Celebrating Women this IWD

As we celebrate all women on this International Women’s Day, we’ve changed things up and asked some of Crawford’s men for their views on the importance of women in leadership roles.?

We hear from Forensic Accountant Nick Holloway, of Crawford Forensic Accounting Services, who is committed to breaking the bias.

Q: Tell us about a female leader you admire and why??

I admire all female leaders who put themselves forward to lead.

I think this country has seen some fantastic female politicians – people like Julie Bishop, Julia Gillard and Gladys Berejiklian. I admire their resilience, in the face of often different treatment from the media and the public.?

I really got a lot out of watching the ABC series “Ms Represented” – it took a dive into the fact that when there are more females in the room, the momentum builds and the comradery is such that people have each other’s back.?

Some of my earliest memories are of Gail Kelly, former CEO of Westpac. I couldn’t tell you a single other major bank CEO. She was iconic, led through the global financial crisis and was the CEO of my bank growing up. I was always proud to be banking at the one bank that had a female CEO.

When I first started at Deloitte, its CEO was the only female CEO among the “Big 4”: Cindy Hook. I recall being a Graduate at the welcoming academy program and Cindy rolling in like an absolute celebrity! The staff used to talk about how we’d react if we were ever in the same lift as her; we never did that with the subsequent male CEOs.

We were all so proud to have her as our leader because she cared about us, our wellbeing and making an impact that matters. She symbolised our career aspirations; she was charismatic, approachable and always acted with conviction.

I also really admire some of this country’s great female journalists such as Leigh Sales and Annabel Crabb and how they hold (commonly) male politicians to account. #BreakTheBias?

Q: Tell us about your experience in a workplace that benefited from a more gender balanced approach to leadership??

From my experience, diversity in leadership is so essential. Unfortunately, there are far more examples where workplaces have lacked a gender-balanced approach than vice-versa. I hope this continues to improve.?

In my mind, a leader needs to empower and represent everyone of all backgrounds, yet they cannot be someone from all backgrounds, experiences and strengths – that’s impossible. Therefore, leaders need to be informed by a representative team.?I think, the best leaders listen so they can empower and appeal to everyone from customers, employees and the community - and I think women do this particularly well. In my experience, this is certainly something that women seem to be better at than men.

To speak generally, the best analogy I have is when you have a team of all “meat eaters”. How do the meat eaters know how to appeal to the vegetarians, vegan, plant-based, gluten free people? Sure, they can try and develop menu options that on face value meet the needs of these other dietary requirements, but unless they actually speak to, or get real insight directly from these groups of people, how can they truly know what it is they want or need to eat? A team that has all dietary requirements at the organising table is best equipped to respond. Too often, groups are not considered in initiatives that directly impact them.?