Hearing the personal journeys of inspirational women is at the heart of the programme and during the graduation Delegates were fortunate to hear from Kate Macnamara (Western Europe Corporate Affairs Director, Molson Coors). Kate gave three key pieces of advice:

• Don’t undermine a skill because it’s an overused muscle - see the whole you and don’t focus just on one skill or let one disappear into the background because it’s too overused 

• Make sure you’ve got local area expertise in a global role  and over communicate with stakeholders with a particular focus on listening to understand the culture, markets and external context that shapes people’s perceptions and how they think 

• Back yourself and believe in yourself. Even if you find someone that doesn’t believe you. Know when it’s time to not listen to someone and to listen to yourself

We also held a Delegates panel with Androulla Loizou, Communications Lead at Kingfisher and Rose Awuah, Vice President Accounting & Corporate Controller at SSP Group. Androulla and Rose shared their expectations prior to starting the programme, the particular highlights for them and the key learning takeaways.

Androulla spoke about expanding her network and allowing herself the time to focus on building her own personal brand and her personal development for which she was guided by her mentor. “It’s great to hear from women at the top of their game.”

For Rose, it  was about building her confidence levels and she feels the programme has very much helped: “I came in with an open mind to improve my confidence level and I’ve successfully done that.” She also spoke of making fantastic connections within her Peer Accountability Group and learning new perspectives from each session.

The Delegates then heard personal reflections from Ann-Marie Murphy, Group Chief People Officer, SSP Group. She described her experience as the first woman on the Executive Committee in a former role and how she initially felt out of place before realising how she could bring her unique perspective that would  add enormous value. Being authentic and honest about things was also her advice when they don’t go to plan and mentally pivot mistakes into great sources of learning.

To close the event, WiHTL & DiR Founder and Chair, Tea Colaianni, shared a quote from the book - A Year of Yes: by Shonda Rhimes :  “I said yes to something that terrified me. And I said yes and I didn’t die.”  Tea finished by urging all Participants to remember the quote and be brave and bold as they forged ahead in their careers

To learn more about our Women Leaders Programmes click here.

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