20 years at Compugen

This month I crossed my 20 year anniversary at Compugen – it is remarkable to reflect on my career here that began in March of 1999. That was before I had 3 kids and before I was married (I have been married for 18 years which seems like a very long time!). In 1999 it was a pre-9/11 world and Bill Clinton was President of the United States (featuring the failed impeachment trial that year!), and it was also the year of Columbine High School and Hurricane Floyd. The Euro currency was created and Boris Yeltsin was replaced by Vladimir Putin. In Canada Jean Chrétien was Prime Minister and Air Canada took over Canadian Airlines. Those of us in IT at that time will well remember the lead up to Y2K!

It is very interesting to me that the biggest reminder and celebration of this terrific milestone has been this LinkedIn platform. I have been receiving daily reminders because of all of the "likes" and "comments" from many generous people about my work anniversary, which of course all started because of an auto-generated post by LinkedIn (just a basic example of the changing world of AI and automation!).

As I sit here reflecting at the end of another rewarding week with Compugen, these are just a few of my thoughts about some of what I have learned during my tenure in this business that helps me succeed as a senior leader in this great company:

You are only as good as your team.

This is a team sport and it is all about the people. If the people on your team are great, you can be great. Never lose touch with the fact that your team, and adjacent teams, make success happen – without their greatness you cannot succeed. Value them and figure out how to help them be great!

Do not try to be the smartest person in the room and it is OK to be wrong.

You do not need to come up with all of the great ideas. In fact, being open and seeking out ideas from others will result in the best plans overall. Share challenges and seek out ideas from others, which are often the best ideas, and ensure that everyone benefits from that teamwork. It is very rewarding to learn from your team – celebrate this and seek out those that think differently from you – hire people that are smarter than you, if you can!

Focus on empowerment and development.

The best organization you can build will run well with less involvement from you. Create the right alignment, but know that people will succeed best in their own way and you need to ensure that they have the space they need to figure that out for themselves and execute. There is more than 1 way to the finish line, and to create the most powerful high performance team and results, diversity in approach, style, experience, background (and gender!) is key. Focus hard on what you can do to motivate and inspire people to succeed, grow and excel.

Respect, humility, trust and do not assume.

Treat people with respect and value them. Be true to your word and demand the same from others. Create a culture of inclusion, openness, sharing and collaboration. Be patient and kind, have a long term view and do not assume without asking.

Learn.

Learn from people, learn from books and learn from experience. 

Finally:

Work hard, have fun, demonstrate high performance and demand it from others.

Aspire to be the right kind of great boss – and work for one of those if you can, I certainly do!