‘Rise & Thrive: Crafting Your Path in Women's CX Leadership’, with Michelle Ansell
At Women in CX, we frequently discuss the struggles that women face climbing the CX ladder. Despite a whole host of awesome, inspirational women leading the way, the ‘broken rung’ still prevents many talented women from making it into management and leadership roles.
Our recent webinar, ‘Rise & Thrive: Crafting Your Path in Women's CX Leadership’, was designed to address this head-on. With an aim of helping provide our community members with the tools, insights, and thinking needed to elevate their careers, enhance their leadership skills, and increase their visibility within the industry, Michelle Ansell shared some great strategies.
In this article, we’re sharing some of the key takeaways from Michelle’s webinar.
TL;DR
1. Strong networks are critical for your advancement.
2. Build a better network by being intentional, visualising what success looks like for you and stepping out of your comfort zone.
3. Challenge imposter syndrome. You can do it, look at the evidence of what you have done, as opposed to what you haven’t.
4. Get more strategic with CX and align with organisational goals.
5. Find mentors and sponsors to support your journey. Don’t just look for those in the same demographic as yourself. Men also make great sponsors and allies who can open doors for you.
6. Diversify your skillset to include strategy, technology, sustainability and employee experience.
7. Be careful what you tell yourself and what you believe. Don’t let your own bias be the thing that holds you back.
The Context
Michelle began by acknowledging the persistent issues of female representation in CX leadership. Despite some headway, women are still not where they should be, especially at the manager and director levels, and the pace of advancement has been slow since 2015. Michelle said, “For every 100 men who are promoted, only 87 women and 73 women of colour are.” This is due to the 'broken rung', where women face barriers to getting promotions.
Citing the McKinsey Women in the Workplace report and LinkedIn Talent Insights, Michelle explained how women hold back from applying for a role if they don't meet 100% of the criteria stated in the job description. Men, on the other hand, would typically apply when meeting 60% of the criteria.
Networking Your Way There
Explaining the significance of networking, Michelle emphasised the importance of building and nurturing professional connections, both internally and externally. “The reality is most people do not know who you are,” said Michelle, arguing the importance of putting yourself out there and having a voice on social media or in your organisation.
“What would a good network look like for you? How would it be made? How many people would you like in it?”
“I'm not saying it’s the answer for everything, but it will [...] help you be more successful. When we can network effectively, whether it be internally within the functions or across social media, [we’re] helping influence and share thoughts or open discussions.”
Michelle encouraged us to visualise what success looks like. “What would a good network look like for you? How would it be made? How many people would you like in it? What would a successful networking opportunity bring or feel like? Visualisation is a really powerful tool.”
Challenge Imposter Syndrome
Conducting their own research, Michelle’s organisation, Douglas Jackson, was interested in finding out why less than a third of the UK's top positions are filled by women. “Whilst 42% said there was a lack of opportunity, 35% cited imposter syndrome or a lack of self-belief,” she stated.
"If women only apply when they feel extremely qualified, it makes sense that they'd get a high success rate."
However, there is good news. Michelle explained that women are more likely to get hired when they apply for a role. “If women only apply when they feel extremely qualified, it makes sense that they'd get a high success rate. But this could also indicate that they are not pursuing stretch opportunities. When they do, it showed that they were [18% more likely] to be hired than men.”
This might be a good time to start challenging that feeling of imposter syndrome. We’ve got a brilliant masterclass on that available to members of WiCX.
Get Strategic
Michelle gave some practical tips on being more strategic, including aligning with organisational goals and focusing on delivering value the business will recognise as contributing to wider objectives.
“CX is not yet a proven, established function that businesses can rely on if you compare it to sales, finance, IT, etcetera. And the frustration can be powerful when I'm talking to CX professionals. So align your CX strategies where you can with the business challenges,” she explained.
"CX is not yet a proven, established function that businesses can rely on if you compare it to sales, finance, IT, etc."
Another tip was to look at the job description and perceive the experience you don’t yet have as an opportunity for growth rather than a reason not to apply for bigger roles. Use your network to ask for referrals and introductions. Men do this – we need to do more of it, too!
The Role of Allies
Addressing what she described as “the elephant in the room”, Michelle highlighted the importance of male allies in driving gender diversity initiatives. By advocating for women's voices and sharing their stories, male leaders can foster a more inclusive professional environment and accelerate progress towards gender parity. “We need them to share more of our stories,” she said.
“By advocating for women's voices and sharing their stories, male leaders can foster a more inclusive professional environment.”
Diversify Your Skillset
Michelle talked about diversifying skillsets to include strategy, technology, sustainability and employee experience. When asked about this during the Q&A towards the end of her webinar, she explained that you don’t necessarily need all of those skills, but it depends on your aspirations.
“If you want to be a C-suite leader, you're going to have to become more operational-focused or finance-focused [...] but not everybody wants to do that. If you don't, and you want to be a CX practitioner and specialise in a technical skill set, then there's nothing wrong with that. That's what you should do.”
The Power of Mindset
As Michelle wrapped up her webinar, she talked about the importance of mindset. She believes there’s a lot of power in how we think. “I would be careful about what we tell ourselves and what you choose to believe.”
“Using the power of our subconscious is really powerful,” she continues. With that, an audience question surfaced: Can one out-mindset systemic bias? Michelle explained that we should not internalise some of the stories of systemic bias to hold ourselves back, but that systemic bias does exist.
"What you believe and how you present yourself based on those beliefs will make a massive difference."
“I think they say that people make up their mind in the first three to five minutes of an interview, and then they spend the rest of the interview [...] using logic to say that they've made the right emotional choice. But I mean, absolutely, what you believe and how you present yourself based on those beliefs will make a massive difference,” Michelle concluded.
Watch Michelle’s Webinar
Interested in learning more? Become a WiCX member and watch the full webinar now! Michelle equips you with the tools, insights, and thinking needed to elevate your career, enhance your leadership skills, and increase your visibility within the industry.
Members of the Women in CX community get access to in-depth thought leadership before anyone else (not to mention additional learning resources and exclusive events!).
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