International Women's Day: Being a female CEO during a pandemic

As the leader of the UK’s largest independent travel agent group, I believe now is the time to start to look forward and embrace change as we enter a new world post-pandemic.

With the vaccination programme continuing at pace and commitment by the prime minister of a cautious and irreversible roadmap, it certainly feels like signs of recovery are coming. But how will we change as businesses because of this?

Have I changed personally over the last 12 months? I would say I definitely have, and I expect most business leaders would say they have too.

As soon as a UK lockdown became a reality, I launched into crisis mode. With my senior team by my side we quickly prepared for the office to relocate to our team’s homes and I called the whole team together to face the stark reality of telling them things were likely to get pretty intense.

I remember being struck personally, looking at all those faces together in one room that last day in March 2020, by the realisation that I couldn’t promise if and when we would once again all be in a room together again.

Being a female leader

No female leader can deny thinking about the stereotype that “female leaders are more emotional” – something I think is a generalisation, but also not necessarily something I see as a bad thing.

Throughout the pandemic I have stayed in close contact with my team, choosing to run a weekly Zoom call with the whole business (cameras switched on) as I focused on the changing nature of my own role adapting our business for the future and working around the clock to ensure that I did all I could to support our members, our industry and, of course, my central team.

Some weeks there hasn’t been much to say, and I’ll admit even I have found them difficult; my team have seen me become tearful on those calls as I have had to deal with the tough decisions we have had to make, particular where it has impacted on people.

I have shared with my team the many frustrations around the lack of government support for our industry and we have shared personal stories of missing families and friends – all of which I believe has allowed me to keep a human touch when communicating through a screen.

At Advantage we have always had a flexible working culture and being a mother of two myself I have always supported my team in adopting flexible working childcare policies. I know first-hand the pressures of bringing up children and working full time and I am really proud of how we enable working parents to balance this aspect of their lives.

It’s no secret that women have statistically been more affected by the pandemic due to increased childcare demands, homeschooling and industries adversely affected by having a higher female ratio – including the events and hospitality sectors.

We have felt this ourselves at Advantage and I’ve had to watch primarily women (and some men) struggle with dealing with looking after children while being on Zoom calls for most of the day – though I have to say it has been enjoyable to see a different side to my team and to have a glimpse into their personal lives and home decor!

We immediately acknowledged the balance of childcare and working and adopted a flexible approach to working at home and being patient throughout the challenges that all parents have faced during this time. A hybrid, flexible working approach is the way I want to take our business moving forward.

I have spoken to a number of members who have struggled balancing tough decisions, financial pressure and personal challenges over the past 12 months with incredible dignity, professionalism and resilience, and I am proud of them all.

There are reports that this could be the biggest challenge of our generation and I know we have found it hard to encourage training, but I have been amazed at how many people within our industry have stepped up their own upskilling, often while facing personal challenges themselves.

As we look to consider how business will change coming out of this pandemic, I want us to really consider the culture of our workplace and what new skills will have emerged from the past 12 months that we will want to embrace and train for.

Culture is really important, and for me this has to start at the top of any organisation.

I am so proud of my team, of how we have risen to the challenge, supported our members, and while there are no winners, I can genuinely reflect back knowing we stood up and fought every step of the way.

For now, I will continue to fight the corner of the decimated travel industry – and would encourage any young person in school still considering which industry to join, that the travel industry will welcome you with open arms. It’s an industry I love and feel so passionate about.