Becky Sheetz-Runkle interview
"When you give 100%, you never have to make excuses." This is a quote attributed to Becky Sheetz-Runkle, our honored guest and Woman Warrior. What we noticed about Ms. Sheetz-Runkle right away is that she is direct and disciplined yet caring and patient. It is this balance of superior qualities that make her an outstanding businesswoman, martial artist, and writer.
She is co-founder and vice president of Q2 Marketing, a technology marketing firm in the Washington D.C. metro area, and has 20 years of experience in communications and marketing strategy. Ms. Sheetz-Runkle also holds the rank of Grand Master and Menkyo Kaiden (9th-Degree Black Belt) in Sho Bushido Ryu Jujitsu. She runs the Woodbridge, Virginia Dojo of Sho Bushido Ryu. She also holds black-belt ranks in Tang Soo Do karate, Shotokan karate, and Nakamura Ryu Batto-Do.
Becky Sheetz-Runkle's professional philosophy can be summed in her upcoming book called Sun Tzu for Women: The Art of War for Winning in Business. Written from a feminine perspective, her book demonstrates clearly to the woman reader that it is not a disadvantage to be a woman in business but rather an advantage when she applies Sun Tzu's principles. Despite The Art of War's readership comprising mostly of men, we at Sonshi.com have been emphasizing for the last five years how women can actually relate to Sun Tzu more naturally due to his indirect, benevolent, and nonaggressive approaches. Sheetz-Runkle further underscored this fact by providing many real-life examples of women in business who achieved their goals by employing sound strategies.
If being a businesswoman, martial artist, and writer isn't enough, Becky Sheetz-Runkle is also an ordained deacon at Lake Ridge Baptist Church. She graduated with Honors from Temple University and has BA degrees in political science and history. Ms. Sheetz-Runkle has always given 100% in everything she does -- except giving excuses. How does she do it? Read the interview below and find out.
Sonshi.com: When was the first time you heard about Sun Tzu's Art of War, and what about it motivated you to learn more?
Sheetz-Runkle: I heard about The Art of War anecdotally throughout my martial arts training. I was about 20 when a fellow karate instructor suggested we both read it. I studied it and enjoyed it, but didn.t take a great deal from it to apply at that time. But like Sun Tzu, I am a big believer in the importance of timing.
When I started Q2 Marketing (www.q2marketing.com) in 2000, in a very competitive industry, I delved back into Sun Tzu. The application of military strategy and the emphasis on preparation very much impacted me and the course of the business in the early days. We spent a great deal of time and attention making sure the business infrastructure was sound and that we understand who and what we were up against in our industry. We also focused on the marketing elements. It was, after all, a marketing agency. While The Art of War includes a great deal of specificity and had been prophetic in battles and wars that have followed, I've been struck by the reality that business and much of life are really all about the basics. When businesses and people lose sight of that, failure is invariably around the corner.
Sonshi.com: In the past, readers of Sun Tzu's Art of War are men in the military. You just wrote a book titled "Sun Tzu for Women: The Art of War for Winning in Business." Why do you think The Art of War is now no longer just for men in the military?
Sheetz-Runkle: First and foremost, The Art of War is for those in the military who engage in warfare. But as we’ve learned in recent decades, Sun Tzu has a great deal to teach us about how to wage—or, if you prefer, conduct—business. I believe women, in particular, have a great deal to learn from Sun Tzu. This is because, overwhelmingly, they haven’t read Sun Tzu. They are far less likely than men to realize how it can make a difference in their careers and their businesses.
Sonshi.com: What major lessons would readers learn from your book?
Sheetz-Runkle: It’s difficult to refine the book into a few major lessons. It’s written to impart Sun Tzu’s wisdom within a modern context of challenges businesswomen face. Here are just a few examples.
Generally speaking, women in business tend to share many common obstacles. They:
At the other end of the spectrum are common success attributes many women share, such as
For each of us to succeed, we must understand our weaknesses, which is straight from Sun Tzu. We must also identify our relative strengths, see them as advantages, and learn to fully utilize them. This analysis of common weaknesses and strengths will enable readers to make the changes necessary to achieve their absolute best.
Another example is in examining the devastating consequences fear can have. If we allow it to reign in our decision making, we’ll look back at the moves we didn’t make because of fear and realize how much it has cost. For Sun Tzu, fear is a deeply motivating factor. It’s not something to be avoided. Sun Tzu for Women will change the way many women understand and feel about fear.
Another important theme is the importance for each woman to be authentic. This carries with it many challenges. The insecurity of limited self-belief keeps some women from projecting their best and most genuine self. It’s tempting for women who report primarily to men to believe they have to emulate men’s management, leadership, and interpersonal styles. But they don’t have to lead like he does. They have to find and be true to their authentic self. Sun Tzu says that leaders should have no conflict about what they’re to do or who will believe in them: Therefore, when those experienced in war move, they are never bewildered; when they act, they are never at a loss.
Sonshi.com: Please share with us one anecdote about a businesswoman in a tough business situation, and how she overcame it by applying one of Sun Tzu's principles.
Sheetz-Runkle: Sun Tzu for Women is replete with examples of how successful business warriors like Carly Fiorina, Geraldine Laybourne, Meg Whitman and others overcame challenges based on Sun Tzu’s principles. Also included are examples from battlefield warriors and strategists like Queen Elizabeth I, Harriet Tubman, Queen Nzinga and Condoleezza Rice.
Marsha Serlin’s success is an illustration of many attributes of Sun Tzu, including harnessing deception to shape perception. She started United Scrap Metal, Inc. with $200 and a rented truck. She got into the industry because she thought it would provide the flexibility she would need to tend to two small children she would soon be raising alone. She found out that the venture required sixteen-hour days, six days a week. The seventh day was reserved for paperwork.
She was underestimated in the early years, but instead of being intimidated, she capitalized in ways that would make Sun Tzu proud. Her competitors, all men in that industry, didn’t expect her to survive. She knowingly flew under the radar, operating out of an old building with a run-down façade. With the eyes of her competitors on the outside, she then bought up all the property behind her to clandestinely grow the business.
What began with a ramshackle old building, but lots of drive and guts has turned into an American success story. United Scrap processes 140,000 tons of steel a year and achieved a record $215 million in revenues in a recent year.
Sonshi.com: What common mistakes might some women make after reading Sun Tzu's Art of War, and how can they prevent making them?
Sheetz-Runkle: I think the biggest mistake anyone can make with The Art of War is to deem it too far removed from their challenges to be applicable. But for women, this is particularly daunting and it keeps them from even picking up The Art of War. In talking with female writers and academics regarding Sun Tzu, I have been disappointed with the reception he has received. The misperception about women reading Sun Tzu is that it will lead us to seek out combat as our first and best option, that it will train women to follow a “male paradigm” of aggressive leadership.
Those who have studied The Art of War, of course, realize that this is very far from the real Sun Tzu. The real Sun Tzu’s recurrent theme that serves as a concise summary of The Art of War is: He who knows when to fight and when not to fight will win.
It is a mistake to conclude that we should always be looking for a way to overtake adversaries and colleagues with hostility and treachery. Sun Tzu only advises waging war when there is something to be gained. For most of us in our careers, waging war doesn’t mean mobilizing men to take a city. It means mobilizing ourselves or our teams to secure a promotion, win a big contract or reposition a company. War is a metaphor for winning in business. Readers must first come to terms with this. That presents a greater challenge to some than I had anticipated.
Combat is certainly a reality for Sun Tzu, but this is not diametrically opposed to the realities of many women. Women all over the world are quite comfortable with the concept of combat. These women comprise militaries all over the world. They’re heads of state, secretaries of state and others who are making decisions about sending men and women into harm’s way.
Sonshi.com: Within the Fortune 500 companies, why are so few women at the C-level? Do you think this will change sooner than later?
Sheetz-Runkle: In 2009, there were 15 Fortune 500 companies run by women, and 28 Fortune 1000s with women at the helm. This was a modest increase from the previous year. So will it change sooner or later? Yes, the numbers are climbing consistently year over year.
But I think we need to look at the question a bit differently. Sun Tzu for Women is a personal guide for women to understand how they can best apply Sun Tzu’s words to maximize their potential and achieve their absolute best. Personal best has to be defined by each individual. For some it may be running a Fortune 500. For others it may be starting and building a business that will one day reach $5 million. Others may define success based on career satisfaction alone, regardless of title. For others it will be the flexibility to do rewarding work from 9:00-5:00 and then either tend to their families or follow their personal dreams, or some combination of the two, after hours. Not everyone selects the path to C-suite.
Who we each are is bigger than the job we do and the title we have. For example, in writing Naked in the Boardroom, Parenting magazine founder Robin Wolaner talked to many successful women about their achievements. Each cited romance, family, relationship and education milestones along the way. Wolaner contrasts this with the few lines devoted to each of Jack Welch’s marriages in his autobiography. The conclusion is not that men don’t value family, relationships, and education. The message is that women typically feel that being true to themselves involves much more than what they do behind their desks and in board meetings.
According to the National Foundation for Women Business Owners, most women who transition out of corporate careers into their own endeavors do so for independence. They move on from positions where they feel undervalued, underestimated, and unsatisfied. A recent Wall Street Journal article reported that for three decades, women have been starting companies at twice the rate of men. The growth, employment, and revenue rates of these businesses and revenue have outpaced the economy. These women are clearly not choosing the path to the Fortune 500 C-suite. What they are choosing is to follow a purpose behind their business that tightly equates with their deeply-held values.
So, at the individual level, the better question than, “Why aren’t there more women running Fortune 500s,” is, “Is your work fulfilling (satisfying your purpose, even) and in doing it are you embodying excellence?” If the answer isn’t an emphatic two-part “yes,” then how do you need to change the game? Sun Tzu was a proponent of changing the circumstances of battle to position troops in the best and most advantageous positions. On the business battlefield, each of us has to determine where that place is for ourselves.
Sonshi.com: As a Grand Master at your dojo, do you find similarities between the attributes of Sun Tzu's ideal general and the ideal martial artist?
Sheetz-Runkle: This is a topic about which I could easily write a book, though it’s unlikely that any publisher would see any profit in it. I find applications for Sun Tzu’s ideal general and attributes of excellence in just about any pursuit. The attributes that I focused on in Sun Tzu for Women correspond to the chapter titles:
In martial arts these are particularly apropos. Serious martial artists are among the most dedicated, persevering, focused people in the world. Seeking their absolute best, they consistently challenge themselves to even greater accomplishments. They have a purposeful vision and enduring tenacity in their pursuit of perfection.
The ideal martial artist is like Sun Tzu’s ideal general. Requirements include tireless training, preparation, overcoming obstacles, deep understanding and self belief. But just as important is timing. Sun Tzu emphasizes repeatedly that timing is critical in every battle. While you can foster your path to self-belief, you can’t artificially force it. My own experience in the martial arts illustrates this point. For many years, outgunned by larger and stronger opponents, I missed that ethereal quality of confidence or legitimacy. Nobody trained harder than I did. Nobody wanted it more. But I consistently fell short where it mattered—on the mat against opponents.
But eventually that changed. No one day or single event shifted this attitude. But the skills I accumulated over the years began to synergize. From the inside out, my self-doubt slowly diminished. What caused this shift in attitude? I wish I could neatly package it, but it was no single event. It was a process that came from time and dedication; from watching my peers and measuring myself against them; from internalizing a mentality of preparedness for whatever may be ahead. Ultimately, it came from arriving at confidence in myself.
I started to internalize the principles of what I studied rather than continuing to try to tack these principles onto my exterior. These principles and their execution became who I was. This sort of self-acceptance occurs not from hard work alone, but from appropriate strategies and tactics and honestly with yourself. It happens when you’re ready, and not a moment before. It can’t be decoded. It just is. For the martial artist and for the ideal general, if you believe in yourself and demand excellence at every turn, you’ll grow into who you are to become. And you’ll do it right on time.
[End of interview]
She is co-founder and vice president of Q2 Marketing, a technology marketing firm in the Washington D.C. metro area, and has 20 years of experience in communications and marketing strategy. Ms. Sheetz-Runkle also holds the rank of Grand Master and Menkyo Kaiden (9th-Degree Black Belt) in Sho Bushido Ryu Jujitsu. She runs the Woodbridge, Virginia Dojo of Sho Bushido Ryu. She also holds black-belt ranks in Tang Soo Do karate, Shotokan karate, and Nakamura Ryu Batto-Do.
Becky Sheetz-Runkle's professional philosophy can be summed in her upcoming book called Sun Tzu for Women: The Art of War for Winning in Business. Written from a feminine perspective, her book demonstrates clearly to the woman reader that it is not a disadvantage to be a woman in business but rather an advantage when she applies Sun Tzu's principles. Despite The Art of War's readership comprising mostly of men, we at Sonshi.com have been emphasizing for the last five years how women can actually relate to Sun Tzu more naturally due to his indirect, benevolent, and nonaggressive approaches. Sheetz-Runkle further underscored this fact by providing many real-life examples of women in business who achieved their goals by employing sound strategies.
If being a businesswoman, martial artist, and writer isn't enough, Becky Sheetz-Runkle is also an ordained deacon at Lake Ridge Baptist Church. She graduated with Honors from Temple University and has BA degrees in political science and history. Ms. Sheetz-Runkle has always given 100% in everything she does -- except giving excuses. How does she do it? Read the interview below and find out.
Sonshi.com: When was the first time you heard about Sun Tzu's Art of War, and what about it motivated you to learn more?
Sheetz-Runkle: I heard about The Art of War anecdotally throughout my martial arts training. I was about 20 when a fellow karate instructor suggested we both read it. I studied it and enjoyed it, but didn.t take a great deal from it to apply at that time. But like Sun Tzu, I am a big believer in the importance of timing.
When I started Q2 Marketing (www.q2marketing.com) in 2000, in a very competitive industry, I delved back into Sun Tzu. The application of military strategy and the emphasis on preparation very much impacted me and the course of the business in the early days. We spent a great deal of time and attention making sure the business infrastructure was sound and that we understand who and what we were up against in our industry. We also focused on the marketing elements. It was, after all, a marketing agency. While The Art of War includes a great deal of specificity and had been prophetic in battles and wars that have followed, I've been struck by the reality that business and much of life are really all about the basics. When businesses and people lose sight of that, failure is invariably around the corner.
Sonshi.com: In the past, readers of Sun Tzu's Art of War are men in the military. You just wrote a book titled "Sun Tzu for Women: The Art of War for Winning in Business." Why do you think The Art of War is now no longer just for men in the military?
Sheetz-Runkle: First and foremost, The Art of War is for those in the military who engage in warfare. But as we’ve learned in recent decades, Sun Tzu has a great deal to teach us about how to wage—or, if you prefer, conduct—business. I believe women, in particular, have a great deal to learn from Sun Tzu. This is because, overwhelmingly, they haven’t read Sun Tzu. They are far less likely than men to realize how it can make a difference in their careers and their businesses.
Sonshi.com: What major lessons would readers learn from your book?
Sheetz-Runkle: It’s difficult to refine the book into a few major lessons. It’s written to impart Sun Tzu’s wisdom within a modern context of challenges businesswomen face. Here are just a few examples.
Generally speaking, women in business tend to share many common obstacles. They:
- Seek to avoid conflict
- Are unsure of which battles to fight and when to fight them
- Desire to stay in their comfort zone and keep the peace
- Experience confusion about being true to themselves or adopting traits characteristic of male leadership models
- Don’t ask for what they want
- Allow timidity to prevent them from achieving big
- Fear the way boldness will be perceived by others
- Are prone to distraction from outside the office
At the other end of the spectrum are common success attributes many women share, such as
- Intuition
- Sensitivity
- Collaboration
- Passion
- Independence
- Team building
For each of us to succeed, we must understand our weaknesses, which is straight from Sun Tzu. We must also identify our relative strengths, see them as advantages, and learn to fully utilize them. This analysis of common weaknesses and strengths will enable readers to make the changes necessary to achieve their absolute best.
Another example is in examining the devastating consequences fear can have. If we allow it to reign in our decision making, we’ll look back at the moves we didn’t make because of fear and realize how much it has cost. For Sun Tzu, fear is a deeply motivating factor. It’s not something to be avoided. Sun Tzu for Women will change the way many women understand and feel about fear.
Another important theme is the importance for each woman to be authentic. This carries with it many challenges. The insecurity of limited self-belief keeps some women from projecting their best and most genuine self. It’s tempting for women who report primarily to men to believe they have to emulate men’s management, leadership, and interpersonal styles. But they don’t have to lead like he does. They have to find and be true to their authentic self. Sun Tzu says that leaders should have no conflict about what they’re to do or who will believe in them: Therefore, when those experienced in war move, they are never bewildered; when they act, they are never at a loss.
Sonshi.com: Please share with us one anecdote about a businesswoman in a tough business situation, and how she overcame it by applying one of Sun Tzu's principles.
Sheetz-Runkle: Sun Tzu for Women is replete with examples of how successful business warriors like Carly Fiorina, Geraldine Laybourne, Meg Whitman and others overcame challenges based on Sun Tzu’s principles. Also included are examples from battlefield warriors and strategists like Queen Elizabeth I, Harriet Tubman, Queen Nzinga and Condoleezza Rice.
Marsha Serlin’s success is an illustration of many attributes of Sun Tzu, including harnessing deception to shape perception. She started United Scrap Metal, Inc. with $200 and a rented truck. She got into the industry because she thought it would provide the flexibility she would need to tend to two small children she would soon be raising alone. She found out that the venture required sixteen-hour days, six days a week. The seventh day was reserved for paperwork.
She was underestimated in the early years, but instead of being intimidated, she capitalized in ways that would make Sun Tzu proud. Her competitors, all men in that industry, didn’t expect her to survive. She knowingly flew under the radar, operating out of an old building with a run-down façade. With the eyes of her competitors on the outside, she then bought up all the property behind her to clandestinely grow the business.
What began with a ramshackle old building, but lots of drive and guts has turned into an American success story. United Scrap processes 140,000 tons of steel a year and achieved a record $215 million in revenues in a recent year.
Sonshi.com: What common mistakes might some women make after reading Sun Tzu's Art of War, and how can they prevent making them?
Sheetz-Runkle: I think the biggest mistake anyone can make with The Art of War is to deem it too far removed from their challenges to be applicable. But for women, this is particularly daunting and it keeps them from even picking up The Art of War. In talking with female writers and academics regarding Sun Tzu, I have been disappointed with the reception he has received. The misperception about women reading Sun Tzu is that it will lead us to seek out combat as our first and best option, that it will train women to follow a “male paradigm” of aggressive leadership.
Those who have studied The Art of War, of course, realize that this is very far from the real Sun Tzu. The real Sun Tzu’s recurrent theme that serves as a concise summary of The Art of War is: He who knows when to fight and when not to fight will win.
It is a mistake to conclude that we should always be looking for a way to overtake adversaries and colleagues with hostility and treachery. Sun Tzu only advises waging war when there is something to be gained. For most of us in our careers, waging war doesn’t mean mobilizing men to take a city. It means mobilizing ourselves or our teams to secure a promotion, win a big contract or reposition a company. War is a metaphor for winning in business. Readers must first come to terms with this. That presents a greater challenge to some than I had anticipated.
Combat is certainly a reality for Sun Tzu, but this is not diametrically opposed to the realities of many women. Women all over the world are quite comfortable with the concept of combat. These women comprise militaries all over the world. They’re heads of state, secretaries of state and others who are making decisions about sending men and women into harm’s way.
Sonshi.com: Within the Fortune 500 companies, why are so few women at the C-level? Do you think this will change sooner than later?
Sheetz-Runkle: In 2009, there were 15 Fortune 500 companies run by women, and 28 Fortune 1000s with women at the helm. This was a modest increase from the previous year. So will it change sooner or later? Yes, the numbers are climbing consistently year over year.
But I think we need to look at the question a bit differently. Sun Tzu for Women is a personal guide for women to understand how they can best apply Sun Tzu’s words to maximize their potential and achieve their absolute best. Personal best has to be defined by each individual. For some it may be running a Fortune 500. For others it may be starting and building a business that will one day reach $5 million. Others may define success based on career satisfaction alone, regardless of title. For others it will be the flexibility to do rewarding work from 9:00-5:00 and then either tend to their families or follow their personal dreams, or some combination of the two, after hours. Not everyone selects the path to C-suite.
Who we each are is bigger than the job we do and the title we have. For example, in writing Naked in the Boardroom, Parenting magazine founder Robin Wolaner talked to many successful women about their achievements. Each cited romance, family, relationship and education milestones along the way. Wolaner contrasts this with the few lines devoted to each of Jack Welch’s marriages in his autobiography. The conclusion is not that men don’t value family, relationships, and education. The message is that women typically feel that being true to themselves involves much more than what they do behind their desks and in board meetings.
According to the National Foundation for Women Business Owners, most women who transition out of corporate careers into their own endeavors do so for independence. They move on from positions where they feel undervalued, underestimated, and unsatisfied. A recent Wall Street Journal article reported that for three decades, women have been starting companies at twice the rate of men. The growth, employment, and revenue rates of these businesses and revenue have outpaced the economy. These women are clearly not choosing the path to the Fortune 500 C-suite. What they are choosing is to follow a purpose behind their business that tightly equates with their deeply-held values.
So, at the individual level, the better question than, “Why aren’t there more women running Fortune 500s,” is, “Is your work fulfilling (satisfying your purpose, even) and in doing it are you embodying excellence?” If the answer isn’t an emphatic two-part “yes,” then how do you need to change the game? Sun Tzu was a proponent of changing the circumstances of battle to position troops in the best and most advantageous positions. On the business battlefield, each of us has to determine where that place is for ourselves.
Sonshi.com: As a Grand Master at your dojo, do you find similarities between the attributes of Sun Tzu's ideal general and the ideal martial artist?
Sheetz-Runkle: This is a topic about which I could easily write a book, though it’s unlikely that any publisher would see any profit in it. I find applications for Sun Tzu’s ideal general and attributes of excellence in just about any pursuit. The attributes that I focused on in Sun Tzu for Women correspond to the chapter titles:
- Indomitable Spirit
- The Quest for Excellence
- Technique—Your Advantage
- Self-Confidence
- Focus
- Conquering Fear
- Innovation
- Duty
- Authenticity
- Harnessing Deception to Shape Perception
- Preparedness
- Understanding Yourself
- Understanding and Leveraging Others
- Practicing the Basics
- Battlefield Wisdom
- Continuous Learning
In martial arts these are particularly apropos. Serious martial artists are among the most dedicated, persevering, focused people in the world. Seeking their absolute best, they consistently challenge themselves to even greater accomplishments. They have a purposeful vision and enduring tenacity in their pursuit of perfection.
The ideal martial artist is like Sun Tzu’s ideal general. Requirements include tireless training, preparation, overcoming obstacles, deep understanding and self belief. But just as important is timing. Sun Tzu emphasizes repeatedly that timing is critical in every battle. While you can foster your path to self-belief, you can’t artificially force it. My own experience in the martial arts illustrates this point. For many years, outgunned by larger and stronger opponents, I missed that ethereal quality of confidence or legitimacy. Nobody trained harder than I did. Nobody wanted it more. But I consistently fell short where it mattered—on the mat against opponents.
But eventually that changed. No one day or single event shifted this attitude. But the skills I accumulated over the years began to synergize. From the inside out, my self-doubt slowly diminished. What caused this shift in attitude? I wish I could neatly package it, but it was no single event. It was a process that came from time and dedication; from watching my peers and measuring myself against them; from internalizing a mentality of preparedness for whatever may be ahead. Ultimately, it came from arriving at confidence in myself.
I started to internalize the principles of what I studied rather than continuing to try to tack these principles onto my exterior. These principles and their execution became who I was. This sort of self-acceptance occurs not from hard work alone, but from appropriate strategies and tactics and honestly with yourself. It happens when you’re ready, and not a moment before. It can’t be decoded. It just is. For the martial artist and for the ideal general, if you believe in yourself and demand excellence at every turn, you’ll grow into who you are to become. And you’ll do it right on time.
[End of interview]