Women Managing for the Millennium. Sally Garratt

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СКАЧАТЬ ‘My career has tended to follow the path of opportunity rather than any clearly defined strategy’, or

       ‘… late discovery of what I wanted to do and late discovery of my talents.’

      It is interesting to look at the two apparently conflicting meanings of the word ‘career’. As a noun, it implies the existence of a systematic path through your working life. As a verb, it expresses rushing about without any apparent focus. Which definition do you follow? Do you see a case for changing from one to the other? It would seem from these two definitions that each of us can make a considered choice about the next step in our lives – at whatever point it occurs.

      This is not to say that everyone needs, or is suited to a clearly defined career path, but it does seem obvious to me that some of the wasted time and talent evident in many women’s early lives could be avoided with a more thorough and knowledgeable approach to career counselling from the outset.

      The same principle applies later on. For example, one manager talked of:

       ‘Not having clear goals in the sense of promotion, failing to recognize opportunities for advancement, not reading how the system worked.’

      Traditionally, the idea of designing your future in terms of work was more likely to be found among the boys than the girls and this is recognized by women managers:

       ‘I was probably less focused upon my career goals than my male counterparts. I was more concerned with job achievement than job progression.’

      Having a limited academic education, or not being educated to degree level, are the two main reasons given by women, who describe themselves as late developers or for lacking confidence in themselves and their professional capabilities.

       Case study – Judy

       Judy, 43, is married with two young children and is the head of a central support team in a local authority. She has a degree in business studies and also trained as a barrister. She is a non-executive director of an NHS Trust.

      ‘No one in my family had been to university before – they had not even thought about it – but when I realized that university was a prospect for me I was encouraged by an uncle. Money was a problem, so I was driven to aim for a university degree with sponsorship funding. My father had been a shop manager, so business was seen as highly respectable and going into business was seen as a good idea. As I was female and good with people, Personnel seemed to be the obvious route to everyone else. BP offered me a sponsorship and I accepted a four-year ‘thin sandwich’ course, with a salary on graduation which was more than my father’s. From then on my feet didn’t touch the ground. I moved every six months, including a stint working in Scotland on the North Sea operation.

      ‘I obtained a good degree and specialized in Industrial Relations and Employment Law. I thought about professional qualifications and, because I had done well at law, the lecturer suggested I went for the Bar which I had never even contemplated. “Why not?” I needed to try. My father advised me, “Never regret anything”, so I applied and got in – but most of my family thought I was crazy. My husband liked to show off about my aspirations to become a barrister, but he didn’t like my studying. After graduating, I moved to UK Oil to work in personnel-related research, and Industrial Relations which I really enjoyed. Around the same time, I was called to the Bar. The respect I found I was being shown at work served to reinforce what I was beginning to feel about myself – which was counter to what was happening at home. I left the house and my marriage and never looked back. In 1980, when I was twenty-six, my first case was my own divorce.

      ‘After I qualified, I soon realized that there were too many barristers on the market and, anyway, I knew I wanted the chance to apply my legal knowledge on a practical level and decided to remain in industry. The opportunity arose to apply for the job of Personnel Officer at the company’s research centre and later as the Training Officer for the whole site, comprising 2000 people. I now had to put into practice what I had learned in theory and I found myself in one of the most satisfying jobs I have ever had. I consolidated my own life, bought my own flat and became financially independent. Simultaneously, my relationship with an ex-colleague had become particularly special and in 1984 we decided to make it official. We had both been through divorces and the stress of this had opened up for me a sideline interest in complementary medicine, starting with reflexology.

      ‘“Where next?” As a lawyer, my obvious choice should have been the legal department. I enquired about the possibility of getting a commercial pupillage, but that didn’t materialize and I took the commercial lawyer’s post. Experience quickly showed that, while I was capable of doing the job, I did not fit in with the stereotype. When I tried to make changes, I was totally ignored and concluded that this job was not for me when one of my previous managers asked me directly why I was there – and I couldn’t answer. He asked me to join him in management training.

      ‘The two years had not been fulfilling as a job, but we had a lot to sort out on the personal side. My husband, David, moved first to Hampshire and then to Kent, so I was commuting long distance and managing three homes! By now I was expecting our first child and suddenly, in 1986, everything was starting to come together. A group of us devised the Integrated MBA and teamed up with Warwick Business School as our academic partner. We also formed a Business School Network with British Airways and offered back critique to the business schools.

      ‘I was beginning to experience problems with a boss who was finding my innovative approach both disconcerting and a threat. I realized that I had found the glass ceiling in this organization and decided to move on. The choice was either to take up a senior post with my local county council, or to go out on my own. I decided I needed more experience before I became a consultant, so I applied for the education job. I knew that financially it could be a major problem, but also that I would never be given the same level of responsibility in the old job. It would mean a huge drop in salary, loss of an interest-free loan, car and so on. Coincidentally, the Economist had been writing reports on MBAs and asked me to be their adviser. They also required an author for their report, Guide to Executive Programmes in Europe and the USA and I offered to do it. The payment was exactly the sum I needed to make up the shortfall in salary so I resigned – BP was stunned that I should leave after seventeen years. They made a counter offer, but I knew I had to go to the new job where I would be in charge of many more people and have greater responsibility. I also felt that BP’s professional standards had declined and that, if I did not act, they would compromise my own standards.

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