WINSight // WIN LDN Dinners: Navigating Life, Work & Leadership
What does it mean to be a leader today?
On Thursday 5th October, WIN LDN launched the first ever WIN Dinners, an intimate dining experience bringing together a dozen diverse leaders from our community to discuss how we are really feeling juggling work, life, and the responsibilities of being a leader.
Hosted at Bubala, the acclaimed female-led restaurant in the heart of Spitalfields, we provided the space for our mid-senior level leaders to connect, sharing stories and anecdotes, all whilst sharing in a wholesome feast of vegetarian small plates galore.
Heading up the table, we were honoured to be joined by friend of WIN, Jane Clay. A Principal at Architecture and Design firm, Gensler and leader with over 30 years of experience, Jane facilitated a vibrant discussion that got to the root of what it is to be a female leader, how that’s changed and how we feel about it today.
A safe and curated space where our guests can bring their stories, insights and experiences to the table.
We covered topics far and wide, from mentorship, resilience, boundaries, and balancing responsibilities – there was plenty to talk about! Yet questions around leadership were met with pensive pause. Leadership has different meanings culturally, professionally and personally, all dependent on ambition, goals, and circumstances.
We saw that come to life throughout the evening. For some women, leadership is taking ownership of your time and income by becoming freelance. For others, it follows a linear trajectory to the C-suite. In some cases, leadership takes an unconventional ‘squiggly’ path to meet overarching goals. Yet across the spectrum, there were key lessons that united our wonderful guests:
Building resilience
There was no doubt across the group that successful leadership requires authenticity, empathy, and trust, but each felt an underlying challenge to display these qualities whilst also remaining tough and resilient to some of the challenges women are met with in the workplace. But we found that resilience and vulnerability are not mutually exclusive and the cycle of building emotionally detached, fearless leaders needs to be broken. As women, we are in a unique position to break that cycle – proving that we can be strong and resilient, while also being authentic and empathic to our teams.
It’s all about pacing
Not all goals end at the C-suite. But how can you reach your goal and stay there without being made to feel unambitious? Leadership comes in different guises, being a leader and expert in your field, without necessarily looking to lead a company, for example. Yet we found that in reality, significant challenges can arise where expertise and knowledge isn’t reflected in pay.
This is particularly difficult, as our group of women discussed, where we begin to pick up new responsibilities, from family to finances. As we progress, there’s a unique challenge in recognising our long-term goals while juggling different expectations in different aspects of life - all concurrently. Let’s be honest, it’s exhausting. But through conversation, we uncovered a powerful truth: it’s all about pacing.
That’s the beauty of bringing together a diverse group of women at different inflection points within their leadership journeys. There are times throughout a career where we can accelerate our growth, but there are also moments to slow down and prioritise other things. Taking our foot off the gas doesn't mean that we’re not working towards our goals, but instead we’re balancing mental health and life alongside work as part of the wider picture of success.
WIN Dinners are all about providing a platform for female voices, where our community can talk in depth on themed topics.
Following your ‘Squiggly Line’
The path to leadership is rarely linear. The ‘Squiggly line’ concept – proposed by Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis in their book, ‘The Squiggly Career’ - where you follow unexpected opportunities that align with your strengths and advance your career, resonated across the table. Whilst careers can feel at times messy and without clear purpose, it’s important to recognise and to even lean into these moments. A resilient mindset can get you far - even if you’re not always confident about the path you’re on.
By getting comfortable with the uncomfortable and embracing non-linearity, we can end up with a breadth of different experiences that we would have never otherwise considered that set us on a stronger - and often more enjoyable - journey towards our longer-term goals. It’s only once we look back and connect the dots that we realise the inevitable and unmeshed beauty of life, work and leadership and appreciate each of our friends, family, mentors and allies that we’ve connected with along the way.
Join us next time!
WIN was founded on the principle that women need a seat at the table. Through WIN Dinners, we have been able to create our own. Inspired by Priya Parker's rules for hosting, we’re curating intimate dining events where women come away connected, refreshed and empowered.
Our bespoke feasting menu, courtesy of the wonderful team at Bubala, Shoreditch!
As our WIN Dinners series continues, we want to work closer with our community to design evenings around top of mind topics. If you have a potential WIN Dinners theme you’d love to see us bring to life, or are interested in partnering, hosting or sponsoring a dinner, please reach out to ldn@womenininnovation.co with suggestions. We can’t wait to hear them and look forward to welcoming more women around the table in 2024.
Written by Kasia Maynard (WIN LDN Programming Producer)