To acknowledge international women's day this year we’ve sat down with Founder and CEO of Ilex Content Strategies, Lucia Barbato. The team at Ilex is backed by the expertise of talented women who are excelling in the tech and telecoms space.
Here is what Lucia had to say:
What was your path to becoming a female CEO?
I trained as a barrister and then quickly realised I wanted a more creative path. A friend suggested PR and I started my career at a boutique tech and telco agency. After working for a variety of agencies in both B2B and B2C side, I decided to launch Ilex Content Strategies after the birth of my first child. I’d had the benefit of working with some great leaders and some not-so-great ones and I wanted to start a specialist agency where the quality of our work and deep expertise set us apart. I also wanted the chance to organically grow a team from scratch so that we delivered a unique experience to clients.
What are the most valuable lessons you’ve learned throughout your career?
The single most important characteristic to look for in other people, and yourself, is a growth mindset and positive attitude. Everyone will naturally find their own strengths and interests, but with the right attitude, the world really is your oyster.
Creating the sort of culture that makes people thrive is also really important. As Ilex moved from a traditional office set-up to an entirely remote office post-pandemic, we’ve worked hard to ensure relationships are strong and a positive culture continues. I think culture is the defining reason for whether you’ll attract the best talent and retain those you’ve trained. People need to feel inspired to log on every day and be part of something bigger.
What would you say are the essential skills to be a great leader in your industry?
I think the most important skill for any leader, regardless of industry, is empathy. We’re all only human and trying our best, but sometimes, it can be easy to lose personal connections in large corporations. Ensuring that you are putting yourself in your teams' shoes and treating them how you’d want to be treated is key.
Having the ability to inspire and get the best from people is also important. Everyone will bring different skills, experiences and talents to a team. A great leader will be the one with a thriving team who are achieving their own personal goals.
What advice would you give to aspiring female CEOs?
Network – The most important things I have ever learnt have been from other people. So take up as many opportunities as you can to attend industry events and make the most of LinkedIn!
Training – There are so many opportunities to educate yourself on aspects you might not cover in your day-to-day job, whether it’s via courses, podcasts, books etc. Invest time and resources to upskill yourself. Nothing invested in education is a waste!
Language – I hate the terms #girlboss or #bossbitch. They imply that women aren’t naturally bosses or that a female boss must have a particular demeanour. While there aren’t enough female CEOs for my liking, there are plenty of examples of women in important positions of power both now and in history. What they show is that there is not one type of leader. A person’s leadership style is inherently personal to them and has little or nothing to do with gender. The language we use to describe ourselves is important to how others will perceive and define us.
How do you think the industry can attract the talent of women in a male-dominated space?
What is surprising in PR and communications, although I think it is slowly changing, is that women make up the majority of the workforce but don’t hold the majority of senior leadership positions. I think a lot of that is because traditional long hours in an office setting weren’t conducive to a healthy work/life balance.
I think the move to flexible and remote working will go some way to helping women feel able to ‘have it all’. I certainly don’t miss the two hours a day I had to invest in getting to and from the London offices I worked in at the start of my career.
Culturally, as a society, we are more understanding of the need for people to have to juggle work and personal commitments which just wasn’t the case as recently as a decade ago.
There are various initiatives in the industry to address the issue but at the very core of any change must be employers. It is up to employers to adopt policies and support staff to realise their potential and achieve their ambitions.
The theme for this year’s international women's day is ‘embrace equity’, what advice do you have for individuals/organisations when it comes to building and supporting more balanced teams?
Firstly, I think it’s important to define what embracing equity actually is – this is the idea that equal opportunities is no longer enough. It’s particularly pertinent to the communications industry which has traditionally been difficult to enter without contacts or the ability to undertake unpaid internships. While this is changing it still needs to go a long way to become diverse.
A way that we have embraced equity at Ilex is though our apprenticeship programmes. We offer several apprenticeships and keep all those who successfully complete the course a permanent position and opportunities to continue learning in future.
We thank Lucia for offering such balanced and insightful information about her experiences and providing inspiration for others to do the same.
If you would like to get in touch with Lucia directly to discuss anything further, you can reach her here: lucia@ilexcontent.com