Gita Singham-Willis is Strategic Engagement Director at Transform.
Gita is a dedicated advocate for the consulting industry and social impact, demonstrated by her former roles as MCA Board Member, chair of the MCA Public Sector Working Group, and chair of the MCA DEI Group.
Her commitment to fostering inclusive environments was recognised last year when she was named an Inspirational D&I Leader by D&I Leaders.
She is passionate about bringing unrepresented groups into the tech industry, having started Cadence Innova (now part of Transform) with a focus on women returners. She brings extensive experience in digital, technology, and service transformation, balancing business strategy with user-centred design and effective change alignment.
The professional world, including the tech sector, is evolving at lightning speed, making focused, strategic growth more crucial than ever for all women rising up in their careers.
While talent and capability were once seen as the primary ingredients for success, the rapidly changing environment requires a smarter, more holistic approach. This is relevant for any business, not just tech, as women take on challenging roles and rise up in all jobs and arenas.
To thrive, you need to anchor your development in three key areas: Capability, Community, and Confidence.
Develop your capability
When things constantly change, continuous learning is non-negotiable. To develop your capability, you must commit to an ongoing process of keeping up, learning, experimenting, and exploring.
- Keep learning and exploring: Actively seek out new technologies, tools, and methodologies. Experimentation is now often the best way to learn about emerging technology like AI, which is constantly coming out and changing the professional landscape. Don’t be afraid to experiment with new skills, as this exploration is vital for understanding where your passion and aptitude truly lie.
- Define your focus: Use this exploration to narrow down on what you genuinely want to specialise in. Understanding your core value proposition is key.
- Craft an elevator pitch: Articulate the “Who are you?” and what you bring to the table. Develop a concise, powerful elevator pitch that clearly communicates your skills, experience, and career goals. This is essential for networking and job searching.
Build your community
Your network is your way in. In a competitive environment, community and connections are just as important as your technical skills. Your community provides support, access to opportunities, and essential guidance. Recent research highlights that community support systems are critical for career advancement for women across industries.
- Strategically build your network: Actively connect with recruiters, join online women’s networks, and attend conferences. These are excellent places for building professional relationships. The available networks and environments are changing, and there are now many more professional forums and networks available to women, often offering high-value curated events, mentorship, and support across diverse industries. Networks are wider than ever, and women can learn from both internal corporate sources and external communities and forums.
- Find mentors and sponsors: Mentors can offer advice, share their experience, and guide your personal development. Sponsors are more active – they are people who will advocate for you, publicly promote your achievements, and actively find you ways into new roles and opportunities.
- Lift each other up: Women need to support each other to succeed. This means actively championing your female colleagues, sharing knowledge, and building a supportive ecosystem. Male allies also play a crucial role and should be encouraged to use their positions to support and elevate women.
Nurture your confidence
Many talented and highly skilled women still struggle with imposter syndrome, often leading them to doubt their opinions and capabilities. A persistent “confidence gap” is still a major obstacle to career goals for women, with research showing 32% of women citing a lack of confidence as a barrier, compared to 25% of men.
- Trust your expertise: Acknowledge your hard-won capabilities and actively work to trust your professional judgment. While overall workplace confidence in women has been rising, gender bias persists around required future skills like AI, and a lack of confidence continues to hold women back from fully capitalising on their skills. You have earned your seat at the table.
- Speak with authority: When presenting ideas or contributing to discussions, practice speaking with confidence and conviction. This isn’t about being aggressive. It’s about being clear, concise, and owning your contribution.
- Work on overcoming self-doubt: Learn to recognise that self-doubt is common, and we all experience it, but don’t let it paralyse you. Though imposter syndrome affects both men and women, studies show a higher percentage of women experience it in the workplace, often linked to systemic issues like bias. Focus on preparing thoroughly and then speaking your mind, knowing that your perspective is valuable.
These three principles are not new, but they are even more relevant in a space defined by high speed and change. By prioritising all three, you can work smarter and position yourself for powerful career growth, personal fulfilment, and successful job searches in any industry.
