What I learnt from Covid: the women CEOs leading our top companies
Women make up only 5 per cent of the CEOs of our top 200 public companies. But their voices are strong
What makes a great chief executive? The answers are as varied as the companies they lead: if we have learnt anything in recent years, there is no template for good leadership – even if we can identify the attributes that help you succeed in the top job. But the debates over female bosses have been more complex, with the often unspoken questioning of whether women have the stomach for the top job.
For years the questions were about whether women are too nice, too soft, too inclusive, too low of voice or too busy with kids to really cut it in the corporate world.
That narrative has shifted decisively in the past as new generations of female – and male – executives have emerged.
Yet the really top jobs overwhelmingly are held by men. For many women who don’t aspire to be chief executives of ASX 200 companies, the lack of women at the top is not so much about their own careers but the messages it sends to the broader society about who wields real power.
This week we asked top CEOs:
# What is the biggest challenge
facing women at work post Covid?
# What have you learnt about
leadership during Covid?
Alexis George
AMP Limited
George has been CEO since August 2021, after more than seven years at ANZ bank, including almost four years as deputy CEO. She has had more than 25 years’ experience in the financial services industry and spent a decade with ING Group in a number of senior roles.
#BIGGEST CHALLENGE
Covid has shaken up the balance between the office and the home. We have adjusted, but the boundaries have been reset and not always clearly. There have been some distinct benefits in terms of eliminating commutes and increasing time spent with families, but there have also been unintended consequences that we are still learning about. One challenge is being “always on” and having no time to transition between work and home life. That will impact mental health, and sometimes physical, so I would say there is an immediate challenge to get that balance right and probably more so for women, who in many families still play a more dominant role in managing the home life. The return to the office could also be challenging for women. Clearly, for most companies, the mandate for people to be in the office five days a week has changed, but will there be a preference for presenteeism when it comes to promotion, additional responsibilities and development? We have to manage the natural human bias of assuming the people we can see are working the hardest. Some data would suggest women are more likely to take advantage of this new flexibility and be indirectly impacted.
#LEADERSHIP LESSONS
I think we have all learnt a lot about dealing with unknowns. It’s been a situation where, as a leader, you couldn’t rely on past experience and have had to adapt based on the best information available, then be ready to continue adapting as things change, revert and change again. There has been no certainty, but as a leader it has been critical to provide a vision for our people, to acknowledge the impact on wellbeing and to be flexible. I have also learnt you can achieve the unachievable in an amazingly short time when there is an imperative. Vaccinations have been developed in record time and we had a financial services industry working at home in a matter of weeks. Unimaginable!
Elizabeth Gaines
Fortescue Metals Group
Appointed chief executive in February 2018 after a year as chief financial officer. She has sat on the board since 2013. Gaines was previously chief executive at Helloworld and Heytesbury and CFO at Stella Group.
#BIGGEST CHALLENGE
There is no doubt that Covid continues to impact our work environment and I wouldn’t yet describe the current situation as a post-Covid environment given ongoing border restrictions and lockdowns. While Covid disproportionately impacted women at the height of the pandemic, it is pleasing to see that as restrictions ease the jobs recovery appears to be driven by women taking up full-time roles in those service industries that were hardest hit, such as hospitality, tourism and the arts sector. Fortescue recorded its biggest intake of female team members in the company’s history in September. Our collective challenge will be to build on this momentum to ensure we have the settings in place to encourage more women into the workforce, including access to affordable childcare and provision of training and development opportunities. With employees demonstrating their ability to work effectively away from the office, Covid has also provided an opportunity to rethink our approach to flexible working and promote an inclusive culture that will unlock further employment opportunities for women.
#LEADERSHIP LESSONS
We have found open and transparent communication is key in steering the company and our team through this once-in-a-generation health and economic crisis. As a CEO, combining decisiveness with collaboration across our mining operations ensured we prioritised the health and safety of our entire Fortescue family and supported those most impacted by the ongoing border restrictions. Strong engagement through regular updates and communication was critical to ensuring we continued to operate without disruption. We also saw some great examples of female political leaders who successfully managed their countries through Covid, demonstrating that women can be both caring and decisive as leaders, as well as challenging the traditional stereotype that women are compassionate and men make the hard decisions.
Katie Page
Harvey Norman
Page joined Harvey Norman in 1983 and was appointed a director four years later. She became chief executive in February 1999 and has led a significant expansion of the company to New Zealand, Malaysia, Slovenia and Ireland.
#BIGGEST CHALLENGE
It is hard to narrow to one single challenge as I think the impacts of Covid were highly individual. The challenge isn’t so much the future of work life post-Covid but the significant consequences Covid had on individuals and families while we were living in lockdown and through restrictions.
#LEADERSHIP LESSONS
Your team is everything. We have offices in eight countries, all of which experienced extended lockdowns, temporary openings and shutdowns. Each country, particularly in Australia, learnt from the experiences in other countries. Remarkably, as isolated as we have been in the past 18 months, we were never siloed. Being available to your team at all times to share the lessons, as well as have them know you are there for them and their families to navigate through unprecedented threat.
Jolie Hodson
Spark New Zealand
Hodson has been chief executive since July 2019. She joined the company in 2013 as chief financial officer and later held the post of chief executive at Spark Digital and served as the company’s customer director. Before Spark, she worked for 12 years with the Lion Group and Deloitte.
#BIGGEST CHALLENGE
We saw the disproportionate impact Covid had on women, who over-indexed in job loss statistics during the pandemic. One silver lining has been the increased acceptance of flexible working within the business community. This is particularly beneficial for women, who have historically taken on a greater share of the domestic duties that must be balanced against work and are therefore more disadvantaged by workplace inflexibility. Of course during lockdowns those domestic duties and work collided like never before, and without support structures like childcare this has taken its toll on women and parents more broadly. Coming out of Covid the focus for business should be on locking in progress made in areas like flexibility while supporting people to get back to a more sustainable equilibrium between work life and home life.
#LEADERSHIP LESSONS
Covid has reminded me that adaptability is a critical leadership skill. When faced with ambiguity and constantly changing goalposts you have to be able to adapt at pace and take people with you in real time. That often means planning for multiple futures while backing yourself to make a call when certainty is needed. Covid reminded us of how intertwined individual wellbeing and sustainable business performance are. If you’re not creating the right environment for people to succeed and not prioritising their wellbeing, you’re not going to be able to weather storms.
Julie Coates
CSR Limited
Coates joined CSR in September 2019 as an executive director and managing director. She was previously MD at Goodman Fielder Australia and Goodman Fielder New Zealand. She has held senior roles at Woolworths.
#BIGGEST CHALLENGE
Managing the challenges of Covid has created an opportunity for our teams across offices and factories to look at how we may work differently, and develop new ways of working that are more collaborative and effective. Staying connected during lockdown has been challenging and our people have shown the resilience and commitment to overcome this by increasing communication, leveraging technology and agile ways of working.
#LEADERSHIP LESSONS
The key learning is the importance of being visible and present to our teams. As we were managing the complexities of Covid we developed a very agile and collaborative cadence to respond to the different issues arising in our business. This also brought us the opportunity to be more interconnected across CSR as our teams were facing similar challenges. This learning has set us up well as we progress our strategy and work together to solve problems and address complexities in the business while creating a culture of energy, innovation and excitement across CSR.
Meg O’Neill
Woodside Energy
O’Neill has been chief executive and managing director since August after 27 years in the global oil and gas industry, the last four at Woodside. She was previously at ExxonMobil including postings in Indonesia, Norway, Canada, the US, Asia-Pacific and Africa.
#BIGGEST CHALLENGE
The pandemic has challenged us all and I think people feel they have worked harder than ever, under more difficult circumstances than ever. For employers the challenge now is to recognise that and offer people the flexibility and choice to find their best way of working.
#LEADERSHIP LESSONS
The importance of staying connected with your teams, even when you are not able to physically work together, and to trust their agility and resilience. I’ve always strived to be a good listener, but in a crisis it is even more important to have empathy and be looking after your teams’ mental and physical wellbeing
Marnie Baker
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank
Baker was appointed managing director in 2018. She has been at the bank since 1989 and an executive there since 2000, working across all sections of the group.
#BIGGEST CHALLENGE
The biggest challenge for women post Covid is working through the uncertainty that remains, and finding the balance that’s right for them in a new world of work. Post Covid, organisations should be considering their position on flexibility to ensure women are supported in advancing their careers and improving leadership opportunities. Not only is it the right thing to do, it also makes good business sense to attract and retain great talent and foster an environment where everyone can truly be themselves and do their best work.
#LEADERSHIP LESSONS
Covid has dominated almost every aspect of each of our lives and has brought to light the notion that while we may all be in the same boat, our individual journeys will not be the same. It’s important as a leader to be empathetic and to create a culture that supports open communication and feedback, encourages problem solving and resolution, and fosters creativity. Leadership style will be magnified through challenging periods as people search for guidance and direction. It’s important for a leader to be unequivocally true to their values. Staying true to who I am, acting with utmost authenticity and integrity and helping communities – and the people in them to be the best they can be – has underpinned my 32-year-career in banking. My commitment to these principles keeps getting stronger every day, and the pandemic has reinforced this belief.
Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz
Mirvac
Appointed chief executive and managing director in August 2012 and an executive director in November 2012. She was previously managing director at LaSalle Investment Management and has held senior positions at MGPA, Macquarie Group and Lendlease. Lloyd-Hurwitz has been involved in the real estate industry for 30 years.
#BIGGEST CHALLENGE
One of the biggest challenges post-Covid for women remains access to affordable childcare. Increasing the participation of women in the workforce is the most powerful lever we have to drive productivity, and providing affordable childcare for more women would open up the opportunity for many more women to rejoin the workforce.
#LEADERSHIP LESSONS
Covid presented me with challenges and uncertainties like never before. I learnt that when there is no playbook, all you have to guide you are your values. There was a need for more purposeful conversations. Leaders who could demonstrate compassion, awareness and empathy were the ones who made a difference. In the past 18 months we significantly increased our communication, even when we didn’t have all the answers. We also saw leaders in industry, business and government collaborating in a way like never before, sharing experiences and solving problems together. If we can keep that level of collaboration going, that will deliver a better outcome for all Australians.
Amanda Lacaze
Lynas
Lacaze has been chief executive, managing director and an executive director since 2014. She was previously CEO of Commander Communications, MD of marketing at Telstra and held management roles at ICI Australia.
#BIGGEST CHALLENGE
For many women in corporate life, jobs have proven relatively secure in 2021 and organisations have come to terms with flexible working. However, extended lockdowns have meant dealing with challenges such as fear and anxiety, loneliness and social isolation, and home schooling. Outside corporate roles, women are over-represented in caring and customer-facing roles like healthcare, teaching, beauty, retail and call centres. In NSW and Victoria, in particular, women in these roles have had to work through the pandemic despite the health risk, had to radically adjust the way they work, or have been faced with the reality of uncertainty of work through the lockdowns. Having been at home for an extended period, it’s unrealistic to expect people to seamlessly transition back to the workplace. Many of these women will need time to readjust and will need additional workplace support. They may need skills refreshers or additional support to mitigate some of the anxiety they might feel about returning to the workplace. Women who have had to work through the pandemic regardless of personal risk are likely to be just exhausted by now and will need to take a break to look after their own health and wellbeing.
#LEADERSHIP LESSONS
Leading through a pandemic is similar to leading through a crisis or a turnaround. There are five priorities. Make sure data is up to date and at the right level of detail as it will be critical to good decision-making. Make decisions every day, and more often if required. Don’t leave problems unattended or they will come back magnified. Remain connected with your teams: you cannot over-communicate, ensure staff are informed not just of the challenges but also the wins. Once you have a clear direction, trust your leaders. to do their jobs
Jeanne Johns
Incitec Pivot
Johns began as chief executive and managing director in November 2017. She has had more than 25 years’ experience in the international refining, petrochemicals, oil and gas sector, including many senior roles with BP.
#BIGGEST CHALLENGE
All of our people found challenges, with it particularly tough for people working from home with children. It was a real eye-opener for many who were not normally the primary caregiver to see the amount of effort required. Although, traditionally, many women have been the primary caregiver, this is shifting and WFH provided an opportunity for partners to adjust their work-life balances to lead to more fulfilling lives for both. This balance will hopefully be retained for both parents. Where women do carry a greater share of caring responsibilities, we are likely to see more women take up flexible work options and while this can be a very positive outcome – especially when it helps retain talent – it can lead to women being overlooked for promotion and career advancement opportunities. If men are more visible in the office, there is the potential that input and presenteeism are recognised more than output, work quality and an employee’s overall contribution to the organisation. As leaders, we need to be especially attuned to these potential implications and ensure we create a work culture where the contribution of people working flexible is valued and rewarded, even when they are not physically in the office. It’s also going to be crucial that flexible work is something equally available to all employees. At the same time, I’m a big believer in the effectiveness of face-to-face connection to help develop strong and broad working relationships.
#LEADERSHIP LESSONS
The need to be flexible when faced with so much uncertainty was critical, especially in the early days of Covid. One way an organisation can be more flexible is to empower leaders further down in the organisation so they can respond with confidence to the ever-changing conditions and restrictions on the ground. Leaders also had to learn how to lead remotely. I performed a tyre and rim safety inspection remotely with the team on the ground in Indonesia and we arranged a virtual tour of our Phosphate Hill manufacturing plant in Queensland for our board after an in-person trip was cancelled multiple times because of border closures.
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