Holly Stibbon is the Managing Director of 101 Websites, Apps & Email Marketing in Norwich. Here she shares her story about how outdated attitudes towards women in business must change so that businesses can reach their full potential. 

Supporting women is important for everybody in business to achieve their goals. Women add a different and much needed dimension to the workplace. To highlight this let me give an example, research has shown that with search and rescue, mountain rescue and the RNLI, on average those teams that include women make better decisions than all male teams even if those women are not the decision makers within the team. To highlight this further 2019 was the 50^th anniversary of women serving in RNLI crews and at all levels. This is not about brawn, muscle or stamina, this is about rational decision making where decisions can have real life or death consequences. The care and passion women bring to the work they do really does show in the end result.  

In addition, the care and empathy women bring to the workplace makes teams strong and resilient. If you get knocked down a woman will not just sympathise, she will empathise, she will feel your pain, she really understands. It is that understanding that builds you back up and propels you forward. She’s got your back – make sure you have got hers because if not, performance will be lacking.

Other skills that women can bring to the workplace is rationality – the ability to see alternative paths and evaluate multiple parameters to make a good choice. To see a bigger picture and resist being impetuous.   

I have had to overcome challenges in business because I am a woman. When I first started in the online industry, I was a customer service representative for an Internet service provider. We helped people get online with a modem (remember those? So slow and nothing like broadband). In the main the rest of the staff were men, there was one other woman in the office who did the accounts. When the phone rang, I would pick it up and knew that it would take me twice as long to handle the call as any of the men, because the customers’ immediate reaction was that a woman couldn’t help them. I was persistent. After a while, the customers soon realised that when they spoke to me, not only did I resolve issues they were having, I made them feel good about themselves while doing it. ‘Don’t worry, it’s an easy mistake to make’, ‘It’s what we are here for’, ‘It’s not magic, you just have to know which buttons to press’. I would also ask them about their business and how things were going and frequently provide additional advice to help them. It was that added attention to detail and care that they liked.  

Another challenge was when I was in my early 20’s. I had just been made manager and I became pregnant with my first child (I now have 3). I have always been career-driven and determined, but my husband and I also wanted a family. My husband was only too pleased to become a stay-at-home dad. He was great at it too! He always did all of the cleaning and cooking at home, looking after a baby would be far less demanding than looking after me right? Anyway, I told my two managers (both male and in their 50’s) that I was pregnant (I was only 4 weeks at this point – I didn’t see the point in waiting for the 3 month mark, we had to plan how I was going to take a few weeks off). One was over the moon for me, hugged and congratulated me. The other looked and me and said ‘Oh great, what are we going to do now you are leaving?’. I was amazed that he had even considered that I was leaving, let alone seen it as the only option! I soon put him straight, but it took A LOT of convincing over the next few months for him to come round. We put in place arrangements for cover and made contingency plans should something go wrong and I not be able to come back, even though I knew that was never going to happen.   

Whilst his reaction was a massive blow to my happiness at the time, I realised that others may feel this way too, especially customers with whom I had built up a reputation. There was a mixed reaction, but most people wanted to push projects through ‘before I went’ so they had my assistance throughout. They could go without me for a few weeks as long as their projects had been launched and they had their plans. When I returned everyone was so happy, I was back they all wanted to do more work with us! Having Lily made it a great year for sales and more importantly building relationships. My daughter is now working as a digital marketing apprentice for a company in Norwich and she regularly comes across people in my network who remember her as a bump!  

There is ‘a need to please’ attitude that can be more prominent in women, which can either be used positively to succeed or it can lead to lots of ill-feeling, wasted time and ultimately loss if not acknowledged or harnessed correctly. 

This is where men and other women can help. Offer encouragement. Women tend to care a lot about what they do, that ‘feeling’ I mentioned earlier is the key to success. If someone is doing a good job, however small – tell them, tell others! Confidence is something that needs to be built. Someone who is confident makes decisions and makes progress. Without confidence, procrastination and indecisiveness kick in and suddenly that ‘feeling’, that ‘care’, shifts from the job in hand to stopping them from feeling bad about themselves.  

Here at 101, everyone is treated as an equal, regardless of whether you are an apprentice or a director. Everyone’s opinion is heard and if something isn’t going right no one is criticised for speaking up.  

Everyone has the same access to training, our thinking is that if there is a course that will help you improve, let’s send you on that course. If there is something you enjoy doing and it can benefit the business, but it isn’t part of your current remit, let’s review that and see how we can make it happen.  

We all support each other and understand that ‘stuff happens’, your child is unwell and needs collecting at school – tell a colleague what needs doing and go!  

The most important thing we do to support women is to listen, really listen. Women want to do it all and to do that we need help. I have often been branded as ‘Super Woman’ because of all the things I do. But I wouldn’t be able to do all the things I do without my amazing team at 101, my wonderful husband and my extended support network. It may look like I am gliding gracefully through life, but like a swan, there is a lot going on beneath the surface that isn’t appreciated. That’s the stuff that matters, to me and other women, what can we do to keep the legs kicking and gliding forward?  

There is no shame in saying ‘I’ve got an issue and I need help’. If I could go back in time and give some advice to my younger self it would be that in general people around you are judging you far less than you think. Don’t worry so much.  

Don’t feel guilty about being persistent! Keep going, your visions of change really will improve business and you are more than capable of making decisions that really make a difference. 

Hollys’s top tips to support women in business

1.    Don’t take no for an answer.  

2.    Use the challenges you face as fuel to succeed and be creative with it. If you can't get what you want via the same route as someone else, find a different way. Change your plan of attack – not your goal!  

3.    Talk to each other and listen. Really Listen.