Celebrating International Women’s Day 2020
Being a co-working business, by nature we have a collective of people from a whole host of different industries and businesses. We recently sat down with a few of these interesting and inspiring members for a chat to share some of their wisdom as we celebrate International Women’s Day 2020.
“The team you work with, and the culture in which you operate, matters. Some people say you can’t measure culture, but you can in terms of the way people speak to each other, the practices and processes you have, and the common vision and values you share in a team.
Understand and plan for different scenarios that can impact your business. It would be great if we were able to predict the future in business, but since we can’t do that, the second best differential to your competitors is to have people around you who create an anticipatory culture in your organisation. That means a bone deep connection with your customers, supply chains, stakeholders, technology, markets and shareholders, and using that to pivot to better options based on the best possible decisions.”
Mary Aldred, CEO Franchise Council of Australia and AFR Boss Magazine 2018 Young Executive Winner
“My greatest female inspiration would be Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, where at 29 she is the youngest woman to ever serve in the United States Congress, this demonstrates age is never a barrier to inspire change.”
Katrina Ong, Partner, Pride Living Group
“Don’t settle for mediocre. Surround yourself with people that add value and are motivating to be around. Above all, let your actions speak for themselves and the results will follow.”
Sharyn Ackling, Executive Assistant, Theramex Australia
“What advice would I give to my younger self? I would say stop caring so much what other people think because you can’t (and shouldn’t!) please all of the people all of the time. Related to this is not to judge yourself based on how others view you. It’s so endemic in our society – possibly more now than when I was 15 (which was a while ago…) – that young women are preoccupied with how many “likes” they get and how many social media “friends” they have. Young men are probably the same in many ways although I don’t have any insight on that. Oh I would also say, just because someone seems more confident than you, it doesn’t necessarily mean they will do a better job. It might just be that they have more confidence.”
Sophie Pinwill, Principal Consultant, Clear Horizon
“This is not a piece of wisdom that is mine but it resonates with me and is something that I would have benefited from knowing or hearing when I was 15. ’The person you will be in the future depends on the information you feed yourself today. Be picky about the books you read, the people you spend time with and the conversations you engage in.”
Suzanne Grant, Fair Education Program Manager, Australian Schools Plus
