The Courage to be Boldly Different:
A terrifying but successful career strategy

Cindy Goodwin-Sak
Sr. Director, Global Virtual Engineering
Cisco Systems

Embracing your uniqueness can be incredibly isolating. You question every move. Are you on the right track? Will this lead to your downfall? But embracing your uniqueness and building upon it is what will propel you toward your goals. In a world of wanting to belong, choosing sides, and trying to fit in, the courage to be unique is what will truly separate you from the rest.  I will share how I leverage data to support my unique approach and win the political game. While data is a brilliant way to win at organizational politics, there are hidden dangers in our data. We’ll wrap with a short lesson in Machine Learning and why we should all stand up and educate others on the dangers of perpetuating the bias that exists in our data.

Take-A-Ways from this Program include:

1. Discover your drive, your energy, and your strengths.
2. Build a brand with those three things that is completely unique.
3. Have the data to show that your way is best for your chosen path.
4. Be bold and help me protect others from the propagation of bias in data.

More about Cindy:

As Sr. Director of the Global Virtual Engineering organization at Cisco, Cindy leads a global team of sales engineers who design technical solutions that help customers change the way people work, live, play and learn. She has held multiple sales engineering, network engineering and leadership roles with startups, systems integrators, and within Cisco Systems.

An avid learner, Cindy is passionate about both people and technology. She combines these passions leading others to challenge the status quo. She encourages her teams to automate their low complexity work to build their own capacity for the development of new experiences that combine an understanding of human behavior and technical excellence. Through this process, teams leverage power of automation and elevate themselves with new ideas and new skills.

Cindy holds a Bachelors in Management and Human Relations, and a Masters of Business Administration. She also holds multiple industry certifications including two Emeritus Cisco Certified Internetworking Expert (CCIE) certifications in Routing & Switching and Collaboration. Cindy is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Business Administration at the University
of Missouri, St. Louis.

Cindy has a home in St. Louis where she spends time enjoying her husband and two children, playing the piano, and participating in sports.

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