Emerging Leader Spotlight: Li Chen, Microsoft

    “I want to be a role model for my kids so I always do my best to make a positive impact on my group, my product, and the people around me.”
 

Name: Li Chen
Current title: Principal Development Lead
Company: Microsoft Corporation


What is the most important thing you have learned that has been critical to your career success? For me, it’s finding my purpose in life and focusing on the “right things”. After I had kids, I realized suddenly that my time is precious. Understanding this has forced me to reprioritize things; many of the things that I thought were important are not as important now. I want to be a role model for my kids so I always do my best to make a positive impact on my group, my product, and the people around me.

 “...I now believe that one’s positive thoughts are powerful magnets that attract health, wealth, and happiness.”

What tools or resources have you used that have been crucial to your success? I read books and have attended a few training sessions that have been important to me. I would recommend the book, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. I was skeptical about the concept at first but I now believe that one’s positive thoughts are powerful magnets that attract health, wealth, and happiness.

I have attended many powerful trainings, but the one that stands out is the most is the Manager Foundation Training that Microsoft conducts, which is a very intense five day off-site session. In the training, we formed teams, completed projects, and gave each other candid feedback. That training freed me from my worry of grammatical errors and other small things and it has enabled me to be more engaged and productive in meetings.
 

“I value trust a lot...Without trust, we would not be able to have a cohesive and productive team.”
 

Have you experienced a career or leadership challenge recently that you have overcome? Recently I had an incident with my coworker that caused trust issues between us. I value trust a lot, and lack of trust is the first of the five dysfunction of a team as taught by Patrick Lencioni. Without trust, we would not be able to have a cohesive and productive team. There are things that both of us learned from this incident, but still I wondered “how do I repair the trust?” I wanted to resolve this but was reluctant to take action because I was afraid of making the situation worse. Finally, I took a leap of faith and initiated a follow up discussion with the other person to resolve our differences. The trust is not completely restored yet but it certainly is improving.

“I have served as chair of Cloud and Enterprise Women’s Leadership Council (WLC) for the last two years...I’m honored to have such an opportunity to help build this community for women in our organization...”
 

What professional accomplishment or result have you achieved in the past year that you are proud of? Last year, my team shipped a hybrid solution for our existing SCCM customers to use Windows Intune service to securely manage modern devices including WP8, Windows RT, and iOS. We delivered that solution in a drastically shorter time than our previous 3 year shipping cycle.

I have served as chair of Cloud and Enterprise Women’s Leadership Council (WLC) for the last two years. WLC is a grass roots organization that has 390 members. I’m honored to have such an opportunity to help build this community for women in our organization, which has been created to help women connect with each other, as well as facilitate professional and personal development.