An open letter to the female leaders that inspire me
Recently, I was fortunate to become the APAC Executive Sponsor for HubSpot’s Women@HubSpot employee resource group. Through meeting and sharing stories with the members of the group, I’ve been reflecting a lot on the strong female leaders who shaped my career in some shape or form. I’ve been lucky to work with countless female leaders during my career across organisations like Microsoft, Google and HubSpot, each of which have taught me different things….
Gerri Elliott was the first female leader I reported to. Then, Gerri was the Corporate Vice President of the Worldwide Public Sector Business at Microsoft. Today Gerri is the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Cisco, and remains a leader who is admired by all that work and cross paths with her. There are many things I learned from Gerri and try to apply in my own work everyday. For example, she kept a book where she used to write her own ‘case studies’ about the customers she came in contact with so that she always had a wealth of stories available for other meetings. Another thing that really stood out for me with Gerri was how carefully she prepared for presentations regardless of the size of audience. Messaging, preparation and delivery were incredibly important to Gerri and she had a deep understanding of how to establish connection with any person or audience. There were so many other things I learned from her that I could go on and on, but I’ll only mention one more thing — her gratitude and appreciation for the people she worked with. Those who worked closely with her were always aware of her high expectations, and this produced great results for the businesses she led. In return Gerri always expressed her appreciation in very thoughtful ways including hand written notes, small gifts, and unexpected praise.
At Google I had the opportunity to report to Maile Carnegie (Managing Director of Google for Australia and New Zealand at the time) who is now the Group Executive responsible for Digital Banking at ANZ. Maile exemplified many of the same traits as Gerri, and something I continue to appreciate to this day was her focus on building strong unified teams. Through careful planning and deliberate actions, Maile was a pro at eliminating tension amongst senior leaders and encouraging collaboration. She took steps that others would have found challenging and difficult to ensure that the right people made it onto teams, and were supported and empowered along the way. This had a large impact on how others at Google respected her, and makes for a great leader in my eyes.
I had the opportunity at Google to build my own diverse team of leaders and was fortunate enough to work closely with some more great people. Tamara McCann, Fiona Walford and Caroline Oates are outstanding leaders, and today people naturally gravitate towards joining their teams to learn from them. Though I no longer work directly with them, I’ll always remember Tamara’s deep understanding of how to build mutually beneficial business arrangements between companies; Caroline’s knowledge of digital video advertising which is almost encyclopedic; and how Fiona took a small creative team and made them an industry asset for creative agencies. All three have achieved great things in their careers to date as a direct result of the ways they inspire and lead their teams. That is being vulnerable, nurturing, and when necessary, assertive in their leadership styles.
A large part of the reason I joined HubSpot was because of the great female leaders I met during the recruitment process. I’ve had the opportunity to observe some great people leaders in the companies I’ve worked at and Katie Burke really stands out amongst them. Katie is connected to the heartbeat of the company, and her team are “the heart” of the company. Not only is HubSpot a growing global company, but we’re building a hybrid company, meaning our team members are distributed remotely, in office, or a mix of both. We, like all others, have had to cope with the ongoing challenges the pandemic brought and Katie has ensured we keep connected and focused on helping each other while staying safe. She is tireless in her support and empathy for HubSpot employees.
Yamini Rangan, the Chief Customer Officer at HubSpot is another amazing female leader who is transforming the way we make decisions, the way we grow, and our path to success. She cares deeply about HubSpot’s customers and partners, connects with them across the globe, and is open and transparent with our strategy. Yamini also constantly reinforces the importance of collaboration between HubSpot’s flywheel connecting the Sales, Marketing and Service teams at HubSpot. These relationships are essential to removing obstacles and enable us to solve problems for our customers. Prior to HubSpot, Yamini was the Chief Customer Officer at Dropbox, and one recent act of kindness that really characterises Yamini for me was when she reached out to employees at Dropbox who had recently lost their roles to offer them assistance finding new roles. Supportive and empathetic are words that come to mind, but most importantly, Yamini showed me the importance of authentic leadership.
There are countless other leaders I could name drop here that have helped me learn, grow, and become a better leader myself, but I’ll name just one more. Jodie Boland is the Head of Legal and Integrity and Company Secretary for ANZ at Hitachi ABB Powergrids. I met her when she was the General Counsel at Event Hospitality and Entertainment Ltd (Formerly known as AHL), and fast forward to today, Jodie is my wife and partner. Jodie’s super power is Ethics which she taught part time and also leads at her current company. We coach each other, I continually learn from her and I appreciate the opportunity to observe her leadership at work. Jodie makes a huge impact wherever she goes and I’m fortunate enough to be in her bubble.
Being surrounded by strong female leaders throughout my career has taught me a lot about the importance of not just a diverse team, but a diverse leadership team too. Prioritising gender balance is a starting step in building a diverse team, and it’s something I’ve always felt was non-negotiable when it comes to building an inclusive environment where everyone can feel safe and has a sense of belonging. In fact, HubSpot’s dedication to, diversity, inclusion and belonging initiatives is something that really resonated with me before I joined.
