For many, leadership is the top of the career ladder. Taking on responsibility for a team can feel like a natural progression after years of building the experience required to lead. However, reaching the strategic level isn’t the end of a career journey—it’s a whole new start full of exciting challenges.
In Taking the Lead, we catch up with executive leaders celebrating Oracle anniversaries and ask them to share their experiences and the lessons learned along the way.
Cristina Weir was one of Oracle’s first employees—an experience that sparked a fervent passion for tech and kickstarted a decades-long journey across the industry. Three years ago, she stepped up as group vice president for Oracle Digital and brought her career full circle. To commemorate her work anniversary, Cristina caught up with Executive Leadership Recruiter Ben Vodila about returning to Oracle, navigating leadership, and evolving with the industry.
Full circle
When Cristina first joined Oracle in the ‘80s, the company had no more than 1,000 employees. Her job involved entering accounts payable and expense information into an Oracle application, which gave her an early look into the software industry. “It actually led me into the degree that I ended up choosing, which was computer science,” she remembers. “My first job after graduating was in tech support. So, if anyone ever called in about installing Oracle databases on a Unix platform, I was the one who was on the other side of that.” Cristina drove success with multiple organizations, quickly setting herself apart as an industry leader.
After 27 years, however, she was ready for a fresh chapter, and what she saw at Oracle impressed her. The company had grown immensely since those early days—in both scale and culture. “It was an Oracle that focused on not just the success of the business, but also cared about the wellness of employees. It ensured that women and minorities have the opportunity to grow their careers here.” Work-life balance was an essential factor for Cristina, who has two kids and a husband with his own career. Finding out that Oracle closes for the holidays so that employees—including leaders—can spend time with their families assured her that balance was a company priority.
Human connection
Though Cristina was a seasoned leader, rejoining Oracle in the middle of a pandemic presented unique challenges. Collaborating over Zoom was hard, especially when people had their cameras off. She explained to her team that seeing each other’s faces facilitates human connection, whether it’s with colleagues, customers, or prospects. “I started leading by example, even when I didn’t look great,” she recalls. “You have to humanize it and let them know that it’s okay if we don’t have all our pieces together. Today might be a bad day, but tomorrow could be a good day, and that’s all that matters.” Soon, she noticed people automatically turning on their cameras during calls with her. Sometimes there would be kids or pets in the background, but Cristina saw this as a positive thing. The pandemic had created an opportunity to make work more flexible, and Oracle was embracing it wholeheartedly.
She remembers spending two hours commuting to work each day. With remote work, she could instead put that time toward catching up on sleep and spending time with her children. “The way in which you work differs for everyone, and Oracle allowed that flexibility to happen. It allows my team and the organization to work from home or be in the office and just find a space where they can do their job.”
Constantly evolving
As group vice president for Oracle Digital, Cristina heads the solution engineering team that specializes in selling Oracle Cloud Applications. Business has been flourishing since she joined, and there’s one factor that contributed considerably to the team’s success. “We shifted our mentality in the team and the organization,” she says. “Going from a product-centric approach to selling into a customer-centric approach and providing a solution based on their needs.”
Over the past three years, Cristina has discovered how much there is to appreciate about being a leader at Oracle. She especially values the autonomy she has in her role. “I have the opportunity to flex my leadership skills, to come up with the best organizational structure,” she shares. “How to best sell, how to best train—that’s up to you as a leader to help define and shape.” When asked about her leadership style, she replies that she is constantly evolving. Oracle’s position as an industry giant also acts as a safety net, giving her the freedom to lead without having to worry about whether the company will exist in five or ten years. “My style and skill set has adjusted to thinking not just of the success of the business, but also thinking about how we can do this more efficiently and more profitably and ensure we’ve got the right skill set on the team.”
Variety of perspectives
What does it take to build a strong team? According to Cristina, it’s not necessarily about hiring the highest-performing individuals. It’s about finding individuals who work well together. “I look for people who are passionate, who are competitive, and who are willing to learn because at the end of the day, we may not have a perfect skill set. But if you’re able to learn those skills, the team gets stronger together.” As a leader, she recognizes her responsibility to help her team succeed in their jobs. That’s why she makes the most of the company’s investment in professional development. Oracle offers countless resources across the organization that are specially designed to help leaders expand their knowledge and perspectives.
Cristina describes a leadership development program she recently completed that brought together leaders from different parts of the business and put them in pods to work as a team. “The program has really expanded my leadership capabilities,” she shares. “It teaches you how to maneuver and deal with different backgrounds and viewpoints.” This ties into Oracle’s greater commitment to inclusion, which Cristina asserts is key to success in the tech industry. “When we hire people of different backgrounds—minorities, veterans, you name it—it’s not about meeting a number. It’s about driving toward a variety of perspectives. Once you have that, you’re going to see your blind spots and get a more holistic view of how to drive a successful business.”
Fostering inclusion
Cristina emphasizes that in order to attract candidates with different perspectives, organizations must offer an inclusive environment. That means having recruiters who are representative of those they’re hiring and extending a culture of support to people who join the company. Cristina puts this into practice through Oracle Women’s Leadership (OWL), an employee resource group dedicated to empowering current and future women leaders at Oracle. In addition to speaking on OWL panels, she does mentoring and one-on-one career consultation across the organization, where she
often helps early career professionals and women on their journey to leadership. “There are so many things that Oracle does to focus on inclusion, driving success in women, and women’s leadership, like our Women in Finance community,” she adds. “It’s bringing women throughout Oracle, women from different walks of life, to coach and participate in these events both virtually and in person.”
Passion and balance
Cristina’s own heritage was instrumental in shaping her as a leader. She was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the Bay Area as a child with her parents and four siblings. The family struggled financially, which meant that everybody worked regardless of age. Growing up in this environment gave Cristina the ironclad work ethic she has today. “It engraved in me that I must find my passion and do what I love to do,” she explains. “Even if I do something and the outcome isn’t the best, I don’t see it as a failure. It’s about learning from it, figuring out what could be better, and driving toward that.” At the same time, she warns against over-pivoting toward work and neglecting your personal life and health. Leadership can admittedly make work-life balance tough, but Cristina has implemented small ways to keep herself in check. “I look to my friends, family, and other co-workers. My husband will definitely let me know if things are a little out of whack,” she says. “Then just ensuring that I’m sleeping well, I’m happy, and I’m making time for myself.”
Oracle is the first place she’s worked where she doesn’t have to bring her laptop on vacation, which allows her to properly take a break and come back recharged.
The path ahead
Continuous growth is the hallmark of every leadership journey, and Cristina admires how many ways there are to move up—or across—at Oracle. Every employee has the opportunity to work with other teams, explore different parts of the business, and learn something new. Supportive managers and a strong focus on internal mobility open the door for employees to define their own career paths.
As for Cristina? “I started my career at Oracle, and my goal is to retire here. That’s how much I believe in the company.”
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