Did you enjoy school?
School was an interesting time of enjoyment and complete dislike entwined. My comfort zone was very much being in the music room and that became my “thing” whilst at school and in challenging times it became my retreat. I never really knew what I wanted to do or be when I was older, so I finished school with a set of ok results but excelling in music I set off on my journey with an ambition to be a musician.
What qualifications do you have?
My highest qualification right now is a BTEC, with my career being built on experience and on the job training. I entered my first full time role as a finance assistant very quickly found a love of project management and then worked my way through my career completing bespoke training and build accreditation through professional recognition to get to where I have today. I do not regret this choice, but I got to a point in my career 12 months ago where I felt now was the time to gain a qualification that matched with my experience. I am currently halfway through my MBA and I encourage everyone to not see what might have seemed a middle of a road education with no clear vocation to prevent you from thinking you can succeed. When you find the career you love, education should be a marathon for life not a sprint start.
Has your career path been a smooth transition, a rocky road or a combination of both?
My career has been rocky at times, with the unfortunately evitable barriers that face women in tech and leadership, but I have tried to learn from each chapter and prevent reoccurrence. I have also tried to pass this on to my mentees over the years. I have gathered a collective of friends around me and we support each other when the road is bumpy, and we celebrate each other’s success when these happens. This group of people has such a width of experience now and that it offers a wealth of knowledge and network that almost anything is achievable by any one of us.
What is the best career advice you can give to others?
Don’t over think it, and don’t worry about when you will find the right career for you. The only reason I found my career was because I needed to earn money after returning from travelling. I quickly found myself finding something that made sense to me, and that I enjoyed with the bonus of helping the NHS to deliver a better patient experience and improve efficiencies in the delivery of care. I have gone on to add more experiences and more learning to that in each new role I have had, being technical in a role all the way through to being the marketing brain needed to get something over the line, variety of exercise off the grey matter is the highlight of what I look for.
If you had to pick one mentor, that had the biggest influence on you, who would it be?
This is a tricky one for me and asked to me in my 20s, 30s and 40s I would give you a different answer I also think this makes for successful mentorship recognising the needs of a mentor will change over your career and as such so should the person.
In my 20s in my second full time job, I was managed by my first female boss, and she gave me helpful critique, and great feedback, but most importantly gave me the inspiration to do anything I wanted and the perceived barriers I was raised with were knocked down. This person became one of my best friends and is still a go to for life advice.
In my 30s my mentor changed and although informal at the beginning after my career had stalled, I had experienced imposter syndrome for the first time this person gave me initially a much needed boost of confidence giving me a healthy challenge to what I thought would be the limits of my career as working mum, I saw a big change in my career throughout this phase and this person really helped me to keep focus and remember why I love what I do.
We move through life creating relationships and I value mentors, coaches, informal advisors and educationalists who have helped me along the way. Pausing and listening to the advice and then working out to apply it I think is so important now.
From where do you draw inspiration?
I will forever draw inspiration from the unwavering commitment shown by my past colleagues in the NHS, never has the word vocation been a more appropriate word. There tireless dedication knows no bounds whilst relentlessly displaying limitless empathy. I have lived with the ambition every day to try to in any small way to help the NHS in its continued evolution through the use of digital, with success and a with a hint of frustration that can be recirculated as the constant driver to do more.
What is the biggest challenge you have faced to date?
One of the greatest challenges I’ve faced to date has been transitioning from the public sector to the private sector, where the rules of engagement are entirely different. In the public sector, I had established a solid reputation based on my track record, but moving into the private sector meant almost starting again, having to prove my worth every single day. This shift was particularly challenging because there was a significant lack of understanding about the value of my previous experience and the pandemic landed right as I was trying to make this happen.
In the private sector, I quickly realised that not everyone appreciated the transferable skills I had developed, leading to constant scrutiny and a continual need to justify my decisions and expertise. The process of having to prove myself daily was exhausting and, at times, disheartening – especially when confronted with subtle, and occasionally not-so-subtle, misogyny. It often felt as though I was not only fighting to be recognised for my abilities but also striving to be taken seriously in environments that were not always welcoming to women, particularly those who don’t fit the conventional mould.
The differences between public and private sector are talked about a great deal, the key thin really though is how difficult the two environments find to trust each other, to listen to each other and to create a transformation partnership for the good of both. This has been my mission in recent years, to educate both sides of the coin and build the best partnerships.
This experience has taught me resilience and the importance of self-advocacy. I have had to learn to confidently assert the value I bring to the team, even when others couldn’t immediately see it. It was a baptism of fire, but it ultimately made me stronger and more determined to break down barriers, not just for myself, but for others who might face similar challenges and for the good of everyone who needs the services that a brilliant public and private sector partnership can bring.
What qualities do you feel makes a good leader?
One of the things I have enjoyed the most in my career is being a leader, I have had many great leaders that I have learnt from over the years and when I took my first leadership role I wanted to be led by some key objectives. Empower people, encourage new ideas, providing a safe environment in which its ok to fail. Not only have an open door which is an exhausted leadership phrase but ensure I make the time to be with the team, to ensure that trust is built and held. Finally, transparency we often default as leaders to think we are protecting our team by not informing them of updates until it is old news, and this erodes trust, we should use our teams during times of change even if the message is hard, your teams can bring new ideas and become your biggest advocates.
From a work viewpoint what has the last 12 months been like?
The last 12 months has been very challenging in the world of consultancy we can see this has been experienced across the globe, but as my focus is on the NHS the spending challenges across government and the general election has added additional complexity and challenge. My ambition of leaving the NHS to bring my experience to many is still the top of my agenda and I hope we see times ahead where I can deliver this.
What would you say are the biggest tech-based challenges we face today?
There is a lot of excitement in the industry around the use of AI and how it could really help in overcoming fundamental problems been experienced not only in the NHS but in many public services, staff shortages, skills drought, and ever-increasing demand and the focus on this should not be lost. But we cannot forget due to years of under investment we have a foreboding problem of aging infrastructure, disparate data, and under funding. The remediation of this legacy must become a priority and that is hard when the return on this investment is often the remediation of a risk rather than a new shinny ‘thing’ that does something different. I want us to maybe as ourselves are their new problems or can we fix the problems that have been there for a while first.
What can be done to encourage more women into the industry?
I have spent last few years of my career trying to encourage more women into the industry and I was sad to see a recent survey to see we have seen less women joining and an increase of women leaving, and we need to understand the reason for both. At the same time though the number of women going into all forms of education with a technical theme has risen, by a very small percentage, but I have hope that this signals the tide is still turning, just slower than any of us could wish for.
The industry is still predominantly male, and we see most Boards being dominated my men, and this brings with it two problems in my experience, fear from women to break through and challenge the status quo but also a lack of knowledge of the needs of women in the workplace, and all wrapped up with the age-old problem of men being threatened by women. I caveat that with this isn’t always the case and I see many examples of male leaders being the biggest advocate of women in the workplace but there is still not enough, and we must educate the leaders and empower the emerging and rising females in our industry. The diversity that a board, a group of leaders, a project team needs can be added to by creating a better balance of people in th teams.
Give us a fact about you that most other people wouldn’t know.
That I have an allergy to citrus fruit, very challenging when ordering cocktails, infuriating for your husband when he loves cooking with lemon and scary when I can do a fantastic Chucky impression after consuming Pineapple.
