The top executive who says: ‘I’ve liked being the only woman in the room’

Cathy O’Connor shows she’s no victim when it comes to gender bias in corporate Australia — and she’s found power in being a woman.

Cathy O'Connor.

One of Australia’s leading female executives, Cathy O’Connor, chief executive and managing director of oOh!media Ltd, recently sat down for a chat on the Blenheim Partners No Limitations podcast with interviewer Gregory Robinson. O’Connor has had a long career in media, including at the top of Nova Entertainment for more than 18 years. This is an edited extract of the conversation.

Q: What is leadership to you?

The concept of a leader is about being followed. So leadership is really about charting a course to the future and, in doing that, being able to bring people along with you. And it’s also, in my experience, a lot about who you put around you to lead: leadership to me is a team pursuit, not an individual pursuit, and therefore you need to have a keen sense of yourself and … of how it all comes together. In any sort of business and team, not everyone’s the same. And so you’re going to naturally relate and work with some more, better than you might others. But you need that diversity across the team. You need people with a good brain for process and data. You need good creative thinkers, people who are ideas-driven and then … all the soft skills.

Q: Has it changed much in the last 24 months, because key executives seem to be a bit lost, very fatigued?

There’s a particular need at the moment to overcompensate with connection. And I think this has come out of the pandemic. (People) feel less connected to the business … and they’re very keen for that connection. People almost need to be encouraged to come back and connect, and having done that we’re finding staff who spend more time in the office are more highly engaged. So while they like the flexibility, they actually are happier when they’re around people and that’s in the office. (But) I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all.

Q: What type of people are joining the industry now? How has it changed?

There’s always numerous vacant roles for software engineers and data specialists … and the evolution of the digital experts in the ads side of the business is continuing to grow. The whole sustainability piece and the skills that are required to strategise and deliver on your ambitions in that space is a new area. There’s not a lot of available talent. We’re doing a lot of re-education of the workforce and starting to build and create new positions and move existing staff members who understand the business innately into these new positions, and supplementing their learnings with the sustainability remit. Media is a people-based business, so it’s incredibly important that we have good people-based experts … who understand culture.

Q: When it comes to making the big decisions, what’s the process?

Collaboration is a great skill and I do it a lot, but in the end you’ve got to make a call. And there’s something quite liberating about making a big call as well. It’s like, OK, game on and you die knowing, right? I like the thrill of a big call as well, and at this stage of your career you back your judgment a bit more. So I feel a bit less tortured than I might have about big decisions, like, no, this is where we’re going, this is what needs to happen. You develop a little bit more confidence in making calls through experience so that perhaps I find that easier now than I maybe did in my early leadership career.

Q: Have you’ve got it wrong many times?

The main thing is if you do get it wrong, what happens? I think as long as you know what you’re shooting for and what success looks like, you get it wrong here and there, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. It’s about how you regroup from it and saying something was the wrong call. We should have gone left and we went right, move on. What do we do next? Let’s make sure we make the right call next time so that I’m not tortured by getting it wrong.

Q: So to keep yourself razor sharp, as a CEO, what do you do?

Try to have downtime, try to take holidays and just try to take some time out, four weeks a year, try to switch off. My version of switching off is doing something else that isn’t media, or inboxes or phones. Switching off for me is not a week on a beach. It’s just a couple of hours here and there to just sort of decompress. And that’s all I need anyway, to reset and try to get sleep.

Q: According to 2021 census from Chief Executive Women, in the ASX 300 there were 23 CEO appointments, only one woman – that was you. How tough is it?

So that data is terrible. And there is an issue with the pace of change … so a multitude of systemic and probably societal things go into that … tackling bias in the workplace is important, supporting all forms of staff throughout the entirety of a career, right through the family phase, through to the other end is important. I think businesses being the sorts of places where people feel they can build careers for the longer term is important.

Q: On an individual basis, has it been tough throughout your career?

I’m always careful not to project my reality onto people. I like the saying, you’re nobody’s victim without your permission. I’ve had a few defining times in my career where I’ve really had to set a boss straight about how I was being unconsciously selected. I mentor a lot of women, both in our business and outside our business. My kids are now 20, 25 … even the kids, my staff and mentees who are having children now are worried about the same things I was. Will I be left behind? What if a job comes up while I’m on maternity leave?

(But) I always found power in my gender. I always found I liked being the only woman. I thought it spoke volumes to be able to show women that it could be done. And I’ve liked that I’ve been a role model over the years because, particularly as I became a working mum, which was 25 years ago, that was less the norm. It’s now more the norm. I’ve always just been proud of being a woman … I want to do what I can to address (the fact women are in a minority in the corporate world). But I’ve not ever felt downtrodden or left behind. Perhaps that’s my optimism. Perhaps that attitude of not being a victim and just stepping in and stepping up has been something that’s made me feel less like it’s been hard. And I’m proud of being a female CEO. Some people say you shouldn’t have to say you’re a female CEO because you’re a CEO. Well, yes, of course, but I also want to champion the fact that it is possible when you can do all these things in your career and you can have a personal life and come out the other end sane.

Q: Looking back at the young Cathy, what advice would you give her now?

Learn coding, buy certain stocks, buy tech stocks and learn coding. Back yourself. I don’t think the young Cathy was as confident (as I am now). I obviously found success and built that confidence but I could have started a bit earlier. I don’t know, I’m still happy with where it’s ended up, so maybe it didn’t matter in the end.