As Google X’s Cultural Alchemist, Gina Rudan is responsible for leading both Culture and Diversity for Alphabet Inc.’s Moonshot Factory. Prior to joining X, Gina was a Senior Diversity Manager at Google, where she led innovative diversity programs including designing Google’s first Immerse VR educational series exploring racial identity. Before Google, she founded her own leadership development training practice, Genuine Insights Inc. She is the best selling author of Practical Genius.
We were eager to chat with her before the conference to hear how her message translates to local government management.
Do you have any advice for early career women seeking to serve in local government?
Be yourself; everyone else is taken. The best advice I have ever received was to be authentically always me. Don’t compromise your identity in hopes of fitting in or impressing leaders. Most leaders in both the public and private sectors respect those women who are confidently and compassionately themselves. Young women, share your voice, stand for something; and don’t blend in, blend out. Carry your heart, mind, and soul in a way that is uniquely you and be sure to keep an inventory of all the ingredients that make you extraordinary and amplify them regularly.
What can local government managers take away from your leadership development training practice and apply to their daily work?
We all possess genius and it’s our responsibility to understand how to leverage it daily. One way to do that is to try on a daily basis to operate from the intersection between what you love and what you do best. This sweet spot is where the professional and personal joyfully mesh and is the essence of what is your practical genius. Every day be mindful not to tilt too far toward your hard assets that are your strengths, skills, and expertise; nor too far toward your soft assets that are your values, passions, and creative abilities. Stay at the intersection of both heart and mind for that is where your personal power resides.
What are some issues to keep in mind as ICMA, and the local government profession, look toward the next 100 years?
It’s not an issue as much as it is a philosophy: embrace failure. The ability to embrace failure—to celebrate it, even—is an incredibly powerful and effective way to encourage audacious thinking. Of course, no one enjoys failing, and voters hold their elected officials to high standards, but great results frequently come from taking great risks and giving experimental ideas a chance to succeed. Failure is inevitable when trying to do difficult things.
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