Leaders should not make assumptions on people’s behalf about what they can do, and they won’t be able to do, said Katrina Troughton, Managing Director, IBM Australia, and New Zealand.
Katrina set the tone for the two-day ‘Best Practices of the 100 Best Conference by Avtar and Working Mother’, on November 18. In her opening keynote Taking Bold Steps: Leading From the Front, she spoke about how awareness, acceptance, interactions, and allyship are important in the journey of diversity and inclusion.
She added, “Leaders should empower and support to give them the opportunities. We need to ask people if they will be able to take up challenging opportunities and not assume that can’t.”
Katrina, who heads the inclusion initiatives with a focus on women, spoke about people bringing their whole self and making a positive impact. Taking personal examples from her career, she recollected that soon after she had her first baby, she was waiting to get back to work and take on a new challenging role. She observed that it is a two-way street, and women have to be forthcoming about their capabilities.
“We have to be able to make commitments on what we can do. My manager responded positively to my idea of returning to work earlier after a maternity break because I made it very evident that I was ready for a new challenging role,” she said.
And, new roles, she pointed out, should make one uncomfortable to be good at it, and that was when allies played a role. “This is where allies are critical, and they need to tell the women they are supporting them in their career path,” she said.
Amid the tumultuous time, when Covid and racial injustice have been hot topics of discussion, she pointed out that IBM has been engaging in conversations like identity, prejudice, privileges, etc.
“These are difficult conversations, but they are important. Technology can address the issue of marginalization of groups,” she said.
She also discussed how the travel support policy at IBM, which allows them to take their child and a caretaker on business visits, helps new parents pursue career goals without interruption. Katrina signed off with the thoughts that the road ahead for IBM is adding more diversity to decision-making roles and systemic changes. “Diversity is not a destination but an ongoing journey,” she said.
