Working with the UK's largest FTSE100 clients their
to strategic
understand objectives,
financial management and human relationship management challenges, Salma
determined
appropriate solutions (both business and technology) and mapped those solutions to roadmaps for execution. She
says that developing coaching and employees is not a
one-size-fits-all activity. Race, gender, class, education, culture and religion can all affect the needs of employees. Coaches, leaders and line managers must address this. Based in London, Salma now
works with clients at a senior level in public, private and voluntary sectors; supervises and trains other coaches; and presents
keynotes
at events both in the UK and internationally.
A WOMAN IN THE TECH INDUSTRY After gaining a degree in psychology and an MSC in Information Systems, Salma went to work in the tech sector for a small UK software house. She says being brave enough to ask for the job at interview, even when she was inexperienced and not full of confidence, was a turning point in her career. “They were
looking for
somebody who had one year of work experience on the graduate training programme. I had none. I just had my MSc but at the interview I told them: ‘I assure you, you will get a lot from me if you give me this opportunity’.” It paid off and she got the job
and ended up travelling all over the world. “Even if I haven’t always felt
confident on the inside, I’ve put myself out there and that's paid off,” she says. “My parents came to the UK from Pakistan in 1963 and one of the things I did was learn how to navigate different worlds quite early. When I started getting given global assignments at work in my 20s it was actually really easy for me to navigate different cultures. I was curious and open to learning about other cultures.” She spent over five years at the
software house before moving to Oracle, where she learnt how to navigate the tough corporate US
culture that was prevalent in the 1990s in technology. “They were looking for
somebody more experienced than me, but I went for the job. It was a very different culture from my first job and it took me a while to figure that culture out. I learned a lot and found that being in a minority meant that I was remembered, often as the only female. “I learned
that if I had
something good to say, people did listen. What I was not aware of naively, in my late 20s, was that there was a whole layer of people and groups I had no access to.” After working for a number of
other smaller software companies Salma
studied for a coaching
qualification and began to take on clients in the evenings and weekends. “In my early 30s I was really
passionate to get back to human behaviour and coaching, but
At that I
had to keep it a secret from my corporate world.
time,
psychology and coaching were seen as fluffy and not serious. I was in the sales part of the company, which was very macho and aggressive.” Running her own business was
also a departure from her family background, which she describes as “risk averse”. Learning to be self-employed was a big change from working in the corporate world, where she had a car, pension and sick pay. Learning to manage her cashflow, set boundaries, build up a support network and avoid burnout have all been important lessons. “Running my own business
is one of the hardest things I have ever done, but now I would not want to go back as an employee. I'm a people person and I am innately curious about people.” She says that
if organisations really want to change,
then
leaders need to be prepared for “discomfort and challenge”. They need
to
Below: Salma speaking at the Relocate Global Think Women event at the IoD in London
at what changes need to be made through an intersectional lens, so that the conversation is not just about women as a single group, but a recognition that people have different strengths and backgrounds. “Some leaders want to make they have
changes because a
strong ethical belief that diversity and inclusion are important,” she says. “Others can see that there is a business case for change. Organisations are
now waking
up to the fact that this change is necessary, and that it is not about box ticking.”
also look
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THINK WOMEN
GLOBAL LEADERSHIP
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