README

Short Version

I thrive off of interacting with people, and I don’t have to be talking to do that; I enjoy thinking aloud but am also content to sit quietly in a room working alongside others.
I prioritize work focused on understanding and improving the means by which people relate, communicate, and interact with each other.
I look for connections and patterns within systems and don’t shy away from complexity.
I welcome feedback via all forums and encourage teammates to use one-on-ones as an opportunity to tell me what I’m doing well, what I can do to better support them, and what can be done differently.

About Me

Personal

My name’s Elisabeth Gray. I prefer to go by Liz, and she/her pronouns are best. I grew up on a turkey farm in Indiana and have four siblings. When we’re together you can expect lots of laughter, mischief, and gesticulation. I am married to an exceptionally hip and nerdy information professional. We have one cat (Ivan), a dog (Eartha), and we have a never-ending list of things we want to do in and around our home which gives me an excuse to buy tools. I have a lot of tattoos and some cool scars; they all have stories attached to them, which I’ll happily share if you’re interested. I tend to use profanity, especially when I’m excited about something; if that’s not your style let me know, and I will adjust accordingly.

Professional / Academic

I have 20 years of experience in technical and leadership roles across non-profit, service, education, and financial technology segments. I prioritize work focused on understanding and improving the means by which people relate, communicate, and interact with each other. Recent examples:

I founded and led the Braintree Docs team, which was structured to support products and teams end-to-end, from the internal knowledge base to the developer docs to the support articles. This was meant to share context and maintain a more consistent and accurate narrative between domains, and it succeeded.
I am part of the founding team at Pagos and structured its Community team to take an inside-out approach to building community. Community at Pagos includes recruiting and onboarding, learning and development, working culture, and knowledge (content). The ways we do and don't work together influence our customers' experiences, so we start first with our people, our working norms, and our connections within Pagos. This then informs how we serve and connect to our customers and partners.

My CV covers the full details of my professional and academic journey.

How I Work

Guiding Principles

People are complex. I want to understand the things that make you you so that we can collaborate more effectively.
Diversity makes us stronger. I value diversity of identity, experience, and thought and I strongly believe that understanding and embracing difference improves outcomes and our resilience as individuals, as teams, and as organizations.
Context matters. It's important to gather and share it to ensure that we’re working toward the same goals. I will talk about context a lot. You’ve been warned. :-)
Communicating is essential, and it’s hard to do well. I skew toward full transparency as my default communication style. If that’s not working for you, let me know! I value feedback and want to make sure I communicate effectively with different audiences.
Change is a constant. I first saw literacy equated with the ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn in Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock, and I subscribe to that idea.

Work Style and Approach

Visual communication is best for me to process conversations fully. I have auditory processing challenges, so written words, reading lips, and/or captions help me receive information more effectively. I also take and often repeat back my notes as a way to confirm understanding.
I have been described as passionate, and that’s a valid assessment. Sometimes my excitement—or frustration—about a topic is expressed with hyperbole, and it’s almost always expressed with my hands.
Attention to health and wellbeing is important. I'm actively working on it for myself (it's an ongoing process), and I encourage others to reflect on what that means for them, too.
It’s common for me to mull over ideas long enough that I don’t remember what I’ve said aloud and to whom. If I ask something of you and it isn’t clear, please feel free to tell me to use more words. I need and appreciate reminders to be more explicit.
I respond better to being asked than I do to being told.
I default to interpreting what people say literally, so I appreciate direct communications. I want to understand what's actually going on, not guess as to what's intended.

Feedback

Self

I welcome feedback on what I’m doing well and what I can do differently via all forums (Slack, email, face-to-face).
I prefer feedback as it happens so I can more effectively connect actions to words, though I absolutely understand if you need to process before sharing.
I’m comfortable with people being blunt with me and appreciate a focus on known rather than assumed information as part of that process; if you don’t know or are unsure, please ask!
I care a lot about the work I do and the people I work with, so I’ll need more time to process feedback in some cases, and I’ll do my best to communicate that when it’s necessary.
Recognition where it’s due is welcomed and can be public or private (if in question, default to private).

Calendar

I do my best to keep mine up-to-date, and any calendar invitations I send should default to allowing you to modify them. If a time I’ve proposed doesn’t work for you, please change it to one that does.

Assessments

I enjoy using assessments as a means of gaining new and different perspectives into how we view and interact with the world. I do not see them as hard or fixed definitions of who we are. I do see them as useful insights into how to relate to and understand each other.

Myers-Briggs

I’ve consistently fallen into the category of ENFJ until recently when my results shifted to ENTP. In my personal life, I align best with the characteristics associated with ENFJ. I see the shift to ENTP as a persona I can assume in the work environment, particularly as a manager.

Major takeaways:

I thrive off of interacting with people, and I don’t have to be talking to do that; I am content to sit quietly in a room working alongside others.
I sincerely enjoy helping people.
I look for connections and patterns within systems and don’t shy away from complexity.
I like developing strategy and solving problems creatively.
I value initiative and adaptability in myself and in others.
I don’t like to micromanage, and if I am, it’s likely because of insecurity or unfamiliarity within that particular situation.
I like to move quickly but respect that there are different working styles that can be equally as effective.

StrengthsFinder

I appreciate StrengthsFinder’s emphasis on how our strengths influence the ways we work best.

My top five are:

Learner: I have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. The process of learning excites me just as much as—if not more than—the outcome.
Achiever: I take great satisfaction from being productive.
Context: I enjoy studying the past to better understand the present and plan for the future.
Connectedness: I am always looking for ways to connect the dots between events, ideas, and, ultimately, people. I’m motivated by opportunities to better understand individuals and groups and use that knowledge to identify commonalities and promote empathy.
Woo: I love meeting new people and making connections, and I like to share what I learn with others. This is strongly tied to my interests in context and connectedness. I enjoy networking because I value people; I do it sincerely.