 We would like to pass on our thanks to everyone who attended Rising to the challenge: how to achieve a 'gold medal career' that we co-hosted with BP on Thursday 11th November 2010. The event was full to capacity without a spare seat in the house - all the spaces had booked up within 12 hours of the invite going out so we knew it was going to a popular night! Special thanks goes to BP for hosting the event with us and to our keynote speaker and Q&A panellists!
Sally Gunnell, Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth Athletics Champion, was our keynote speaker and she shared her story of athletic success and her journey to winning an Olympic gold medal at the 1992 Games in Barcelona. Her talk covered how clarifying and working towards a personal goal improves your confidence and self-esteem and helps you to achieve balance in your life and it was great to understand how Sally's personal story of perseverance and self-belief relates to the every day challenges in the workplace and getting the best from yourself. Some of Sally's top tips included:
- Think big; have dreams and goals throughout your career.
- You can have drive, focus, determination if you know what you want to achieve.
- Set yourself yearly goals – they're the stepping stones to progress throughout your career. But don’t have too many goals at once because it can become confusing trying to achieve them all.
- Have a role model in your life.
- Realise where your strengths are.
- Stretch yourself to grow as a person - push yourself out of your comfort zone.
- If there are problems realise where things went wrong and then put them behind you and move on.
- Understand that people knock you down but remember to tell yourself ‘I can do this’.
- Silence that negative voice in your head - hear the positive voice instead!
- Looking good makes you feel good and that makes you feel more confident - on the Olympic race day in 1992 Sally spent two hours getting ready for the race - her hair, nails and make-up were all done as it made her feel more confident on the track.
- Show confidence even if you don’t feel it.
- Be prepared to work hard, make sacrifices and believe in yourself.
- Sustain excellence – deliver again and again and reset your goals once you’ve achieved them.
- Look after yourself and what you eat – it affects your performance.
- Exercise – it can help you think more clearly and feel better about yourself.
- Everyone has good days and bad days so don’t beat yourself up.
- Success is 70% in the mind and that’s a tool we all have.
- And at the end of the day, remember that all you can do is do your best.
Sally's presentation was followed by an interactive Q&A with Claire Blakeway, Head of Communications & Internal Engagement at the BP London 2012 Partnership, Linda Emery, BP Head of Diversity & Inclusion, Jacky Wright, BP Information Technology & Services Functions CIO and Nick Wilson, Head of UK and Ireland at HP. The panel answered a number of different questions about achieving success in a technology career and this is some of the advice they shared:
- Make your own decisions about your career.
- Being a success doesn’t necessarily mean getting all the way to the top.
- Keep re-assessing your goals - goals which are too far away can sometimes be hard to achieve so create steps to where you want to be.
- Achieving your goal isn't an end state - it's the stepping stone to the next thing in your career.
- Don’t be afraid about making changes to your career plans.
- Ditch feelings that don’t help you.
- Have a ‘read this’ folder in your email where you store the positive emails you receive so that you can look at them again.
- Don't assume that people think the same way you do.
- Build the best team possible around you.
- Women are too quick to focus on the negatives about their performance - think about all the positives instead!
This was the first networking event that we have co-hosted with BP who we've been actively working with since May 2010 so our thanks goes to them. As well as the need for diverse energy sources, BP recognises the need for diverse teams in order to be successful and they have made a significant investment to raise awareness of the importance of diversity and inclusion. Part of this diversity and inclusion work includes a deep commitment to developing and retaining their female talent and if you are currently looking for an IT job, you can go to www.womenintechnology.co.uk/bp and check out their live job vacancies.
|
