What are the key milestones on your path to leadership?
Currently, I'm Head of Innovation at Accuity. It's a real shift from what I used to do. The first 15 years of my career I devoted myself to a magazine called New Scientist. I started there as a junior web developer, but by the time I left I was responsible for the digital strategy both operationally and commercially. There was a very clear moment where I migrated from being one of the development team, to leading the digital team at New Scientist. As well as the remit of my role, the impact went beyond the working day. I found myself watching my behaviour in the pub: these small things matter. I think that was a very clear milestone.
Another was when I took the step out of my world of proven track record at New Scientist to a much larger organisation at Accuity. It's a whole new sphere of influence, both upwards and downwards, because the matrix of stakeholders in a large portfolio business is so wide. Everything is at a different scale. For me that was part of the excitement of the challenge - working somewhere where all your stakeholders aren't in the same room. As part of this senior leadership team, the remit is broader, the scope of influence wider.
What are the key challenges you have faced as a leader?
When joining Accuity I was faced with a traditional infrastructure where many of my new colleagues had over 20 years’ experience in the sector. Publishing had demanded I come up with business models and product launches often in a matter of months due to the rate of disruption in the industry at the time. It was only once I’d left New Scientist that I appreciated the level of flexibility we had building consumer digital products. Multi-variate testing across a broad spectrum of users gave us the chance to experiment, iterate and learn. At Accuity, everything from the feedback loop to the sales cycle was very different especially for the deployed software or data products. Yet at the same time, at an industry level, many of the signals of disruption I had seen in publishing were clearly apparent.
The challenge therefore was to meaningfully transfer those learnings. I was lucky to have the support of a wider network. Others who knew of the process of transformation I had previously led, encouraged me to persevere. For most organisations, change is hard - it takes resilience but is always rewarding when you see it start to take shape.
Working in Innovation for a large corporation almost of necessity requires careful diplomacy in order to be effective. Innovation frequently has to convey learnings contrary to institutional tradition. It’s entirely human that for the audience this is sometimes news that is not welcome, about how their world is about to change, or it’s about to be disrupted. I understand how intimidating it is to have established truths queried and so it’s important to build trust and establish your own credibility. If you use evidence as much as possible to prove that it's not just your opinion and have sponsors to back you up, you will get your point across.
Describe your leadership style / what are your core values as a leader?
Authenticity is very important to me as a leader. Often, with the best of intentions, leaders choose not to tell their staff what is going on. For parts of the publishing business, the whole market shrank by 40% some years. That is a difficult truth to share. However people know when things aren’t ok, and if your team doesn't trust what you're telling them, it’s a struggle to build a genuinely productive motivated team. I have to be authentic with them, because I need them to be authentic with me.
Being a good motivator is also important. You need to get people excited about what it is we need to deliver. No matter what type of project, I try to derive some value for them so that they are excited to come to work in the morning. If your team isn't motivated to come into work in the morning, you have to look at yourself as a leader, and ask why.
What advice do you have for women who are trying to establish themselves as leaders?
Look for advocates and work on your network. If you find that you’re hitting a wall at work, make friends in other places who you can rely on for honest and relevant advice.
There’s also a leadership trap that many fall into, which is that you have to know more than your team. It’s not true. Hire good people who know more than you and respect their expertise. As a leader, my role is to give the context and vision of the journey that we're going on and to make sure that the team has the resources that they need. I hire people to be good at what they're good at and I don't expect to tell them what to do. As you go up the ranks, a key part of your role is to harness the best of the talent and get the most out of them.
How would you advise organisations who want to foster diversity and gender equity in leadership?
Check that you're listening. Don't tokenize by just having women. If you're ignoring them, then you might as well not have them there. Don't feel intimidated by people who aren't saying what you expect. Don't feel intimidated by the difference. The difference is good, the difference will make you more money.
Well before it was in the zeitgeist, our parent organisation really understood the importance of addressing unconscious bias. We were encouraged to seriously observe and challenge instances when that arose. At first, women pledged to back each other up in meetings but soon, many of our male colleagues were just as willing to be advocates. It is noticeable when someone is conscious of ensuring women in the room have their voice and then goes on to reinforce the contribution in their response. I always appreciate it when I see it in action: it does mean people listen. Male advocates are as important as women supporting each other.
In traditional leadership approaches, change is mandated from the top: tell everyone what’s wrong and how to fix it. An organisation that's not necessarily effective: you can’t change at scale if you don't bring everyone with you. Worse, the lack of alignment can lead to attrition and often it’s the most valuable talent that is lost. An inclusive style of leadership means listening across the organisation. Disrupted times often force leaders to make tough decisions, the breadth of knowledge should mean making better ones to help the business thrive in the future.
How would you feel about the future of the innovation industry?
20 years ago, you'd be watching Top of the Pops with a finger on the button to record the one video you liked so that you could watch it again. When I did my Masters, it literally took 10 to 12 hours of processing to render five seconds of video. So, how can you not feel immensely privileged to live in this age?
As so many companies demonstrate success by innovating, even for well-established institutions it’s difficult to ignore Innovation. These days people are being asked the tough questions and being held accountable for it in a way that they wouldn't have been 10 years ago.
In the current climate, it can sometimes feel like there are forces still trying to revert to a time when women had a very different role in society. I am, however, an optimist at heart and I think about the amazing amount of positivity that I’ve experienced. There will always be frustrations, but there are also people who are advocating for change. I have to run on the belief that the world will see the benefit of the kind of society where all voices are heard.
What’s your favourite quote or mantra?
“Change is constant”.
In terms of the innovation industry, I would say there are more people like me, who have only known change, who are rising to positions of leadership. Therefore, as a corporate culture, there are a lot more people who are comfortable with the reality that change is constant.
