From mother to daughter, career advice for the future

ANZ’s Alexis George says to make it to the top ‘you need to take those roles that make you feel sick in the stomach’.

Alexis George and daughter Ash. Picture: Adam Yip

One of Australia’s most senior women executives, ANZ’s Alexis George, says that if you want to make it to the top “you need to take those roles that make you feel sick in the stomach”.

The deputy CEO at the bank has had a stellar corporate career but says winning is less about being ambitious and more about taking risks. Indeed “if that job you take on isn’t making you feel sick in the stomach, then it’s not the job you should be in”.

Ms George, who was appointed to the deputy job last year, reveals her recipe for success in a special issue of The Deal magazine on Friday which asked women CEOs and company directors for the ­career advice they give their daughters.

As mother of 24-year-old Ashlee, Ms George says her working class background in a country town taught her to work hard “at whatever you are doing”.

“My second piece of advice is don’t start believing your own publicity,” she tells the magazine. “It’s about keeping it real.”

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She admits to giving gender-specific advice to her daughter: “Ask. If you don’t ask, you won’t get it, so take a risk and ask. I say that more to her than my son (21-year-old Nathan) because unfortunately we live in a world where it’s necessary to say that to women who, for whatever reason, often don’t put themselves forward.”

Another senior woman, Infrastructure Australia CEO Romilly Madew, tells The Deal she advises her 17-year-old daughter Arielle that “the world is her oyster and she should be open to trying anything”. She worries she is tougher on her daughter than her sons but says that her own mother impressed on herself and her sisters the need to “try everything”.

Pip Marlow, CEO of Salesforce Australia, says of her daughters: “I talk to them a lot about belief and mindset … I talk to them about that because things do get hard and things I did in my career were really hard and I needed that belief in myself to do them … I share stories with them about early days in my career when I wasn’t treated so well as a female in a business with a lot of men who thought they could talk to you in a certain way or walk by and put their hands in places. I share that with them to make sure they will say ‘no’ faster, say ‘no’ straight away. I don’t want to scare them with these stories but I do want to prepare them.”

Former politician Nicola Roxon, who is now chair of the HESTA superannuation fund, tells her daughter Rebecca, 14, that she needs to have opinions, and that her voice matters.

“There is a risk that we bring up girls to be too compliant,” she says.

Ms Roxon says that the future is arriving so fast that it’s hard to give children specific career ­advice.