A woman without borders - Lizzie Brown's path to the top

Lizzie Brown: A Woman Without Borders

CEO, engineer, Engineers Without Borders, environment, huminatarian engineering, Jane Pemberton, Lizzie Brown, volunteer

I asked Lizzie if she had any advice for women aiming for the top in any field.

The four messages she would have liked to have heard at the start of her career are:

1. Align your passions with what you’re good at
This isn’t static so you need to revisit regularly and ask yourself – Am I still good at this and is it still working for me?

2. Take risks
Be bold and brave with what you do with your career. Lizzie had to resign and take six months off to volunteer full time to find the right opportunity. This was a scary but necessary step on her path to finding the perfect job.

3. Resilience
Practice, fail, learn from the failure and keep going. Leadership roles can be isolating, as you may need to take a lot on board. You won’t always have the luxury of being able to explain your decisions. It may not be the best for the business to know every detail so resilience and a thick skin are an asset.

4. Create your career
Be what you want to be and be proud of it. The stereotypical engineer back when she was at uni was male and almost the opposite of a vibrant, young woman. Don’t let stereotypes hold you back.

Lizzie said “When I became CEO I subconsciously thought other women in senior leadership roles would make contact. I thought there would be some sort of ‘sisterhood’ at the top but instead what I found was that many wonderful men came forward and offered advice and support.”

Male or female, it doesn’t matter where that support comes from. Supporting each other and providing that ‘sisterhood’ at the top will allow great women to do great things. We need more women like Lizzie Brown leading organisations and doing important work to improve our world.

If you would like to learn more about EWB and the work they do visit www.ewb.org.au or watch the video.