THE NUMBER ONE FACTOR FOR CAREER SUCCESS IS ‘HOW DO I…?’
‘How Do I’ is an exclusive membership network focused on driving current and future women executive leaders from back seats to board seats.
But, ‘How Do I’?
This is the biggest question you often ask yourself.
☞ How do I get a seat at the table?
☞ How do I get more budget?
☞ How do I get influence?
☞ How do I drive more change?
☞ How do I get that promotion?
☞ How do I differentiate myself?
☞ How do I get a pay rise?
☞ How do I get seen, and heard?
☞ How do I juggle everything?
☞ How do I deal with X?
☞ How do I respond to that?
☞ How do I succeed without losing my authenticity?
You face an impossibly uphill task. You are not alone. Many are just like you. That's why we created 'How Do I?'.
How Do I is the most common question that ambitious women have asked me over my 35 years of leading.
Is there bias? Yes, of course!
However, it's called unconscious bias because no one knows or wants to admit that it's there! We are not challenging that this needs to be eradicated but that will take time. We do believe that change will come. But why should you have to wait?
The number one factor in success is your profile and brand. Your brand gets you influence and a seat at the table. Your brand gets you heard, promoted and paid.
So the answers to ‘How Do I?’ are always in your brand.
You create your brand by demonstrating commercial confidence. Build your commercial confidence, and the doors that look closed will start to open and invite you in.
Join us now to learn ‘How do I?’
Build a winning brand, by learning from amazing, inspiring, successful women who will share their experiences as to HOW THEY DID.
So, ‘How Did I’?
Jenny Knott is both a former CEO and CFO and a board-level investment banker with over 35 years of experience as well as a leading innovator in financial technologies.
Jenny has extensive prudential board experience having served on Boards of Global Investment Banks, Financial Services Corporates for over 30 years, her roles ranging from CEO, CFO COO and Chair to member of Board, Board Audit, Board Risk, RemCo and Technology Sub-Committees.
Jenny is currently a Non-Executive Director for the British Business Bank and Chair of the Board Audit Committee, Chair of the Capital and Risk Committees for Simply Health and Chair of Remuneration Committee for Gresham Technologies PLC. She is the chair of the Board Audit Committee in her capacity as Trustee for Ovarian Cancer Action, and Chair of the Advisory Board for Equiida a global, senior executive leadership advisory firm founded on the science that greater inclusivity improves business performance.
Jenny is also co-founder of FinTech Strategic Advisors and assists Clients with their FinTech investment and adoption strategies.
She is widely respected for leading the modernization and transformation of her organizations and for her knowledge of technical finance, emerging technology and regulatory environments.
Jenny believes that innovation, inclusivity and cognitive, demographic and experiential diversity are a ‘must’ for a successful business and acts as a mentor and advisor to a number of CEOs.
Jenny is a public speaker on emerging FinTech including Data transformation and Distributed Ledger as well as the commercial benefits of truly Innovative and Inclusive Board and Corporate cultures.
Jenny also supports start-ups to achieve scale and commercial success.
But, ‘Why Do I Need A Profile or Brand’?
Automation. Gig Economy. Outsourcing. Technology Disruption.
These are but a few reasons why a personal brand and profile are more important than ever. Our parents were of the generation when machines took over most of the so-called 'Blue Collar' jobs. Now automation is coming for office jobs.
Many years ago, Outsourcing was the go-to cost shaving model. You know the strategy. Replace local jobs with highly educated resources in other domiciles for a third of the price!
If that wasn't bad enough, in the last decade, technology has fuelled a massive acceleration in all types of machine intelligence [artificial intelligence and the like].
Robotic Process Automation is now a thing. Board executives love it. Consultancies are profiting from it, and companies like UI Path are stock market listing at huge valuations.
You're no robot. But without a brand and profile, you're fair game for being passed over at the next promotion or remuneration round.
So ‘How Did I’ Create My Brand Profile
I would love to say that I had acknowledged the importance of this from the start. The honest truth is, I didn't. Over the last 35 years, I've learned the hard way and made many a mistake.
Fortunately, I eventually found my stride, and with the help of a technology positioning framework used by many successful startup entrepreneurs, we've simplified this process into a few steps.
Let's dig into an overview of the process, and you can see how it worked for me in one of my early roles that still accrue value today.
1/ Establish Your Competitive Alternatives
My background is in Finance. In the early 1990's expansion of Investment Banking, structured desks developed many complex new products. Controlled execution and booking was required. Functions, including Operations, Front Office Support, Risk, Legal and Finance, were all candidates for defining and owning this process.
2/ Define Your Differentiation Compared To Those Alternatives.
Marrying the traditional financial skills of logic, numeracy and systems knowledge with documentation and visual schematics meant that one function could be responsible for the end to end Product Approval process.
3/ Determine The Value Those Differentiators Enable For Customers.
My newly created function responsible for the end to end product approval process meant increased ROI - return on investment in the form of 2X shorter elapsed time to New Product Approval.
4/ Ascertain A Defined Set Of Customers Who Care About Those Values.
The Head of Structuring was the key sponsor, with benefits for the CFO by showing that Finance could be enablers.
5/ Define The Exact Role/Market You Intend To Win / Role Title.
Head of New Products Business - yes, I made it up, but it made sense, and it stuck.
How Will Improving ‘My Brand & Profile Help Me’?
Your brand drives your ability to influence and educate people based on the knowledge that you have. In doing so, it forces the three critical outcomes for your success.
1/ Defining Your Why
Your brand helps define your why. Without going into full Simon Sinek mode, we know that any product or service without a clearly defined purpose will struggle to survive.
2/ Serendipity Vehicle
Creating a solid and authentic personal brand will boost your chances of securing interviews, being promoted and winning more clients. Having a brand profile maximises opportunities by amplifying your specialisms and strengths.
3/ Narrative & Identity Control
Your profile lives on social media, in the mind of your colleagues and word of mouth network referrals. Over 50% of employers and recruiters use your online identity in their selection criteria. It’s vital that you control this brand narrative.