'I'm an advocate of management by concern not confrontation'
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Fr ( om time to time I am asked what it is like to be a woman in an industry that's typically a male domain. It is certainly quite unusual to find a woman heading a depot operation in a large transport company and I am the only female general manager of a TNT Express UK depot. But as the company appoints on merit there is every opportunity for this to change in the future.
It is sad that many women in management positions feel they have to sacrifice fundamental female traits and become hard and aggressive to be accepted. I certainly don't advocate that approach to management: I'm a woman, yes, but that should not make -ily management style different.
The best advic lever received was to try to win people ov , and it's very important for me to establis one-to-one communication with my team. I nake a big effort to talk to my staff individully and feel there is a real empathy between us.
One of my main concerns since becoming depot manager atl Aberdeen in December 1990 has been thait of individuals' development. I have tried to understand the strength of my staff and offer them positions where their potential can be fully recognised: consequently, many have grown with me. I'm definitely an advocate of management by concern not confrontation.
It is true that I have come across some men—thankfully not at TNT—who have reservations about talking business to a woman, but this has never been a major problem. Many of my team may have felt strange at first having a female boss, but that's because I was an unknown quantity: I'm sure before they met me, many had me down as a fire-breathing dragon!
Inevitably, my position has thrown up a few funny situations. I occasionally receive phone calls where the caller is adamant he can't be talking to the manager and I'm sometimes asked if I'm the manager's secretary It's also quite entertaining when I go to reception to greet a visitor and they assume I've just come down to take them to the boss. Sometimes in the company of men talking technical jargon Jam spoken to as if I couldn't possibly understand, yet I'm sure my knowledge often surpasses their own.
It would be foolish of me to suggest that tall men don't have an advantage when creating an aura of power—at just 5ft 2in I have to earn my respect in a different way.
I'm certainly not what you'd class as a feminist though. I believe in having the best person for the job be they male or female and I'm definitely not a token-gesture woman doing a man's job. I don't feel the need to justify myself—I'm successful in my own right, as the recent growth of my depot demonstrates.
If anything being a woman has, ironically, been of great help to me. Knowing that I'll inevitably be under scrutiny from some quarters makes me more conscientious and I consider more carefully the implications of my actions, which can only be of benefit to staff and customers.
At the end of the day I'm doing a job I enjoy, a job that I'm good at and a job that gives me tremendous satisfaction. I've found my niche and I'm sticking to it.
If you want to sound off about a road transport issue write to features editor Patric Cunnane