Enjoy life, help others and be happy
Audrey Colle, General Manager, Microsoft Azure, with her college sweetheart and husband Olivier
[VA]Hi Audrey, Thank you very much for chatting with Women and Allies of Azure Global (WAAG), we greatly appreciate your willingness to share your experiences and be a visible advocate for women in the workplace. Before we talk about a post COVID world, diversity and other important and weighty things, shall we start light, I am keen to know what’s it like to be Audrey Colle right now?
[Audrey] I’ll say first that I am a proud mama bear of two wonderful teenagers, Lohann who is 16 and Lilou who is turning 14 soon. I am lucky to be spending my life with my college sweetheart, Olivier, my partner in life. We will be celebrating our 20th anniversary this year and met many years before this. I am the proud mentor of Elizabeth, a young smart woman in Kenya, whom I supported through college via Global Give Back Circle and who is now an entrepreneur; she has taught me what resiliency and hard work really are. At work, I try everyday to be the best leader I can be, making mistakes and trying to learn from them, growing into new industry and technical areas and truly enjoying working with my team and in AGCI. I am lucky to be leading such an amazing team where we all have our backs.
[VA] If you carry your childhood with you, you never get old. Tell us about your upbringing?
[Audrey] I grew up in a fairly conservative family, the youngest girl having 2 big brothers 9 years older than me and attending an all-girl catholic school. The expectation between boys and girls at home was definitely different from a house chores perspective, while it was the same on the education front. What I remember sadly is that when I was in 7th grade, our math teacher had proposed an after-school computer like program (think of what was available in 1988) and I was the only one for had signed up for it, so they stopped it after a semester… So much learning lost as my next encounter with computers was in my 3rd year of my engineering degree almost 10 years later. And the trend was set as none of the other girls were interested…
[VA] ‘Find out who you are and do it on purpose’ is wise advice. What are some of the things that motivate you, bring purpose to your work and life, and your passions?
[Audrey] I like to make things better and keep growing my and my team’s impact. When things get too comfortable, I know it is time for a new challenge, going outside of my comfort zone. I can’t stand injustice and really value the place Microsoft has created for giving back to our communities. I have lead many Giving Campaign at Microsoft and volunteered in different organizations such as Lifewire, fighting against domestic violence and GBCC as mentioned earlier for education and mentoring women not as lucky as I have been.
[VA]What was your professional lived experience when you joined the workforce and what advances have we made since then?
[Audrey] I do not recall anything specific about my joining as we had a fairly diverse team actually in 2000 when I started working in the Macintosh Business Unit on Office, a very unique org at the time within Microsoft. The difference hit me when I was expecting my first son. Without malicious intent, one of my coworker shared as a joke that some of the team members were baiting (virtually) about me not returning to Microsoft after having my son. While I am sure I laughed awkwardly at the time, it stuck with me, as my husband, who was an engineering lead at Microsoft like me, was not experiencing the same thing in his team. And as a working, expecting mom, I was already having so many conflicting thoughts that this definitely did not help. I am really happy to say that I have seen the parenting experience changing at Microsoft over the last 15 years, and I don’t hear anymore someone asking rudely why a new parent is taking so much vacation time after their child is born…
[VA]Are you a someone who makes new year resolutions? If yes, would you like to share your 2021 plans?
[Audrey] I stopped a long time ago with my new year resolutions being drastic diets or extensive workout schedules, as I could never keep them:). That said, this year I did make one resolution. After finding out that one of my friends lost her mother several months ago without me being enough in touch with her to be there to help her through this, I made the resolution that I will keep in touch regularly with my friends all over the world, a note, an email, a phone call, etc; and not just for birthdays and holidays.
[VA]There is a global pandemic, a time when women are experiencing greater responsibility for caregiving, home and family. How do you balance it out in the Audrey household?
[Audrey] In one sense, my husband and I are lucky that our kids are on the older side being in high school and do not need much of our time on the school front, not more than before. My home life has improved actually as I am not travelling anymore (while I enjoy being more at home, I never thought I would miss travelling and being with my team so much) and there are so much less to do socially as well as after school activities, sports etc. I am part of the small % of the population whose life got easier with the pandemic… One message I would like to send to parents of younger kids is: be kind to yourself as these are hard moments and try to enjoy some of these previous gifted moments at home.
[VA] How has allyship benefited you and your career choices, what advice would you give male and female colleagues, how do we bridge the gap between genders and work with togetherness and equity?
[Audrey] I have been fortunate to have some great managers throughout my careers (some I chose, some I was assigned by reorgs) and they were my true coaches, sponsors and allies. They gave me feedback, they gave me support, opportunities, one after the other even when I was not getting it right the first time. They showed me one on one how allyship was powerful. It was not always an easy story and when I felt I was not supported the best, I intentionally found a different role and changed manager and organization.
How do we bridge the gap? We will when all of us become allies for all. We will, when we stand up for each others and say something when we see an intentional or non-intentional non inclusive behavior.
We will make mistakes, we will be fortunate to have an ally explaining why your words or actions can hurt someone unintentionally. We will learn from it and day after day, together, we will make Microsoft a better place to work.
[VA] Corporate America is asking what it needs to do about racial inequality? Women of color are at the intersectionality resulting in a double whammy. What are your thoughts about it and what advice would you give to aspiring women who dream of being in leadership positions?
[Audrey] As a white woman who has enjoyed race and class privilege my whole life, and as an aspiring ally against racial injustice, I would say: stick with us and help us learn and become better. I am now in France, however I spent 21 years in the Northwest, and I was ashamed to realize that I had not grasped during all this time what was the real hard life of people of color in the US. I am on my own learning journey, trying to grow my network as going through my LinkedIn connection, I also realized that while being diverse in terms of gender, my network was not really diverse racially. Little by little I am trying to diversify it intentionally.
Specifically, about aspiring women who want to grow in leadership positions, here is what I would say: first follow your passion, look for roles that you will love and for teams that you will enjoy being a part of, the interview process really goes two ways: you interview the team as much as they interview you. Then, once you are in a great position, keep looking for how you grow your impact and collaborate with others so the overall team’s impact grows. There is room for growth both on the strategic front as well as execution; so, know your strengths and leverage them: you will establish yourself as a natural leader. Don’t try to become someone you are not; that said, keep learning of course. Align with your managers and mentors throughout the organization to be ready for when the next leadership position that matches your strength and passion opens up and then go for it.
[VA] Broadening the circle, what is the role of HR in building a culture of diversity and inclusion and affecting systemic change? How you expect the interplay between HR and transforming culture, while managing the change with humility and kindness?
[Audrey] HR has many roles and has evolved throughout the years also. Earlier on, as a woman in tech, I was often offered some trainings which were supposed to help me grow better in our industry. These often confused me as I was taught not to be myself. I was taught to speak with a different tone of voice, I was taught how to shake hands (literally with hands on exercises, no pun intended), how to sit at the table (not just seat at the table). I understand now the intent was to be allies to me, these were not necessarily the best way to support me, as a woman, to grow. Microsoft learnt, the trainings became wider, not just for minorities and honestly, I saw a difference. HR has done a tremendous job in adapting and creating learning experiences and support to change our culture with us.
[VA] I hope you were able to find some time to unwind with family and friends over the holidays. On a fun note, what is your favorite hobby/sport?
[Audrey] It was the quietest holiday season I have ever experienced in the last 20 years at Ms….and yes I did unwind with family. We spent 3 days in the mountains with beautiful snow and did a couple of snowshoe hikes and then board games by the fire, it was truly refreshing. And on the hobby/sport one, I can’t only pick one, so here you go: hiking around the world, scuba diving, pilate, reading, eating, watercolor, and so many more….
[VA] Any parting thoughts/life philosophies to share with our readers?
[Audrey] Thank you for having me here and I would say: enjoy life, help others and be happy, I try that everyday as life goes so fast… Thank you Vinita.
