Networks for women: empowered to forge their own path together

Iris Nguyen: Women’s Drive encourages, motivates and supports female employees to take up leadership positions or to develop further within these roles.

The women previously involved in Women’s Drive had already embarked on the leadership path. This prompted us to redefine the Women’s Drive profile. We now have Women’s Drive Start, for women with one to two years of lateral or disciplinary leadership experience or those whose STEPs discussions indicate they are likely to take that route in the foreseeable future.

We also have Women’s Drive Advanced; a programme for experienced female managers at leadership levels 3 and 4. This programme focuses on disciplinary leadership. In addition, we now provide an annual follow-up with alternating focal topics to all previous Women’s Drive participants.

However, we do of course have many dedicated female employees who are interested in further development but do not yet know exactly where their professional journey will take them. For these employees, we offer the Know Yourself and Develop Yourself programmes, which are, if you like, the stages before Women’s Drive. Just like Women’s Drive, these programmes are open to women across the Group.

Iris Nguyen: All these initiatives are designed to fully support women in their professional development and expand the Group’s internal network. The programmes all work with peer mentoring and group coaching. They provide a safe space for women to look at topics together and support one another in pursuing their own development paths.

Iris Nguyen: In the beginning, we would approach them but the programme is now so well-known that they have started coming to us. Some of them even volunteer more than once. Among both our male and our female mentors, many are motivated by the fact that they would have liked to have had a similar opportunity at the start of their own career. However, I find the term ‘career’ too one-dimensional and prefer to speak of a development path. By mentoring others, many are keen to advance and support the company’s mission of increasing the number of women in leadership roles.

Iris Nguyen: Wherever possible, we like to pair people that would not otherwise meet in a professional context; i.e. employees from different fields and companies within the Group. This promotes networking and affords a broader perspective.

Iris Nguyen: After the getting-to-know you session, one of the mentors said he wasn’t sure who would learn the most, he or his mentee. That sums it up quite nicely because Women’s Drive is not a one-way street but a two-way process of personal development. The mentor has leadership experience, of course, but the mentee also brings her own perspective to the table. And men approach certain things completely differently. Women’s Drive is certainly not about women becoming more like men, however. Instead, we want to encourage them to be themselves, to be aware of their own personal strengths and skills and to use these on their own development path.

Iris Nguyen: No, they should become more aware of their own female leadership skills and demonstrate that they work and lead differently. A programme like Women’s Drive is a good way to support this.

Iris Nguyen: Yes. I would love to get to the point where it is no longer needed –that is my ultimate goal However, although we are certainly on the right track, Women’s Drive is likely to continue for a few years yet.