If you could go back and give your younger self career advice, what would you say?
Lean on the supporters you have around you and don’t listen to the voice calling you an impostor were the key messages from some of the industry’s most influential real estate executives at Bisnow’s Women Leading Real Estate Summit, held at British Land’s Dock Shed building in Canada Water.
Bisnow/Alessandro Pietrosanti
Stanhope’s Laura Collins, Oxford Properties’ Emma Downey, British Land’s Lynn Summerfield, RSM UK’s Kelly Berman, and moderator Kat Covney of Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer.
“I didn’t realise that I had so many supporters around me, and I didn’t back myself the way they backed me,” British Land Project Director Lynn Summerfield recalled during the summit.
“Sometimes, you need the people around you to push you, to give you the confidence,” she said. “But I should have had a bit more faith in myself, and I think the things that impeded me the most were me doubting my own ability.”
Realising who your role models and mentors are and using them because they want to help you are the keys, Summerfield said. And for women, those people don’t always need to be female.
“I’ve had some amazing male mentors, and actually, they’ve built a really different perspective for me,” she said.
RSM UK Head of Construction Kelly Berman pointed to the need to remove barriers so people understand not just how to get into leadership but middle management roles as well.
“Sometimes, a business thinks they’ve got that access for everybody within the organisation, but actually, it’s not communicated and those hurdles aren’t removed,” she said.
“For me, be your authentic self. I’m a northerner, I came from a working-class background. I didn’t think I was very maternal but dropped out of university to have my first child. That was probably the making of me, and my own personal environment actually shaped me as a person that allowed me to take forward my career, and I embrace that.”
She added: “I often have imposter syndrome. I made partner at 30 and thought, ‘How did that happen?’ But then I think of all the things I’ve learned along the way. It’s then, how do you make it possible for the next generations?”
Stanhope Development Director Laura Collins started out as an M&E quantity surveyor at 18. Six years ago, she was going for partner at the QS firm where she worked when she received a call from Stanhope.
“They said, ‘We’d really like you to come in,’ and the imposter syndrome completely kicked in. I was like, hold on a second, why does Stanhope want to talk to me? I’ve never worked with them before,” she said.
“I was really open and honest about it. And I said, ‘I don’t understand what I’m doing here because I’m not a development manager. I haven’t worked with you before.’
“They said, ‘We want you for your personality because we know you’re a bit different.’ And I was the first female through the door in that particular team. And now, we have got 50-50 gender representation in the team, so I must have been doing something right.”
Having a neurodiverse daughter with a learning difficulty has also helped Collins set boundaries, she said.
“I think you can take that in your career as well because sometimes it’s a natural instinct for people to think, ‘She needs a bit of protection, she’s a bit overwhelmed.’ But everything is a phase, and it’s using that to your advantage, rather than being scared of it,” she stressed.
Oxford Properties Director of Development Life Science and Office Emma Downey added that it is important women champion themselves and other women.
“One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was networking is an incredibly important part of your career,” she said. “The people who you work with, the people who you meet, will help build you. They will give you opportunity. I hate the word networking. It makes me feel awkward. But they said, ‘Stop thinking about networking and think of it as an opportunity to ask two questions.'”
“What can you learn from them? How can I help you? It’ll make you enjoy your work more, and it’ll also make your life a lot better,” she added.