In the insurance industry, the executive ranks are viewed as predominantly male. One exception is Pacific Blue Cross, where women represent 70 per cent of senior management, including executive roles such as chief operating officer, chief marketing officer, senior vice-president of sales and vice-president of human resources.
Two senior executives, Leza Muir, senior vice-president of claims services, and Farzana Adatiya, senior vice-president of strategy and implementation, discuss their experiences and advice for women seeking to become leaders in their industries:
Is work-life balance a realistic goal? ■ Both Muir and Adatiya agree that work-life balance is possible, but expectations are constantly shifting.
As a mother of a young daughter, Adatiya says the toughest part of leadership is giving up control. “Women executives cannot do it all themselves and need support to meet work and family obligations.” She encourages women to surround themselves with a good support system to avoid being spread too thin.
Muir says she has made some sacrifices during her career. “At times I had to choose to miss family events, but at the same time the kids grew to understand that I can’t give them 100 per cent of my time all of the time.”
How important are mentors? ■ “Very important,” says Adatiya. “My mentors have all been successful businesswomen that have shown me how to persevere in the face of adversity. They have shared with me tips and tricks to be successful juggling multiple priorities and proving to me that women can excel in the business world.”
Muir says her very first mentor in management was a woman. “She was tough, and when she gave me my first list of goals and objectives I was a little intimidated. She taught me there was more to leadership than just mastering the functions of a job. You need to become good at recognizing and harnessing people’s individual talents.”
Muir insists that women shouldn’t look only to other women as mentors. “In business, men don’t always approach things in the same way women do. When I first became an executive back in the 1990s, I remember sitting in the office of a male mentor and telling him all about the great work my managers were doing. We’d saved the company money and I thought they were deserving of some extra recognition. His response was ‘Recognition for what? That’s what we expect from you.’ It taught me that reward and recognition are not entitlements.”
Have you ever felt or observed gender bias? ■ When Muir started at the predecessor of Pacific Blue Cross back in the mid-’70s, there were a significant number of women already in leadership positions. “It just seemed natural to me that women became leaders,” she says. “When I went outside to meetings I remember being the only woman in the room, and I always felt strangely uncomfortable. It was so foreign to me.”
Adatiya says she’s fortunate enough to have not been impacted by gender bias in her career, but she has seen others encounter it through informal and formal communication. “There is sometimes a different tone that women are communicated with that is a part of an overall gender bias.”
Muir warns companies about going too far the other way. “I don’t think an all-female team is necessarily the best way to go either. It’s healthy to have a mix of different genders and cultural perspectives on any team.”
What advice would you give to women wanting to become executives? ■ Adatiya encourages women to find mentors early to help them navigate their path to the executive level. Her advice to young career women: “One: think strategically and be selective in what you choose to take on. Two: do what you set out to accomplish. Three: avoid creating your own glass ceiling.”
Muir’s advice: “One: believe in what you’re doing. Two: network, network, network. You’ll create opportunities for yourself. Three: have fun at work. If it means reorganizing to reinvigorate your team, it might be hard, but you need to do it.”
Muir’s final piece of advice for women looking to lead: “If you’ve proven you can do it and there still isn’t room for a promotion, try acquiring skills in other ways such as volunteering or considering work elsewhere.”
Farzana Adatiya, senior vice-president of strategy and implementation, and Leza Muir, senior vice-president of claims services, Pacific Blue Cross
