I vividly remember storyboarding a script for an animation video with a few colleagues. We were in the collaborative open space area, directly outside the directors’ offices, where I was in the middle of recommending why the use cases needed to go in a specific order when one of the PAs came out of a room and shushed me. Now for those of you who know me, this wouldn’t come as a surprise. I have a loud voice, and I know how to use it. In fact, I even got told to shush on a plane once, and we hadn’t even taken off. But it hadn’t always been that way.
My reaction to being shushed made me feel proud. Why I hear you ask? Because at that moment, I mentally time travelled back to when I first joined Cubic, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, straight out of university. I remember for at least two years, going to meetings and leaving without having said anything. I felt like I had nothing to contribute. I felt like if something I was thinking hadn’t already been mentioned by one of the more senior people in that room, then it couldn’t be worth saying. I felt like I needed to respect the elders (and EVERYONE was older than me back then when I was 22) because that’s what had been instilled in me culturally, my whole life.
But sure enough, with guidance from my manager and now lifelong mentor and friend Martin Howell, I soon found the confidence to share my ideas. He became my biggest ally. I would sit next to him in meetings, write a question or make a point on a piece of paper, and gesture to him to look at it, so I felt more confident before I spoke. When I did say something, I tried to focus my eye contact on him to make me feel more at ease. Sometimes Martin would end the meeting asking if I had anything further to add, to provide me an opening to speak. All these little tactics made an enormous difference in building my confidence, to the point where I can share my ideas with such passion that I get told to shush! You can see now why I felt proud.
I’m grateful for the leader Cubic enabled and trusted me to be. From putting me in a high potential program, making business cases for my promotions, paying for me to get my Charted Institute of Marketing qualification, and even providing me with mentors. The encouragement has been never-ending. When organizations invest in employees the way I was, it leads to incredible results. I led the global marketing team, managed global partnership relationships, and currently sit on the board of directors for ITS UK. Most recently, I’ve taken on the challenge to lead the Cubic Women’s Network Employee Resource Group in the UK. I want to use my voice to empower other women within the organization to build confidence, take risks, and not be afraid of speaking up for themselves. But beyond all that, I want to continue to ensure Cubic’s culture empowers women who come after me because just like Kamala Harris says, “You may be the first to do many things, but make sure you are not the last.”
