Interview with Gemma Beck

Brewer Morris is proud to be supporting International Women’s Day 2019. International Women’s Day celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. Whilst we all know that gender parity within the workplace has improved over the past decades, we all also know that there is still a long way to go.

We would like to join the discussion and be part of International Women’s Day 2019 #BalanceforBetter campaign on the 8th March by interviewing inspiring women we work with and, in particular, understanding the role confidence has played in their career.

We interviewed Gemma Beck, VP Tax and Treasury, Inmarsat

How do you define confidence, particularly in the workplace?

I would define confidence as the ability to trust one’s own judgement and expertise, so knowing that your contribution is valuable in most or all situations. It comes from innate intelligence, quality training and a high level of emotional intelligence.

How do you think the confidence gap affects women?

I think the confidence gap affects all women differently depending on their background and importantly on the stage that they are at in their career and development. For example, a trainee may lack technical confidence, whereas someone in the middle stages of her career may lack confidence in asserting herself and making her professional opinion heard. The fact that the nature of the confidence gap may vary widely means that there is no one size fits all solution to addressing the problem – if there was it would be solved by now!

How important have confidence and self-belief been in achieving your career goals? Please explain why.

I am certain that both confidence and self-belief have been instrumental in my success, but these have displayed themselves differently at different stages of my career. From having the confidence to speak out in a room of peers on development courses, to digging my heels in with a manager when I knew I was right, speaking up for juniors that were wrongly going unrecognised, setting new boundaries between my work and personal life after having a family and the big one of course is having the self-belief to learn new skills and put myself forward for new roles.