International Women’s Day: careers, challenges and changes
Ahead of International Women’s Day 2021, Mumbrella asked four influential women to share their career journeys and industry thoughts.
Pia Chaudhuri, creative director, BMF Group
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What was the best piece of advice you have been given in your career and who was it from? Why has it been invaluable?
Pia Chaudhuri, creative director, BMF Group: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” I’m slightly cheating here as this quote is from Maya Angelou. It’s something I heard quite early on in my career but it had a huge impact on me. It changed both my style of work, and my ways of working. And in a way, it’s still something that drives me today. I’m hugely passionate about ideas people care about, work that makes a difference to people’s lives, and helping the people in my team be the best they can be.
Fiona Chilcott, chief people officer, Enero: One of the best pieces of advice I received in my career was to spend more time exploring and understanding a problem, rather than jumping straight to solution mode. By spending more time in the explore phase, we avoid making assumptions, jumping to conclusions, and can more accurately understand the problem or issue we are trying to solve. This came from a fantastic leadership development coach I worked with, her name is Shelley McLean.
Jaime Nelson, managing director for Australia, Hotwire: The best piece of advice I’ve ever received is about the importance of being an authentic and vulnerable leader. For many leaders, including myself, this somewhat goes against what we think we should be doing. While much of being a leader is leading by example, I’ve learnt the importance of admitting that, in reality, no one person knows everything. This has allowed me to lean into my strengths, and engage with the strengths of others.
