Webex’s Lorrissa Horton: Celebrating International Women’s Day and embracing equity

As we celebrate International Women’s Day in 2023, AWS Marketplace is honored to share perspectives from women technical leaders from our AWS and seller community.

This blog series profiles five trailblazing women as they share personal stories of how they overcame challenges in their careers and are leading the charge to #EmbraceEquity in their organizations. They also offer advice to women seeking to grow as leaders in the tech industry.

“The ways men’s and women’s behavior are perceived aren’t always equitable. And it’s not just our behavior; people can make assumptions based on our very presence. I remember one time showing up to a customer meeting and being mistaken for the admin instead of the VP from Cisco.”

–Lorrissa Horton

About Lorrissa Horton

Lorrissa is SVP/GM and Chief Product Officer for Collaboration software at Cisco. She leads a global team responsible for the future strategy and growth across the Webex portfolio. With the rise of hybrid work, Lorrissa is laser-focused on innovation to deliver next generation capabilities with Webex. She is extremely passionate about innovation and has a track record of thinking outside the box with the development of 10 patents over her career.

Q&A with Lorrissa Horton

AWS: The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is “Embrace Equity,” which refers to the idea of fairness, removing barriers to success, and interrupting bias. It’s about ensuring that policies, practices, and systems provide all individuals access to the opportunities, resources, and recognition to be successful. What has equity meant to you when it comes to your career?

Lorrissa: When I think about equity in my career, it’s about having the right support in place to ensure that I can be a successful woman executive. I can show up to work bringing my whole and best self so I can do my best work. This includes my being a part of Cisco’s leadership team while also being a working mom of three young children. I am fortunate to be a part of an inclusive workplace that supports my work life integration, and I realize there is still needed support for other women in the workplace.

One area that comes to mind is around family planning and maternity leave. There has been a lot of progress made over the years with improved policies to make it more common for both parents to get time off when a baby is born, but there is still room for improvement. I think there’s an opportunity for companies to make women feel more comfortable and empowered to start their families with more flexible options for maternity leave, including return to office and beyond.

Often, women feel the pressure when they start to think about a family while also having a career. Some women choose to hold off having children until they reach a certain job level or title because they want to achieve some sense of job security (or income level). And when they do announce their pregnancy to an employer, they feel that they will be looked down on or scrutinized for taking time off. Then, there is the added stress of what work will look like once they return to the office after having their baby. All this pressure can be stressful for a woman unless her company can provide her a safe and supportive environment.

This is where I think more companies should improve what that experience looks like by providing women more flexibility to shape their maternity leave experience and beyond. Women should decide when they take it, how they take it, and how long they take it. They should also be allowed to split up the time, which is a more creative approach. I did this with the birth of my third child.

Modern technology and hybrid work enable companies to have the option to provide flexible options, like remote work on certain days. In my experience, remote work has helped tremendously with my maternity leaves and return to full-time work. Overall, I think that maternity leave is not one-size-fits-all. If companies can provide a more flexible and customizable maternity leave for women, it is good for moms, for diversity, and for business.

AWS: What gender-specific institutional fairness issues have you had to overcome during your career?
Lorrissa: Representation is critical to overcome false stereotypes. Rising to the top of the career ladder in technology has been hard for a few reasons. Because so few women begin at the entry level in tech, there are fewer women who are ready for senior-level roles, since we often don’t have the required experience. And if you do get to a senior level position, there is less representation of women in the room.

I found that some people might not have a fully inclusive mental model of how to interact with different types of leaders. I think this is due to the cultural biases we have about what’s acceptable behavior for men vs. women. For example, I have seen male colleagues get upset at work, and it’s been OK for them to slam a hand on the table to express frustration and yell. Whereas if a woman did that, she would be considered overly aggressive.

So, there’s been some form of inequality when it comes to how men are heard and seen vs. women. Speaking of how people see you… I remember one time showing up to a customer meeting  and being mistaken for the admin instead of the VP from Cisco. Through their eyes, they saw a Filipino woman standing next to a white male (who was my chief of staff). So naturally, they shook his hand first and didn’t realize that I was actually the leader they were meeting with.

There have been other instances where people are surprised to learn that I have children, so again different stereotypes and assumptions are being made that I have dealt with over the course of my career.  At the end of the day, I think there’s an opportunity for us to shift our mental model of what a leader looks like and to humanize it with more women, people of color, and even moms like me.

AWS: How did it affect you, or in other words, what was the outcome?
Lorrissa: I think these gender-specific challenges have made me want to share who I am as a woman leader even more. I have become much more transparent and open about my personal life, and I want people to understand that it is possible to be an executive even if you look like and lead my type of life. Through my story, I hope to inspire other women who might not ever imagine themselves in a leadership role because they don’t fit the typical stereotype, or they don’t think it’s possible to have both career and family. I am constantly reminding women how strong we are and all the unique skills and qualities that we bring into workforce. While I enjoy sharing my career journey and insight with other women, I continue to learn every day.

One area that I have grown tremendously is around being patient with other people, like the time when the customer assumed that I was the admin to my chief of staff. Instead of getting upset about that type of situation, I have learned to roll with it and treat it as a learning experience and teachable moment for everyone.

AWS: What advice would you offer to women who strive to grow as technical leaders? What advice do you have for other women who want to keep up their technical skills?
Lorrissa: To grow as a technical leader, I think it’s super important to have a growth mindset. This is because technology is always changing, and the industry is moving at lightning speed. I do recommend choosing a job where you can get exposed to different areas that require you to grow.

This may be uncomfortable to many, since folks want jobs that they will excel at. Being in a job that is constantly changing requires you to step up and learn. It puts you in a position where you will likely never be excellent at all aspects of your job all the time. I think it’s hard to keep up your technical skills if it is something you do on the side; there just doesn’t seem to be enough time for that in most cases, especially moms.

I also think it’s important to be a part of a women in engineering or technical community so you can find support, mentoring and potentially leaders who will sponsor you as you continue to progress in your career.

AWS: What steps can others take to be better allies to women, and what can we do to inspire these advocates?
Lorrissa: As we work more and more with other women, we need to support each other and be each other’s allies. Rather than be competitive and judgmental, it’s an important time to come together and to accept each other for who we really are. I think we need to stop the judgement and these sexist, ingrained expectations of women, such as how we should look when we show up in the office and how we behave as moms.

We must celebrate our differences and make room at the table for everyone, knowing that each woman is bringing a unique strength. And, if you know a woman who is very strong and capable in an area, take the opportunity to recognize their strength and advocate for them on the job. You might hear about a certain project that they would be the perfect fit for them so by providing support and advocating their strength, you might just help another woman grown in her career.

AWS: How should women show up at work to be successful?
Lorrissa: I do think that women need to be their authentic self when we show up for work. It takes a lot of energy to try to be someone you’re not or hide aspects of who you are just to be more accepted at work. This energy is wasted on shaping perceptions instead of just doing your best work.

To bring your whole self to work means that you need to be comfortable with who you are and how you live your life, and ideally work in a place where that is accepted no matter what that looks like. We are all human, so it’s important that we support each other more than ever and that we show compassion for each other.

International Women’s Day and #EmbraceEquity

International Women’s Day (March 8) celebrates the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for celebrating women’s achievements, raising awareness against gender bias, and accelerating gender equity.

The International Women’s Day theme for 2023 is #EmbraceEquity. This theme imagines a world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive, a world where difference is valued and celebrated. Collectively we can all #EmbraceEquity.

Amazon is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the company’s diverse perspectives come from many sources including gender, age, race, national origin, sexual orientation, culture, and education, as well as professional and life experiences.

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