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Ep.4 - Feeling invisible in the workplace, Karen Graves, USAA
The Key Learning Points:
1. The need for a greater focus on attracting young people to the insurance industry
2. Advice for women on how to be your true confident self in the workplace
3. How to change company practices to reflect the different needs men and women have in the workplace
In this week’s episode of the Risky Mix podcast we speak with Karen Graves, a lady who has had an impressive career in the Lloyd’s and London markets, working in CEO and COO roles, before becoming head of operations for EMEA at SCOR. With 30+ years’ experience in the insurance industry, she’s now a non-executive director at USAA UK and SA and is driving positive change and diversity in the industry as chair of the Independent Women in Insurance Network (iWIN).
Karen tells us about her career, coming from Leicester and moving to London and “falling into” an insurance role in the City. We often hear people admitting to falling into insurance, and Karen wants to change that, making our industry a career of choice for young people, rather than an accident. On the drivers behind her success, Karen explains that she took opportunities when they presented themselves and approached everything with a degree of tenacity, but admits that she probably didn’t plan her career as well as she should and advises women today to be more thoughtful around their career and to have more control.
Karen raised the point that “as women, we want to fit in, but we need to stand out with our own qualities.” She explains that she spent a lot of time worrying, in the early stages of her career, about how she looked, to fit in, and felt that she needed to dial down her personality. She found that there were expectations that she looked a certain way but believes that how you dress and how you represent yourself is part of who you are. Karen believes strongly that we need to be seen and to represent our personality in the office daily and urges women not to feel pressured into conforming physically in the way that they dress.
Karen explains that when she hit her early 50s she started to feel slightly invisible, which prompted her to think about what she should do next. Explaining that by this point her son was slightly older, she had the time and space to focus on herself, the first time in her career that she’d had the opportunity to do that. She decided that she wanted to do things differently, to move out of the corporate world slightly and start thinking about the things that she was passionate about.
Which brings us to today. Karen is currently chair of iWIN, although part of her hates the fact that she is chair of a women’s committee in 2019. She believes that conversations about women are difficult to have, explaining that they are very black and white. Karen expresses a view that in our desire to be very politically correct, we often look to offer things for everybody, but she thinks women need different things to men, particularly when thinking about careers. She believes that many women need support in understanding their skill sets, knowing how to speak about what they’re good at and representing themselves in a positive way.
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By Katie and RajThe Key Learning Points:
1. The need for a greater focus on attracting young people to the insurance industry
2. Advice for women on how to be your true confident self in the workplace
3. How to change company practices to reflect the different needs men and women have in the workplace
In this week’s episode of the Risky Mix podcast we speak with Karen Graves, a lady who has had an impressive career in the Lloyd’s and London markets, working in CEO and COO roles, before becoming head of operations for EMEA at SCOR. With 30+ years’ experience in the insurance industry, she’s now a non-executive director at USAA UK and SA and is driving positive change and diversity in the industry as chair of the Independent Women in Insurance Network (iWIN).
Karen tells us about her career, coming from Leicester and moving to London and “falling into” an insurance role in the City. We often hear people admitting to falling into insurance, and Karen wants to change that, making our industry a career of choice for young people, rather than an accident. On the drivers behind her success, Karen explains that she took opportunities when they presented themselves and approached everything with a degree of tenacity, but admits that she probably didn’t plan her career as well as she should and advises women today to be more thoughtful around their career and to have more control.
Karen raised the point that “as women, we want to fit in, but we need to stand out with our own qualities.” She explains that she spent a lot of time worrying, in the early stages of her career, about how she looked, to fit in, and felt that she needed to dial down her personality. She found that there were expectations that she looked a certain way but believes that how you dress and how you represent yourself is part of who you are. Karen believes strongly that we need to be seen and to represent our personality in the office daily and urges women not to feel pressured into conforming physically in the way that they dress.
Karen explains that when she hit her early 50s she started to feel slightly invisible, which prompted her to think about what she should do next. Explaining that by this point her son was slightly older, she had the time and space to focus on herself, the first time in her career that she’d had the opportunity to do that. She decided that she wanted to do things differently, to move out of the corporate world slightly and start thinking about the things that she was passionate about.
Which brings us to today. Karen is currently chair of iWIN, although part of her hates the fact that she is chair of a women’s committee in 2019. She believes that conversations about women are difficult to have, explaining that they are very black and white. Karen expresses a view that in our desire to be very politically correct, we often look to offer things for everybody, but she thinks women need different things to men, particularly when thinking about careers. She believes that many women need support in understanding their skill sets, knowing how to speak about what they’re good at and representing themselves in a positive way.