Skip to main content
February 09, 2021

Resilience, Learning and Legacy: Pamela Hackett – CEO Proudfoot: Inspiring leadership interview with Jonathan Bowman-Perks

Podcast Details

Top Tip

First, manage to engage. Together you get there faster. 
  1. Pamela Hackett is CEO Proudfoot.

Pam is the CEO of global operations management consulting firm Proudfoot. With more than 30 years of management consulting and leadership experience across industries as diverse as mining to banking and working with 100’s of company’s Pam has led Proudfoot through an extraordinary transformation, powered by a consulting model focused on developing clients’ in-house skills and capabilities. She champions a people-focused approach to transformation which helps clients achieve change at speed and scale, with tangible outcomes that make a long-term difference. 

Pam is a recognised thought leader, as well as a respected writer and speaker, on the topics of employee engagement, change management, leadership and business transformation. She is an award-winning CEO, regularly contributes to the CEO Magazine, and has led Proudfoot to be recognised by the FT and Forbes as a leading consulting firm. Her book Manage to Engage is available through Wiley Publishers in March. 

Leadership Tip. First, manage to engage. Together you get there faster. 

How to be more resilient – Talking. I don’t think you can solve big problems alone. You need to connect with people you trust and talk trough what happened or is happening. The ability to have just one or two great connections, people you truly trust and who’s opinion counts, can go a long way. Resilience? Sometimes I think you have to just put on your big girl pants and carry on. Not everything is in your control and you have to be OK with that. 

Learning – I am impatient – in many ways. Everything moves fast in my world and I expect others to move at that speed. In every way. I loved your piece on not interrupting. I have little patience for going down the wrong road and so I will often cut people off in an attempt to stop that. The motive is not to lose time but really it is stealing peoples voice and stopping them from using the time they need to better move forward. It probably costs me time in the long run. I need to get better at that. In hindsight, it’s interrupting! 

Legacy – Longer term. I think it’s something around lifting other people up, particularly other women. Women are sometimes very competitive – we forget to help each other out. I think that’s where there needs to be a lot of change if women are to fill more roles at a senior level. I understand now why there are so few. It can be a lonely, isolating job and often filled with politics. 

I also understand why so many women become entrepreneurs and work for themselves. Politics and emotional discussion at work are exhausting.  There is not enough time spent working together to get to the end result. Not enough lifting people up. I hope I make a difference there. 

 

How can we help you?