Inspirational Women – Jane Weaver

Jane Weaver runs AYS Couriers, her own logistics company. Jane was working at AYS when redundancy loomed so she bought the company! AYS Couriers sends goods across the UK from sheaves of paper to industrial fridges. I really admire her and I’m sure you will too after reading her story.

Jane, do tell us how you ended up working in the predominantly male field of logistics?
Completely by accident! I took a job as PA to the owner of AYS Couriers, purely because I liked her and was impressed with her pride in the business. I was at a low ebb in my life and stepped away from my PA career to take less responsibility and work within a role that was comfortable to me at the time. I came to AYS at a very difficult time in my life, in the middle of a difficult divorce and at a very low ebb.

My MD was very supportive and came to know how I was feeling, she had a great balance between being an empathetic woman whilst remaining clearly the “boss” – this is a model I try to replicate in my current role.

After about 18 months the owner of the business told us that she had decided to sell AYS, at this point I realised this could be the answer to the worries I had about my future. I saw this was the chance to make my own future and although there were many obstacles my determination to take this opportunity saw me through. Instead of wondering what I was going to do to get out of the ‘mess’ I felt I was in, I took control and made a decision to throw all my energy into seeing the sale through; I set  goals and ‘made deals with myself’; such as “I will spend the 2 years just looking after my daughter (then the youngest of 3 was 13) and ‘making this happen’” I saw the purchase and me taking up the role as MD as a way of providing security and financial advancement as well as giving my battered mind something positive to focus on.

I didn’t let my head drive doubts into my mind and read up on others who had achieved similar things, I took inspiration from other business women and educated myself on legalities and business structure.

The biggest challenge was financial I had been left after my divorce with no capital; the current business owner advised me to talk to an associate of hers who had been through an MBO before and who had contacts with potential investors. Through his support we were able to buy the business with a team of shareholders.

Over the following years shareholders were brought out, until we got to the point where I remain the sole owner. Buying the business transformed my life and I am eternally grateful that I took the opportunity to make my own destiny, I would say to anyone sometimes when you can’t see a way forward and are unsure how you are going to ever feel positive again, the best things are around the corner, believe in yourself, this is just a phase in your life – not the rest of your life!

Did you plan your career? Or have you reacted to events as they have happened?
I have to admit I did not have a plan when I left school, prior to A levels as I was ‘bored’! My first job was as an office junior for Birmingham City Council, this gave me a great insight into the work of different departments as we moved around on a rota basis gaining experience.

Following this start, I moved around, not working more than 2/3 years in anyone place. Although some would think this is not a good admission on a CV, I think this demonstrates an interest in learning and developing. My experience allowed me to take on pretty much any administrative role as I could learn and turn my hand to anything. I moved to PA more in a management support role than in the traditional shorthand secretarial role; this gave me inside knowledge of the work of Directors and CEO’s that proved invaluable!

What would you change if you had the chance to go back and do it again?
When asked over the years if I would have changed things at times I would have said yes, I would have gained more qualifications but now as my career has matured I would say No. I strongly believe that one of my greatest skills is being able to take on new challenges, change motivates rather than frightens me; this is a direct result of working in many different sectors at various levels.

What has most surprised  you about running your own business?
The absolute joy of it! I am enthusiastic about my business and particularly enjoy being in a position where I can give others the opportunity to become a stakeholder in the business and develop their career, the sky really is the limit at AYS for both the business and its personnel.

What have I learnt from this journey:-
1) If you really want something and are prepared to do what it takes to get it – you will succeed.

2) Don’t let bad days (or weeks or months!) make you feel this is all that life holds for you – none of us know the future.

3) Forgive yourself for your mistakes, when I asked a great friend how my life had got so confused she responded “one step at a time” she constantly told me “you are only human” – we all find ourselves in situations that didn’t quite work out as we thought, we are only human – it is life experiences that make you the person you are.

It’s hard to put into words, I guess I mean I am an ordinary person, my life felt fractured – and yet good things were around the corner, I took the opportunity that provided drive and passion in my life and ‘saved’ myself from the downward spiral – if I can do it – so can you!

Have you experienced any overt or covert discrimination because of your gender? If so, how do you deal with it?
Not at all, I have found the female approach to be very successful. In my experience there has always been a lot of support for me as a business owner, both I believe as a female and as someone who came to business in a less than traditional route.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given re starting your own business?
“Know where you are going! Decide where you want to get to, then you will find the way” It is easy to become distracted from your goals, having a clear destination or end result in mind clarifies thought processes, you can’t plan if you don’t have a clear destination in mind.

Who has been the biggest influence, or role model in your life? Who most inspires you?
I have had two ‘Bosses’ who inspired me along the way. The first one taught me that ‘no’ was not an option when things get tough, find a way to do it! He gave me a “can do” attitude that helps me every day, we sometimes impose limitations on ourselves by accepting the first “I can’t do it” thought that pops into our head.

My focus on the end result in business and ability to identify the route to the goal is a direct result of his influence.

The second inspired me in her belief in her business, I could see how much having her own business meant to her and I guess I wanted that feeling too. She is a successful business woman but retains a down to earth combination of wife and mother alongside her professional image – a very “real” lady.

MD is a big job when running your own business. How do you manage to balance home and work and to relax?
Stop fighting yourself, when you own a business you will have enormous passion about it, it is part of your life and you never fully switch off but that does not mean that you cannot enjoy being away from it. Whenever I take holiday I still want to know how things are going and holidays often give you time to come up with ideas and direction for your business. I don’t believe this is a fault it is natural state for someone who goes into business ownership, you just manage your communication and contact.

My family know they come first but also know how important the business is to me, and that it makes me happy! Relaxation should be built into you week; it refreshes and de-stresses you and in the end makes you more productive. At particularly difficult times I believe that it is your duty to yourself and to your business to ensure that you do the things that help you relax and re-energise so that when you are at work you are 100%.

If the current Jane could give the 16 year old Jane some advice, what would it be?
Believe in yourself, a tendency to become ‘bored’ could be seen as ambition and a desire to increase my knowledge. At the time I faced criticism for moving on from roles that were ‘secure’, now I know the benefit of the development I gained in other roles. Don’t lose ‘yourself’ it is you being you that brings about success; never try and change yourself to fit someone else’s model.

If you could have any career you wanted, what would it be and why?
I would like to be in a role where I could help others realise their ambitions, I have learned so much in this role, and I would like to be able to support others in their desire to progress in business. Many people suffer from not taking up opportunities that are presented, with an enquiring mind and thoughtful planning most things can be achieved more easily than you might think.

How has deciding to run your own business affected your life?
Taking the decision to lead an MBO and buy into the business and then to eventually take on the whole business has transformed my life. If anyone is hesitating about doing it I would say go for it! Ensure that your business and personal plans are realistic and achievable and then go ahead and take control of your own destiny. My journey from a time when my future was unclear to my role today has been a roller coaster of amazing experiences. All the clichés are true, seize the day, believe in yourself – you can do it! For me I am just beginning “watch this space”!

Jane, thank you so much! I am so looking forward to meeting you again on Speak Up!

If you’d like to meet some other wonderful women like Jane, do come along to the next Speak Up course in Bath. It’s booking now! And this link will take you directly to Jane’s AYS site.

Is the Glass Ceiling Women’s Fault?

Woah, steady on me! Am I now blaming women for centuries of discrimination? Adding to the guilt which we women are so good at carrying around? (Erica Jong- “Show me a woman who doesn’t feel guilty and I’ll show you a man”). Has it really been been our fault all along!

Well, no, of course not. But I am suggesting that maybe it’s time to examine what is going on in our heads and how much that is a barrier to our progress. Maybe we create some of our own limitations based on what we see around us and if we could free ourselves from that straitjacket we may find ourselves smashing that glass ceiling! Regardless of what is going on around us…

Women’s Strength

It takes some doing to cast off the images and impressions that we have grown up with. We’re in a kind of double bind; legislation has changed in our favour and most organisations at the very least pay lip service to the idea of gender equality, if not actively promote it. Yet there are still few women in senior positions and the role models are mainly male. The behaviour rewarded is generally male. Maybe we women look at those roles and think “I don’t want to be like that, that’s not my style, that’s not me”. That’s certainly true of a lot of the women I coach; what’s on offer doesn’t appeal and many of them end up running their own businesses or dropping out of the competition. (Sam Roddick is a great example of what I mean, see her interview with me here).

Grab the Opportunities

And there is research out there telling us that women are being hardest hit by the recession and that we are still underpaid in comparison to our male colleagues etc. All pretty dispiriting stuff. If we’re not careful we can be overwhelmed and begin to think that there is no point in trying. The truth is it’s not easy for any one, man or woman, to get to a senior position. Yes, I still believe it is harder for a woman for all sorts of reasons but it’s clearly not impossible and I think it’s eminently desirable. There is a lot on offer to help us, if we choose to take advantage of it, like the government saying it is considering imposing quotas for the number of women on British boards if there isn’t a change. What better time to try for a seat on the board! I’ve spoken with some recruitment companies who tell me that they are being asked to put more women on the shortlists they submit but are having trouble finding enough!

Be Honest

So take a few moments to reflect and ask yourself honestly, am I my biggest barrier to career advancement? And if you come up with a yes, you’re not alone. And I’m not having a go at you; there are good reasons why we feel as we do. Yet I know from my coaching of professional women that once we get our heads in the right place, it all becomes a lot easier. Have the confidence to just go for it!

“We are not touched so much by events themselves but by the view we choose to take of them” Epictetus. Choose a different view and the world could be your oyster!

And if you’d are interested in working one to one with me I have a few spaces becoming available this Spring and I’m also taking bookings for my March Speak Up course now!

Top Tip-Stop Laughing & Remember to Plug Your Course!

A while back I was asked to do a BBC radio show with Dr Phil Hammond. I accepted with alacrity as a) I love to push my boundaries a bit, b) I have a course to promote and c) it sounded like it would be fun.

It certainly was fun! Almost too much fun as it happened. Dr Phil is a GP/comedian and was making me laugh so much off air that it was hard to stop when the mike was switched on!

Dinner Guests

I was asked to come up with a list of my top four dinner guests, plus music I’d choose to have playing, and a venue. As I’m a personal development specialist for women naturally I chose 4 very strong women:
Rosa May Parks, Emmeline Pankhurst, Judi Dench, and Mary Wesley, although he also let me have Beryl Cook too as I couldn’t decide. My venue was Graceland (so I could pop upstairs and see the bits you’re not allowed to see on the tour!). You can read more about those women here, in Your Dream Dinner Party if you’d like.

The hour passed in a flash, which was good as my principle concern had been ‘what if I need to go to the loo?’ Dr Phil had airily replied ‘Oh you can usually get there in one record and back’. He obviously hadn’t noticed my hobbling steps because of a bad back. I doubted I’d get there and back in a whole CD! Apart from pushing the mike closer to me that was about all the preparation I got. That and crossing my legs…

Radio Indiscretions

I can really understand why people commit indiscretions on the radio when being interviewed now. There you are in a small and cosy studio, just the two of you, chatting between the records, bonding and having a laugh.

You really do forget that you are talking to quite a few other people as well. In fact, at one stage Dr Phil forgot to turn off the sound during the traffic update and you can hear him in the background talking rather disparagingly about Maggie Thatcher. I was still giggling loudly as me and the weather woman had ever so gently ganged up on him about gender bias in the world of business. and he was moaning away about being picked on. Heaven knows what the audience made of that! And thank goodness I wasn’t saying anything awful…imagine!

I was enjoying myself so much that I totally forgot to even mention my course but ever the professional, Phil asked me a question about it.Thanks Phil! And for putting up with me calling you ‘darling’ all the way through (I came over a bit luvvy at one point!)

Speak Up Course for Women

Anyway, here are the details of my course which is a great one for business women and a wonderful opportunity to give your career a boost and better understand how the men you work with tick!

It’s called Speak Up, a one day seminar, March 12th, at The Royal Crescent Hotel in Bath. You can read all about it and book here and if you have any questions, please email me jane@changingpeople.co.uk or call me for an informal chat on 01761 438749. I can’t promise you Phil Hammond will be there but Johnny Depp has stayed at the hotel in the past….

Can a 10 Minute Mindfulness Exercise Make a Difference?

As January takes hold and the dark nights and bad weather overwhelm us, it’s easy to end up feeling a bit low. It’s peak time for illness, divorce, and depression….sigh.

Which is why it could be an excellent time to try out a simple mindfulness exercise which could give you a huge mood boost!

I have written before about the many benefits of mindfulness (see Mindfulness and Stress). There is a growing body of bona fide research demonstrating how mindfulness can help with all sorts of stress and depression. In Your Happiness Audit there is a link to a book I highly recommend which will give you some of the sources of that research if you’d like to know more.

But reading about it is one thing, hearing it another, so I’m really pleased to share this BBC link with you for a ten minute mindfulness exercise that it very easy to do and may just become a good habit for 2012. It was part of a happiness challenge the BBC were promoting last year and it’s perfect to do in a spare ten minutes when sitting at your desk. I frequently recommend this to women when coaching and we do a modified version on my women’s courses. It’s not for everyone but if it works for you you’ve discovered a great resource for life!

Here is the link to BBC Happiness/Health/Mindfulness.

Why not try it for just one week and see how you get on? And please do share your experiences with us!

Photo Credit: Tosaporn Boonyarangkul

Do Women Need Role Models?

There was a lot of debate just before Christmas about the lack of any women on the BBC Sports Personality of the Year (Read this from the Guardian by Jeanette Kwakye, a British Sprinter). Does it matter or is it just a case of women whining about nothing much?

I think it does matter and it matters a lot. It particularly matters to young women of any ethnicity if they never see anyone in the public eye of their gender or culture. In fact, it probably matters to society as a whole. We all need role models.

Research

A recent University of Massachusetts Amherst study found having academic contact with female professionals in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) can have positive influences on students—female students in particular. For girls and young women studying these subjects in school, being able to identify female role models helps them imagine themselves as STEM professionals. The role models enhance their perceptions of such careers and boost their confidence in studying such subjects.

Similarly there has been a lot of national angst about the lack of male teachers in primary schools and the desirability for young boys to have male role models. Because it matters to all of us. Seeing people like us achieving spurs us on to achieve for ourselves. The messages sent out by role models are strong and powerful.

Media

During the Christmas period I had one of those, have I woken up in the 1950s? moments. I was lying in bed, relishing not having to be anywhere in particular with BBC radio gently playing in the background (I am an addict). I wasn’t especially listening to the content, just the comforting voices of Justin Webb and Evan Davis, my favourite combination. After a while I realised that I hadn’t heard any female voices at all; not a presenter (they have 5 presenters and 1 is a woman), not forecasting the weather, and not as a contributor. Eventually of course a woman’s voice was heard but I think she was preceded by about an hour of men talking (Newsnight by the way, is generally much better at finding a more representative mix to talk on serious topics – kudos to them).

I tweeted the adorable Evan and asked about it. He replied that they had 2 guest editors coming up who were women, (they were good; I managed to be fully awake for them) but it isn’t really the point.

Similarly with other festive TV. Of the quizzes or comedy panels I watched some didn’t even manage to muster one token women and were totally male. Of those that did the men always outnumbered the women. Always. It’s very obvious in comedy (by the way, look out for an interview with Lynne Parker who runs Funny Women soon.) I can’t believe that the viewing public don’t think women are funny (thinking immediately of Ab Fab and Sarah Millican) or that there aren’t female comics out there available for panel shows!

So come on media folks, the BBC in particular. You are funded by the viewing public so do your best to represent ALL of the viewing public, particularly on serious current affairs programmes. I’m not saying every programme should have a 50/50 split, or that I don’t enjoy the male contributors, I do. But I do believe that our national broadcaster should make a huge effort to be representative. It matters, it really does matter.

If you enjoyed this post you may also like Women, where’s your ambition?

PS MY Twitter name is @JaneCWoods if you care to join in the discussions any time!

Top Tip for 2012!

It’s the end of the year and my advice to you is don’t make any New Year Resolutions!

Really, it s probably not a good time. You’re probably tired, you may have over eaten (No, surely not!), you may have over indulged in other ways, probably have a backlog of work waiting on your desk, and may be thinking about money, or lack thereof. And everyone is talking about New year resolutions. (Including me, sorry!)

So, Jane, I hear you cry, so if I’m not to join everyone else in making new year resolutions on 1st January which I struggle to keep and abandon half way through January to be plagued with guilt feelings until about mid February when I get back to normal…sort of, what should I do be doing?

Well, dear reader, far be it from me to tell you what to do but as a coach and writer of personal development courses for women (I can’t help myself) I do have a suggestion you might like to try.

Look Back in Kindness

Lots of good things will have happened to you in 2011. Take some time to recognise what those good things were. Generally these things aren’t just random; you probably did something to help those good things happen. However, we all have a tendency to focus on what went wrong and your head may be full of what didn’t go the way you wanted it to. But even when things seem to go wrong good can result.

Name Calling

Often at this time of the year we are calling ourselves names, (so fat, so feckless with money, so disorganised etc) and we set about resolving to ‘fix’ ourselves. We’re not kind to ourselves. We can start with an assumption that we need fixing.

We’re staring with a negative.

Which is not a good place to start. So accentuate the positive! Look back on your year in kindness and remember all the good that came out of 2011, all those minor triumphs. It may be the job interview that you got really great feed back from (whether you got the job or not), the new friend you made, the new skill you learned, or the wisdom about yourself you accrued (and it’s harder to accrue wisdom if nothing ever goes wrong in your life!)

And that’s it. That’s my tip for 2012. Go forth into 2012 tonight with a kindly view of 2011. Build on the good, let go of the bad. Take an appreciative inquiry view to life and be true to yourself!

And have a fabulous 2012, being you!

Photo Credit: Free Graphics