In the week that the people of Scotland voted on the independence question, the Women’s Security Society brought over 100 men and women together to think about their own identities and brand, writes Suzanne Rodway.
The audit firm PwC hosted the event in their Embankment Place offices and one of the firms senior Partners and Head of People, Gaenor Bagley, welcomed everyone, stressing the importance of diversity and embracing difference to the firm. As a woman on the Executive Board of PwC, Gaenor really understands the importance of your ‘personal brand’.
The first speaker was Lisa Jones, who is on the Women on Boards UK (WOB UK) Advisory Board. Lisa had the audience captivated with details of her amazing career and the advice she offered them. Whilst many know it to be true, it’s great to hear someone of her stature remind you that you can get to the top if you:
-run your own PR campaign
-get out there and network
-and, most importantly, sign up to WOB UK (www.womenonboards.co.uk)
Lisa highlighted that once women get to the top then they shouldn’t just stop there and that they need to recognise the role they can play in supporting those who follow behind them by hiring female talent themselves.
With everyone feeling inspired and ready to sign up to WOB, Major Chris Hunter QGM took the lectern. He inspired the audience in a different way. His military background was impressive but more impressive was how he was able to turn his experiences into practical advice for the audience – including ‘don’t learn the tricks of the trade, learn the trade’. He advised that doing the basics well is key and then highlighted the importance of the 3Rs:
-respect for yourself
-respect for others
-responsibility for your actions
It’s always reassuring to hear from someone who didn’t have their whole career mapped out at the start, but yet found one thing led to another and as a result of simply doing a good job he found success. He reminded everyone to focus on what’s important to them, and that you should always try to excel and beat your own personal best. He acknowledged we will all meet failure along the way, but that’s needed to truly appreciate success. To this end Chris also advised that you need to be thick skinned and try to focus on and remember the positives, as there will always be more positives than negatives.
Andy Woodfield, a partner in PwC’s International Aid Development Consulting practice, then took up the mantle on this point and talked about the importance of focusing on strengths and not weaknesses. Andy observed that we’re not often told to focus on what we’re already good at and that we can unleash our potential by exploring those unique strengths.
Building on the earlier talks he explained that being given negative feedback can have the same impact on the brain as being ambushed. Rather reassuringly he advised the audience that when you get feedback that focuses on the negatives and what you need to work on, rather than celebrating your success, it says more about the person giving the advice than it does about you.
It was then time for some audience participation with everyone being asked to think about when they really enjoyed doing something that they were really good at and to share that with the person sitting next to them. This was followed up by an exercise asking everyone to describe themselves in the way they want to be thought of in five words and then discuss those words with their neighbour and see if they agreed with the list – which lead to some interesting conversations!
Whilst everyone headed for drinks feeling really positive about themselves and focusing on who and what they wanted to be remembered for, it was clear pretty much everyone in the room could have included the word ‘social’ in their list of five.
Thank you to PwC for hosting, to our speakers for giving up their time to share their experience and words of wisdom and to the members for continuing to support and engage with the WSS.
Visit – https://www.womenssecuritysociety.co.uk.
For more about past WSS events visit – https://www.womenssecuritysociety.co.uk/events/.
