Kourtney Hayes is a senior security leader at one of the world’s largest cloud and technology companies.The Chic Tech FirmAccording to estimates from The World Bank, women make up around 35% of all U.S. employees in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) field. In an article by Dr. Shara Cohen for the Women in Stem Network, Cohen explained that the barriers that women face in the STEM field aren’t an attraction problem but a retention problem. Cohen argued that women leave STEM fields at disproportionately higher rates than men and that the issue isn’t simply a pipeline problem. When women leave STEM fields, their departure doesn’t only impact them—corporations are also harmed by these exits. Cohen wrote, “Over time, these individuals accumulate knowledge that is specific not only to their discipline but also to their organization. When they leave, that knowledge leaves with them.”Kourtney Hayes is a senior security industry leader who knows what it takes to thrive within tech. She’s currently at one of the world’s largest cloud and technology companies, where she owns global security programs at the intersection of cybersecurity, AI, governance, identity and access management and enterprise risk. Hayes was recognized as one of the trailblazing women in cybersecurity and has over a decade of experience in her field. “I’ve been with this company for five years, but I’ve been in the cybersecurity industry for over a decade. My journey has taken me through some incredible organizations spanning defense, financial services, and now one of the most influential technology companies in the world,” Hayes shared. In an Instagram post, Hayes shared her progress at her company and how she’s advanced while earning the highest performance ratings year after year. “Getting the highest possible rating once is already hard,” Hayes said. “Most people never get it. I got it four times, back-to-back, across three different managers. That’s not something that just happens, and I think it’s important to be honest about what actually went into it.”Women leave STEM fields at disproportionately higher rates than men.gettyWhen reflecting on her journey and how she has been able to successfully advance over the years, Hayes shared, “First, you have to know your target. The biggest mistake I see people make is working incredibly hard toward the wrong thing. Early on I got really intentional about understanding exactly what ‘exceeds’ looked like at my level, not just meeting expectations, but mapping everything I did directly to what leadership actually cared about. I researched it. I asked questions. When you know the target, you can aim at it on purpose.”“At the senior level,” she shared, “no one is going to tell you what to do or how to do it. You have to be able to look at a complex, ambiguous situation, make a high-judgment call, and own the outcome. Leaders don’t get rated on effort. They get rated on impact and judgment. So, I stopped waiting for direction and started making decisions like someone who already had the job I was working toward.”MORE FOR YOU“Then,” Hayes explained, “you have to learn to tell your story. Doing great work and being rated well are two completely different things. I had to learn how to connect what I did to why it mattered to the business. The framing changes everything. Same work, completely different impact. [Lastly], document everything. I almost went into a review cycle once without being able to clearly articulate what I’d accomplished all year. Never again. Now I screenshot positive feedback the moment I get it. Every quarter I write down what I owned, what the outcome was, and who saw it. I’m not leaving my rating up to anyone’s memory, including my own.”When women leave STEM fields, their departure doesn’t only impact them.getty“For a long time, I thought doing great work would speak for itself,” Hayes shared. “It doesn’t. I had to learn the difference between saying ‘I led a global security program,’ and saying, ‘I drove cross-organizational alignment between security, the business and customer teams that directly reduced risk at scale.’ Same work, completely different impact. Your story is your career strategy, and nobody is coming to tell it for you. My advice [is to] practice framing your work around outcomes, not just activities. The women who get promoted aren’t always the hardest workers in the room. They’re the ones who made sure their work was visible and their value was understood.”Hayes also shared what thriving looks like for her as a woman in a competitive industry like the tech field. “I stopped waiting to feel ready and started showing up anyway. I got strategic about visibility, intentional about relationships and ruthless about knowing my value. I also stopped treating the industry’s lack of representation as a reason to shrink. I treated it as a reason to be unmissable. My advice to women in similar spaces [is to] understand the game well enough to play it brilliantly and then rewrite the rules for the women coming behind you.”