The Final Countdown...

What a freaking amazing year!

Don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t all been rainbows and butterflies, but this year for me, was one of lessons learnt, growth, being inspired by those around me and being able to inspire others.

Before I started to write this final post for the year, I circled back to the very first one I wrote in January called “Fresh Starts”. I was so excited for the year ahead, I’d set up some new expectations for myself around work/life balance and some rituals to help me achieve this and you know what – it worked! I’m so glad I stuck to my “new” way of working and living as it helped me through a year peppered with high work demands, illness, relationship breakups (haha, yes, more than one) and a little bit of imposter syndrome.

This now brings me to the final countdown, as I’m taking my first holiday in twelve months and heading over to Europe for some food, wine and fashion! I always like to take stock at the end of the year, and this is what I learnt in 2018:

• Getting out of your comfort zone brings great rewards – as a new business owner, this year I really made an effort to go to as many business, social or general networking events as I could to expand my circle of contacts and wow – what a circle it has become. I was humbled by how many people I came into contact with who genuinely wanted to support me and MADI and I’m grateful to say that many of those contacts have become great friends. If I’d stayed at home in the comfort of my pj’s none of this would’ve happened so, get out there and mingle!

• Diversity is a conversation we all need to have– for those of you who follow my interest in diversity, you’ll know I was moved by the #100daysforchange initiative this year and made a pledge to support it. For 100 days I featured women from all walks of life across my posts and socials and from the comments, likes and reactions – this was a big deal for many of you who could relate or were inspired by the stories you heard. Let’s keep the conversation going.

• Everybody has a story– I worked with so many fabulous coaching and recruitment clients this year and every single one of them had an amazing story. Whether they were starting out, had been working for 35 years or had a business going through growth or decline, I’ve been inspired by every single person. Take a minute to ask someone you don’t know that well the question, “How did you get here? What has been the choices you’ve made in your career/business that brings you to today?” I guarantee that you’ll leave the conversation with at least one little nugget of advice or inspiration.

2018 has been a year of "establishment" for myself and MADI, but next year is going to be the year I take things to the next level! I’m excited to be really driving the recruitment services of MADI, along with some cool new developments for MADI Coach. I’ll be putting myself out there a bit more across the socials, as I want you to know, trust and believe in the person behind the business. Thank you to everyone who has supported me on this journey and bring on 2019!

Be Fabulous.

Lisa xx

You have every right to be in the conversation - Jackie Tuck

As part of pledging MADI to #100daysforchange by promoting women in non-traditional work roles, we’ll be championing women who are breaking down stereotypical barriers, leading the workforce and being agents for change.

Meet Jackie Tuck!

Jackie is an innovator of operational design. Coming essential from an engineering background, she has some fascinating insights into men and women working together to challenge the bias and encouraging other women to step forward into the engineering space and be part of the conversation.

Jackie is one of those people that can take a complex problem and explain it to you in simple terms. She is warm, engaging and ridiculously intelligent but at the same time down to earth. Over coffee, Jackie took the time to answer some questions around her career and diversity so that the next generation can “be what they can see”.

What do you love about your chosen career?

That it can be anything you want it to be.

What I took from my engineering course at university is that all those years studying helped to mould your brain into a logical problem solving machine. Unfortunately, the course does not paint the best picture of what an engineering career could become. If you choose to become a practicing engineer, you have the opportunity in trying out anything from project management, working in highly skilled teams or managing them, building major capital infrastructure, working on financing and resourcing, scheduling, risk management, data science…it’s pretty endless. The other point is even though it is a career where men are higher in numbers, if you have your degree and you practice your skills, you can compete with anyone at any level. You’ve trained your brain to be there, you have every right to be in the conversation.

Engineering has not been seen to have the excitement of ER, Bondi Rescue or Suits. It’s that career of the quiet achiever where you have the chance to contribute to impacting on a large portion of society, so essentially my personality traits relate to that type of work.

How did you get to where you are today?

I, nor my careers counsellor, imagined that I would have a career full of problem solving, innovative design and project management. My younger self had a natural disposition towards the arts and appreciation of beautiful design, but my good ol’ parents ‘suggested’ I should push through with the maths/science subjects which honestly were not my strengths at the time. However, life throws you curve balls and after a year’s stint in Science I moved into Engineering and had a tough time working my brain through all the theory. With a change of university and getting over a case of glandular, my left brain evolved into a problem solving machine and I started appreciating the design of all sorts of complicated systems. After all this trouble of finishing uni, I made a pact to myself to give the engineering profession 5yrs, it has lasted so much longer.

My career has spanned through mining, pharmaceuticals, and the oil and gas industries. I have worked with highly sophisticated systems with multidisciplinary specialist teams. I’ve worked in projects where the teams do not all speak English, where the laws are significantly different from country to country. Learnt in depth business culture change after a catastrophic event and introducing innovative design and ways of working. It’s been big, and it’s been fun.

What would you suggest to other women who want to follow in your footsteps?

It might seem that to qualify entrance into the engineering profession that you’d need to be super interested in pulling apart a car engine and then fully recondition it or have a love of Lego. Evidentially the answer is no, you don’t need to have done any of that…but you’d be surprised that it might be fun.

The other misconception is this type of career is full of boy nerds, Elon Musk/ Bill Gates-esq type person…actually the engineering profession really could do with more women who are naturally better at communication, and who get ‘people’ and all their real and difficult complications of who they are.

Essentially those who are interested and excited to learn about innovation and where it will go, those who like to work in teams and work through problems and do that in a highly effective way, then please enter the engineering field.

If we have more of these types of women, then it would certainly be a lot more appealing to the masses. I say, if there was a role model who was Michelle Obama/Beyonce who liked engineering, it’d certainly become the best profession in the world.

What, if any, diversity challenges have you encountered in your career?

The diversity challenges I have faced has been as early as University where the majority of my cohort was male. As I moved into work I became increasing aware that I would be the only woman in my team. The organisations I predominantly was employed at were multinational, so there were many people of various races and colour and religion. Some of the industries I have worked in were mostly long standing, so the many specialists, higher level engineers, and managers were one or amazingly two generations older than me, and are predominantly white male and of a well-established biased culture.

So as you can tell, it would be easy for me to talk to you about diversity challenges in sex, colour, religion, ageism, single/married, with or without family, etc… But from all the times I have encountered unfavourable and unwanted incidents towards me, and I’d count only on one hand, is that my personal values and beliefs, my worthiness and self-esteem, are the foundations of what gets me through these events. Mostly are annoying incidents but you need to speak up for yourself and those who can’t speak for themselves. As Brene Brown says ‘vulnerability is the best measure of courage’. What I take from Brown is that we must have a real conversation about what is going on in the organisation or the community, especially when it impacts unfairly to someone personally and impacts how they perform at work. I continue to work towards this philosophy every time there is a challenging event.

Women and men of today are the ones who need to challenge the bias and we need to support each other more than ever to change the tide.

What’s next for you?

My career has truly been fun to date. After a hiatus of a couple of years nurturing my family, I have recently been reflecting on what is essential for me to grow and strengthen for the many years of my future career. In the meantime, I’ll be commencing my scholarship in the Advanced Leadership Program with Women in Leadership Australia. For me it’s important to build a network full of highly accomplished women who are striving in their career. Being part of a cohort from diverse backgrounds, will help me engage different views and experiences and essentially become my support team to help define me in the next step of my career.

I’m now looking to the next thing, which may be anything. I’m looking to leveraging my logical problem solving mindset and perhaps enhancing an organisation’s view on innovation, design strategy, culture change in acceptance and subsequently making it a permanent mindset. It’s not easy to not know where my career will go. My leap of faith is in me and taking the risk into the unknown, but I’m learning to get comfortable with that.

Jackie is certainly the kind of woman that an innovative organisation would be lucky to have! You can connect with Jackie on LinkedIn here and continue to follow her journey.

Thanks Jackie xx

There's nothing holding you back, apart from you! - Kate Evans

As part of pledging MADI to #100daysforchange by promoting women in non-traditional work roles, we’ll be championing women who are breaking down stereotypical barriers, leading the workforce and being agents for change.

Meet Kate Evans!

Kate currently works for John Laing in a dual role as Finance Manager; she delivers the SPC Project finance for Perth’s recently constructed Optus Stadium, in addition to the John Laing’s regional, Australia and New Zealand, Entities. Kate’s experience across finance roles and working in the construction space, mean that she’s working in two male dominated areas – there’s been lots of meetings where she was the only female sitting at the table!

Kate is driven & intelligent whilst being warm and an advocate of diversity across her organisation. I was lucky enough to talk to Kate over a coffee, where she answered some questions around her career and diversity so that the next generation can “be what they can see”.

What do you love about your chosen career?

In terms of industry, I ended up in the construction space following a move to Brisbane, as there was massive growth in this sector at the time. I love being involved in infrastructure projects, for the simple fact that you can see an asset raised from the ground and in most cases adding value to the community. For a period of my career I worked for a mechanical services business, although I made a conscious choice to get back into the construction industry. I was; and still am, very grateful to be involved in the New Perth Stadium project which is a critical piece of infrastructure for Perth. I love finance and accounting as a role choice, particularly now as my career is maturing and I move away from an accountant into a more complex accounting and finance role. I enjoy the predictable nature of accounting, and get satisfaction from seeing something reconcile. Whilst these days I love the strategic thinking piece within my current role.

How did you get to where you are today?

I’ve been in the construction industry delivering accounting/finance and commercial roles for the past 10 years. My career commenced when I left NZ and moved to Brisbane I secured a role with a bulk haulage contractor in a general contracts administrator and accounting role, on the Airport Link joint venture. I then moved on to work for a mechanical services company and started with this business in their accounts team based in Brisbane. Eventually I relocated to Perth with the business, where my remit was to “clean up” the services team and administrative function. I took on the role as Service Support Manger for WA/NT and, with my team, enjoyed success setting up the Service Support function across their Australian businesses. Part of the journey included developing and mapping out new processes and procedures for the function and training staff across Australia. I was truly invested in the success of this function and motivated by the accomplishment which I/we had enjoyed therefore when I fell pregnant I was quick to get back to work. As the role was very broad it provided me a fantastic opportunity to truly reflect on what I enjoyed within the position and business more generally. Something I will always be grateful for! Additionally I had fantastic leaders and mentors around me shaping my path.

However I made the decision to take a step back; as my hours and travel was huge, and left this role. When I took time out I asked myself – what motivated me within my role? What did I enjoy, or not enjoy...? It was at that point, I made the conscious decision to focus on accounting and get back into the industry I loved; construction!

By identifying my drivers, I was very selective when looking for my next role as I wanted to ensure that I and the business were a “great fit”. I found a fantastic role with John Laing and started as an Assistant Accountant on the New Perth Stadium project at the beginning of construction. I also made the decision to go back to university and study as a mature age student. I’m not someone who sits idle, I’m very driven and enjoy challenges, and therefore within the space of a year I was progressed further within my role and took on the finance deliverables of the regional LIMS entities to broaden my scope of work. I was extremely fortunate that again I was surrounded by brilliant leaders who really advocated me, recognising my talent and expertise. My move to Finance Manager is a recent development, with which came a relocation for my family to Melbourne. JL provided me with the opportunity following the departure of my mentor and manager back to the Netherlands. My role here sees me continue in the delivery of the SPC Project Finance and an elevated central function for the Group.

What would you suggest to other women who want to follow in your footsteps?

Not to be afraid of change, not to question your ability and embrace hard work. Some of my experiences is a real testament to the fact that it’s quite achievable and that if you want something enough you can achieve it. There’s nothing holding you back apart from you.

What does your organisation do to promote diversity?

Diversity and inclusion are key values of John Laing! We recently launched a massive piece around diversity & inclusion and I’m part of the committee focusing on the APAC region. Part of this is identifying what we do well, what we do poorly, and how can we improve and retain talent in the business. Several initiatives have been launched internally, which is fantastic! John Laing have developed in house and external mentoring platforms, women’s networking groups and a whole range of initiatives to promote and attract staff. We have an exceptional culture which enables free speech around diversity enabling us to truly promote some critical agenda items.

What, if any, diversity challenges have you encountered in your career?

I have had rhetoric which has been challenging in my career, especially when I fell pregnant, “Well, your career is over”. I’m an ambitious person and it made me feel like I needed to prove to myself that I could juggle both family and a career. I turned this comment around and made it more motivational then derogatory.

Working in two typically male dominated industries (construction and finance) does expose you to diversity challenges in the workplace. There have been several occasions when I have been the only women at the table. I have noticed over time that I’ve changed my language and developed a style which is more direct when dealing with male peers.

What’s next for you?

In the near term, I see myself becoming more involved in other areas of the JL business. I see my career moving more in a finance direction, and navigating away from a traditional accounting role.

I enjoy delivering my current role, given that this is still new to me, but I’m also looking ahead to what’s next. I don’t see a glass ceiling! As I’ve matured I’m realising that I can go anywhere with my skill set and move my career in any direction I see fit. I think ultimately given my skill set, my end goal would be to hold a board position.

Kate is standing out as a leader across the Finance and Construction space and embodies the mantra that nothing can hold you back apart from you! You can connect with Kate on LinkedIn here and continue to follow her journey.

Thanks Kate xx