When Katie Rigg-Smith was offered the role of CEO at Mindshare, a media agency in WPP, she initially wanted to turn it down. She had recently become engaged and knew she wanted to have children, so her inital thoughts were: “I can’t do that and be a CEO”.
Rigg-Smith would become the only female CEO in her industry at the time, so she hadn’t necessarily seen it modelled by anyone else.
“Fortunately,” she says, “the chair of the group at the time, John Steedman, wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“He was a big proponent of women in the workplace, and he said to me, ‘You’re doing the job and we will figure out how we support you through having children as and when that happens’.”
“And thank God he did, because I was in the role for nearly ten years. I have three beautiful children who are seven, five and three now, and I nearly missed out on that opportunity because I just didn’t know there was such an idea of ‘on your own terms’.”
It’s this idea of taking parental leave ‘on your own terms’ that Rigg Smith, now the chief strategy officer at WPP across Australia and New Zealand, continues to advocate for, so that women can feel comfortable doing it.
“My advice to other women would be, and to anyone in general that is going through this journey, is to figure out what you want, figure out what it looks like for you, figure out what your company policies, and then have a proper discussion about it,” says Rigg Smith.
“And it’s not just going to be one discussion with your company. You keep checking in because plans change pregnancies and birthing plans can change,” she says, adding that, “it’s always about keeping that discussion open.”
Rigg-Smith has been with WPP for the last 24 years. She started her career journey as an intern at Mindshare before working her way up through the company.
When it came time to broach the conversation of parenthood, Rigg-Smith says she and her husband discussed how to ensure she could “have a stimulating and fulfilling career and be a mum”. They also touched on how her husband would continue to thrive in his career as well as be a present father.
Once they’d established that, Rigg-Smith went to her company and laid out how how she planned to approach her maternity leave, saying “here’s the benefit for you of me doing it this way, and here’s the benefit for me, and this is how I need you to support me”.
“Having a conversation about maternity leave options helps women feel empowered because you’re actually in control of that discussion. You’re not just a passenger on this journey,” she said.
“You are actually the one driving it, having a conversation in control of what your needs are. It’s really important that we talk about it.”
Rigg-Smith shared this advice during her keynote session for Women’s Agenda’s new video app series, The Keynotes.
The Keynotes app shares “Mini Keynote” sessions and insights on leadership, equity, current affairs, climate and so much more. To watch Katie Rigg-Smith’s keynote as well as other sessions, sign up to the app here.