When I recently asked my mother what she perceived as my challenges when I was growing up, she said the biggest challenge was keeping me challenged! I’m glad I was, as that’s when I’ve achieved my best results. This approach has resonated with me throughout my career; I always wanted to push myself, and felt that I was doing and giving my best to the organisation when I was under such circumstances.
I joined the company in 1988 as a graduate, though there was no formal graduate programme at that time. My first role was a contracts administrator in the Product Support Division, and I subsequently progressed through the organisation holding various commercial roles. With the support and encouragement of colleagues, I later moved into programme management, before being privileged to be appointed VP Advanced Targeting within the Radar and Advanced Targeting line of business. In 2019, I took up my current role.
Opportunities to learn and grow
The chance to move from commercial roles into programme management was a classic example of me challenging myself to embark on a whole new learning experience. It broadened my responsibility, with a focus on delivering holistic business performance results, rather than concentrating on the commercial aspects of the business-winning campaigns and programmes I was involved in. Moving from programme management back into a business role then enabled me to grow that extended knowledge and experience even further. This provided an important foundation for me, with the whole complexity factor increasing as I progressed from programme manager to VP.
Although the company was very male-dominated during the early stages of my career, I never felt career opportunities were withheld from me. I was fortunate to work with some very capable and intelligent people, as well as people who identified that I had the capacity, bandwidth and most importantly, the capability to offer more. Having recognised that, they mentored and sponsored me on my journey through the business.
When I had the first of my three children, there was certainly a view of “what’s going to happen here?” There was limited maternity leave or support structures at the time. As a result, I returned to work after eight weeks of having my first child. Being the type of person I am, I needed to be very organised in terms of the different pressures I was now under. I had to ensure I could satisfy the demands put on me as an individual – both professionally and personally – and demonstrating that I could juggle all those balls and keep them up in the air.
Can you have it all?
As with everything I do in life, I wanted to prove to myself that I could have it all! You can do it, and I’m an example of someone who has done it. People nowadays ask how I managed to do it. My answer is organisation. I made the decision to have a family. I made the decision to put the appropriate childcare in place. And I made the decision that I was going to proceed with my career choices too.
I tend not to look back. I don’t have any horrific stories. While there were very limited numbers of female leaders in those days, I suppose that encouraged me more than anything else. It did not dissuade me to do anything. When we were part of the GEC organisation I was invited to attend a dinner with the MD for early career high performing individuals. I was the only female invited, but it didn’t put me off.
Supporting the next generation
Having been fortunate enough to benefit from excellent mentorship and coaching from Leonardo, I really appreciate the opportunity to pass this on, by mentoring a number of colleagues at Leonardo. The great benefit is that it allows you to recognise a person’s capabilities through the programme. You can help influence and encourage networking opportunities, and sponsor individuals within the business.
Ultimately, we get the best from people when we get them into the correct roles. This ensures the aspirations of the individual and the company are met, bringing reciprocal benefits to both.
I would also strongly promote the value of networking to anyone looking to advance their careers. Through my work at Leonardo, I have become acquainted with women in senior roles in various organisations in the UK, the USA and Europe. I have built up a network of contacts, which is important.
Inspired by senior female leaders and peers
During the first 20 or so years of my career, there was definitely a glass ceiling for females in the aerospace and defence industry. But if you look at where we are now, compared to ten or so years ago, the USA has certainly smashed those ceilings with appointments such as Marillyn Hewson (Executive Chairman at Lockheed Martin) and Kathy Warden (CEO at Northrop Grumman). Though the UK is a bit further behind, we’ve started seeing senior appointments within UK defence organisations, such as the UK Ministry of Defence, QinetiQ and BAE.
At Leonardo we’re now taking the steps to address females in senior roles. Additionally, through active succession planning, we’re ensuring that we have gender balance and healthy talent across the board to come through. We should not be populating roles for the sake of it; it should be based on capability and ensuring we have the right candidates in the right roles.
Across the UK and potentially globally, if you look at the number of females in senior leadership roles today, you’ll usually see that they’re aligned to more functional roles, such as commercial, procurement, finance and HR. One of our challenges as an organisation, is to make sure the talent pool we’re developing includes females who can go into business delivery roles. Although I myself moved from a business delivery role back into a functional role, it was based on the experience I’d gained in that business role, with the expectation that I’d bring that back into a function to help with business efficiency and delivery.
How inclusion and diversity is benefiting women with the careers
Without a shadow of doubt, there has been greater focus on and support for inclusion and diversity in recent times, both within Leonardo and the wider world, thanks to various government legislation including gender pay gap and disability reporting. I&D is front and centre in boardrooms across the world as organisations like ours appreciate the benefits to their people and business. It is not just the gender pay gap legislation that drives our progress; we understand the talent that women bring and our strategy helps identify what the company still has to achieve. It’s a huge step forward from where we used to be, and is one of the biggest positive changes we’re seeing.
