Our Lead(H)er series features impressive women leaders in the tech industry. In this Q&A, we are featuring Jaclyn Balben, SVP, Operations at Bamboo Health.
Where did you grow up and how would you describe yourself as a child?
I grew up about an hour outside of Boston in Franklin, MA. I have three sisters who I am very close with. We played every sport and game imaginable, swam, and adventured endlessly as kids.
My parents encouraged us to apply ourselves to everything we did, and provided us opportunities to learn and challenge ourselves. I benefited enormously from having parents who role modeled the power of hard work and the value of integrity and character. My mom often described me as an “old soul” when young.
(I am in blue)
What did you study in college and what was your first job out of school?
I studied business and entrepreneurship at Babson College. After graduating, I took a role in a management training program with Hannaford Supermarkets. This role exposed me to both in store and corporate functions and gave me hands-on people management experience. To this day, I think it is one of the hardest and most valuable professional experiences I have had.
Can you share the details on your career path and what were the critical moments that got you to where you are today?
I think there are two particularly critical moments in my career journey, both linked to leaders who helped me to get to where I am now.
First, early in my career, I was able to gain exposure to a variety of different roles when I joined a small start-up as the 16th hire. I became the resident “jack of all trades” while also building a team. As the team grew, I was able to continuously hone my own role to optimize for my interests and talents. I was fortunate to report into the CEO who enabled me to pursue areas of interest while providing me with learning opportunities that ultimately helped put me on the path that I followed from that point on.
Second, I had the opportunity to work for a leader who enabled me to take on increasingly complex challenges and consistently pushed me out of my comfort zone. As an athlete, I often needed to be told to “take the shot” and having a leader who pushed me in a similar way in my career helped me to learn by doing and seize new challenges quickly where I might have previously hesitated.
What is your current role and responsibilities?
I am currently the Senior Vice President of Operations at Bamboo Health. I have responsibility for a number of different functions including Business & Revenue Operations, Delivery & Solutions, and Customer Support. I love that my role allows me a lot of diversity in the types of challenges I get to solve for, the ability to work internally and with customers, and gives me exposure to a lot of different people and teams.
For people who are looking to be in a similar position, what advice would you give to others in terms of helping them achieve their career goals?
- Be curious and solve problems. Always be learning and working to understand how things work and why they work like they do. When you understand this well, you are well positioned to propose and implement creative and effective solutions.
- Ask questions. If you don’t understand something, ask. As a leader, I make a concerted effort to model this behavior as I think the fear of looking stupid is one of the biggest blockers to growth. Ask questions until you understand the concept/information and you will grow. Dont, and you won’t.
- Invest in people and relationships. Figuring out how to work effectively with other people is critical to being able to grow in your role. Strong teams are made out of diverse individuals and strong leaders are able to bring those people together effectively.
What do you find most interesting/rewarding about your work?
I find it very rewarding to make complex problems simple. Einstein said “If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well enough”. I’m a firm believer in this concept and really enjoy breaking things down into basic concepts and then building solutions and processes around the fundamentals.
What is your proudest professional accomplishment?
My team. I am proud and humbled to be able to lead and be a part of the Operations team at Bamboo Health. We have amazing individuals who are passionate about what they do, push for excellence, and care deeply about our mission. I take great pride in the opportunity to help others reach their full potential and dedicate significant time and effort to building our culture and supporting my team.
Q&A
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I love getting outdoors. Depending on the weather, that generally means either hiking or the beach. I have two young kids and a dog with a lot of energy and we all enjoy our time outside.
How do you manage stress?
When stressed, I like to do something active while listening to a good book or Podcast. That can be anything from cooking or gardening, to running and working out. The combination of physical and mental activity allows me to get some distance from what is causing the stress and I usually have a better perspective after.
How many cups of coffee do you have in a day?
One, but it is generally a big one.
Any book or podcast recommendations?
I am a huge Podcast and Audible listener. I listen to a variety of different genres, but here are some that are at the top of my list:
Books:
- Business: Greg McKeown's Essentialism
- Fantasy: Michael J Sullivan's Legends of the First Empire Series
- Mystery/Crime: Robert Galbraith's Cormoran Strike Series
Podcasts:
Operations with Sean Lane, Creating a New Healthcare with Dr. Zeev Neuwirth
What advice do you have for recent college graduates?
If you don’t have an opportunity to work in person (which I would strongly recommend trying to do early in your career), find people and channels to be able to ask questions, hear others' thought processes, and engage in working time. Remote work has enormous upsides but also many downsides for those that are missing opportunities to learn from team members around them.
