By Amy Cashman, CEO Kantar Insights Division

I was thrilled to be asked to appear on the ‘Inspiring Women in CX Podcast’ and wanted to use the opportunity to write this blog to help share some further thoughts and advice for ambitious women at different stages of their career.

1. When starting out, do something that sparks your interest and passion.

I always enjoyed studying both numbers and people. For my A levels, I did Maths and Chemistry (which covered my love of numbers) and German (which as it was a few years after reunification, covered lots of the changes affecting people in Germany at that time).

In the end, my interest in people won and I went to do a social science degree, but at the London School of Economics, which has a very empirical bent, so I still got my numbers ‘fix’.

At the end of my course, I saw an advert for a graduate trainee programme at a research company and remember just being amazed that a career such as market research existed with my magic ‘people + numbers’ combination! It sounded like my perfect fit as a career, and I honestly have always been hugely positive about my decision.

2. Be open to gaining breadth as well as depth of experience.

The company I joined as a graduate trainee has since been through four different owners with many mergers of brands along the way. That has been a big positive for me as I have always enjoyed change. The business changing around me so much has facilitated a range of different roles along my career journey: client and account leadership; new business development; a five-month secondment at GSK; and more recently, larger-scale business leadership roles.

3. Figure out your USP.

I have always been genuinely fascinated in how businesses work and able to root research findings in that context, which has served me well. I am good at making things simple for others to understand even when they are complicated. That’s a skill I don’t think people focus on enough actually – it helps whether you are explaining insights findings to a client or strategic decisions to your teams. I try to always treat other people as I would want to be treated and am very straightforward.

4. Don’t let work consume you.

I always maintain a sense of perspective and ensure I have enough proper breaks from work to invest time in my family, friends, and myself. I don’t work on weekends and don’t look at my emails or work on holiday. I think it is critical to have time to switch off to be your best at work. I have three primary school-aged kids and have always tried to get the balance right – some times better than others, as I am sure most people with caring responsibilities outside work will understand.

5. Set clear boundaries for yourself (and others).

One thing that has helped me is always being clear on my ‘red lines,’ i.e. the things that I know would make me and my boys really sad if I weren’t there. So, I have never missed things like assemblies, sports days, or other school events and don’t miss more than one or two bedtimes in a week so I always have chance to catch up with the boys on what’s happened in their days (even if how much information I get in response to those questions is variable!).

6. Strive for work–life balance.

Before my boys started at school, I didn’t work on Fridays, which also helped me feel I was getting the balance right. I used to enjoy the contrast of one day being in my dress and heels in the office (remember those days?!) and the next in jeans and trainers running round the park. Since they have been at school, I do tend to spend some time working on Fridays but it's always me that takes them to school and picks them up, which has become a red line for me too.

The critical thing for me in the debate about how women and men build their career and balance their caring responsibilities is we must move away from judging people on their inputs and be much more focused on their outputs.

7. The culture of the organisation you work for is critical to your success.

I am fortunate that my colleagues at Kantar take this approach, and so even with recent promotions I wasn’t asked to change my working patterns. My colleagues trust that I know what’s needed to get my job done well. For anyone coming under pressure around these discussions, I recommend using that as a way of framing your discussion with an employer who is less open to considering flexible working arrangements. For me, it was the key reason I stayed working after my maternity leave periods and could continue to build my career.

8. Work hard to build genuine relationships.

Never underestimate the importance of relationship-building skills in our industry. If it feels forced to you at times, or even uncomfortable, find a way to do it that feels authentic. Similarly, talk to people you see who are good at it and ask for their advice. It matters for everything you do in our industry, whether agency or client-side, and I honestly believe it supercharges all other skills you have.

9. Be open to opportunities.

Stay open-minded to the opportunities presented to you. When I was an Associate Director, I got handed a client relationship that on the face of it was a hospital pass – they had just given our main piece of business away to a competitor of ours! I grumbled before taking it, but it turned out to be a total high-point of my career. We won back that main piece of business through the parallel run period and enormously expanded our reach, almost doubling our revenues with them. It got me a promotion and taught me a lot about developing a large-scale client relationship.

10. Be yourself.

As you will have heard in the podcast episode, my biggest piece of advice is to lean into who you are and don’t feel that you have to change to be successful. If your current company or job role doesn’t allow you to do that, perhaps it’s time to ask yourself, if you really want to succeed, is it time for a change?

In summary

I have seen many women work slavishly to prove themselves both in and out of the workplace. Success isn’t a job title, zeros on a pay check, being able to be amazing at everything at home all of the time, or leading a huge team. It’s the sense of happiness and fulfilment you get from knowing your own values, living and working ‘in your purpose’, and being clear about what’s important to you. It’s the most sure-fire way to ensure you can therefore live the life you want to lead.

Remember your ‘red lines’ are down to you. So take responsibility for setting them and ensuring you enforce them (with yourself as much as others). This way you can lead authentically, knowing your actions speak loudly to others in a way that inspires them to live and lead authentically too, ensuring we can all become the most successful versions of ourselves.

**Biography**

Amy leads the UK & Ireland Insight Division of Kantar, the world’s leading data, insights, and consulting company.
A graduate from the London School of Economics, Amy has worked in both consumer and business-to-business insight for 22 years. Her interest in numbers and human behaviour led her into an insight career where she enjoys helping brands interpret people’s actions and leveraging that for growth. She has won numerous awards for her work including AURA’s ‘Best Agency Speaker’ as well as the MRS ‘Best B2B research’ award twice for her work into the needs of SMEs in the UK.
Amy has also been a champion of Kantar’s research to help businesses better understand women as customers. She spoke on BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour recently about how financial brands were missing out on a potential £130bn revenue opportunity by failing to effectively engage women.
A keen advocate of flexible working, Amy blends her work life with spending time with her three children, travelling (not so much currently!), baking, practising yoga, skiing, and watching Strictly Come Dancing.
Follow Amy on LinkedIn.

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