“Be ok with feeling uncomfortable,” urges Airmic CEO

“Some of my best experiences have also been the most terrifying,” Airmic CEO Diane Maxwell confided to an audience of women at the Institute of Risk Management’s Women in Risk series, this month. 

“Throughout my career, I’ve done many roles in completely new sectors or that I knew very little about,” she continued. And while it was, at times “profoundly uncomfortable,” through a combination of hard work and persistence, she came through on top. 

She worries that younger generations are overly frightened about going outside of their comfort zones – but that is precisely where the learning and progression come. “They think that being uncomfortable is going to be terrible, that they’ll never recover. That’s not true – it’s worth the nerves.”

How to take control of your destiny

To achieve career success, you must take control of your own destiny – don’t wait for the stars to align, Maxwell continued.   

“We mustn’t fall into the habit of thinking it's up to the universe or that something [external to us] is going to do it.

“If you have an internal locus of control, you believe that you have the ability and you have the responsibility to make your own change and drive your own outcomes.”

So how, then, do you take ownership of your own destiny? For Maxwell, it starts with being honest about who you are – and thinking carefully about how you want that version of yourself to present.

“We all have different versions of ourselves – we’re different people at different times and in different situations,” she reflected. “Do some hard work on who you want that person to be and how you want it to land.”

From there, it is about building a reputation for delivering – and there is no short cut for being well prepared and informed.

“Across my career, when I've had an opportunity, I have turned up prepared. I will read, I will find the evidence, know the numbers, the background,” she said. “If you do that, when you have your moment to speak, you land it.” 

That doesn’t mean shying away from difficult moments, either. At times, you need to be able to “bare your teeth,” Maxwell said – but that should never come at the expense of being a decent human being. 

Be tough when it matters, but always “work with colleagues, be collaborative, courteous and professional,” she said.

There’s more than one way to be a woman

How you perceive yourself is important for how you are perceived by others, believes Maxwell. 

First, beware of self-fulfilling prophecies. If you talk yourself down, or believe that you don’t belong in the room, that will start to define you. 

“Don't get yourself in that mindset because there's a lot of really good research that says if you start with that view that is how you will present to others…and you're on the back foot from the beginning.”

And, second, remember that “there’s more than one way to be a woman,” she said. “I’m a numbers person and I’ve been told in the past that’s not feminine. But that’s not true – I’m just being a woman.”

The most important thing, she said, is that when we enter the room, “we know what we're bringing and that we are fully informed and ready to contribute in a really meaningful, powerful way, irrespective of whether you’re male or female.” 

The webinar was hosted by the Institute of Risk Management.