Never be afraid to push yourself and never be afraid to ask for help. Those were the key career tips that Transfield chair Diane Smith-Gander, NRL COO Suzanne Young, and commonwealth Department of Finance secretary Jane Halton shared at the Odyssey House Business Women’s Lunch in Sydney on Tuesday.
The lunch was held as a fundraiser for Odyssey House’s Janus Mental Health Program, which assists people dealing with both mental illness and drug and alcohol addiction. The name of the program, Odyssey House CEO James Pitts told the audience, comes from his childhood love of mythology. In ancient Roman mythology, Janus is the god of transitions and new beginnings.
The event brought together businesswomen and men from across Sydney and Australia to support Odyssey House and hear from a panel of women leaders in government, business and spot.
Young said the most important thing in your career is to take chances to do things you think you’re not ready for. Seizing opportunities to undertake roles you think you aren’t qualified for is what pushes you forward, she said.
Young said this is something she learned from her mother, and something she regularly passes on to her team at the NRL.
“I always find ways to push my team to do things they think they can’t do yet. Because every time, they find that they can. All they needed was the chance to try,” Young said.
Smith-Gander said – and all the panelists agreed – that another crucial career tip is to find and build as much support as possible from mentors, coaches and sponsors.
“You need to be looking for support everywhere. Sometimes you can find it in unusual places,” Smith-Gander said.
“The best person you absolutely need to find is your supporter or sponsor – the person who will not only listen to you but actually go out and get you the job or opportunity you are looking for.”
Halton, who is the first female commonwealth secretary in 17 years, agreed: “Every week I get calls asking for my opinion on certain people being considered for roles. I love being able to say, ‘yes that person is good, but have you thought about this other woman?’ that’s what sponsors are for.”
“A sponsor is someone who knows your strengths and can draw attention to them in their own networks,” she said.
Smith-Gander gave some more advice to career starters about approaching mentors: don’t be high maintenance.
“Remember, when you get a mentor, you are not marrying them,” she said.
“You don’t have to feel obliged to know everything about their lives and feel guilty for ringing them up after not contacting them for a year. That’s what they are for,” she said.
“Just pick up the phone and ask them for help when you need it.”
Outside of mentors and sponsors, the panel also discussed what needs to happen to further women’s economic empowerment.
Smith-Gander pointed out that increased workforce participation is as close to a silver bullet as we’ve got: “By getting more women in work, we could have 240,000 extra jobs and 240,000 extra taxpayers. I think everyone is in agreement about the social justice issue here; now we need to spread the word about the business case.”
“We all know that access to affordable childcare is a major impediment for so many women’s empowerment,” Halton added.
Young said for her, one of the most important things is to get more women on boards in male-dominated fields like her own: “We need more women on boards in sport and more women making key leadership decisions and making change.”
And what about sexism in the workplace?
Each of the leaders had her own alarming story about gender discrimination at work – for Suzanne Young, it was being asked during her first week as the COO of the NRL, “who did you sleep with to get the job?”
All three women agreed the approach we need to take is simple: Call it out unequivocally, every time it happens, and then move on.