For many years I’ve had the opportunity to work with, and learn from, many great women leaders across the world, and this past year was no exception. To honour them on this International Women’s Day, I asked them what the past year had thought them about leadership. Some powerful themes emerged – the importance of communication, team, collaboration, empathy, humanity, decisiveness, self-belief, pragmatism and innovation

  • Proactively connecting with people to create meaningful support networks and many one-on-one coaching sessions has been critical. People caring about people and understanding that personal and professional circumstances are rapidly changing is the key to creating exceptional outcomes for individuals and organizations during this time
  • Stick at it! Reflect and adapt as you go, the situation constantly evolves, if you build trust in those working with you it is possible achieve what you need to. Today a problem may feel insurmountable but tomorrow the same thing may not feel so bad. Julie Dickerson SES
  • Trust your instincts, do not be afraid to ask for help, take a deep breath!
  • At a time when we’ve faced this unprecedented global pandemic, it’s been important to acknowledge that nobody truly has the full answer and to show we’re all just doing our best to keep one another safe. To bridge the distance created by remote working it’s key to keep communicating and to support our people by giving them flexibility to deal with demanding personal circumstances. The lesson for me has been that despite all the challenges, our people recognise these efforts and are motivated to deliver through it all. What’s more, empathy and solidarity is strong and I’ve seen such strong desire to provide support for one another in the workplace. Marian Troy, SSE Thermal
  • Take some time to identify the implications of any decision no matter how small it may seem
  • Time is finite & precious so you should always be practicing an innovative mindset. Challenge the norms, question all assumptions and be ready to reinvent as standing still is not an option.
  • Your situation won’t change unless you do something about it
  • That when I went to find material evidence of leaders as role models in a large corporate I was part of I couldn’t which told me I needed to back myself and go out on my own to pioneer an inclusive and empathic leadership that the world needs more of. So I decided to ‘be what I couldn’t see’
  • You have to take care of yourself if you’re going to take care of others. That means you might not be as available because of kids running around, or home-schooling, but it’s making the moments count when you are available and giving people your all in that moment. To do that, you need to make sure you’re taken care of, because you can’t take care of others unless you’re well. Róisín – Recruitment Manager Europe and North America.
  • Anything is possible when you have the right team and the right leader! Little did I think 12 months ago that we could go from having never worked from home to have the entire company set up and fully operational from home within a matter of days. When the pressure is on and needs must and everyone is committed to a common goal, there’s no such thing as impossible. Very proud of what we managed to achieve.
  • Communication, to be positive, encouragement, empowerment and self-learning
  • We learned empathy, total honesty and complete transparency – Over the last 12 months, our team looked to our leaders for guidance. When faced with a number of challenges, it was essential to communicate how it was, look to understand the team’s concerns then find ways to alleviate them through consistent communication.
  • You need to be kind to yourself in order to be able to be there for others.
  • That trust and balance are more important now than ever. As we work in increasingly separate bubbles, it’s important not to lose sight of the importance of collaborative working and diverse thinking but also, truly heartening to see the positive way in which people have embraced change and digitisation and allowed these things to become powerful team enablers.
  • 2020 introduced us to a whole new world that we could never have imagined or anticipated – I am sure that very few people expected to see a global pandemic in their lifetime. For me, the biggest leadership lesson was embracing the uncertainty that accompanies such an event. Trying to predict the implications of COVID19 and remote working for our people, our business and our way of work without any precedent requires you to espouse change and the unknown and react quickly. CDB Aviation has and will continue to adapt rapidly, discover new ways of work and foster an agile and resilient mindset for the challenges of today and tomorrow. Uncertainty brings significant change but can also house new, beneficial approaches and paradigms.
  • Now is the time of the Connective leader and anyone can be one of these! This is someone who leads with purpose, acting as both a catalyst for change and as a connector and enabler of people to come together to make a positive difference.
  • In times of unexpected change, you have to take care of your own well-being first so that you can adapt and find a new balance enabling you to better support yourself and others
  • Ensure you know your team so that you can help them through uncertain times – everyone copes with things differently. Zahida Zakir – SSE
  • That it’s your culture that sees you through in the tough times. No amount of investment in culture will ever be wasted because giving it your full attention and authentically bringing your whole self to the table as a leader will always be worth it. And will always be the key to building a happy, motivated and energised team!
  • “I think the biggest lesson I learnt from the last 12 months is the importance of surrounding yourself with the best possible people and ensuring good communication within the team. Whenever I recruit, I hire primarily for attitude. You can train for skill, but nor for attitude. I look for empathy, a willingness to get stuck in and I then allow people the freedom to play to their strengths. When challenges come along, like they certainly did this year, the importance of your team and a positive attitude has never been greater.” In short: “Value and nourish your team and when recruiting, hire primarily for positive attitude – when life throws a punch as it did this year – they will be ones who shine”
  • That nothing is definite, despite the best plans, and therefore you have to be flexible, adapt quickly and be very creative.
  • Choose your battles – acknowledge to yourself no matter how strong you think you are this last year has affected everyone’s mental health and you shouldn’t take it for granted. Decision making – speed it up – use good information, analyse it and make a decision and move on – decisions don’t have to be perfect Plan for the worst and hope for the best – I think this gives freedom to people – and destresses situations – we had a lot of machinery issues at the end of last year – that could have paralysed us – rather hoping that each day the machine would be fixed – we decided right what do we do if it’s down for 6 weeks and figured it out and got on with it. This year has shown us that ‘The worst’ isn’t actually that bad
  • The life & leadership lesson that reverberated over the last 12 months and ongoing is that patience is a virtue through life’s journey & all it throws at us.