SEE ME BE ME: Future Leaders
Achievements are rewarding. But when you’ve overcome challenges to get to where you are, when you’ve succeeded against the odds off the back of your hard work, when you’ve fought to get into the right rooms and in front of the top people, there’s something even better. It’s watching people follow in your footsteps. Diverse senior leadership teams bring diversity of thought, new and varied ideas, and lead to better performance for your business, and better culture. We’ll be revisiting some of our best podcasts on the theme of leadership over the coming couple of weeks, so for a taster…
Lisa Maynard-Atem, for SEE ME BE ME:
I’ve worked for a variety of companies. I’ve worked for AstraZeneca. I’ve worked for Harvey Nichols. I’ve worked for Harrods. Most recently I worked for an award-winning training provider called Acacia Training and lots in between. And I think what’s important is the ability to give back.
I think it’s really important that as you move forward, as you move up in your career, you ensure, especially as Black people, that we create opportunities and open doors for others to follow us. I don’t want to be the last. I’m happy to be the first but I’d like to think that years from now, when I’m not here, there’ll be lots of other people that look like me and from other other marginalized communities who are blazing a trail as well. Your success is not just about what you do for yourself, the skills that you have. It’s about what you do for others.
I was senior at Harrods. But I wasn’t so senior that I was sitting at the very top tables. I can remember once I went to Milan for a meeting with a brand. And I remember walking in, and everybody around the table looked like me. So they were all senior people, all managers upwards. And I remember being so excited – we were all so excited – because it was like, hold on a minute, everybody around this table is like me… this is so cool.
And that was a real kind of moment for me to go, right. Okay. I really want to go further in my career, doing other things. But also, I don’t want to be the last. So what can I do? How can I use my skills not just to further myself, but to create those opportunities for other people so that they can follow me, and maybe one day even be more senior than me? All the organizations I worked in, when I looked at the top tables, I very rarely saw anyone that looked like me. I want to occupy a seat at the table at one of those tables myself. But also I want to bring other people along with me.
