IBM’s Ng Lai Yee on impactful leadership, sparking change and the power of being bold

If you had asked me about my career aspirations as a student, the answers may have been more typical of a time where there were fields which were almost classified as male- and female-dominated. Technology wasn’t even in the equation for me—I have a BA in Social Science. 

However, the past couple of decades have been truly exhilarating. As a business consulting leader in technology, I’m at the cutting-edge of tech-fuelled transformation in areas as diverse as business process, talent management, supply chain, customer engagement, citizen services, building management, predictive fraud detection, and the list goes on.

My journey has been made even more interesting because it wasn’t a traditional linear path. I spent a few years away from the workforce to focus on my family. That time as a stay-at-home mom and subsequent return to the workforce was a powerful reminder that our career paths are truly dictated by planning and not fate. We are in charge of where we want to go.

The good news—a lot of progress has been made around the world and in Singapore too. There is good gender parity in university enrolments and almost equal numbers of men and women join the workforce.

Even in government, you see more women in Cabinet and important roles. Policies have also been put in place to ensure more gender parity on boards in the country—Singapore listed companies are required to adopt a board diversity policy that addresses gender, skill and experience, and other relevant aspects of diversity and report progress in their annual report.

But we are still behind targets set by the Council for Board Diversity in Singapore to have 20 per cent female board membership by the end of 2020. The number is tantalisingly close—about 18%.

IBM’s Institute for Business Value (IBV) recently published a Study on Women Leadership on 1 March 2023, and through interviews with more than 2,500 men and women around the world, we found that there is growing optimism among men and women about reaching gender parity in leadership. Our survey respondents feel that their industry will see gender equality in leadership in 10 years. Our study revealed that Covid-19 played a big role in raising awareness of gender inequity and the positive impact of diversity training programmes. That’s a huge plus and also an indication that respondents feel that the responsibility for achieving gender parity lies within their reach and is not necessarily for other generations to fix. 

But massive challenges remain. There aren’t enough women in leadership roles and the main reason for that is that the pipeline of women in “feeder roles” to the C-suite is excruciatingly thin in middle management. If there aren’t enough women in middle management, how can there be enough women in the top roles? 

This is not about keeping fingers crossed, believing that progress made so far is enough… or worse, believing that this is just a “woman’s” issue. This is a workforce issue.

Define and pursue success on your own terms, in your own time. 

I am wife to a chemical engineer in the oil & gas industry, and a mother to two beautiful children, I made it a point to take my time to get to where I am now in my career. Even as I focused on my career goals and aspirations, I took two years off to be a stay-at-home mom, which effectively meant hitting “pause” on my career. And that’s perfectly fine.

Having it all is possible, just not “all” at the same time! It’s really more about making decisions that you can be at peace with, and to me, this means internalising my goals and not comparing myself with others. I admit that I’ve had to work harder as a woman in my early days, but I’m fortunate to have the support of my mentors, both male and female, who gave me opportunities and helped guide me towards my goals.

Having mentors and allies is important to putting more women in leadership positions. Mentors provide insight and knowledge not found in books; they have often walked the same path as their mentees. Most importantly mentors open networks, which leads to opportunities that would not be available without their influence.

Also, I believe in being deliberate and bold. For example, if a job lists 10 criteria and you have seven, go for it. That’s what new roles are about after all—room for expansion and growth. 

"Advocacy, Allyship & Employee Experience" and "Accountability" are the hallmarks of our approach to "Diversity & Inclusion", and ensuring we groom more women leaders globally. 

First, advocacy: This is about creating systemic change. I’m very proud to represent an organisation that has long believed in D&I. In 1935, women who were hired started receiving equal pay for equal work – they were compensated the same as their male counterparts. In 1953, the first equal opportunity policy letter was published. And the momentum continues—in 2015, Work/Life transition support came into effect with schemes such as breast milk delivery for nursing mothers who were travelling; paid parental leave for mothers and fathers and employees adopting children; web-based elder care was also introduced for employees who needed that additional support.  
 
These policies and schemes help to create a culture that is supportive of women in the workforce. That’s a terrific start, and I’m so glad it includes initiatives around elder care because it’s a more inclusive way to think about the needs of women, not all of whom may be mothers.  
 
What’s interesting also are the ground-up initiatives that augment the “official” IBM-wide schemes. In Australia, for example, there is a menopause support group—for women as well as for men who want to support the women in their lives going through this life phase. There are also groups around embracing neurodiversity and in Singapore, I know some members of our Business Unit have started a “Ladies’ Club” to support one another, enhance cultural appreciation, and share information.  

Advocacy also means shining a public light on issues. And we do this through studies published by the IBV. For example, the 2021 CEO Study shocked with the statistic that among the most important organisational attributes for engaging employees, CEOs ranked Diversity & Inclusion near the bottom of a 13-choice list. Shining a light on issues creates the opportunity to address them. 

Advocacy is about highlighting women’s achievements in technology. Globally, across industries in the business world, women represent just 26% of the AI workforce. In response, we created the annual Women Leaders in AI Program in 2019, as a force for change, to help encourage increased diversity in the field and provide honourees a network for shared learning. We are also proud to have showcased more than 100 women-led projects using IBM’s portfolio of AI solutions.  

Advocacy is about helping our women re-enter the workforce too. Our Tech Re-Entry Program is a six-month paid returnship for technical professionals who have been out of the workforce for 12 months to help them transition back to the workforce. Ninety nine percent of participants have been women. 

Allyship & Employee Experience: This is about training and support to help every IBMer be an upstander for D&I and thus creating a supportive environment for women to succeed.  

For the general IBM population, there is education and enablement on D&I topics, including earning a “Be Equal Ambassador” badge. During the Pandemic, we focused on creating an environment that supports women and acknowledges the multiple demands they experience daily—often taking the lead as caregivers at home. We trained 30,000 managers to check-in regularly on how their teams are doing. We also focused on understanding what women need through “mini-pulse” surveys, and launched benefits and programs that provide the support and flexibility to put family first 

And as for Accountability: In 2020, we increased our transparency and reporting of diversity and inclusion. We are holding executives accountable for progress in diversity and inclusion and have tied this directly to their bonuses and compensation. Arvind Krishna Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, conducts monthly reviews of diversity data with senior leaders and also consult on our goals with IBM’s Board of Directors