A bold, honest and candid leader, we caught up with Suzanne on her journey through Technology in the Banking industry and her thoughts on leadership.

Career

Suzanne completed a computing degree and then started out her career in IT Support at Queensland Police. She started her banking career in 2002, joining Commonwealth Bank, where she spent 2 years as an Executive Manager. Suzanne then moved to Westpac where she has worked for the past 10 years. Suzanne has worked in Technology for the majority of her career, however, in 2012 she moved away from this and in 2018 she moved into a business leadership role as the Head of Portfolio Consumer Bank Design & Governance.

Working in the Banking industry has certainly not been without its challenges for Suzanne. During our conversation, she elaborates on this, as well as the experiences and attributes that she has developed in that time. 

Leadership

Suzanne has noticed, that once you reach a certain level, it does become harder to further your career into those top three layers of leadership. Subsequently, she feels there is a different expectation, irrespective of gender, in the way you need to operate at those levels.

Qualities as a Leader:

• Upfront & Honest
• Transparent

Suzanne has a track record of helping organisations make change happen and feels her leadership style works towards this. She does, however, recognise that her qualities, in some situations, can be a weakness, and as such has only targeted senior roles that play to her strengths.

Suzanne hasn’t really had a mentor in her career but she finds that working with someone who supports you is more important than trying to find a role that you want to do. If you can find someone who really values what you do and the way you operate, then you can use that strong working relationship to help you progress in areas of strength.

Challenges

As a generalisation, Suzanne feels that women can take feedback personally. She has found that females sometimes feel more strongly challenged by emotional tactics as a means to influence them, whereas for male counterparts this has less impact on self-confidence and performance.

Suzanne is outspoken and honest and gives the impression you will always know where you stand with her, but feels that these traits can sometimes be perceived as being difficult.

Would it necessarily be the same for a man?

Suzanne feels that men are much more comfortable with the unknown than women. She identified the fact that men are far more likely to apply for roles where they may not necessarily possess all of the skills and experience required. On the contrary, women are prone to spending more time thinking about whether they are ready for the next step and if they have all of the technical skills.

Sometimes as a woman, there can be an underlying perception that you have to be a bit stronger and a bit more capable than a man at the same level to be deemed equal.

Teams

All of Suzanne’s teams have been a mix of male and female. She found that whilst working in Tech, traditionally her teams were male-dominated. Now that she is in Governance, she has more women in her team.

Advice

One of Suzanne’s managers said to her “Just do the work and let the work speak for itself.” Something she has always stood by. But her advice to people starting out in their career would be:

• Put your ego in a box and spend those early years learning as much as possible.
• Do different jobs and find out what you are really passionate about.
• Spend more time listening.
• Don’t get fixated on the job title.

Suzanne is a no-nonsense woman and a strong leader, who has definitely played to her strengths throughout her career. It was amazing to hear such honest opinions on leadership.