Ep 11 – Michelle Brampton: CEO, coach, and connector

Wow.

So did that feel like a natural progression for you? I'm just curious.

As you go from one role to the next, is it just about learning new skills or is it learning how to manage? And how did you then get that support? Was it something you were figuring out on your own or were you learning from the team? All right, now I know the numbers.

Now I'm going to look at the numbers more globally.

Now I'm going to look at the commercials and not just the finance piece.

How do you pick up those skills and develop in your roles?

I think you have to learn that as you progress...

You have to take on responsibilities that you don't understand the detail of and you have to trust that the team working for you do.

So you have to be able to make sure you've got the right people with the right skills, make sure you can trust them that they're going to do a good job, but also ask the right questions so that you understand enough to be able to support them and work with them.

But you won't progress if you can't let go.

You can't do every job in the company before you do the MD role so that you know that it just doesn't work like

that.

So I think it feels like a natural progression sometimes when you're looking for the next challenge.

Obviously, the more senior you become, the more about people management it is.

I think that's where some people get tripped up, that you have to want to manage a team, look after people, support people, develop people, because less and less you're a doer and you're more and more of a manager yeah leader in that space and it doesn't always feel natural no i think you know i talk about i had a few sponsors in my career people that backed me to do it encouraged like going back to work full-time and taking on the finance director role was really challenging the person i was working for gave me a coach to support me in doing that which was transformational for me to let go of some of my own beliefs about myself and really work through that to be able to cope with that change.

So I think having people that can see your capability and believe in you and support you in making that and then put the right things around you to support you doing it is one thing.

And the other thing is having some courage.

You know, I remember reading an article, I think it was written by the woman who wrote Playing Big, Tara Moore, and she talks about how So often women are talked about not being confident enough and it's not confidence.

It's a bit of, it's just finding some courage and women are never really encouraged to find courage.

You know, for men, it's very much a, you get on with stuff, you kind of feel the fear and do it anyway.

And I think it's been, talked about for women more recently, it's finding the courage.

And you don't need courage without fear.

So everybody feels a bit of fear.

It's then finding the courage to kind of overcome that and step into it.

And if you've got people supporting you and they've put systems in place to support around you, then it's much easier to do that.

Wow.

So did that feel like a natural progression for you? I'm just curious.

As you go from one role to the next, is it just about learning new skills or is it learning how to manage? And how did you then get that support? Was it something you were figuring out on your own or were you learning from the team? All right, now I know the numbers.

Now I'm going to look at the numbers more globally.

Now I'm going to look at the commercials and not just the finance piece.

How do you pick up those skills and develop in your roles?

I think you have to learn that as you progress...

You have to take on responsibilities that you don't understand the detail of and you have to trust that the team working for you do.

So you have to be able to make sure you've got the right people with the right skills, make sure you can trust them that they're going to do a good job, but also ask the right questions so that you understand enough to be able to support them and work with them.

But you won't progress if you can't let go.

You can't do every job in the company before you do the MD role so that you know that it just doesn't work like

that.

So I think it feels like a natural progression sometimes when you're looking for the next challenge.

Obviously, the more senior you become, the more about people management it is.

I think that's where some people get tripped up, that you have to want to manage a team, look after people, support people, develop people, because less and less you're a doer and you're more and more of a manager yeah leader in that space and it doesn't always feel natural no i think you know i talk about i had a few sponsors in my career people that backed me to do it encouraged like going back to work full-time and taking on the finance director role was really challenging the person i was working for gave me a coach to support me in doing that which was transformational for me to let go of some of my own beliefs about myself and really work through that to be able to cope with that change.

So I think having people that can see your capability and believe in you and support you in making that and then put the right things around you to support you doing it is one thing.

And the other thing is having some courage.

You know, I remember reading an article, I think it was written by the woman who wrote Playing Big, Tara Moore, and she talks about how So often women are talked about not being confident enough and it's not confidence.

It's a bit of, it's just finding some courage and women are never really encouraged to find courage.

You know, for men, it's very much a, you get on with stuff, you kind of feel the fear and do it anyway.

And I think it's been, talked about for women more recently, it's finding the courage.

And you don't need courage without fear.

So everybody feels a bit of fear.

It's then finding the courage to kind of overcome that and step into it.

And if you've got people supporting you and they've put systems in place to support around you, then it's much easier to do that.