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Like most people in advertising I have changed roles in my career as opportunities presented themselves to me. There was never any plan. I trusted my instinct and moved to work for people I believed in and the businesses they were leading. The people element was always front and centre of my decision making, the brand was definitely secondary.
Fast forward twenty-something (ahem) years and you realise that along the way your priorities have changed, your motivations are different and you start looking for new stimulus and experiences. When the noise about purpose started a few years back I was ever so slightly cynical. It was only when I actually lost mine that I recognised the importance of it for my wellbeing, energy levels and general state of mind. I realised that this was my opportunity to take back control, make a new plan and in order to do that with meaning I invested in a coach who helped (bullied) me into focusing on the things that make me excited, and with that knowledge really think hard about the different paths I could take.
I have always loved people. I find it easy to talk to the person next to me on the bus, people in shops. I am one of those people who ask complete strangers where they got their bag/dress from. This trait could be positively labelled natural curiosity, but the truth is I am just nosy. However, because I genuinely like (most) people I remember things about them. Therefore “growing up” in sales roles, long before social media, this became my superpower, especially when combined with a passion for driving revenue and business outcomes.
I have always loved solving problems through people and connections – whether that is providing clients with compelling opportunities based on my knowledge of them or head-hunting (informally) for my own businesses and others. I started to realise that whatever I did had to have talent at its heart, but I am not, and will never be HR trained, so what could I do, what was the commercial proposition, what was the product?
A serendipitous cup of tea with Daren Rubins suggested by Jo Hagger and I knew immediately that I had landed on the career that I didn’t know I had been preparing for in every previous role I’ve had. When I told a former boss (Annie Rickard) what I was going to do she said “you have been building up to this moment your entire career”. She saw it, as did my coach and several others. Ironically, I hadn’t.
But having identified what I wanted to do, I still had to convince Daren that I was his ideal work partner and so wrote the most important pitch document of my life (and then sat watching my gmail like a lovesick teenager). As I now know to be his way, he was very considered in his response and one of the things he did was to set me a test to ensure that our judgement about people was aligned. We found a few people on LinkedIn that we both knew well, and I presented my evaluation of their capabilities and personalities to him as if he was a client. I quickly realised that, although my gut feel was strong, I needed to use proof points to create a really robust appraisal. Thankfully, I passed. And the rest, as they say, is history.
In a little over nine months, we’ve had a lot of fun building a business as we start to ‘conker’ the world of talent. Creating a business plan, developing a proposition, activating senior relationships and generating a pipeline of business are all things I’ve always been confident with. The big question of course is whether I could actually do search. So far we’ve placed over 17 super-impressive, transformational candidates which represent true diversity. And whilst our searching and mapping are incredibly rigorous, I actually managed to surface, assess and place my first brief in less that two weeks. Since then, I’ve worked really hard to develop my approach and it’s working. My last search was both complex and challenging but, having presented three outstanding candidates, the clients loved them so much, they took two!
So, if you face a career crossroads, look deep inside for your real qualities, passions, motivators and try to go beyond the obvious craft skills. Get help, build your game plan and start that by understanding your superpower.
The facts are extraordinary. Inevitably, there are sceptics who argue that countries with women leaders are more likely to be in more established, trusted regimes but the statistics point to something much more profound.
The most likely explanation for the dramatic reduction in casualties in countries with a female leader appears to be very straightforward.
Effective leadership.
In every case, from Taiwan to Finland, Norway to Germany and New Zealand to Denmark, the similarities are clear. Tough on decisions, kind on people. The authentic, caring, personal delivery is what has resonated and created the trust needed to succeed in this new environment. More so than in any previous conflict, this current challenge requires decisiveness, togetherness and kindness.
Parallels can be drawn with the modern era in business. The characteristics of today’s successful leaders include openness, authenticity and collaboration – all traits that women excel in. That’s not to say that men don’t, by the way, or that all women do. Thankfully, most male leaders don’t resemble Trump but many of the qualities that create successful conditions are ‘feminine’ behaviours that not all men are comfortable with. How many male political leaders would be happy to address their nation’s children?
Five years ago, I wrote about this subject in Campaign, snappily titled ‘Business should focus on feminine values, not quotas’. It described the conditions needed to create a healthy business, where senior female (and male) talent could thrive. When I wrote this, there were only seven female FTSE 100 CEOs. Today there are just six.
Conker launched in January 2019 as an Executive Search company with a unique understanding of the importance of diversity and modern leadership skills. We have challenged businesses to value EQ as highly as IQ and it’s helped to transform their fortunes.
No-one knows when or how this situation will resolve and most people we speak to are struggling to comprehend what business might look like in the months and years ahead. Some things will undoubtedly snap straight back to the way they were but we believe the organisations who will emerge the fastest and strongest will be those led by strong individuals who are tough on decisions and kind on people.