The American leader who’s bridging the culture gap in Europe
Location: Madrid, Spain
Languages Spoken: English and Spanish
Current Roles: President, Foundation 29; Non-executive Director, Sngular; Board member, CaixaBank Payments and Consumer
Previous Leadership Roles: CEO, Sngular; CEO, Habitissimo; Country Manager, LinkedIn Spain and Portugal
Boardwave Role: Mentor
Sarah Harmon is a successful CEO and board member, having served on numerous boards in Spain where she emigrated to from Oklahoma. If it wasn’t for a decision she made as a teenager though, she may have followed a different path entirely. When Harmon was 17 years old, her father offered her a choice: he would pay for a debutante ball or an educational tour of Europe. Not both. “My father has always valued experience over things.”
Harmon, who spent her adolescence in the conservative US state, was curious about what lay beyond her narrow borders. Because of this, she chose the European tour. It was a revelatory experience for Harmon and, from that moment on, she knew she wanted to have an international career. In 2004, Harmon took a Madrid-based role at Microsoft, where she stayed for almost nine years. In 2013, and still in Europe, she joined LinkedIn as the Country Manager for Spain and Portugal. From there, her career took off like a rocket.
At the time, Spain had its fair share offemale leaders: the CEO of Microsoft Spain, and the leads for IBM and HP. Later, Facebook and Twitter appointed female heads. “Women are natural at connecting different cultures in the workplace. They make great representatives and have a knack for translating between cultures. I’m especially proud that most of my career wins have come from working in a language, culture and market that wasn’t originally mine.”
When big tech companies landed in Europe, Harmon was best placed to bridge that gap. “We were trying to translate an American multi-national business into relevancy in a Spanish culture,” she says. “We were able to advocate for the needs of our respective territories in Europe, and ensure that those multinationals adopted value and growth strategies that were more diverse and adapted to a global audience.”
Curiosity is Harmon’s number one tip for business success. “It makes you ask the questions; it makes you think about the business environment and it makes you think about your competitors. I am also finding that it is a key characteristic when leading in the age of AI. Great leaders ask great questions. Curious leaders promote a learning culture in their organisations that leads to greater experimentation, agility, and adaptability.”
Joining the IT crowd
Growing up in the 1980s, Harmon was, as she says, something of a nerd. During this time, information technology was in its infancy andcertainly not on offer to “a girl growingup in Oklahoma”. But when 25-year-old Harmon, armed with a master’s in healthcare administration, was given the opportunity to move to IT, she jumped at it.
She had begun working at United Healthcare, first as a business analyst and then as a customer service manager. But when the firm bought another healthcare company and needed some system integration, no one else wanted the job. “Believe it or not, I was the most educated person in the whole company when it came to database management,” she says. This was when Harmon truly saw the power of software, and experienced the internet. “It was a moment of letting my inner nerd out, which is one of the things that really defines me. I’ve always been a girl geek.”
Her adolescent interests turned out to be a big advantage in the male-dominated world of coders: “I established personal connections with tech audiences because I bonded with them over nerd culture. I was into video games, I loved science fiction, I knew how to meet them on their level. I always wanted to listen, I never cut them off. I was really curious.”
After two years at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Harmon decided that chasing capitalism “Gordon- Gekko style” wasn’t for her. Having observed that some of the most successful businesses and brands in the world were the best communicators, she transferred to the University of Kansas for a corporate communications degree, which offered the perfect mix of business and journalism.
“The secret to great business communication lies in clarity, empathy, active listening, and adaptability. Conveying a clear vision, understanding diverse perspectives, genuinely listening to feedback, and adjusting communication styles to various audiences fosters trust, encourages engagement, and drives collective success,” she says. “It’s about being sensitive to your audience and pivoting messages according to your audience. But also, the value of repeating core messaging.”
Communication became a key tool when Harmon took up the role of country manager at LinkedIn. “I said ‘yes’ every time a journalist wanted to interview me. I went to every conference they asked me to go to, and I just kept repeating the same messaging and value proposition.”
None of this was easy for someone who is a self-confessed introvert. While the business world is littered with successful extroverts, Harmon sees introversion as yet another one of her superpowers. “I’m good at bringing introverted people out. There are a lot of people who are afraid to talk to clients. When I bring them to meetings, I’m really good at giving them practical advice and tools to feel more comfortable presenting their ideas and projects. I tell them, ‘Here’s your script and stick to these three messages’.”
Overcoming adversity
Harmon was recently diagnosed with ADHD, which she says has been key to her success in business, not least because it has given her boundless energy. “When you read about women with ADHD, they talk about superpowers of pattern recognition, visioning and being inherently perceptive about people around them. Getting multiple inputs at the same time and being able to distil them down to one important thing or one idea.”
It has been a relief to be diagnosed but the only change she has made is a physical one. “I realised that I have auditory processing issues. When I’m in big environments and everybody is talking at the same time, I wear these earplugs that help me filter background noise. This tactic has made a huge impact on me being able to connect with other people in crowded environments.”
Dealing with ADHD isn’t the only difficulty that Harmon has hadto overcome in the workplace. In her first job, she experienced sexual harassment and, despite being the victim, was fired. “It was a really difficult situation. My parents had no idea how to help me other than patting me on the back and telling me how unfair it was,” she says. “There was no suggestion of recourse because this person was part of a very important family in our city, and if we had gone after them it would have been bad for us.”
The incident knocked her confidence and Harmon says shereally started to question her own worth. She is pleased that such behaviour is no longer tolerated by businesses or employees. “Young women now know that it’s not right. And they know that channels and mechanisms exist to report these types of incidents. Women are raised to know the boundaries and what is not acceptable behaviour and men are raised to know that as well.”
The months that followed, during which she returned to Europe to improve her language skills, were among the most difficult of her life – but they taught her resilience. “I learned how resourceful I am. No matter what life throws my way, I will figure it out.”
Walking the talk
Language and communication skills are key in business, she says, but so is networking and partnership – qualities she put into practice at LinkedIn. “Spanish business is about ‘I am not successful by myself. I am successful when I work with my ecosystem’ – meaning partnerships, who finances me, who represents me legally, who my partners are.”
These are also aspects she sees in Boardwave’s mission. And as a breakout moderator for the network, Harmon is once again helping to build the right culture. “I was a bit frustrated as an angel investor about what it takes for European companies to scale globally. And it is really frustrating to see an American company or Japanese company come to market with a solution when there is a European company doing the same thing. They just made the move to international faster.”
Through Boardwave, Harmon is determined to do two things: “I’d like to advocate for more facilities to support these companies, while helping and mentoring founders to dream big from the very beginning and think internationally,” she says. “If the only thing that I achieve is to get early-stage members to think about international first, I think I will have contributed positively to the cause. It will force founders to think about the scalability of their idea.”
Tips From The Top
What are your tips for a successful business?
1. Follow your curiosity
2. Learn how to value good communication
3. Be loyal to your principles
What is the best advice you’ve been given?
It was given to me by a neighbour, and the only female entrepreneur that I knew well at the time. She said: “When in doubt, hire it done”, which means don’t waste your time on low-value tasks but dedicate yourself to the activities and the projects that are going to move you and your business forward. Outsource everything else.
What is something surprising about you that people may not know?
I paid for my master’s degree by working as a personal trainer.
What would you have done if you hadn’t become a CEO?
An actor or a job in musical theatre.
What tech, other than your phone, would you not be without?
Quality headphones are essential. Music plays a vital role in my life. It is crucial for maintaining my productivity at work.
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