Championing female leadership in resilience – Skills and tactics for breaking into and influencing the C-suite
On 17 July 2024, the BCI Women in Resilience (WiR) Special Interest Group (SIG) proudly hosted their second event of the year.
The theme of the event was “Championing female leadership in resilience – skills and tactics for breaking into and influencing the C-suite” where we were joined both physically and virtually by a wide variety of seasoned and budding professionals from across the resilience industry.
Before the live streaming of the event commenced, the in-person attendees were invited to participate in a speed networking session. Each pairing was set the challenge of exchanging information within a 1-minute window. The room filled with excitement and curiosity as facts and insights were shared at pace.
The event opened with an introduction from WiR Vice Leader, Krysta Broughton-Munford. In the context of leadership, Krysta focussed on the importance of core resilience strategies, including embracing a growth mindset, celebrating accomplishments, and building networks. Krysta surmised that these strategies are important now and for the future and should be brought to mind as we champion female leadership in resilience.
The introductory statement wrapped up with Krysta imploring all attendees to “champion one another, support each other, and continue to inspire one another”, adding that “together, we can create an industry where women in resilience can thrive and reach their full potential”.
Keynote Address – Kristen Anderson
The event was headlined by Kristen Anderson, CEO and Board Member of the European Women in Boards (EWOB) (https://europeanwomenonboards.eu/get-involved/). Kristen delighted the audience with the story of her career journey, being candid that it had “not been easy” and there were “plenty of difficult paths to navigate along the way”. The next segment of Kristen’s speech focussed on the purposeful work and mission of the EWOB, during which the community and resources available to women who are preparing to break into senior positions were shared and highlighted.
Kristen focussed on some of the key challenges that women face when rising to the top of organisations, including: having less access to influential networks and sponsors; an overall lack of women already in senior roles; gender biases and inequitable access to resources and opportunities and; organisational cultures that favour male-dominated leadership styles and practices.
With these challenges in mind, Kristen asked the attendees to give deep thought to the criticality of allyship, sponsorship and mentorship, stressing that “it is so important women support other women”.
Wrapping up an insightful and uplifting keynote address, Kristen finished her session by inviting everyone to connect with EWOB (https://www.linkedin.com/company/europeanwomenonboards/) and her personally on LinkedIn, which was met with gratitude and warm round of applause both in the room and virtually.
Speaker – Rebecca Gee
Rebecca Gee, Senior Manager and Operational Resilience Specialist at Protiviti, opened her speech with a clear and powerful message by proclaiming: “A fundamental part of influencing the C-suite is being passionate about resilience”.
The audience listened intently as Rebecca described some of her own experiences interacting with Senior Management and advised using case studies, along with outputs from testing and exercising, to bring resilience to life.
Rebecca challenged attendees to ensure that the true scale and impacts of real-life disruptions were landed at the Executives’ table, urging everyone to “be challenging” (in a positive way) and that we need to “get comfortable with the uncomfortable”.
To land the right tone at the top table, Rebecca advised tailoring resilience messages. She explained that this is important because without translating the messaging to, for example, the Chief Financial Officer, it’s almost impossible to influence, and we must get smarter about how to approach this. In addition, Rebecca talked to focussing on “value rather than compliance” which is becoming increasingly more important in the industry as the need for value-driven resilience is very sought after as a commodity.
Rebecca rounded her speech off by imploring resilience professionals to consider what data and insights they are using to inform conversations at the C-suite level. She advised posing the questions ‘How resilient are we?’ and ‘Are we resilient enough?’ which, with smart, informative data and the right tooling can translate into a powerful conversation with Executives.
Rebecca’s speech and insights were warmly received by the audience who applauded her as she signed off by declaring: “resilience is all about winning hearts and minds”.
Speaker – Emma Stringer
Emma Stringer, Disaster Recovery Manager at Gamma, gave insight into her career journey to date and passionately shared that beyond the day job, she is a mentor and member of several specialist groups including Women at Gamma and the LGBTQ+ community.
With an extensive background in telecommunications, Emma described her love for technology and resilience, which led her to consider ways in which the business could improve their approach and move away from silos and duplication of effort.
Emma explained that at Gamma encouraging a pivot to joining up business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) needed support and buy-in from the leadership, where she advised: “senior leaders like to see – that is, what is it going to look like and how will it work”.
Emma pointedly described how she was able to enable influence at the senior leadership level, advising five key aspects to consider:
- Making it about the ‘why’ rather than purely being a sales pitch, and in particular “why is it going to benefit?”
- Linking your view with their needs
- Understanding their perspective
- Understanding that they may want to know what needs to change – specifically “tell leaders what you think is wrong and come with solutions.”
- That they are people too
Emma reflected on her speech by encouraging the creation of a centralised programme across BC and DR, which enables the utilisation of value-drive management information, in turn helping with the identification of vulnerabilities and risks.
Above all, when looking to influence the C-suite, Emma reminded everyone “not to let the role scare you, senior leaders are people just like you and me”.
Workshop Host – Lucile Kamar
Award-winning Diversity and Inclusion Leader and Career and Mindset Coach Lucile Kamar proudly hosted the WiRs first ever, in person, interactive workshop, which focussed on boundary setting.
Participants learned practical tools to balance aspirations with personal well-being, empowering them to create fulfilling and successful careers.
Lucile inspired both the in-person and online audience with tips and tools for productively and positively enhancing boundary setting, sharing the following uplifting thoughts:
“Boundaries are an act of self-care and are linked to self-worth.”
“Reframe your mindset…instead of working twice as hard, work twice as smart.”
“The purpose of saying no should be to create the space to say yes.”
“If you are putting your needs last, what does that mean for your team? It is key to be consistent with setting boundaries."
Lucile delighted attendees with her realism and understanding of pressures and demands in the resilience industry, noting that boundary setting is a critical element of breaking into and influencing the C-suite.
Panel and Q&A Wrap Up
A panel discussion and Q&A session provided a platform for attendees to engage directly with our esteemed line up of speakers. Contributions flooded in online as well as from within the room, with waves of positivity felt amongst our attendees and experts alike.
The key takeaways from the event were distilled down to the importance of mentorship, sponsorship, and allyship in advancing women's careers, as well as the significance of developing strong communication and leadership skills.
The WiR Events Team extend their heartfelt gratitude to the speakers, attendees, event sponsor The Coca Cola Company, The BCI, and the entire WiR Committee for their contributions to such an insightful and enlightening event.
We very much hope to see even more attendees at our next event, so please keep abreast of announcements on the BCI website and our LinkedIn page.
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Are you interested in being a speaker?
If you would like to be a speaker, sponsor, or host our future WiR events, please contact Krysta Broughton-Munford, Baljeet Kaur or Bethany Warren for more information. We are always keen to open our hearts and minds to new ideas and thinking, in support of diversity and inclusivity, so don’t be shy – get in touch!
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