Sticky notes might be the key to successful leadership. Christina Garcia, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Echo Global Logistics, keeps a few posted nearby with essential reminders to guide her in difficult moments. When leading teams of engineers attempting to disrupt the logistics space grows challenging, having a reminder of foundational leadership tools can be the key to accurately identifying an issue and swift resolution.
In this episode, Christina discusses determining what to build and creating team-wide investment in its success. She considers the role of research and development from pie-in-the-sky projects to simpler, value-adding solutions. Christina offers her perspective on building narrative and encouraging engineers and developers to witness the value firsthand. (For example, “If your grandmother was in the store shopping, what is the experience you’d like her to have with the software?”)
Considering culture, Christina dives into a culture of accountability and being a champion of quality. She shares her thoughts on shifting left, the results she’s seen in earlier testing processes, and searching for the root cause of an issue. Alongside accountability, Christina identifies key areas of success like avoiding silos of communication and leaning on creativity in strategic planning. She offers her perspective on leading a team of passionate engineers and her approach to leading the group through transition (ex. one-on-one time with everyone). One key to her team’s success at Echo: carrying the load together. Speaking on leadership, Christina shares how to work across different strengths and mindsets, build trust, set clear expectations, embrace vulnerability, and ask for help.
- (01:30) – Echo
- (02:52) – Finding software
- (05:15) – Building the right things
- (08:52) – Narrative
- (10:36) – Witnessing the value
- (13:00) – Shifting left
- (15:13) – Recognizing the hurdles
- (16:15) – Little leadership reminders
- (17:38) – Leading engineers
- (19:57) – Building passionate teams
- (22:57) – Setting clear expectations
- (27:17) – Creative solutions and planning
- (32:30) – Asking for help
Christina Garcia is a Senior Vice President of Engineering at Echo Global Logistics. Her technology and business expertise have led to career achievements in engineering, strategic technology implementation, and leadership, including positions at Capital One, SEQR, Sears Holdings Corporation, and OfficeMax. Christina earned a bachelor’s degree in computer software engineering and a master’s degree in e-commerce at DePaul University.
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