Claire Lake (Gooday) is the Director of Organisational Development and Corporate Services for NECS, with responsibility for people (HR) and organisational development; equality, diversity and inclusion; information governance, health and safety, Freedom of Information, estates, programme delivery and communications and engagement. Claire leads the ODCS directorate and represents the portfolio on the Executive Team and is currently also co-ordinating OD and communications in support of the CSU Strategic Review across the CSU Group.
Tell us about yourself and your career aspirations growing up?
“I’m an introvert and reflector. Despite being social and having many hobbies and interests, I was shy as a child and hated being the centre of attention. At secondary school, I recognised the need to step out of my comfort zone if I was to achieve my potential. The thing that filled me with most horror was public speaking and so I joined the Debating Society. I soon realised it involved several things I enjoyed: research, writing and teamwork. The public speaking part was something I could learn, and once I’d prepared and rehearsed, I became less nervous. It gave me new confidence and I’d encourage everyone to test their boundaries and tackle their fears. Initially, I wanted to be an English teacher and later a journalist. After graduating, I ended up working in HR for a newspaper company whilst waiting for a journalist role to come up, and the rest is history.”
What was your career route to the role you have today?
“After my stint at the newspaper, I moved to London waiting for a start date on the Civil Service Graduate Programme. Again, to pay the rent I took a band 4 HR role in the NHS. It was a challenging, supportive and fun place to work, and I was lucky enough to be sponsored to do my CIPD and follow a competency-based career pathway that saw me gain incremental promotions up to an 8B. I relocated again and took an HR consultancy role at the University of Cambridge for five years. Whilst an incredible experience, I felt the NHS aligned more with my personal values and I came back in 2010 working for various NHS organisations as Head of HR. I’ve now worked for CSUs for over 12 years and am proud of what we have collectively achieved.”
Which women / woman has inspired you in your life and your aspirations?
“That’s tricky as there are so many! I’ve gone with Michelle Obama whose grace, intelligence, determination, humanity and empathy has inspired and motivated me to believe in myself and support others.
“No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens. We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list.”
I think we all need the occasional reminder of what we can achieve, the need to look after ourselves (and others) and surround ourselves with people who lift you up and who you lift up in return.”
How does this year’s theme for International Women’s Day ‘Accelerate Action’ inspire you / what does it mean to you?
“Accelerate Action emphasises the need to make faster and more impactful progress towards achieving gender equality. It inspires me to work with colleagues to identify meaningful and impactful interventions that will make a real difference to women.”
Do you feel supported in your role?
“As a leader, you develop independence, resilience and autonomy. My focus is to support my team and colleagues. That’s not to say that I don’t welcome recognition for a job well done! I have appreciated the flexibility that NECS has given me in juggling my responsibilities as a Mum and consider it my role to ensure others are afforded appropriate support and flexibility to manage their home / life balance and health and wellbeing too.”
What changes would you like to see in our organisation to further inclusion?
“I would like to see greater support shown to those returning from maternity leave. For me this was a real challenge on both occasions where I felt a lack of empathy for the various emotions I was managing and responsibilities I had. It’s difficult to leave a young child with relative strangers and re-enter the workplace after a year, and I feel more can be done to ensure a smooth and supportive transition back to work, as well as support to overcome the experience and development opportunities that are missed during maternity leave that can delay career development. I felt able to challenge unreasonable expectations placed upon me, but I would prefer it if such situations did not arise in the first place.”
How will you be supporting International Women’s Day?
“I will take the time to listen to the challenges faced by the women in my life, both personally and professionally, and seek to understand how I might be able to support and help them.”
If you had one message, or piece of advice, to support and inspire future female leaders, what would it be?
“Remember how amazing you are! If you know what you want to achieve, be determined, make a plan and hold yourself to account. Take every opportunity that comes your way, accept help, and don’t be afraid of a challenge. Try not to aim for perfection. We are all juggling multiple things during our lifetimes and will face challenges and setbacks. We can’t operate at full speed all the time or get everything 100% right. Be kind to yourself, re-negotiate deadlines when you need to, decide when 80% is good enough, put your health and the things that are important to you at the forefront. Life is for living and we should all make the most of it.”