Uncertainty offers opportunity for transformation

I am a huge supporter of a more inclusive society which allows individuals to reach their full potential and contribute to the public purse.

As a free thinker, with a passion for supporting positive culture change in the insurance industry, I set out 40 years ago to better understand the complexities of what it takes to change thinking and action in a sector that is complacent.

I experienced this culture during 18 years in retail financial services in the building society sector as a business thought leader. Throughout my 25 years in executive search for the international insurance markets I challenged normal practices and saw the need, over a decade ago, to look at hiring and promoting differently to bring about change.

The first step was to bring together the female business leaders and influencers in the London Market before branching out to create an international community of women in insurance operations at C-suite and board levels. More recently I’ve welcomed aspiring female leaders to the network from across the industry.

Growing resilience
In terms of advice, I’d encourage women to be determined, resilient and resourceful throughout their career. One way to do this is by having female and male mentors to help navigate situations and sponsors willing to promote you to their peer group.

Networking is vital to market who you are and what you represent, also known as your brand values. Understand your own potential, add value where you can and have a career strategy and plan. As individuals, women benefit if there is a strong code of conduct that they will not compromise when dealing with any form of harassment.

The industry is in a period of intense uncertainty. This offers opportunity for change. However, sustainable change is linked to profitability and with innovation comes risk, and the insurance industry is, by its nature, risk-averse.

The challenge is attracting and retaining complementary skills and talent to the industry in order to embrace change and bring fresh ideas while retaining the core professional values of protection.

Looking to the future, we are moving towards a new style of leadership focused on commercial reality of an overcapitalised market. As the industry modernises and streamlines and looks at assessing risk differently, we must adopt a collaborative approach to business and welcome more diversity.

Women have honed their thought processes and ways of operating that enhance business thinking in a gig economy. We need more of this approach and to collaborate with our male peers.

Our different styles and approaches together will bring new thinking at the critical time.

Today I’m focusing on growing the Insurance Supper Club as a platform for all women in insurance globally. It encourages peer-to-peer networking by city, country and internationally while bringing these different peer groups together to help close the seniority gap.

As women we need to form a community to give ourselves the courage to seize opportunities as they are presented rather than waiting to be invited. It is about adding value and in doing so busting myths caused by years of unconscious bias and indoctrination.

As a Freeman of the City of London and a member of the Worshipful Company of Insurers, I sit on the main and steering committees of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) Insuring Women’s Futures (IWF) programme.

I lead Careers In Risk, one of the three pillars of the programme for IWF. I’m a board member of Insurance United Against Dementia as part of the Alzheimer’s Society, and an advisor to the founding team of ArcQ, a not-for-profit focusing on workplace inclusion of young adults on the autism spectrum and those with learning differences.

When it comes to industry diversity overall there is still a long way to go. Business leaders are having to make significant decisions without clarity. This is stressful and unsustainable and leads us on to the ‘who’ issue of better gender balance and diverse thinking. As artificial intelligence and technological advancement become the norm, visionary business leaders will be the ones who do things differently and work smartly.

These leaders will also be the ones introducing flexibility, encouraging creativity and working in collaboration with peers and other non-industry competition to enhance service provision and protections that suit a more fluid economy.

For more information contact:  isc@theinsurancesupperclub.com