"Where I derive job satisfaction is being able to make a
positive difference. For me, it's important to legitimise emotion
and bring in personality in order to help people understand the
value of emotional intelligence alongside IQ and business acumen,"
says Claire Hamon, CIO of
Rok Group.
Hamon believes that "having fun is very important in order to
create a brilliant environment to work in as it's motivational. But
it's also about making change happen in a positive way by bringing
people along with you."
Hamon has been at property and construction firm Rok Group for
five months after a long career in the financial services industry
and a stint at the
Crown Prosecution Service as
head of IT.
The sector switches have left Hamon unfazed. "I consider myself
to be sector-agnostic," she explains. "The language and
requirements are different, but a linguist can speak languages. I
translate IT terminology into the language of the business, so I
think of myself as a linguist whose job it is to speak business
language and talk in terms of business outcomes, while we in the IT
team work out the technical bits."
But Hamon also feels that her ability to work as part of a team
is equally crucial - not least because she is an avid rugby player.
"You don't see it more clearly or starkly than you do on the rugby
pitch, but leaders don't always have to lead from the front," she
explains. "It's important to give clear leadership and be a strong
leader with a clear vision, but it's also about knowing when to
stand back and cheer from the sidelines. Celebrating the success of
others is as important sometimes as cutting a new path."
Daring to be different has stood Hamon in good stead in her
career. It is also why she ended up at Rok, which employed her not
only to head a traditionally male-dominated function, but also to
sit on the board of a firm operating in a traditionally
male-dominated industry.
"I prize difference," she says.
"
Mould-breaking resonates with me as does looking for unique
ways of adding value. It's not about breaking with convention for
the sake of it, but adding value by understanding how and why the
things you do have an impact on others. That's not only my personal
view, it's a company ethos too."
So how did Hamon get to where she is today? Her first step was
to follow in her electrician father's footsteps and attend the
London Computer and Electronics School, where she developed an
interest in programming. "It's very much about logic and that made
sense to me. It fitted," she says.
From there, Hamon was hired as a programmer by Lloyds TSB before
moving into a variety of roles ranging from leading a development
team to undertaking project, programme and supplier management.
Her big break came after returning to work after having her
first child. Although initially there was no real job for her to
return to, Hamon started devising new project management processes
before becoming involved in a group-wide
Year 2000
initiative.
"The reality of maternity leave is 'out of sight, out of mind',"
she says, "but a chance set of circumstances came along. It's what
you do with those chances that makes the difference, though, and
what I did was to turn that chance into an opportunity. Initially
it's about having the courage and conviction to do something like
that, but it's also about having a positive and proactive approach
to life. It's up to you make life happen it doesn't happen by
accident."
The post turned out to be "one of the most successful parts of
my career" partly because it gave her "a great opportunity to work
with people from different departments across the business".
The reward for her skills and hard work was the offer of a
business analyst position to research and explore the future of the
financial services industry for strategic planning purposes.
At the same time, Hamon also started a part-time
MBA at Bath University, which she completed on maternity leave
with her second child. Her specialism was cultural change and the
qualification, she says, was "foundational" to getting to where she
is today.
"I shifted from someone who had always loved being with people
to become a business leader. The thing that the MBA does for you is
teach you the language of business and to see information systems
in the context of the business, not as an end in themselves."
But during her maternity leave, she also experienced an epiphany
when she realised she wanted to move onwards and upwards rather
than back to a job with her former employer.
"I had quite a lot of time to think about what I'd really
enjoyed about my jobs up until then and that's important. It's
about making positive choices about the future. It's not about
saying I want do less of this, but saying I want to do more of
that."
As a result, her next move was to take a job heading up the IT
function at the Crown Prosecution Service. Here she "brought a
commercial view into the business", while the organisation taught
her that "a morally motivated workforce is unstoppable".
It was this insight that led her to Rok, which she describes as
"mould-breaking in the way that it treats and employs people", not
least because it has a policy of employing permanent staff in an
industry traditionally reliant on casual labour.
"The idea is to find somewhere that you fit and where you feel
that your integrity is intact when you go home in the evening. So
it's about being clear about your own values and the things that
make you happy. But it's also about proactivity and recognising
that you're responsible for your own career, which means making
positive choices about your own future," she says.
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