Rachel Wilde

I got a career coach, and I would say having a career coach that's qualified who can talk through what you need to develop, need to work on, and what you take on is incredibly helpful. They aren't subject to the company politics. Some companies will even pay for them. I think of a career coach like people think of therapists - you can say what you need, like I'm frustrated because I don't know how to deal with this personality, I want to develop my team but don't know the strategies to do it. They're really there for you. My coach taught me that I was totally safe, I could say anything I wanted, I could be vulnerable, I could be like I don't know how to do this, I suck at this, I think I'm perceived this way. I had safety, and then I said okay, I want to be that for my people. She taught me to establish safety boundaries. That changed how I actually did performance reviews and everything, not just because of the coaching, but because I realized if I wanted this, I bet you all my staff wanted this too.

First, do not take a problem at face value. Whatever someone tells you is the problem, go and thoroughly vet it, because usually what they're telling you is the symptom or a feature, or they aren't really understanding. Women are incredibly tasked with a lot of the invisible work of home and the workplace. We're overachievers and have to prove much more. The coaching I wish someone had told me is: document and show how you impacted the company. Be as diligent at that as you are in impact. Everything's quantifiable KPI. You have to always show your company in dollars and cents what they care about and connect it back to them. You really have to train someone to replace you, because you can't move forward unless someone can replace you. How many women get held into their position because they're indispensable, they're high achievers, they're overproductive? You need to move up, you need to backfill. When you go into hiring, be very clear to your recruiters, to anyone working with you, that you want women, you want variations. The bias is there, so you have to push and promote and share because we're all in the same boat.

I would like to spend my time bringing value and meaning. I've always been motivated by the internal and external customer. I'm happiest when I have insightful conversations, when we're working towards an end, when we're feeling like we're moving the needle. I look at technology as how does it help us move the needle, how does it engage more, how to add value. As you get into leadership, it's about how do you unleash potential within your teams and how do you bring people forward. All we do with our colleagues and the people we work with is all we can hope for is that we've made some positive impact on their life. No one stays in a business for 50 years anymore. All we have is passing by, and we hope who we touch is better off than when we left. I get messages from staff from 5, 6 years ago about how we talked about their career and life objectives together, like helping someone plan for having a family as part of their career goals. All we can hope for is that we've made some positive impact on their life.