The Balancing Act

Work-life balance was always vital for Nicola Law, and she ended up with the best of both worlds.??

Working women with families often end up compromising on their careers, settling for less than they want professionally because they believe they have to make a choice, not because they are not capable or that they don’t want a career.

Nicola Law, General Manager Commercial at Z, has put family life at the centre of her career and built a satisfying work life around it, by diversifying and being transparent about her goals.

Women are sometimes apprehensive about broaching the subject she says. “They think if they say what they honestly want that will be held against them. I genuinely believe the opposite is true. Get clear on home first, and then work out what works for your career – these two things are not mutually exclusive.”

Ask for what you want

When Nicola spoke to Z Chief Executive Mike Bennetts about joining the company eight years ago, she was upfront about her goals. Mike was not only receptive, but he also gave her the opportunity to achieve them.

“I basically said, ‘You can look at my CV and see what my strengths are, that I have worked solely in supply, but actually I’m not asking you for a job in supply – I’m asking you for a job in anything but supply. I am also in my child-bearing years and, if I can, I plan on having a couple more kids and taking a year off with each one. I want a career too – ideally I’d like to diversify over these years.’

“He was awesome and was really up for making something work for both of us. I actually think it was easier for him knowing and working with my family plans rather than me not sharing this.”

Since joining Z, Nicola has worked in marketing, supply, commercial, communications and investor relations and she led the company’s response to the Government’s fuel-market study. “If you had looked at my CV, you would not have thought, ‘She is a natural fit for most of that,’” she says.

As GM Commercial, Nicola heads the team responsible for business-to-business sales, including the airlines and 32,000 SMEs.

Be prepared to diversify

Nicola began her career with BP’s graduate programme, working in Wellington and Melbourne. “I really wanted to be a trader,” she says. “I loved lots of things about that, but I couldn’t see a single trader that I knew that had a life that I wanted in terms of being able to have children and living somewhere with the type of family life that was important to me. So, I diversified.”

She took a job in Western Australia to get operational experience, and at 28 was leading a male dominated state-wide team, of which she was one of the youngest members.

“It was terrifying, but I learned a lot,” she says. Nicola had previously managed teams whose goals and motivations were the same as hers, and had done every person’s job previously, so it was easy to understand exactly what good performance looked like and how she could help.

‘Failing’ is a powerful lesson

“When I moved west, for the first year I think I did a terrible job of it,” she says. “I used strategies I had used before in a completely different context, and it was an abysmal failure because these people weren’t motivated in the same ways as me. It really forced me to adapt my style – to get to know people and their motivations well, and to trust experts in their field.”

By acknowledging her knowledge gaps, she was able to build trust with her team and show them what expertise she did bring to the role – a very different perspective and approach than they were used to.

She did the job for three years and says it’s the position where she learned the most about herself and leadership.

“At times I think I’m actually a better leader when I don’t have a detailed understanding of the subject matter,” she says. “One of your jobs as a leader is to remove roadblocks and allow people to develop, you don’t have to know how to do everyone’s jobs.”