#265: Leading with Heart: Stef Okamoto on Courage, Vulnerability, and Impact

I feel very fortunate to release today’s episode as I had a chance to sit down on Zoom with the brilliant Stef Okamoto, who is currently the Director of Manager Excellence for Service Now, a fast growing American software company based in Santa Clara, California.

Before moving to ServiceNow, Stef had a distinguished career at Microsoft for 23 years, serving the organisation in her last 7 years as the Leader of Management Excellence in Global Learning and Development. Having worked directly under former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmar and current CEO Satya Nadalla, Stef experienced two drastically different leadership styles, one that was strongly based on control and compliance and fear under Ballmar to a much more human-centred, empowering approach rooted in high support, trust, autonomy and deep learning under Satya Nadalla. 

Based on these experiences, Stef learned how she did NOT want to lead, but rather, how she could take action to become the very best leader possible and to do so with courage, vulnerability, and authenticity, but at the same time, not let these things get in the way of holding those who she led to the highest standards possible. 

During this time, she learned that it’s still necessary to be tough on people, but to do so with compassion, by providing them with a sense of high support in order for them achieve their true potential and to also help them find deep meaning in their work and a genuine sense of contribution to the organization. 

Stef’s wisdom and work ethic stems directly from early days in her life. As an elite athlete who not only played in the junior Olympics as a softball player, she also received an academic scholarship to play volleyball in college. It was through these experiences that she developed a resilient mindset that allowed her to be fiercely independent in order to show what she was truly capable of achieving in life. 

In our episode, we discussed, in detail, how she’s been able to stay deeply connected to her core values in life even through turbulent, challenging times and how she was able to overcome a harsh, negative inner critic in a way that helped her to construct an empowering personal narrative that ultimately gave her the self-confidence needed to take bold risks and to speak her genuine truth with respect and courage in order to truly find her place in such a competitive work environment. 

As you’ll hear in this episode, Stef is deeply passionate about the work she does and when I think of her story I think of a quote from Oprah Winfrey which is this: 

When thinking about Stef, there’s no doubt, she’s found her calling and continues to shine brightly in a world that needs courageous leaders to stand up and take action to bring out the very best in others. 

Stef and I would love to hear your thoughts and what resonated the most with you in regards to our conversation. So, please share any thoughts on social media, as well, if you know someone who would benefit from tuning into our episode, please share the link with them. 

As you listen, I hope you feel inspired to think even more carefully about your own purpose and the core values that drive you in the work that you do. You can find out how to connect with Stef in the show notes of today’s episode. 

Connect with Stefani Okamoto:
LinkedIn
Website

Other Credits:
Dr. Michael Gervais' Finding Mastery Podcast and his excellent Compete to Create Program
Dr. David Yeager's book 10-25: The Science of Motivating Young Pe