How curiosity is your best career enhancement tool

Back in early 2019 EG gathered the first cohort of Future Female Leaders. A collection of 12 women from across the built environment who would undergo an intense public speaking course and then stand up in front of hundreds of property professionals and tell their stories, with no notes and no slidedeck. But the experience wasn’t just about becoming a powerful public speaker. It was about learning to use your voice, it was about finding out more about yourself, about your value and about exactly what it was that you were passionate about. It was about creating future leaders. A group of 12 that knew exactly what they wanted and how to get it. Here, Samantha McClary asks two of the original cohort about their recent career moves and what advice they would give to anyone thinking about taking a new big step in an uncertain world. The ability to influence and to have an impact has got to be one of the most tempting of benefits when it comes to taking on a new opportunity. Ambition is all about seizing opportunities and making change. It is about understanding what it is that puts that spring in your step as you begin the working day. It is about passion, confidence and curiosity. Or at least it has been for Kathryn Cripps and Emily Hamilton, two of EG’s original Future Female Leaders, both of whom have recently made some pretty sizeable moves in their careers. Kathryn Cripps, partner, Knight Frank After 12 years working in transactional roles at Knight Frank, in its London office leasing team, Cripps took the time afforded to her during both maternity leave and the Covid lockdown to reassess what she wanted from her career. At the FFL finale in 2019, Cripps spoke passionately about her career. She delivered a punchy argument as to why it was that many agencies were losing intelligent, successful women to their clients, and why she had resisted that urge to jump ship. But after a few months away from the office and a chance to reflect on her career aspirations, Cripps took the decision to switch from transactional work to advisory. “I spent three months of lockdown on the Isle of Wight,” says Cripps, “and would go on runs along the beach and listen to podcasts with inspiring women, business women mostly, and it would make me feel like I could take on the world. It was on these runs that I had a bit of a lightbulb moment and realised that the area of real estate that I was working in was quite small and specialist.  And I realised that for me to be a balanced leader, I should broaden my experience and my skills. So after six months of contemplation, I hired a coach and spoke to a tight circle of friends, family and colleagues at great length and decided that when I returned from maternity leave, I would return to our asset management division.” It’s a big decision to make in an uncertain time but, says Cripps, trying something new always is. “You’re always going to have concerns and risks when you’re trying something new. That’s only human. But being comfortable and in a good place with things going well, isn’t necessarily a good reason to stay in that same place,” says Cripps. “I’m a strong believer in moving around and trying something new. I think that when you do make that move you’re only going to open more doors. And even if it doesn’t work out, you could go off and try something else. It’s only going to be positive because you’re going to grow and grow from that experience and learn.” For Cripps, now is the perfect time to be seeking out new opportunities or taking on new challenges. “Now is the time to go and seek opportunities out and be proactive,” she says. “If you set yourself the opportunity to try out new challenges or challenge yourself then you’ll be more agile and able to adapt. The more you challenge yourself, the more you can grow and learn. And many of the skills you learn on the way are transferable and you’ve just got to remember that.” Emily Hamilton, head of ESG, Savills IM Hamilton became head of ESG at Savills IM at the beginning of October after seven years at Grosvenor. She is tasked with making the investment manager a leader in its field in terms of environmental and social governance. It is a big undertaking across a business that has £18.5bn of assets under management internationally, and an undertaking that Hamilton is not afraid to admit terrified her. “I was absolutely petrified when I was first thinking of taking this role and up until my first day I was l petrified thinking,  what if I don’t live up to expectations?,” she says. But, says Hamilton, the important thing for everyone to remember is that no-one expects you to be perfect and everyone wants you to succeed. That is, after all, why you have been hired. She says it is important to go into any new role with an open mind and the understanding that you are not going to get everything right to start with. “It’s a question of being kind to yourself, but also acknowledging that this is a new area and therefore it may take time to get up to speed, and that generally colleagues are very willing to help you with that,” says Hamilton. “People want other people to succeed on the whole. I think it’s about acknowledging that we’re in teams, that we’re not individuals, we’re not islands.” Her advice to anyone thinking about seizing new opportunities or seeking them out is to do your homework before making any sort of jump. “If you’re not sure what you want to do, then I think it’s about being curious,” says Hamilton. “I found myself reading a lot more books, which means that my mind’s opening up more than it was before.” Curiosity, education and understanding are what drives you. Those are the key ingredients to making a successful career move, says Hamilton. “I want us to take climate change and sustainability seriously as a sector,” she says. “And in order to do that, you need to be able to influence people to make that change. And so for me, it was about following where that change can happen.” To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette   Portraits by Louise Haywood-Schiefer