Ma Xiaofang from Xunlei: I yearn for a manager who is like a "stabilizing force"

[51CTO.com original article] In order to pay tribute to the women active in the IT circle, 51CTO decided to do a series of interviews with IT women in March. I sincerely thank this series of interviews for allowing reporters to see the demeanor of many IT women.

As the vice president of marketing at Shenzhen Xunlei Network Technology Co., Ltd., Ma Xiaofang is very busy. When the reporter met Ma Xiaofang in January 2017, she was so friendly that he couldn't help but make an appointment with her for the special interview of IT women in March. She agreed very readily and quickly answered many of the reporter's questions.

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The following is the interview transcript:

51CTO: Is your current job consistent with your major in college? When you first entered the workforce, did you expect to have a job like this? Was it accidental or inevitable that you entered IT? Have you ever planned to change careers?

Ma Xiaofang: My current job is not consistent with my major, but fortunately, I have always been on the path I aspire to. I graduated from the History Department of Nanjing University. Most of my classmates at that time went to work in history-related jobs, such as university teachers and museums, but I personally yearned for media work. So, I entered the media industry with a very clear purpose and a very tortuous process, and have been working in it for ten years.

After thinking for a long time, I planned my career path from the media to the enterprise. However, since I was mainly in the TMT field when I was in the media, I naturally entered the IT industry. From this perspective, it is hard to say whether it was accidental or inevitable. After entering this industry, I am very fortunate. Although there are tens of millions of industries in the world, in China at this stage, no industry can develop as fast as the IT industry. This kind of career experience can train people in a way that other professions do not.

51CTO: What is the achievement that you are most satisfied with or most impressed with in your career? When did you realize the difference between female IT practitioners in the workplace? What personality traits do you think are helpful to your work?

Ma Xiaofang: I can’t say I am most satisfied with it, but I can say that the most impressive experience is Xunlei’s IPO. Xunlei’s official IPO was about 3 months after I joined Xunlei. During these 3 months, I had to quickly familiarize myself with Xunlei and carry out a lot of IPO work in depth. This was a huge challenge for me who had just transitioned from the media industry. At the same time, being able to experience the IPO of a company is the dream of many people in the IT industry, especially those in the Internet industry. I am very lucky to have such an experience.

From my own experience, I don't feel the difference between men and women in the workplace, but I understand this phenomenon. For example, there is a ceiling for women in the workplace, and this ceiling is largely caused by the differences in personality and thinking between men and women. Men's rationality, courage, courage, and vision make men more advantageous in management positions. Of course, women's delicacy, clarity, and resilience will also form women's unique advantages and become an indispensable part of the team.

51CTO: In the workplace, what do you think are the advantages of female managers? Do you prefer women in the recruitment process? What wise words from senior professors in the workplace have benefited you the most?

Ma Xiaofang: I have already said something about the advantages of women above, so I will not repeat it here. I remember when Peng Lei stepped down as CEO of Ant Financial, Jack Ma made a comment about her in an internal letter. I personally think that this is very representative of the characteristics and advantages of female managers: "Peng Lei has demonstrated her outstanding leadership with a woman's unique insight, inner clarity and persistence in responsibility, and perfectly interprets the role of the 'stabilizing force'."

Morningside founder Liu Qin (who is also an investor in Xunlei) once said something that I always remember: Leadership comes from impartial self-awareness, an empty cup mentality, and the unity of knowledge and action. If you are interested in the specific explanation of this sentence, you can search for his speech online. For me, it has benefited a lot.

51CTO: As we all know, IT work is very demanding and stressful. As a woman, how do you balance the two roles of a working woman and a housewife? There is a view that men are more able to devote themselves to work and adapt to business trips and overtime work. What is your attitude towards this?

Ma Xiaofang: I haven't touched upon the difficulty of balancing the two roles yet. It is undeniable that women are under greater pressure in society because, in addition to facing the same demands as men at work, they also "default" to take on more responsibilities at home. The very successful women I have seen, on the contrary, have balanced the two relationships very well. As for whether one can devote oneself to work wholeheartedly, it is more a question of work attitude.

51CTO: What books are you reading recently? Are there any books or ideas that have benefited you a lot and can you recommend to readers?

Ma Xiaofang: I read a wide range of books, including science and technology, fiction, finance, and psychology. From a business perspective, I am currently reading Growth Hackers. From a hobby perspective, I have a book recommended by a friend that I am not finished reading yet. It is called The Elephant and the Rider: The Happiness Hypothesis, which talks about happiness. If you are interested, you can read it.

[51CTO original article, please indicate the original author and source as 51CTO.com when reprinting on partner sites]