How our Black Leaders PLUS group is creating future leaders

“The Black Leaders PLUS ERG is my 'love letter' to black women”

What is your role at Computershare?

I actually started in the communication centre and have been through many different parts of the organisation's operations and then worked my way back into the communication centre in their training and quality programs. I enjoy working with and developing people — that's my passion.

In my role, I get to be really hands-on. I get to work with Customer Care Agents individually, and I get to help them be better by giving them feedback in a constructive way as well as listening to their challenges, which helps them feel heard. That's my strength, my superpower — helping people feel heard and being able to give them feedback that's tailored to what they need to grow. I get to use that in my role every day.

I also manage other elements of quality and work directly with our clients to make sure that I understand their needs. I provide any necessary feedback to our partners in the Call Centre to make sure they understand what the client expects, as well. That allows us to really service the client in a positive and constructive way.

Tell me about the Black Leaders PLUS group

The Black Leaders PLUS group is one of Computershare's employee led resource groups, which provide safe spaces for employee-led discussions on all types of topics. As a Computershare employee, I am super excited that we have started these groups.

Our mission statement is to work with Black employees and help them develop, help them understand what is needed from them and their role in their development and help them get ready for other roles in the organisation. I'm not going to be here forever, so I want somebody to fill my role. Hopefully in the initiatives that we're doing, we can help our potential future senior managers and leaders to understand that they can do this, and that they're ready to step in and fill shoes that they may not have thought they could. I also want to give them a safe space to talk and to create a forum where we can share feedback with our leadership. 

It's very exciting because our leadership is very involved and very engaged and listening to what our employees — and our Black employees — have to say. Working with that sponsorship and that allyship from other employees is important and very helpful.

I'm very excited as we grow, and I look forward to our new initiatives. We have already kicked off our mentorship program, and we have a new development series. We have also been running our ‘keeping it real' sessions, where we discuss topics such as who gets to determine what's professional, where it was a conversation about old standards versus new standards. We're really excited about that, and there's more to come.

Why is the Black leaders PLUS important to you?

It's important to me because now, along with our other employee resource groups, we have open forums where any feedback is heard and addressed. This is our opportunity to get our voices out there, and that's why this is so important to me.

I'm looking forward to continuing this resource group and then eventually passing that baton on to new members who are just as excited as I am about what this means to Computershare as an organisation and to the development of those employees who are looking to be long-term employees or even short-term employees.

What's your advice for other women in the workplace?

The advice that I would give to a woman just starting out is to be bold. Don't hang back and wait to be noticed. Speak up when you're in meetings, offer a contribution.

Be empathetic; There is a way to be effective but still be empathetic and listen as well as offer solutions, suggestions and ideas.

Be bold but listen; be able to take constructive feedback; when you're getting feedback, sometimes it's not an emotional discussion, it's an exchange of information with the goal of helping you improve. Be able to accept that feedback in the manner that it was given and learn from it to help your development and help you grow. 

Remember, if you're not uncomfortable, you're not growing; you're staying still, staying stagnant. One thing I love about my current job is that I learn something new every day. I never assume I know everything, although a lot of times I may sound like I know everything. I know what I know, and I also realise that I'm not the smartest person in the room, so I look for that smartest person so I can learn from them. Then, I look for that person who may be struggling so that I can bring them along with me so that we can learn together.

What stands out for you working at Computershare?

What I love the most about working with and for Computershare is the people. I have met so many amazing people, amazing leaders and amazing employees. So many of them are like family to me. At this point, we've been together so long that I've seen employees' children grow up. I've seen people get married. I've even seen people who met each other at Computershare. It's the people that really make Computershare.

Do you have a standout moment that you've experienced in your role?

I think my standout moment would be when Computershare's first employee resource group, Women PLUS, went live and they were looking for mentors. I had never officially mentored anyone before, but I had always been an unofficial mentor. People seem to gravitate to me. I would say hello to someone new and then, the next thing, they would be at my desk talking to me, and I would find myself counselling them or giving advice. So when Women PLUS went live, I signed up to be a mentor. It was interesting because I thought, “Oh, this is what I've been doing the whole time,” so it's great to do that in an official capacity. It was great to stand up and officially be there for others, working to help them with some of their challenges.

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