Diane Bryant has spent most of her career working for some of the best companies in the world – Intel and Google – often as one of the few women in the room.
When she joined Intel in 1985, Bryant, now 60, told CNBC Make It that she had to quickly adopt the same habits as her male colleagues, like drinking whiskey and swearing, to “fit in” at the office.
“I realized that the only way I can get them to collaborate with me and succeed on this team is if I make these men more comfortable by adopting their direct, aggressive style,” she says. “I thought, ‘Either you adapt or you die’.”
The California native spent 32 years at Intel serving in a variety of roles including chief information officer and president of Intel’s data center group. After leaving Intel, Bryant spent a year as COO of Google Cloud and served as a consultant and board member for several smaller startups before joining NovaSignal, a medical device startup, as president and CEO in 2020.
Many of those opportunities, she adds, came from mentors who rooted for her and invested in her success: a customer at the restaurant Diane worked at during college recommended her for her first internship at Aerojet, and when a colleague saw her struggle with a manager hard at Intel, he recruited her to a better role on a different team.
Below, Bryant shares the best business advice she’s ever received and her biggest career regret.
‘There’s no emotion in business’
Loving what you do can help you be more productive and creative at work — but Bryant warns that letting your emotions guide your decision-making can quickly backfire. Read also : Women in Business: LaTricia Hill-Chandler.
Andy Bryant, the former chairman of Intel, passed that advice to Bryant while she was still an executive at the technology company leading high-stakes customer negotiations.
“He told me, ‘there’s no emotion in business,'” she says. “This applies to both positive and negative emotions: whether you are ecstatic or angry, they will lead you to make a wrong decision.”
Bryant explains, “If you’re too engaged or excited, you’re likely to compromise more, like giving the other party in a contract negotiation, and if you’re hostile, you may walk away from a good opportunity out of spite.”
The next time you’re in a heated, emotional situation at work — whether it’s a tense conversation with a manager or a passive-aggressive email chain with a customer — Bryant recommends “getting up from your desk, leaving the room, take a few deep breaths and find your composure.”
Whether it’s grabbing a glass of water in the kitchen or taking a 15-minute walk outside, taking a step back can help you clear your mind and better manage your emotions.
‘You can’t win everyone over’
There’s only so much you can do to handle a job you can’t stand. To see also : Heilferty drafted to the US U-23 women’s squad. A toxic work environment, however, can be mentally and physically draining, so don’t ignore the signs that it’s time to move on.
Bryant learned this the hard way: Her biggest career regret is not getting out quickly enough when she found herself in an organization that was “not pro-women” (she didn’t name the company).
“The vast majority of my managers over the decades have been motivational and supportive, but there have been a few who have clearly been more comfortable working with people like them: men,” she says.
In this situation, Bryant’s courage became a detriment to her success – she thought her passion and perseverance would win over her manager, but he continued to offer better opportunities and higher pay to male colleagues at the same level.
Looking back, Bryant would like to “recognize that the barrier was impenetrable and leave the organization early.”
The CEO says his new role in leading NovaSignal, however, is “extremely rewarding.” NovaSignal uses artificial intelligence (AI), ultrasound and robotics to measure blood flow to the brain, which can help identify blood clots and other neurological abnormalities such as stroke or dementia. According to Crunchbase, the company has raised more than $120 million in funding.
“It’s great to have a job where you’re not only continually driving profits and profits, but you’re also doing something for the good of society,” she says. “This is incredibly gratifying for me.”
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