Celebrating Women's Day! Q&A with Aspire COO Katie Lewis

In honour of #InternationalWomensDay, we sat down with our own Katie Lewis , Aspire COO, to gain valuable insights on leadership, fostering innovation, and the importance of women in tech.

What qualities do you believe are essential for effective leadership, especially in the tech industry?

Empathy; continually challenging yourself to turn up to understand & empathise with your team, your stakeholders, and your customers is one of the most important qualities for effective leadership. Being an empathetic leader enables you to get curious, be constructive and stay connected.?

Authenticity; staying true to yourself and your company. It is often overstated and, in the workplace, can be hard to do, so that is why I feel there needs to be a strong link in your own values and those of your business to enable you to be truly authentic. Being authentic for me as a leader means being transparent, acknowledging failure and turning up as your best self.??

Aspiration; daring to be great, empower others to be the best while redefining the art of the possible, and pushing the boundaries of what is possible. This is particularly important when you are launching new initiatives, new products / services you need to bring people with you and empower them to act. Aim for greatness.?

How do you foster a culture of innovation and inclusion within your team?

It is a constant work in progress! We focus on encouraging curiosity. We do this by bringing experts and potential customers into our office to share a “day in their life” with our team so they can ask questions to understand what it is like to be a customer/partner/learner and to be curious. We encourage and foster open and transparent communication. We have a phrase we can all use called “Red Teaming”, which is taken from the military, where we share our work and invite our other teammates to challenge and question us. Which brings the wider team into the work we are doing and encourages an inclusive experience.

We want you to continually raise the bar: be looking for ways that we can

continually move the needle on the value we deliver to our customers and learners, and the team needs to feel safe in bringing their ideas to us, questioning each other and being curious to identify new ways so we see these are the components that support us in our culture of innovation & inclusivity.?

What advice would you give to other women aspiring to become leaders in their fields?

My favourite quote is: “Your courage starts to flourish the moment you realise no one is coming to save you”

So I remind myself of that and actively work to surround myself with good people that I trust and admire so I have a network I can reach out to when I need it. Recognising that no one knows the answer and that there is often no right answer is a great unblocker. Being willing to test and try is an active way to learn what works best for you and your team.

In your experience, what are some of the biggest opportunities and challenges facing women in the tech industry today?

One of our superpowers is empathy, and now is the time to lead with this at the forefront of your approach.? Especially now. The one constant is change, and we are right in the heart of a global, all-encompassing industry-level change from a tech industry perspective. We are also in very challenging, desperate times globally. Always with uncertainty brings opportunity so I encourage us all to be open to continuing to acknowledge what assumptions you have and challenge them. Don't be afraid to challenge! Challenge yourself, challenge others, challenge the status quo. This is where you will find the gold dust, the nuggets that you can unlock opportunities for yourself and your business, especially amongst turmoil.?

As a leading woman in the industry, are there any other women you would recommend others follow or learn from?

I particularly focus on looking up to others who are a few steps ahead of me in the journey of building a business, and the people who instantly jump to mind is Burju Erdem? - she has an incredible grasp on how to unlock value in the key pillars of business; Kate Lyons - who is making a big impact in the insurance sector delivering returns and impact that is measurable and importantly, customer focused and I admire Anna Andersen - who has developed an incredible community at Kindred, West London, she is building a truly generous and engaging space which is changing the way people connect.

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