibility, I couldn't actually sit down and meet with everybody that wanted to meet. You know I'd respond. Matter of fact, I still respond. If you send me a LinkedIn, an Instagram, an email, a text, I respond. Takes a ton of time, but I do. 

The reason I respond is I want everyone to know that I'm a real person. I'm a real person. So, if you can touch me, then you can be me. There's nothing special about me. So, what I wanted to do was to say, "All right, I can't meet with everybody I want to meet with, and it's just killing me." So, what I'm going to do is when I get to phase 2, meaning, when I pass my CEO baton, I'm going to write it down. I'm going to write down, what made Shellye, Shellye. I'm going to write down, how to improve your odds to get what you want professionally and personally. I'm going to write down the fact that life is hard, but nobody tells us it's hard. And therefore, when it gets hard for us, we think, "Oh, my God, we're not cut out for it." No, it's hard for everyone. 

Sharon Fiehler: Right.

Shellye Archambeau: So, I want people to know that. And then I wanted to share, here are ways. Here are ways to work through some of the challenges. Here are ways to deal with God, everything from impostor syndrome to bosses that don't support you to, whatever it might be. I wanted to give a lot of tangible, tactical advice that people could just go use tomorrow to help them improve their odds of getting what they want out of life, because that's what life's all about. It's just taking one step, making one decision, asking for one piece of help at a time to help you improve the odds, to get what you want professionally and personally. So, that's why I wrote the book, because I wanted more people to have it. Because frankly, Sharon, it really, really frustrates me. 

The number of people, but especially women and people of color that don't get the opportunity to contribute to even 50%, 60% of their capability. It's not because they're not smart. It's not because they don't work hard, and it's not because they don't have the skills. It's because of all these other factors of not knowing how to do it, not knowing how to deal with a situation, not knowing how to push through a particular roadblock. It's that stuff. Not having the right mentor or sponsor. It's all this other stuff. That's what I wrote the book about. I had the whole book written, took me three years. I had the whole book written, and I had no title. I had no title, I was like, "Oh, my God, how am I going to title this thing? I can't just call it the book." 

So, I knew I wanted ambition to be in it, because too many times I'm told and I hear others being told, "Oh, you're ambitious," and it's not a compliment, which is ridiculous. Think about this, Sharon. You would never raise a child and tell them to work hard, get good grades, do extracurriculars, be a leader in sports, be good to the community, blah, blah, blah. Oh, oh, oh, don't be ambitious, right?

Sharon Fiehler: Right.

Shellye Archambeau: No, you wouldn't do that. Why would we tell anybody not being ambitious is bad? That's ridiculous. So, I'm like, "I want the ambition thing in it." But I was talking to a group of friends, all women, and we started talking about the fact that women apologize all the time. And I said, "You know, I feel like women are raised from the cradle to apologize, because we apologize a lot." And 5% to 10% of the time we apologize and we say, I'm sorry, it's because we actually did something wrong. The other 90% to 95% of the time, we say I'm sorry, we're just trying to make the rest of the world feel better. 

We say I'm sorry to show empathy, say I'm sorry to show we care, to ease tensions, to create connection. We use I'm sorry, like, people use salt when they cook it makes everything taste a little better. Well, saying I'm sorry sprinkled all over helps the world get a little smoother and operate a little better. But you know what? When we say it all the time, people think we are sorry and that it's our fault and we're not deserving. So, we got to cut that out. I said, "You know what, that's it, Unapologetically Ambitious." Everyone, everyone has the right to be ambitious and no one should have to apologize for it. 

Sharon Fiehler: I love it. One of the things that I always find interesting is some of the young people I've talked to say, "You don't really understand. It was easy for you to do it. It's not as easy for me." I'm like, "Wait a minute here. You know what? It took me six years of night school to get an MBA. That was not easy. It was a lot of hard work. It may look sometimes like it just happened, but it's all about preparing yourself. It is about working hard. Maybe there is working smart that goes with it, I don't disagree. But it doesn't just happen. You have to make it happen. 

For people who are ambitious, why is it that it always seems like ambitious people get luckier? [Shellye laughs] It's because they're prepared for everything. I hope our listeners here read your book, listen to your book, however, because the advice in that is just incredible. You've done a great job with that. 

Shellye Archambeau: Thank you. 

Sharon Fiehler: So, we're running out of time, but what else would you like to talk about that maybe we haven't touched upon? 

Shellye Archambeau: I think the overarching message that I'd love to leave your audience with Sharon is the importance of owning your career, because you own it, not your boss, not your mentor, not your company, not HR, not your spouse, not your friends, not your parents. You own your career. You would never spend $4,000, $5,000 for an airline ticket. Pack your bags, tell everybody you're going on vacation, put the dog in the kennel, get to the airport, get on that plane, put the strap seatbelt in, and then look at the pilot and say, "So, where are we going anyway?" [Sharon laughs] But we do that with our careers every day. 

We spend all kinds of money on education, and conferences, and training, and books, and all this stuff. And then, we go to work and we put our heads down [makes typing noises] and we wait for somebody to tap us on the shoulder and say, "Oh, you can go do this now." Okay. "You can go do that now." Okay. No, no, it is your career. Spend time thinking about it, strategizing about it. You decide what it is that you want to do. Put a plan in place and go after it. Don't give the pilot the keys and let them take you anywhere they want to take you. You own your career. 

Sharon Fiehler: Yes. Wow. Your advice is just so good. I'm amazed to listen to you here. We have to get you in front of so many people. We are going to make sure many, many-- I'm hoping thousands, and tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of young women get to hear you and get inspired to read your book and figure this out, because the path they take is up to them, and that's what you're saying, "You choose your path. Don't let somebody choose it for you." 

Well, thank you, Shellye, so much for joining us today and sharing your wisdom with our audience of young women. We are making a difference. You are making a difference in the lives of others. You found the path, because you knew instinctively what to do here. Not everybody believes they have the instincts, and I think by listening to you, they will start to have the confidence that I too can do this and appreciate it. I want to remind all of our listeners here that ABC to CEO is a non-for-profit organization and our purpose is to mentor the next generation of women leaders. Please check out ABC to CEO to learn more, and see how you can help us further this mission. So, until next time, I'm Sharon Fiehler. Thank you again, Shellye. And don't forget to follow us on social media and get daily encouragement and proven tips for success. See you soon.