Customer Success Playbook Season 2 Episode 12 - Angeline Kish - DEI

Angeline Kish, Director of Customer Success at VMware by Broadcom, shared her insights on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). As a recognized leader in customer success and DEI strategies, Angeline has been instrumental in launching influential programs like Stanford's "Influence Circles" aimed at promoting a more inclusive work environment.

Summary of Key Points

Angeline Kish’s efforts at VMware highlight the significance of DEI initiatives in creating a balanced and inclusive workplace. She emphasized the role of leadership in embedding DEI into the corporate culture, explaining how programs are structured to foster awareness and facilitate discussions on diversity and inclusion. She also touched upon the practical aspects of integrating these insights into everyday business practices, such as:

• Recruitment: Implementing diverse hiring panels and strategies to ensure a varied workforce.
• Training Programs: Utilizing resources like Stanford's educational videos to address topics relevant to workplace inclusivity.
• Engagement: Maintaining high participation in DEI programs despite busy schedules by offering flexible involvement options.

Detailed Analysis and Business-Relevant Insights

Strategic Implementation of DEI Initiatives: Angeline’s approach at VMware underscores the importance of strategic planning in DEI efforts. By aligning these initiatives with corporate goals and obtaining robust leadership support, VMware has been able to integrate DEI into its core operations effectively. This strategic alignment ensures that DEI efforts are not just symbolic but are impactful and sustainable.

Impact on Corporate Culture: The influence of DEI initiatives on corporate culture is profound. By promoting inclusivity, companies are likely to see enhanced employee satisfaction and retention. Diverse teams bring a variety of perspectives that can lead to innovative solutions and a deeper understanding of customer needs, thereby improving client relationships and business outcomes.

Challenges and Solutions: One of the main challenges discussed was maintaining engagement in DEI programs. VMware addressed this by adjusting attendance requirements and providing various time slots to accommodate different schedules and time zones, showcasing a practical solution to improve participation rates.

Please Like, Comment, Share and Subscribe.

You can also find the CS Playbook Podcast:
YouTube - @CustomerSuccessPlaybookPodcast
Twitter - @CS_Playbook

You can find Kevin at:
Metzgerbusiness.com - Kevin's person web site
Kevin Metzger on Linked In.

You can find Roman at:
Roman Trebon on Linked In.

Transcript

CSPlaybook Season 2 Episode 12-1

Intor Song: [00:00:00] Kevin And Roman, they got the game. Customer success is their claim to fame. On the podcast, they light the spark. Elevating your skills, creating a mark.

Let's dive deeper into the playbook, the secrets they share. No need to look from onboarding to retention. They've got it all, success is their goal, gonna stand tall. With each episode, they share their views. Strategies and tactics that you can use from challenges to triumphs to cover it all. Helping you navigate when you hit a wall.

So tune in now and join the quest. Kevin and Roman [00:01:00] put you to the test. Empowering your journey in customer success. With insights and wisdom, you'll be the best.

Roman Trebon: Welcome to the customer success playbook podcast. It's all about elevating your customer success game. I'm Roman Trebon and with me is my co host Kevin Metzger. Kevin, how are you doing today? 

Kevin Metzger: I'm doing great today, Roman. It's a middle of the week. A great day to do a recording. 

Roman Trebon: Yeah, for sure. And Kev, we got a great guest and topic today.

So let me introduce our guest first. Kev, as you know, we're thrilled to welcome Angeline Kish, director of customer success at VMware by Broadcom to the show today. Angeline's been recognized as a top 100 customer [00:02:00] success strategist and thought leader by Success Coaching another one of our guest cab.

We were, we're, we're, we're knocking down that top 100 list, which is exciting for us here. So Angeline has launched groundbreaking DEI initiatives within her organization called Influence Circles, which is aimed at fostering awareness and creating a space for sharing diverse knowledge. Perspectives.

Her leadership in this initiative underscores her commitment to authentic leadership and creating a level playing field. Her efforts have significantly contributed to building a versatile and inclusive client success team where diverse team members in various cross functional groups across the company are encouraged to learn.

Share and make a difference. Kev, this is a topic We haven't really had a guest on to talk about before. I know you and I we both for both of us. This is important I don't know how much more I need to go into the topic I think we know what the topic is, but we're going to talk to her about how to how to scale a versatile customer success team and delve into leadership and [00:03:00] culture within a diverse client success environment Angela is going to share insights on the importance of DEI initiatives and how such programs can amplify voices and create impactful changes within an organization.

She'll also talk to us about strategies for nurturing a culture that values diversity and inclusion. And how this culture plays a critical role in client success. Angeline, welcome to the show. 

Angeline Kish: Thank you, Roman. And thank you, Kevin, for having me. I'm very excited to be here. This is a topic I'm very passionate about.

I've lived in diversity equity, including being a diverse female in a tech world. And so I'm very happy to be here and speak to you about this. 

Roman Trebon: Yeah. Thanks for coming on and looking forward to this conversation. So let's start with. You know the influence circles program Angeline, how did this come about like talk to us about the inception and and really how You know why this was important to you and how it [00:04:00] came to be.

Angeline Kish: Sure. So it first starts with senior leadership making sure that diversity equity inclusion is part of the company culture and it is also a goal Of the company to you know, increase the number of women and underrepresented minorities in the company. And with that comes measurements and goals. So having different leaders, we had a female sales leader that actually started this initiative.

And I started actually starting these circles with another female leader. So basically it's a program run by Stanford. And you watch videos on different topics, and it doesn't, and it can be applying not only just from a female perspective, but also from different aspects of, of the culture. So there are topics on effective networking, [00:05:00] what works for women at work how to tell powerful stories.

These are some of the topics that are, are viewed in this. And so it's basically recruiting. different participants from across the company to participate in watching these videos. They're anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes and then having a discussion about it and then having a call to action. So it's, it's a pretty well outlined program.

It's, it was done by Stanford. So they, there's a, A few links that you'll share at the end of this podcast that people can view, but it's basically trying to include different participants to have these discussions to open up it. Really the awareness. It's not only awareness that can be applied in the workplace, but even in your family life outside of work as well as anything, you know, within your just [00:06:00] your team outside your team and in other environments as well.

Kevin Metzger: So, Angeline, how did you integrate some of the learnings into your team as you were going through this process? 

Angeline Kish: Sure, so 1 of the things we incorporated was in our hiring practices. So my team actually is is very diverse in nature. And when recruiting individuals, you want to also have a diverse panel.

Right? So not only just having. One female, one male, someone from a different authentic culture as well and asking different questions and, and making sure when you're interviewing, you're also recruiting different candidates from different perspectives. So when you're speaking to your recruiting team, you want to make sure that the candidates that you're interviewing are also diverse.

So you Are able to [00:07:00] ask those questions as well and have that pool of people to talk to. Because if you're not, then, unfortunately, you can't. You know, have that diversity as part of your team and then and the other thing you would include is, you know, some of the questions and the interview process that you take with these particular candidates.

Do you 

Kevin Metzger: have an example from a questions perspective? 

Angeline Kish: Yeah. So it's basically asking questions around you know, what is the candidate's thought process in, in working with diverse teams, right? Like how do they approach working with teams in different time zones and in different cultures? Like how would they handle that?

Those types of scenarios. So making sure They're able to be flexible because we are a global company. So being cognizant, like even just scheduling time, right, for your meeting, when do you schedule time with someone that's located in [00:08:00] India in a new media? How do you do that? How do you approach that?

Right. Yeah. 

Kevin Metzger: Yeah. It's such an interesting dynamic to something that Having worked, you know, worldwide for so long, I mean, we did an implementation, this is at a former company where I, I literally had somebody all over the entire world. There was never a good central time. So, I mean, we ended up having meetings two in the morning, sometimes here to be able to accommodate everybody.

But those are definitely, definitely. Interesting ways of having to manipulate a basically scheduling and trying to figure out how to work. It's a different way of working when you have to work worldwide with people across all time zones. 

Angeline Kish: Yeah, and I, I think the other aspect too is also there's a lot of our colleagues that have specific holidays that they [00:09:00] celebrate, right?

And so you want to be conscious of that. You know, we, we have a lot of of our team members actually in Egypt and they have a lot of specific holidays and they're out for a majority of a certain part of the year. Time of the year. So you want to make sure that you know, you're respectful for their time off and you know, you schedule things around that.

Roman Trebon: Yeah, Angelina, you talked about measurements and goals. I'm curious how, how, what did you measure and how did you when you wrote at the program and then maybe from what, what did you or the team see that was different before the program was launched and until it was kind of in full flight. 

Angeline Kish: Yeah, so some of the measurements are we.

Measure actually, the participation, so, you know, attending a meeting 1 once a month for, you know, 6 meetings, it gets in the way of some of your day to day. Right? So, [00:10:00] 1 of the metrics we did approach is the participation throughout the whole program. Like, How many people are actually staying engaged up until the end of the program.

And we did provide, you know, after I ran a few of these circles, we did provide some flexibility in that we made it more like three out of the six. meetings you would attend to make sure you're participating. Cause if you don't participate, you don't really get the full aspects of the program because there's different topics that you would miss out on.

Yes, you can watch the videos, but then you miss out on the conversation and everyone's input. So that's something to think about. I think also just when people are hiring so one of the circles I ran. We're primarily all male, actually, they were, they were the only participants, but they were telling me that they had more underrepresented minorities and women in their team.

So it [00:11:00] brought in their perspective of how they approach, you know, working with them and also trying to do more hiring for their teams of, of those types of individuals and also promoting. One of the goals of the company was to also promote women and underrepresented minorities and having more of those individuals in those other roles was also part of the success of the program.

Roman Trebon: That makes sense. Was there, I'm curious, was there any pushback to the program? Like, was there any education about why this is even important? I know you're a big global company. I I've I'm curious if, Everyone sort of embraced it when you guys ruled it out or if there were People that didn't maybe see the value understand why it was even an area of focus 

Angeline Kish: yeah, so I think the key to this to rolling out a Program like this is having senior leadership and sponsorship across the board so our senior leader that [00:12:00] basically he established a Diversity, equity and council for our customer success group, because he was passionate about that.

We had a council that was developed and we provided updates to our executives throughout the program. And this was 1 of the 1st initiatives that was launched and being able to provide updates to all the different executives. Being able to promote it to other leaders in the company helps. So not only do we promote it to customer success.

Within VMware, we also have a program called Power of Differences. So what that entails is having what they call a pod for different interest groups. So it could be a, a black pod Asian pod, a disability pod veterans pod. And so you don't have to be a, affiliate, you can also be an ally of any of [00:13:00] those pods.

And so we not only promoted it to customer success participants, but individuals in those pods. And we also did some marketing and communication to all those different pod leaders to get their buy in. So the program actually expanded. Beyond customer success because we did that, but it was the sponsorship of our executive that helped make that happen.

Kevin Metzger: One of the things that I see in your one of your meetings was effective networking and strategic network working is harder for women. I, it's just an interesting topic. I'm interested to kind of know learnings might've been from that. 

Angeline Kish: Yeah. So I think. In some cases, like, I'm probably unique in networking.

I, I love to network. It's one of my strengths, but there are other [00:14:00] individual females or underrepresented minorities that are a little bit timid. It's not their strength. They don't. Feel like in some cases it's necessary, even with their job search, they, they might feel like, oh, you know, my resume speaks for itself.

I don't need to talk to anybody. But especially in this climate, you do need to talk to people and you do need to know somebody sometimes. People are not good at marketing themselves, or they don't know what to say. They don't know how to behave in like a face to face networking event. But some of the learnings in the video talk about, you know, the approach to doing that.

And, you know, take, you know, one of the things I think is key is providing You know, your expertise into your network. So not it's a give and take situation. It's not, you know, you're always reaching out to your network for something, but you're [00:15:00] also giving back, right? Like giving back the podcast is a great example of that.

Mentoring is another good example of that. So, you know, being able to talk to people and show that that's part of your, your forte is, it's important. 

Kevin Metzger: Yeah it's interesting. I wonder whether that's may be. I wonder whether that's unique to women and minorities. I think there's probably plenty of introvert out there as well that have the same type of.

Issue there. 

Roman Trebon: I'm like, this should be a class. I love that there's a video and this is like a discussion and you're like learning how to network. It sounds like anyone can keep me on it. Like it's, it's a skill. Like you said, it's, it's understanding. It is a give. It is a take. It's I just feel it's something, I don't know.

I never learned how to network. Right. It's like something that. I wish I would have had people I could, I could have [00:16:00] learned from and with and discussed it and almost like have a safe space where I could have, you know, got myself integrated with networking. I started way too late. I appreciate you calling out the podcast and, and so thanks for that.

But it's a, it's definitely a learned behavior. I mean, I know I'm sure some people can just drop them in there and they'd be great, but. I'll be the first to raise my hand. That's not me. And I'm sure there's others that are, you know, they, they, they, they need to understand what it is, how to do it, how to maximize, you know, the what it can do for you.

Angeline Kish: I'd be happy to do another podcast on that too.

Roman Trebon: exactly. So so the, the program is still going easily. Is it still in flat? 

Angeline Kish: We just finished since we got acquired. So the program ended right before the acquisition. I would say I've run three of these since I started a few years ago with all in different groups. I ran it within our sales organization at twice.

And then I ran it [00:17:00] with our customer success team and members of our pod teams as well. So so I've done it three times 

Roman Trebon: from the last time, like having gone through it a few times. Yeah. 

Angeline Kish: Yeah. I think what I mentioned earlier about the participation, like people get busy. So having a bit of flexibility in terms of you know, not committing people to 6, 6 sessions, although they'll get more benefit if they tend, but having saying you can do 3 out of the 6, you know, if you want to participate the time zone is important to capture The amount of people to participate.

So when we did the recruiting, we gave people some options, right? We said, here are some times we're thinking about having these sessions, you know, does this time is this conducive? And then I think the other component is having the continuous [00:18:00] conversations with your senior leaders to let them know how the program's going.

And getting their sponsorship to be able to promote it to different other groups within the company. I think that's key because if you don't get that, then the participation, I drops off. Right? But because we're a global company, you definitely have to incorporate all the time zones and the holidays.

And I think also because we have such a, also a sales culture, making sure you're not scheduling the program during end of year and you were doing that from the beginning. It's just, you know, keeping that in mind as you do this, And then having, you know, we had quotes from other sessions to entice other individuals, and most of them were from men and other, you know, participants that were, you know, good representation of what [00:19:00] they learned, what they got out of the program.

So, 

Roman Trebon: yeah. I'm curious. Did you, did you guys market this? I, what I mean by that is, did it help recruit talent when, and knowing that someone that's interviewing with the organization knows that there's already a, a culture built around diversity and inclusion, and that helped bring in different levels and different types of talent into the organization, 

Angeline Kish: I mean, when I came to VMware, that was a key component for me.

That was one of the questions I asked. And. I've worked at other organizations, and I would say this has been one that actually practices diversity, equity, inclusion. They, they have measurements and goals around it. So, it's evident in the culture and the leadership and in the teams, because on my team, I have, you know, three females, one from Latin or two from Latin American culture, a [00:20:00] veteran, someone from India.

So it's, it's a very diverse team and we bring in different perspectives. I would say, you know, I've recruited people. You know, specifically from those different, you know, areas. And I, the other thing I do that's helped my team grow and learn from each other is in my team meetings, I have them participate in, you know, telling us about a cultural celebration, like it could be Holly some of their, you know, cultural foods that they have during the holidays.

So, you know, my team does get to learn from each other, you know, different things like that where, you know, maybe that's not part of, you know, a corporate culture, but for my team it is. And that's, it's, it's a learning for everyone and, you know, it's, it's been helpful and people appreciate it, right?

Because they, they get to learn, learn their teammates. They get to know who they are. You know what they [00:21:00] do outside of work. So yeah, 

Roman Trebon: that's great I there was just I don't know if you've seen it yet. It just came out. I think yesterday There's an article in the harvard business review. It's called what needs to change and what doesn't with dei?

I thought it was really good. So Kevin, we'll probably add this as a link maybe in our in our show But one of the things it says and i've seen this in a few organizations Is it says one of the things that needs to change is communication that sounds good, but conveys little You Guarantees misinterpretation and I've seen that, right?

Like it's I've, I've without calling out specific organizations, they talk a lot about this and you try to learn and it doesn't, there was no like understanding of what it was for and where it was going and why it was important and it caused confusion and I would imagine when you guys were ruling this out and continue to do with the different teams, that communication piece You know, from the top down must have been, you know, a huge part of it throughout, right?

I i'm imagining there's a lot of questions and people interested and wanting to participate [00:22:00] and without that communication i'm sure that can create challenges 

Angeline Kish: Yeah, absolutely. And I think we also as a company culture. They had rolled out also different courses individuals could take. So throughout all their D and I and D and I initiatives, there are different classes that VMware employees can participate in.

And they also fund specific programs. So if you want to take it even a step deeper, there is funding available for, you know, those types of certifications classes. So it's definitely part of that, you know, outside of this initiative, we're doing other things like a coffee connection where you could, you know, set up a meeting with someone outside of your, you know, day to day and just learn from them, right?

So more, more of the different mentorship programs that VMware also offers. So. There's a lot of [00:23:00] opportunity for individuals here where they can learn from each other, have support, have mentorship, have sponsorship as well. In addition to their day to day. 

Roman Trebon: Yeah, I know. I love it. I think the more you're open minded and learn more about others and other cultures and other people, the better you can work with people, relate to people and clients as well, right?

I'm sure you could extend out, like you said, beyond just the team. In your day to day life and with client relationships as well. I'm sure there's value. Yeah. 

Intor Song: Yeah. Absolutely. Yep 

Roman Trebon: All right, kev any other questions on this before we get into the really hard questions with angeline on the the rapid fire 

Kevin Metzger: Nah, let's go for the let's go for the rapid fire 

Roman Trebon: I'll let you i'll let you handle it too hot for me this week.

I can't I can't handle it. 

Kevin Metzger: All right so Where is one place that you'd like to visit? 

Angeline Kish: I would like to visit Cambodia. Angkor Wat. 

Roman Trebon: Oh, nice. Why Angelina? Any reason why? [00:24:00] 

Angeline Kish: I just love like all the ancient cultures and I like to visit these ancient temples and that's one on my list. I haven't seen yet, so I would like to go there one day.

Roman Trebon: I just booked before the show, my tour to Tulum over in Mexico. So I've never been to Tulum before Ancient Ruin. So I'm excited for that. Not Cambodia. I would love to be in Cambodia too, but I'm a little close to flight for that one. 

Kevin Metzger: You'll enjoy it. It's, it's a fun place to go. How about favorite book?

Favorite 

Angeline Kish: book Growth Mindset by Carol Dweck. 

Kevin Metzger: Very good. Do you have a favorite sport that you like to watch or play? 

Angeline Kish: I like to play tennis but I also like to surf and one of my goals is to surf on every warm water continent. It's 

Intor Song: not like a 

Roman Trebon: nice 

Angeline Kish: warm water continent. 

Roman Trebon: We [00:25:00] got to ask. So, tennis player, have you got into the pickleball craze at all?

Angeline Kish: And not yet, I have the pickleball equipment, but I haven't. I haven't started yet. 

Intor Song: All right. 

Kevin Metzger: And I think just one last question, where can our audience find you and connect with you? 

Angeline Kish: Sure. Angeline on LinkedIn, Angeline Felix. It's that's my maiden name on LinkedIn. You can reach me there and I think you have my information.

Roman Trebon: We'll post all this in our, in our show notes and you can find Angeline. Check her out. She's a, she's a great follow. And Angeline, thanks so much for being on the show. We really appreciate it. And that's a wrap for this episode. We hope you found our conversation with Angeline insightful and it helps you come up with strategies around diversity equity and inclusion in your organization.

If you enjoyed this [00:26:00] episode, please like, subscribe, comment, and share it with your friends and colleagues. You can also find us on LinkedIn at Roman Trebon and at Kevin Metzger. We also have our customer success playbook page. So check us out there. Connect and share your feedback on the show. Give us suggestions on future topics, topics and guests you'd like us to have on.

As always, thanks for listening. 

Intor Song: Thank you. 

Kevin Metzger: Keep on playing

Intor Song: with each. Strategies and tactics that you can use From challenges to triumphs they cover it all Helping you navigate when you hit a wall So tune in now and join the quest Evan

and Roman put you to the test Empowering your journey in customer [00:27:00] success With insights and wisdom, you'll be the best helping you now,

so tune in now and join the quest.