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Gender and Cultural Diversity Matters |
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Page 1 of 4 National Centre for Gender & Cultural Diversity - Volume 2/Issue 1, 2001
We are thrilled that Sandra Yates has accepted our invitation to speak
as special guest at this year's Presentation Dinner for Outstanding
Women in Non-traditional Areas of Work and Study. Sandra recently
chatted with us about her interests, passions, and the pathways she's
chosen to get to the place she's at now.
A Typical Day at the Office
Our interview with Sandra was squeezed in from 10:30 to 11:00 at the
start of a working week. Sandra's day had already begun with an early
morning management meeting at Saatchi & Saatchi, a multinational
advertising agency based in the Rocks, Sydney, and where Sandra is
currently appointed as non-executive Chairperson. "After the interview,
I'm rushing off to speak with people at the Bell Shakespeare Company in
Sydney who are looking for some marketing advice," she explained. "I'm
then rushing home at lunchtime to see my husband because he's off to
the UK for a couple of weeks, so I'll go home and have lunch with him
before he goes. This afternoon, I'm having a meeting with a group of
senior business people who provide specialist coaching to executives.
I've also got an industry committee meeting later this evening."
Needless to say, a typical day at the office for Sandra is spread
across a number of different roles and geographical locations. "I flit
from flower to flower," she says, "but my physical base is here at
Saatchi & Saatchi".
On one level, keeping the different aspects of Sandra's professional
and personal life together "is really just a question of juggling a
diary". On another level, however, fulfilling such day-to-day
commitments obviously requires a great deal of energy, versatility, and
passion and it's these elements that make Sandra the sort of person she
is.
Reinventing Conversations
Sandra describes herself professionally as an independent company
director with a broad portfolio of interests across the arts,
community, education, and business, with particular expertise in
marketing and communication.
Part of her role at Saatchi and Saatchi, for instance, is to advise and
support senior management using her business knowledge and professional
contacts for the benefit of the corporation when it is appropriate to
do so. ln addition, Sandra is Chair of the TAFE board in NSW, "the
world's largest provider of vocational training and education." She is
also Chair of the Sydney Writer’s Festival and on the board of Musica
Viva. And she is Director of the Demeter Group Pty Ltd, a consulting
practice that provides strategic advice to management on publishing,
marketing, and communication.
Feeling energised is essential to Sandra. "What people seem to think is
hugely busy seems to me to be normal and natural," she says. "l have no
idea what I'd do if I retired. I'd be like a bee in a bottle! I really
need and enjoy the stimulation of having lots of interesting things to
do." Perhaps another way of saying this is that Sandra is always in top
gear. "Yes, I think that's true" she exclaims. "I know my brothers
certainly think I should just have a lie down. I'm certainly the
overachiever in the family. Everyone else appears more relaxed than me."
But Sandra also characterises her professional style as an innate
ability to "take one hat off and put another one on, and do it
quickly." An example: she has most recently joined the board of the
Toronga Foundation, and for the first time in her life finds herself
puzzling over endangered species. While this is a terrific thing to be
doing, Sandra adds that "it bears absolutely no relationship to
anything else I'm currently engaged with." Switching off one thing and
on to another, and being totally immersed in the tasks at hand, is
therefore another key element in Sandra's approach.
This may have something to do with Sandra's background in
communication, in particular, her deep appreciation of conversations as
dynamic and potent business tools. In a paper entitled, 'Reinventing
Conversation', Sandra explains:
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