Catherine Sherwin

This week AlixPartners sponsored the Young Leader of the Year award at the Women in IT awards, our second year of support. Once again, I had the opportunity to mix with a host of talented female colleagues from across our shared profession. It also made me reflect on my own career and what I had learned in more than 25 years in technology leadership roles and in management consulting.

You learn and see a lot in two and a half decades; both good and bad. However, I have consistently been inspired by truly gifted leaders and mentors. People who have nurtured and shaped talented people into the leaders of tomorrow.

Being surrounded by over 1,000 tech specialists and leaders across several generations, I pondered what it is that has had an impact on my own career. I came to the following three conclusions:

1. Respect – Whenever I have been most effective, worked best with colleagues and delivered the best results, respect, both for and from others has been significant. Where it has been absent relationships and the work have suffered.

Teams built on mutual respect can embrace difference and recognise the impact a balanced group of people can have when they work together and appreciate the unique perspectives each individual brings to a project or problem.

Self-respect has been critical. The regard I have had for myself has enabled me to take on new challenges, move outside my comfort zone and progress. I would encourage anyone looking to build a successful career, regardless of their gender, to consider this. Respect for yourself and others is highly contagious and will give you a solid foundation to achieve your goals. If this approach does not come naturally to you, a good mentor can be helpful and ideally also advocate for you to open doors and minds.

2. Self-awareness – An often-over-used expression and usually mentioned in the context of it being lacking, rather than present. However, developing a deep understanding of yourself, your strengths, your weaknesses and how you react and respond in a variety of situations is vital.

More importantly, it gives you confidence and enables you to welcome feedback, both positive and constructive (an interesting euphemism for criticism that comes from a place of good intentions in order to help you to grow and develop). I have found on several occasions that people have been particularly reticent when it comes to pointing out weaknesses. This is unhelpful and limiting.

Developing your self-awareness, whether through thoughtful reflection or with coaching or a mentor, is invaluable. It will make more difficult feedback easier to hear and put you in position to apply your strengths more effectively and understand how your perceived weaknesses can work in your favour under certain circumstances.

3. Taking hold of opportunity – Unusually I started my tech career in a team that was 50:50 men and women (a consequence of my employer at the time looking beyond computer science as a source of graduate programmers – I was a modern languages graduate). As I progressed, this changed and I found myself in increasingly male-majority environments.

One thing that enabled me to be effective was taking responsibility for my career and actions. I sought out guidance from both men and women who could help me to achieve my goals. I thought through who to ask for advice, depending on the situation and who would have the best experience to share. By taking this organised approach, I was able to identify potential roadblocks and where my strengths could be put to good use. Therefore, I could push myself to take on more challenging assignments and roles.

Being surrounded by talented IT professionals and being part of an annual ceremony that recognises the achievements of women at all stages of their IT careers is a wonderful privilege. In addition, we can take the time to appreciate our own successes and those of our colleagues and clients every day. We now have four generations of gifted leaders and mentors in the workplace, and therefore respect and nurturing can come from many different angles.

Congratulations to the winner of Young Leader of the Year, Josie Young from Methods and to all the other winners and nominees on the night.

If you’re interested in women in tech or if I can help you with your own career development in anyway, please feel free to get in touch.

Catherine Sherwin

Greater London, England, United Kingdom

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