Meet the Women Behind Women in Leadership: Mindy Waters

HeadshotThe 7th annual Women in Leadership conference will be taking place on March 3, 2020. To celebrate its 7th year involved with the conference, CCI would like to highlight 7 women that have been with the conference since the start. In today’s feature, meet Mindy Waters.

Mindy is a Software Development Leader with DXC’s Digital and Cloud Engineering team with over 30 years of experience developing software and leading teams. Outside of work, Mindy has been married for over 35 years and has two grown children both in STEM fields. Mindy is passionate about encouraging and educating women and girls to pursue STEM careers, through WITI and a close relationship with Florida State University, Mindy hopes to make a positive impact on our future workforce.

We asked Mindy what leadership means to her.

1) Why is leadership important?

Leadership is vital to our existence because it affects most areas of our lives. What would our government be without leadership? Our workplace?

2) What advice would you give to your younger self?

To be confident in myself, my experience and the potential I within me to lead and help others grow.

3) What challenges do you face as a female leader and how do you overcome them?

As a female leader working in the technology field since 1986, I have seen and experienced a lot, especially in a male-dominated field. I was very lucky along the way to have people that believed in me, but at times I experienced negative bias and even once, a prospective customer did not want to speak to me because I was a woman. That situation I view as funny today and thankfully, I think that type of culture is being replaced in today’s society where leadership is servant-based and women are respected as brilliant contributors in the workplace.

4) Name one way women can support one another.

Statistics show that women can be more supportive of men than they are of women, which is unfortunate. We should all support the successes of women who are succeeding and hope that as they climb the ladder they pave the road with opportunities for other women to follow. Anyone in leadership should support not only other women but anyone who has promise to succeed, mentor other women and provide advocacy to others.

5) What is a goal of yours for 2020?

As a person who has been in the workforce for some time, it is important to me that I continue not only to succeed myself, but also help empower others that follow me as they are the workforce of our future.  My goal is to make a difference in the future of others.

Join us for the Women in Leadership Conference on March 3rd at the Turnbull Conference Center from 3:30-8:15 pm. You can hear Mindy speak at the “Investing in YOU and Leading others: Leadership in Technology” workshop from 6:00 – 7:00 pm. Register for FREE here.