How to be seen and how to build a reputation in technology
Hello. That's the one. And welcome to E! Wise Women in Technology webcast.
It's our sixth in the series and it's great to have so many of you join in. And it's a real privilege to be hosting today's session with some fantastic panel members. So my name is Nene, your school. I'm a director in our EMEIA Banking and capital markets team with a heavy focus on technology. So let me set the scene for today's discussion and introduce our incredible panel.
So we're exploring the topic of how to be, how to be seen and how to build a reputation in the technology field. And today we cast a conversation into three topic areas. First one being collaboration and teaming. The second is mental ship and sponsorship, and the third one is around shaping your personal brand and network. And before we go into introducing the panel members, I just wanted to share a reflection for myself as we were building out this webcast and the topic, and I thought about the three topic areas and kind of so that the collaboration and teaming point really resonated with me.
And, and the reason for that is I think as a as a young and sporting individual, I was always focused on being part of the team, whether that was hockey, football, netball, you name it. At school I was involved and I really sailed that through my sporting career, which which did progressing until my thirties and I really found that team camaraderie, passion and also the enjoyment that we got out of being in a team as really kind of comes into the way that I work at Y And I think that, you know, teams can be challenging at times having to kind of work through difficult situations, tight deadlines. But I think there's always positives that come out, come out of that experience and really help you to drive a positive outcome. So I would say for my sporting sporting times, those day to day interactions really helped me grow as an individual. And this also enabled me to build a really strong network base with anyone outside of the Y. And I think those individuals supported me in building a positive brand at my time at the Y, but enough for me.
Let me welcome our panel members. We're joined by four incredible ladies today. I am going to read a little bit out on each individual from their bio, but also on the platform, you have the capability to connect to their CVS and read a little bit more detail.
But firstly, let me go to moment the duty who holds the position of head of Chapter Security and Control, and also the role of Chief Information Security officer at Rabobank. She has a wide range of responsibilities related to global cyber security, business continuity and the risk management within Rabobank's largest domain Innovation and technology. In addition to all of that, which I'm sure keeps my mom very busy, she also contributes to creating equal opportunities in society, and she is one of the founders of the powerful Talent Wrap Foundation and she is actively involved and committed to reducing the distance to the labor market for MBA students. And moving on to Jaspreet Gill, who joins us from BNP Paribas, where she is managing director, global head of Risk i over c i c t.
She successfully built a number of global technology and cybersecurity teams and led global transformation initiatives in emerging technologies, group data governance, and also spearheaded the Global Data Privacy Strategy. She's a trusted advisor for a number of DC back startups and of course, an avid supporter of the Women in Technology agenda. Moving on to Sandrine, passed with a career spanning 30 years and a variety of sectors. Sandrine is an award winning and inspirational female leader at the world's largest business software company since joining SAP over 16 years ago as the first female senior manager. Sandrine is now the regional vice President, head of Solutions, Sales and Innovation, where she is responsible for driving customer success, innovation and profitability in the Amgen North region.
A passionate advocate of diversity and inclusion, she's won the global gold winner in the Women Helping Women category of the Google Stevie Awards and aspires to be a positive role model for women in technology. And hopefully you'll hear a lot of that inspiration in the session today. And last but not by no means least as one of my colleagues, Judith Lynch. Judith joins us from Ernst and Young Ireland, where she is a partner in our technology consulting practice with 8 to 20 years experience in complex program delivery and transformational change across multiple industry sectors.
In addition to the day job I do, this is the people and operations lead. So the technology consulting practice. She is also the sponsor of our Women in Technology Program in Dublin and sits alongside me as well on the Americas. So women in technology thought so that sits across all year in practice.
Judith is passionate about her role from a people perspective as a counselor and also as a mentor, and has achieved some fantastic success in the Irish technology team where we have realized gender parity back in September 2020 across the team. I think it's fair to say that we do have an incredible set of female leaders with us today, and I can't wait to hear more from them about their stories. Very engaging session. So let me kick off and let's get down to the nitty gritty of discussion. So we have set out a number of questions that I will be posing to the panel, but we are also very keen to hear from the audience. So you have the opportunity to pose questions in the chat, I'm pleased to say, and to the first time following this webcast, we will also respond to those questions via my social media.
As we know, we're not going to be able to get through all of them. And so let me start today's conversation with you moms. And we've mentioned before that supporting other people and businesses to meet their goals is a good way to build your reputation and insights on how to empower you. Now, first of all, focus and make sure you have this common ground and goal. It may sound like a cliche, but it has been proven to be essential. A common goal brings people together as a team also, but also creating an environment where people trust each other and at times feel free to share their thoughts and feedback.
And attention for the people is really essential. What I've learned is just a call to someone or just asking how someone is doing can really is beneficial for people and can mean a lot and also connect people. And certainly it's fun. Fun is definitely one of the most underestimated key factors in collaboration.
It connects us and makes us as a team also way more productive. Brilliant. Thank you for sharing that.
Some really interesting perspectives there and I'd like to move on to and bring you into the conversation. Jaspreet I know, and I mentioned in your bio that you've built up several teams globally throughout your career and it would be good if you can share some insights on how you brought the teams together to deliver successfully across borders. Yes, sure. So I guess based on the experience, one of the most fundamental and main things, especially when you're working with teams across different locations, is to really set the objectives and make it their strategy really, really clear, but also very simple so that, you know, team members aren't actually going off in different directions.
In the sports analogy, Nina, that you used earlier is really good one where, you know, if you've got the team only focusing, you know, on attack or defense, they're not collaborating, they're not going to come together. And you really want them to be focusing on the same things, making sure everyone's understanding what the main objective is. And I think that's really key and idea concept to really embed whether your team is based in India or Australia, New York, wherever they are, once they're all going in the same direction, usually collaborating becomes a lot easier. The other thing really to consider is the cultural differences, and there are cultural differences that need to be considered in terms of just the way people operate. Some people are quite relaxed in their mannerisms and styles and they want you to take that approach as a leader, or sometimes they want the other team members to take that approach.
So sometimes you need to do an educational piece amongst the team to help them understand the cultural differences and in some instances not take offense, you know, to why is this person turned up late for my meeting and it's nothing to do with that. It's just culturally it's acceptable in that particular region. The other thing that's really, really important is to really be efficient in your, I'd say, project management style. So when you're managing a large team, there is a lot of element in terms of the management of team and your project, managing your hitting timelines, making this very, very clear to the team in terms of what you're trying to achieve by certain date making sure everyone's collaborating and then the communication piece in terms of make sure the communication are having regular touchpoints.
So all of these are really, really key, clearly. And thank you. And that leads me on to a question that like pose to do that.
So yeah, lots of helpful insights from some Jaspreet Das specifically, you know, working across borders. But a lot of that, you know, communication can be just within a close tape. But I know all of us and I know many of the audience will have chase at, say, some challenging times when working on a project, when pressures are high and deadlines are tight.
But do this can you share a story in which the I guess the we team mindset has been a key factor in that team being successful by nine points? And thanks for having me. It's interesting. You have to go from just please, you know, two of the things that I would say resonate with me to the right thing of a common objective and obviously being sensitive as well to the cultural diversity and the different perspectives of the team that only leads to high performing teams. I've had, fortunately or unfortunately, I've had many challenging projects, but I think one of the things is that there's a huge reward as well. I suppose when we talk by choice to turn around a challenging situation.
Well, I think in general it is all about 18 months. The objective of building four rooms to try and fix the problem is, you know, leading from the front and creating a reset, understanding what's close. That's obviously important. But actually dwelling on it can be a barrier to get to a solution and a successful outcome. And so that's that's a key thing to avoid.
Like or to make sure you feel sorry for yourself. I would also say again, I think are most of the around here and purposeful objectives on the priorities and about the scope of the problem you're trying to fix and that keeps all of the team members confidence about what they're trying to resolve are designed to work. And I think that those need to worry about. Sometimes you need to repeat that's when the discussion starts moving in a certain direction.
But the goal I need to try trying to bring that back to the core problem we're trying to solve. So like avoid go down the rabbit hole. And then the last thing I would say is similar to what you said already, it is the face and the role you play as a facilitator in encouraging that all voices are heard and that all voices come to the table with their objectives or their perspectives. So to link the game to recognizing the diversity in the room and the different nuances, the way way people perform amongst amongst the team and the team environment. So I think that's one of my top tips in terms of how to redress the target situation. I think what it does is it drives collaboration.
So I mean, it's like part it's not impulsive and the next time you go again, you just got to continue to have more confidence in one another and you understand each other better. Again, Colin, thanks to you that I think that pulling on on trust and building that trust and then that confidence in the team is important and you see that a lot. I think, you know, the more success teams have, the more competent you become. But also I think when she's got that confidence, if you do have a little bit of a bump in the road, it's a lot easier to overcome. And but I've just been looking at the Q&A and we've had a number of questions coming in from the audience. So thank you very much for that.
And I'm looking to post one of the questions to Sandrine. So Sandrine, which all the main changes you've observed and or implemented concerning being a leader pre and post COVID 19 pandemic? Yes, well, pre-COVID we created a new position. The happiness officer who focuses on our team culture and then following the individuals within the team.
We also like to get to know its members personal culture, anything that makes people sit at home, she better finally doing the COVID focus on the team and the people within it became more important. We needed to take extra care of the team members because you couldn't meet them. You could only connect with them through technology.
And that's not really a humanized relationship. So we developed new topics to discuss together to keep that human aspect alive and make sure everyone was okay. We implemented different activities. Yes, cooking and cook decisions, sharing a Friday drink together online. The gamification weekly session where we discussed three different topics culture, art, music and saw this like a new way to connect and spend time together, careful about each other, and let the people know that the leader was there, the whole team was there to support each other during this very disruptive period.
And so the newcomers, that's really a key topic here. Yeah, we needed to give them some extra attention because it couldn't have been easy to start a new job online, right? IS Yeah, very difficult. So we created an internal website where they could find all the information they needed on each team member, our activities and business projects. So all in a very human way in the world. We integrated them into the team. We the only tool we could use at the time.
Now, looking at post COVID, we have kept up these activities, but with less frequency of course, because life is back to normal, people can spend more time on their own traveling, etc. So we also appreciate, you know, in-person meetings and we are so happy to see the young generation with newcomers and all coming to Elisa and and we enjoy it all together. Yeah, as well. We could share pillion.
Thank you. And I love the happiness officer that you referenced and also from my perspective, the cocktail evenings on the site. I think that now now I think some fantastic comments from the floor panel members. Thank you for sharing and thank you for being so open in what you're sharing with us.
I think you know what, we've had some webcast before is the lived experiences and really examples. It's what well impacts people and they can see themselves sometimes in that situation. It's great to be getting your guidance and insight.
So and that's for close to section one, which is around collaboration and teaming and keen to now move on to mentor mentorship and sponsorship. So, you know, how can women in technology better capitalize on mentors and sponsors to support their career trajectory and really drive drives through that journey? So I'm going to start off with Jaspreet for this one. I'm very keen to get your insights on your experience around mentoring and sponsorship. So what do you see as the differences between the two relationships and how can we manage these effectively? So with regards to mentoring, I would say I'll start with this one. It's a bit more of a softer skill or softer relationship in the sense that it can be quite informal and you can have multiple mentors. What I have done personally in the past has had multiple mentors for different things, and one of them might have been actually, can you help me learn something technical, whether it was, you know, to study for an exam or I'm working on a particular project and I need some technical skills to understand what was being delivered on the other side.
It might be. And I did actually have a different mentor who was helping me navigate the internal organization to understand relationship. So people's objectives were because they had already been working in the organization, so they knew what motivated individuals or departments and things like that. So it's really a learning opportunity, whereas with a sponsor they would be somebody who would advocate for you.
So you may not be in the room, but they'll say, Hey, just for you, it's really good at X, Y and Z. Why don't we put her forward for a particular role? So they not only say what I'm good at, then know what my skills are, but they'll also open opportunities and open doors for me. And those are probably the two key differences from my experience with what I've seen between a mentor and a sponsor and what's really, really key, if you really want to leverage that relationship, is actually just be open with both of them in terms of what you want out of the relationship.
So what are the expectations? And they'll equally have expectations of you too. So your sponsor may say, you know, I'm advocating for you in a room, but I need to really need you to perform really well in this because I've gone and said just pretty straight up, whatever it is, whether it's project management or she's great at doing some independent reviews or the technical environment and I know that person's vouched for me. I need to go in and really, you know, show the best ability that I can.
So setting those expectations is is really, really important. But also knowing the difference between the two and which one to leverage. So are you looking to learn some things that you probably need a mentor or is that you're trying to get to the next career step and you're looking for an opportunity, in which case you might want to sponsor in that situation? So that would be my take on the T. Brilliant.
Thank you. And I and I am I'll have a few people I've spoken to who haven't got a mentor. I'm not sure about how to go about doing it. And I think some people are a bit nervous to just kind of stand up and ask individuals.
I can say as a mentor to a number of individuals why they're actually when someone asks you to be their mentor, it's a privilege. So people will take great pleasure, even pride in the fact that you are asking them to support you in your in your career journey. So it's definitely my advice off the back of yours. Just don't be shy as well. If you haven't got a mentor, go and think about who that person could be and reach out and ask them.
So let's move on a little bit more. I'm keen to explore sponsorship and but also bring in the male ally angle. So Sandrine, I'm coming over to you and bit of a two part question. So how can you get the most out of a sponsorship relationship from your perspective? And if you have the chance to have a male ally who has been in the sponsorship role during your career, can you tell us how did he help you in breaking down some of the common barriers to women in technology? Yes, we try. So mentoring and sponsorship are very important.
Yeah, we've vaulted over knowledge and experience materials and you can mention that regarding your governance just before we have to learn everything on their own and all in all over again. So to have a good mentor and you mentioned that just before it's been posted. Osborne So yeah, it's really a great opportunity to learn things and what we had to for should drop right from the start. The key to learning is to listen and learn from the example of a good mentor. Yeah, that way you can avoid a lot of mistakes and gain also in confidence.
That's also very key aspect. Of course, mistakes will always be made anyway. Yeah, I've got a teenager, I can tell you. I can say anything.
Yeah, but it's really important and we can help you to learn from your mistakes as well. It is also important you mention regarding Yes, I'm exemplary in my career, so I, I, we talk about to executive leaders the we we have me it's really my career. They took time to give me feedback and for me back is a gift let me mention only the two of them. So this this one you was an MD of a company. It was when I was young, around 30 years old.
And I was on the on the executive board of a company of those five years. I grew a lot thanks to the way you always challenge me. Give me a chance. You didn't focus on who I was aware came from, but you really saw my potential and invested in it. So great mentor and sponsor. The second one is an ACP executive.
He gave me the same type of monitoring and sponsorship always and following me. I love a positive culture and trust. I see an empowered and supported a woman in Take Her However you see with too many and I hope to have at least one woman to at the top of at least to bring my carry and a blessing I want to say on this is that is but as as we progress in our careers we should we done the civil we should give back to the most the most we can and try to say that that's promoted more women managers than men managers while giving equal opportunity to everyone based on their skills and their potential.
No matter who they are telling. Thank you some some lovely person to INSIGHT Sir, thank you for sharing. And to this, I want to come to you specifically on mentorship and on this as I laid out in your bio, and you very proud in your role as a counselor and a mentor. And so it be good to hear from you. And how can the mentor mentee shape an effective relationship and maybe share some of your experiences with us now? Nina I think the first point you raise there is about your mentor is a real privilege, right? And for me, I would say I've been very lucky to have a mentor and it has been a privilege to mentor some probably from folks, probably as well, relationships in ways that I thought the only personal and very special relationship between mentee and mentor for mentee is, you know, the mentor had to decide if they want to do this, if the delivery is intense on their part to help you. So from a magazine perspective, you should come with the open source mindset knowing that the mentor is only there to help you and ensure that you're objective, but you need to be open and forthcoming with.
I realized I was about to change your personal career goals or about trying to help address issues or working more connections that arise and how you might seek feedback on that or a second opinion. And the mentee mentor relationship is about creating a space to discuss and share challenges. So that's how you need pieces and perspectives. And I think for me, what I would say is, you know, if you're open with the feedback, you would also get a lot more ideas in terms of, you know, not having the fear of being wrong around your opinion or sharing what you think is the best course of action. So that's what I would suggest in terms of personal development. Use the mentor to help you unpack the feedback you get from your peers and colleagues.
And you know, you're just open to you know, there's always three stories, you know, the versions of stories that mine is yours. And then there's the truth somewhere in between. So that's something you need to really help you, the mentor, to unpack some of those perspectives. The feedback you can get. Thank you, gentlemen.
I would say no, it just happened, so I apologize. I may have had a delay there, but I'm going. I think you got that. Yeah. Now, Jillian, thanks to you that now.
And she's going to pick up on the point that you say about and, you know, shaping a safe environment. So those conversations take place. And I think that's that's really important. And we did have a couple of questions in the chat.
But before we move to that, I would like to get you a moment and ask you about mentorship as well. But what strategies are you personally using to be a mentor for other women? Yeah, I think yeah, I don't have one specific strategy, but I really believe that in helping each other and, and the strategy here or the way I approach it, it's really depends on the kind of help that someone needs. It could be about skills, could be about content, but also to enable someone with your with my network. And during the time you also built a relationship with each other and as already said, listen, that's really listened to to the other one and ask questions. For example, I coach women and be there bearing partner in their career challenges as an example.
And within our but also outside the organization, I get often requests from other women, younger colleagues to drink coffee. And as we say in the corporate environment, I always make time for this moment and it could be just a half hour. And based on that, you can build a relationship and get into a mentorship. But it could be also one time off. And it's not only by helping them, you also learn yourself from the other one. So it's a two way.
And that's really that's why I also love mentorship and don't have just one strategy. But thank you so interesting you and talk about that. It's kind of two way and I think you know there is in some organizations that are structured kind of business mentorship programs that have been successful. But I think naturally in your mentor mentee relationship, you've got that that two way dialog.
And actually as a mentor, I've learned a lot from my mentees as well, and that's enabled me to be more supportive across teams, etc.. So I'm learning some of their the challenges or impacts that individuals had in their working in their working day. So I think that the listening comments that people have made today is critical. And I think that however senior people get within the organization, we're still learning every day no one is going to be 100% complete.
We're all going to continue to learn. And I've got a ten year old and a 12 year old and I learn new things from them, namely Tik Tok. That's other things as well. In terms of some of the challenges or discussions they may face at school.
And we've got a question or two questions I'd like to pick up with the group, and I am not going to point this directly to anybody, but if you are keen to take the question, then please come off mute and speak up. The first one that we've had relates to sponsorship and ask the individuals asking and how would you ask someone to be your sponsor when you might not have a direct relationship with them? At the moment? So don't miss any of the panel members would like to pick that one up. You're all being kind and not jumping in, so I'll go with this one is only because it's just something I have done in the past, and I think it's quite a bold move, particularly because, yeah, you might not be as comfortable and know the person who you are asking to sponsor you, what the managerial management style is. But if you know, for example, there's a particular program or project you want to get involved in and the sponsor is a key decision maker and sometimes it is good to go and have a conversation with them and actually just be very open and honest and say, Look, I know you're working on this particular program or this project or I know that, you know these individuals, these are the skills that I can bring. And it kind of turns into sometimes a little bit of an interview, but very informal.
You kind of pitch to them. You give you a like two minute pitch, say, this is what I can do, this is what I've done in the past, and and then make them aware of you. And I guess this is going to kind of jump ahead. Nina, sorry about your personal brand. So this is where your personal brand would come into it.
So if you're known for an ethical hacking, for example, something like that, you might say, look, I've done a number of ethical hacking reviews in the past. You know, this might be something that would be great. A particular program. Could you put a word in for me? Or it could just be like, actually, I just wanted you to be aware that this is something I can do. And over the course of the next six months, something comes up and that you're working on or something comes up that you, you know, when you're having a conversation with your colleagues, could you put my name forward? Is something I'm really interested in doing. And and again, going back to the topic of and it's a two way relationship, so you kind of need to be able to offer them something in order for them to advocate for you.
You can't just go up and say, Look, I want you to do this for me. You kind of need to be able to say, I'll help you with something or, you know, this is this is what I'm going to bring to the table. And that really helps. And.
Q And now, brilliant. Thank you very much for taking that. And the other question that that came up, and I'll I'll add a little bit of flavor, but I'm also happy to pick this up online if you'd like to reach out to me via LinkedIn Relates to Mentorship program and how do you how do you go about setting a program up within an organization or what does success look like? So I'll share a few thoughts, particularly if any of the panel members want to add to that. Please do. I'd say we've run a number of mentor programs, either at a larger scale or a smaller scale.
So within the team function that I sit in and following Black Lives Matter, we did a lot of listening exercises and heard it from our colleagues around some of the challenges they faced on building relationships, identifying mentors. So we actually tested the idea of would a structured mentoring program be helpful? So the challenge for me with it slightly is a mentor is quite personal and two to you as an individual. So we identified individuals from across the business that would like to be involved as a mentor in the program and built out many CV's and shared dates with the representative from the community and let them to have the opportunity to read through, understand a bit about the person.
So it wasn't just a CD from a corporate perspective. She had a little bit about interests and we found that actually that enabled not everyone, but it enabled quite a lot of the individuals to have the confidence to go out and reach out because they knew those individuals as mentors supported. And so that worked very well.
But that was quite a small scale in terms of quite a specific team, but it enabled individuals to start to kind of build that mentor relationship. And as many of you will know, you don't need just one mentor. You can have serious mental space inside your organization and outside. And but I think Jude is he's also got some beauty who would like to share on this.
So I'll bring this over to you. It's something that I think, as you've said, if anybody wants to follow up with us, have formal mentoring programs in which you would be happy to share that structure with the high school by mobilizing them. And I was involved with mentoring Mentoring program. We have a UI with actually with external partners as well.
So one of our things and often I actually provide the technical perspective because it allows you to kind of unpack the challenge with a different face. It also gives you that folks that are in your safe environments because not directly conflict with you in terms of maybe the challenges you're faced with your own internal colleagues, like our clients, so that was one really success piece the last three or four years. And with the grace we've had a great attendance and participation. I did three and a half years ago with a mentee and then I acted as a mentor over the last two years. So I find this incredibly rewarding and that structure is well versed that available. So I'm sure we can talk about and share if anybody is involved and very happy to.
And and Sanjay, I think he's got an additional point you would like to make. And then after that, we'll move on to the final session. So over time, yes, very quickly, I think it's really great to have an organization, a mentorship program.
I think we mentioned that. And that is a signal sweat equity. And I would add also that as leader managers, it is also our duty to really support our team.
And I think that if you really show that we are there to support ahead, then also to find the right mentor, because the right mentor is like a sponsor. I'll help you for your next career path. That's really important.
Also 12 hour tours, then helping here. And we also have two other very successful outcomes and happiness of our team. And I think that's really important. So also adding that on top of the different mentorship, internal, external, but exists also to make sure that each of us are leaders and managers supporting also.
But in step of initiative of it. I just want I wanted to thank you, Natalie, and thank you and Sandrine, you know, you know, let us now because I'm coming to you first. So that's the third section which is safe, your personal brand and network. So as a leader in the technology space, I could imagine that building your personal brand and network has been a continuous journey, especially and being the first female senior manager at City. So question for me is how much learnings from other people internally and externally to the organization has impacted your pathway? Yes.
So we mentioned that before, is learning from all of us is really important. I love getting feedback. I love to be challenged by others.
It's from different perspectives, but you learn to think differently. I missed some of use, but we often forget that and that think we have audiences, so it doesn't matter whether the person comes from inside or outside of my organization, they could be my feel. My manager or someone reports to me as I said before, that perspective is a gift, a different way of looking at things. That's important because to understand customers and employees, we need to be familiar with diversity and ways of thinking that are different to our own. I learned from other people and from our discussions. I learned training on activities where you don't just get to talk to people from tech industry, but where you can meet different types of eyes.
That's really how I think you learn. You allow yourself to be surrounded by those people. I love to talk to people, understand the culture, discover new things.
It always brings me new ideas, and that's what matters to me. Fantastic. Now I think that personal element is is coming through loud and clear. And I think that the enjoyment and the fun aspect is critical. We spend so much time at work and one of my mantras is some needs to to be at the top of the list. So it sounds from your perspective and reading as well, that that's the key one too.
And Judith, coming back to you, I'm keen to kind of get your views on the instruments that you use that enabled you to kind of create a distinct personal brand and if I bring it back to the kind of male and I lens is, well, can you bring us an example on how a male colleague, I guess, is supported you in building your reputation in technology? Yeah, sure, sure. I mean, I was touching on the personal brand yesterday. I think what my colleagues would say is that I'm and I'm consistent in my delivery on a daily basis, and I'm very conscious around the values that I bring to both my teams, internal and external. And consistency is important for there's also a balance tough because we're all really busy and you have to reflect on variables that will impact your daily working life or your weekly working life. So from my perspective, you have to strike a chord with your clients for your colleagues around being aware of people's working days.
And you're going through a few very tough times, right? Those ranges for engagements. And I think once you do that, that's the kind of policy or that consistency can really be controversial. I would say my brand around gaming is the fastest and, very collaborative in terms of gaming and as a result of that about my team. So we talked earlier about how you address challenging situations. It's really important that you're not trying to set the outcome, that you're allowing the team with all of the options and the best solutions to keep the table.
So as I said, that's kind of key for me in terms of my own values and style. And I think the last thing I'd say is really when you do bring up from one side, you need to be very aware of the community. Spoken about that already, but then flex your style so you have to adapt to the audience, need to adapt to different personalities in the way. But I think again, you touched on this earlier as well. So yeah, that's probably what I would say to the fans in terms of Malala is, yeah, I'm working in financial services and I work in technology consulting.
I've had a phenomenal journey over the last four years in this space and as a contractor for the delivery. But I have great male colleagues, I'm female colleagues have give me feedback when it's necessary sometimes it can be a little bit sensitive and they don't have both. But obviously as you reflect on this and you go through that journey of discovery and awareness of how you proceed, it's phenomenal. It's hugely empowering for you because you become aware of something and you can of trust.
You can address it and move forward. And so I've been very lucky putting our team and across the way we've had a number of great allies. People sponsored me and then mentored me. So as we speak, there's multiple, multiple people across me over my career. And I also want to see some female colleagues providing my sponsorship and mentorship support.
Thank you. Cheers to this. I think the point I pick up on this from your first part of the response, which is about flexibility, which I would say in terms of your versatility.
And I think when I thought about that when I was a bit about ten, 16 years ago, when I was still kind of progressing through the ladder myself, I would kind of see versatility or flexibility as having to be different in different situations as in be a different Nina as I've gone through my career, I realized that now versatility is just better understanding the individual that you're interacting with. Don't lose who you are, but work out if that you are speaking to someone analytical. I'm quite expressive. When I've got someone analytical, I need to be more structured in the way that I approach it to ensure that I'm getting the most of the meetings the face of us. So that was a big learning I took, which is because I didn't want to change who I was. And I don't I just select my style to that of the audience that say.
And I thought that was an interesting point. And then I'd like to come to you next and ask you, from your experiences, what techniques have enabled you to be an effective networker Now? I think it starts with Dare to Ask, because if you want to network, you need to ask people for help and to reach out to them. And I it's it would be really I think it's really a surprise that when you find out how many people who really want to help you to spend time with you and happy to have a cup of coffee or to to know each other. So really dare to ask help for people and reach out.
And if you have a small network, start with asking one person or a mentor to introduce you to a better network and from then on the ball will keep on rolling. You will meet people and you need to make that you stay connected within with your network, but also create a network for yourself with different perspectives and not only from your own company. It's really and will enrich you to get a fresher inside, but also different perspectives. That's at least my view on effective networking and brilliant. And I do think my you know, I've been in situations where you can see someone is a little bit shy in a room if we're talking about a networking event.
So I think also we should be looking out to see if there's opportunities to help bring up is into the network. So thank you for sharing on that. To wrap up our third section. And before we move on to hear some final top tips from our panel and we've got another question from the audience that kind of caught my eye and just be want to bring that to you And if that's okay, which is do people underestimate the power of shaping their own personal branding? And please, I guess, share some of your personal experiences from this perspective? Yeah, sure. So in short, my answer would be yes to this and perhaps biased because this is something I completely underestimated. One of the things that one, when I was at EBI, the partners used to constantly say to me is build your brand just great.
What is your brand? What are you going to be known for? And I used to always think, Well, if I'm known for one thing, I might just be known for that. Nothing else. So the first thing I like to say is you're building a brand and you become well-known for one particular, let's say, subject area or something good at that. You're good at delivering you good at building teams.
Doesn't mean that's the be all and end all. That's the only thing you're going to be known for. So don't worry about being pigeonholed. And I guess that was the first thing I used to worry about. The other thing was I just didn't recognize or appreciate the impact of having a brand until I really stopped focusing on other people and thinking, okay, what is this person's brand? What are they good at? What can I learn from them? And then really thinking about how can I shape my brand? So it's something that you do need to put time and effort into, and that's why it's underestimated.
So it's not something that happens organically in the sense that, I'm a hard worker and I'll just be recognized for my hard work. Sometimes it's a matter of taking a step back and thinking about what do I want to be known for? How will I be perceived, and if I want to be known for, let's say, a strategy within the technology space, what am I doing to build that brand? How will people recognize that I'm the person to go for, to understand what their strategy needs to look like within their organization, within that team? How will other departments within the organization women come to me and say, you know, just being the one who will know how to put this together, or she'll have the right network as well. That might be also part of your brand.
It's not just you, but the people that you know, the information that you have access to. And so overall, I would say branding is incredibly important, something I would highly recommend all individuals really take a step back and think about and what they want to be known for, how they're going to do that and what steps they're going to take at the end. Thanks to your station. I'm going to squeeze in one additional question from the audience, which relates to the question just Pete was answering. And to just kindly offer to take this up.
And it was, you know, if you are shy and how do you you know, what would your advice be to helping someone that's a little bit more shy in creating that personal brand that some people might disagree? But I'm quite a shy person myself, and I told early in my career, I find it difficult to speak up in rooms where I felt, my God, I don't want to say something stupid. I don't want to say something that's wrong on the whole place, or find out what I would say to you. And this is one of the things I do in terms of coaching is actually find a culture and people have different personalities. So what I would say is it's about building confidence and about being strong.
I think you're comfortable so you feel empowered to talk up within the room that you're operating in. And one of the things and I would suggest that you can only speak as a mentor and you can ask them to meet you twice a week. You need to modify that. And the role of that mentor is really to be a silent coach, nothing to do with the project or the games. When you're working out and then use that time with them on a monday. So this is my way to help.
These are the three big meeting. But gosh, this is you know, these are the big challenges we need to address. This is my on how we can fix this. What do you think you'll find that actually just kicking the tires and asking the question you'll get the feedback that publicly says nine times out of ten. Yeah, you go first and all you need to hear is encouragement from somebody.
So give us your thoughts. And I've done this a number of times over the last two or three years. Some colleagues were very, very shy but very, very smart. And What I found is within three weeks, that kind of setting the points for your help, I'm good to know that was really well, I don't need you anymore. So really, that's what I would suggest in terms of types of coaches and addresses, because all you need to know is a few times that you're right and you keep going.
So for us to get a coach and ask them to help you in terms of giving that second opinion and feedback, telling test you, thank you very much for that. So I was going to move on to the last part of our sessions. I hate silly. You have really enjoyed today's conversation. I have enjoyed hosting the discussion and what we have asked our panelists to do at the end of the session is to give you the top tip or golden nugget piece of advice around this topic. So these are short, sharp responses.
So this amount, I'm sure there's lots of useful content in here, but I'm going to come to moment first, please. So yeah, my point of view, building a reputation is not a goal of its own for me. In my opinion, the focus should be on staying true to yourself, keep developing yourself, see and use the answers you get and your reputation will be a result from the investment in this focus points.
That's my point. Slim. Well said. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Jaspreet. So my top tip would be to network as much as possible, and that doesn't mean just attend events. That means actually get involved and participate, ask questions and trying to get, you know, when you go somewhere new and see if you can walk away. Having had a conversation with at least three new people and having learned something from them, because the more dynamic your network is, the more you know, technology, tools, techniques, ideas, concepts you'll be exposed to and the more that will help you build your brand and your reputation.
Thank you so much. Due this time. Yeah, I think, look, we've heard an awful lot today. Rise, rise starting from the success of goals being open and willing to share. And I think the final thing is just, you know, continuously learning about times today as well. And I think to try and be a problem solver for your team is probably best way forward.
I love that problem solving for your teams. Thank you. And last but not least, savagery. Let's hear your top tip.
Yeah. So first you need to lead by example. You need to show the way. A good reputation is difficult to get, seem to breed, and so easy to destroy. It's important to remember that it's really about the way you act, the way you are just being yourself. It's the best that's in the branding because it's yours.
Yeah, My advice is to say to stay with who you are, do to try to become someone this to send that bill says lead by example and give something back. Give back when you can and always remember that the best gotcha is a learning gotcha. There is always something new to learn.
And like today, a great webcast, a great opportunity for me to believe that over sport leaders inspiring women, sharing my stories and hearing fascinating stories from others. So don't be shy. Do not hesitate to talk about yourself for how you had us.
You have inspired many of the people around you and they we follow your example and have more and more people. That's how you build your expectation, don't you think? That's why we say, brilliant, thank you and great comments to end on? Really, really appreciated. And I will just take a minute or two to wrap up today's session. Thank you to everyone that joined the session today. I want to say a massive thank you to all panel moments, just 317 And Judith, it's been a fascinating conversation.
Really, really have learned a lot myself and just amazing. Nicole, this there will be a replay available. We will be posting that on social media. And so keep an eye out for that. We also have an illustrator who's joined us today. He was captured the conversation and we will be sharing that as well, which is we'll have some top tips highlighted in that visual as well.
And I would also like to just flag that we, in addition to our webcast series, have now launched at Women and Technology magazine. So you will see a number of today's speakers featuring in that magazine, along with many of my colleagues all the way from new graduate. Join us to our experience, partners, other clients, and also some of our alliance relationships.
I can tell you it's going to be a fantastic read as keep an eye out for that as well. That comes at the end of April. And then also 22nd of June is the next webcast. We are working through the topic and there will be a feedback form that comes up at the end of this webcast and there is an opportunity in there to identify what topics you would be interested in hearing and all of the topics from our webcast to date us what our audience has shared back. So please do take some time to fill in that questionnaire and all I have to say is another Thank you.
I hope you did enjoy the discussion. I did. And goodbye.
2024-06-14 03:16
