Ruth Medd understands the value of playing to your strengths. After a diverse career, including senior roles at Telstra, the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal and the NSW Casino Control Authority, she has pursued boardroom work since founding Women on Boards (WOB) in 2000. Today she holds multiple chair and non-executive director positions.
Representing women from a vast range of industries and interests around Australia, Ruth’s wide-ranging expertise in finance, business management and public policy make her an in-demand spokeswoman and high-level commentator.
In this edited extract from Women of Influence, she speaks to Gillian Fox about how she founded Women on Boards, what it takes to be a director and her advice for getting more women into the boardroom.
Ruth, please tell us how you became Executive Chair of Women on Boards.
I’ve had probably 4 careers. It wasn’t a planned journey by any means. I started in IT and Maths. The pull of ambition means you progress and take on other challenges.
I was President of the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW), an organisation that sounds impressive but doesn’t do a lot. One day I had a good idea: Women on Boards. That was in 2000.
What are some specific areas in which you believe working women continue to need support?
In some ways we’re in the business of getting women permission. Some women don’t need permission, but a whole lot of them do.
Many women are completely undervalued in what they have to offer, which is a disappointment. Men experience that too, I’m sure, but many women in particular don’t appreciate what they’ve got to offer.
For emerging female leaders, how does joining an organisation like Women on Boards add to their business acumen and perspective?
You bring your professional skills and experiences and you apply them in a board context, but lots of other issues come up. Say you join a charity, the Y.W.C.A or similar. Imagine you get there and discover unfortunate noncompliance procedures around the protection of children in the workplace: that’s a good crisis for somebody who’s worked in the treasury department of a bank, because it’s so far from your past experience.
What do you think young women should look for in a networking culture and atmosphere?
We have some amazing women. They’re predominantly modest, successful, professional women with goodwill and intent. It’s a great environment.
Are there other qualities you think are helpful for current emerging female leaders keen to continue advancing their careers?
If someone is going to get into the C-suite or have a senior career, they must see the bigger picture. Sometimes women come to work, work really hard on their task and forget about their responsibility to themselves.
They’ve got to understand what’s going on in the organisation as a whole. They’ve got to have some people in the organisation they can get information from, as an intelligence gathering exercise. They’ve got to be strategic about who they spend their time with and what events they go to. A lot of women don’t see those components as part of the job.
Though you didn’t plan for yourself, how do you think planning helps shape career success today?
To be a successful director, you’ve got to have the strategy, vision and enough where-withal to ask the odd intelligent question about the annual accounts – you have to check they’re accurate.
If you’re really interested in your future, you’ve got to think about how you broaden your perspectives. You’re not going to get a job as a junior accountant or a junior lawyer unless you can actually write a contract, so you need to have a bit of detail, but that isn’t sufficient to give you all the perspectives you need.
Many ambitious young women already work very long hours; how can they be smarter about broadening their perspective at the same time?
Through experience, repetition and osmosis. When women focus on the task and fail to appreciate those other things, they’re doing themselves a disservice for the future.
Not everybody is going to end up running the organisation, but if you have aspirations for advancement and preferment, you have to think about how you’re going to get there. You’ve got to get outside your comfort zone and make an effort. You’ve got to have a little plan that says, “I’m a second-year lawyer or a third-year economist: what else do I need to do to prepare myself for the future?”
Do you think outside interests can be a supporting factor for success?
It’s interesting that lots of very successful women are very sporty. Some of them have got really fascinating interests. On the whole, I’d say we’re a pretty diverse group that’s not completely focused on business.
When we run our Women on Boards workshops, we ask people to share something interesting about themselves and they say, “I’m a champion knitter,” or “I’m a triathlon athlete,” or “I represent Australia in hockey,” or “I’m into walking and wine.” Top women do have other interests.
Finally, imagine an emerging leader who’s already doing well but really wants to get ahead of the pack. What 3 tips would you give them, Ruth?
First: collect a little network of good advisors who can give you a bit of a guiding light. Think laterally; these are not just people you work with in your division, but others as well.
“Some research suggests that men get promoted on potential and women get promoted on performance; if I’d been promoted on performance, I’d still be here cleaning the building.”
Second: do take the time to ask, “What do I need to do next? What do I need to develop?” You can’t just sit in a corner and figure it out. Perhaps you do need some form of assistance. It might be offered by your place of employ or via review mechanisms. It might be offered through your professional association. Give the matter more thought earlier, rather than just sailing forth.
Third: join Women on Boards. On a board, you get to understand an organisation as a whole, not just your little silo. Our aim is demonstrating that one way to supercharge your career opportunities, potential and likelihood of success is joining a board as soon as you can.
Women’s Agenda readers can download an exclusive preview of Woman of Influence ahead of the official launch of the book on May 17, 2016. To download your exclusive preview, simply visit here.