Celebrating Lincoln Leaders on IWD25

This year to celebrate International Women’s Day we wanted to shine a spotlight on the incredible women who are on the leadership teams of Lincoln and our sister companies, Steering Point, Medforce and FutureCare. To gain insight into their journey to leadership, their unique management styles, and the advice they have for others, we interviewed them with a series of questions.

What motivated you to step up and become a leader in the organisation?

I have always been very ambitious, I’ve always had a goal, to become a Director as I love leading, supporting & motivating people and having a positive impact.

Describe your leadership style and how you lead others. Is it different to your male counterparts, do you think?

Transparency, honesty and recognition. I like to see myself as someone who is very approachable, motivational, very positive and always trying to take advantage of opportunities that arise.

What do you think is the most significant barrier to female leadership?

Right now, for me, there’s nothing. Previously though I would say there has been examples where I felt I’ve been treated differently, in previous employment, but I’m very much an “it is what you make it”, kind of person.

For instance, I made a lot of changes in my personal life moving into leadership roles, as I knew I would be taking on a lot of extra responsibilities, so I came up with plans and solutions to manage my personal life and balance work alongside. I would like to think that I’m very practical, but maybe not everybody is like that, and maybe that can cause hurdles. I think we all have a lot to juggle, but particularly women with families might struggle more, because they might feel the onus is on them to manage all of their responsibilities.

What do you think is the best way to negotiate salary and scope of work?

Prove yourself. Achieve results. That’s it!

How important is it to have a mentor to grow as a leader? Have you ever had one?

I do think it’s very important especially as you’re coming through your career. I would still love a mentor right now, and I never think that you know enough, you have to always be willing to learn more and improve, or else you need to work at something else. Having a mentor has definitely helped me and had a positive impact on my career.

How can women support other women in their organisations?

I wouldn’t do anything differently for a woman than I would do for a man, I just feel we should all support each other. We can all offer plenty of flexibility for everybody, no matter what. We need to all give each other reassurance and positive vibes. Positive energy in the work place goes a long way and I believe everybody needs that.

What advice would you give your 25 year old self?

Not to worry. It’s going to be amazing. Enjoy the journey and believe in yourself!

What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders

It’s not specifically for future females, but for everybody; work hard, set goals, smash them and your career is what you make it.

What motivated you to step up and become a leader in the organisation?

It all came together naturally for me—it was a combination of being in the right place at the right time and having the right people around me. I was fortunate to have an MD who recognised my potential, believed in my abilities, and trusted me with an opportunity that allowed me to grow. Their mentorship and support gave me the confidence to step up, take on new challenges, and prove myself. Looking back, it was also about being ready to seize the moment when the opportunity presented itself.

Describe your leadership style and how you “lead” others. Is it different from your male counterparts?

My leadership style has always been to lead by example and create an environment where my team feels empowered to be themselves. I believe that actions speak louder than words, so I strive to demonstrate the work ethic, integrity, and commitment that I expect from others. At the same time, I encourage my team to bring their authentic selves to work, fostering a culture of trust, collaboration, and open communication.

I don’t think it’s different from my male counterparts. I was fortunate to have an MD who valued talent, hard work, and potential above all else, never letting gender play a role in opportunities or decisions.

What do you think is the most significant barrier to female leadership?

I believe that, at times, women can unintentionally create their own barriers to leadership. Whether it’s self-doubt, hesitancy to put themselves forward, or the pressure to meet certain expectations, these internal challenges can sometimes hold them back. In many cases, the biggest obstacle isn’t a lack of capability but rather a reluctance to advocate for themselves.

Do you experience resistance when you are leading men?  How do you deal with it?

Yes, I have experienced resistance when leading men at times. In these situations, I focus on building credibility through action, expertise, and strong communication. I believe that respect is earned, not demanded, so I make sure to lead with confidence, fairness, and a clear vision. When faced with resistance, I address it directly but professionally—listening to concerns, understanding different perspectives, and reinforcing a culture of collaboration.

How do you balance career, personal life and passions? Is there such a thing as balance?

Balance is always a work in progress, and it looks different for everyone. For me, it’s about prioritisation, setting boundaries, and being present in the moment—whether at work, with family, or pursuing personal interests. There’s no perfect formula.

What’s the most dangerous behaviour/trait that you have seen derail female leaders’ careers?

One of the most dangerous behaviours I’ve seen derail female leaders’ careers is self-doubt. Many women downplay their achievements, hesitate to take credit, or wait until they feel 100% ready before stepping up. This can lead to missed opportunities.

Have you ever been so discouraged you wanted to quit?

Absolutely NOT.

What is the best way to negotiate salary and scope of work?

Be prepared going into salary negotiations and know your worth/value. Be able to articulate your skills, experience, and impact, showing how you bring value to the role. Confidence backed by facts makes negotiations stronger. Research industry salary benchmarks, understand your market value, and come with data to support this too. If flexibility on salary is limited, explore other areas like bonuses, benefits, additional responsibilities, or professional development opportunities. Sometimes, a better title, remote work options, or extra resources can be just as valuable in the long run.

Have you ever felt the imposter syndrome, and if so how did you navigate your way through it?

I think we all have at times in our careers!

How important is it to have a mentor to grow as a leader?

Having a mentor is invaluable as they can provide guidance, perspective, and support having navigated similar challenges. They build confidence, expand networks, and challenge you to think bigger. While self-drive is crucial, a great mentor can accelerate your development and open doors you may not have considered.

How can women support other women in their organisations?

We need to actively mentor and advocate for other women, helping them navigate challenges, build confidence, and gain visibility for leadership opportunities. We need to push each other to step outside comfort zones, apply for promotions, and take on leadership roles, even before feeling 100% ready.

What advice would you give your 25-year-old self?

I would encourage her to fear nothing—no person, no challenge, no obstacle.

What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders?

My advice to the next generation of female leaders is speak up, and take risks. Surround yourself with mentors, allies, and a strong support network, and don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself and others. Most importantly, lead with authenticity—your unique perspective and strengths are what will set you apart.

So what motivated you to step up and become a leader in Future Care?

The desire to succeed. I learnt what doesn’t work in previous home care companies, I saw the effect of never being heard and never having that autonomy to be able to hear what doesn’t work and do something about it.

The two things that I really wanted to bring to Future Care were communication and continuity. So in every other home care company I’ve worked in there have been issues for healthcare workers in terms of getting through to the office or not being listened to. I wanted to change that in Future Care. I wanted people to be able to ring and have somebody at the other end of the phone who would listen. They may not always be able to help them, but somebody there to listen.

In terms of continuity, from speaking to so many clients, and also care staff, their rosters were constantly changing, they were getting phone calls from the office, the clients were getting people who they don’t know arriving at their door.

So trying to put those two key pieces and being able to have the autonomy to manage this business and do it the way I saw fit, that was a huge step forward for me. The team in Future Care want to succeed and give the clients and care staff what they’re looking for. This has a positive knock-on effect with retention. There’s genuinely a lot of love in the room for each other, and a want for everyone to succeed which makes it a a really nice place to work.

I think from my own point of view, I’ve never been given autonomy and trust before. In all aspects of any industry, this is very difficult to find, especially in healthcare because there’s so much red tape, employees have to have a lot of knowledge and ability. It’s been amazing for me to not be micromanaged, to not be constantly asked what I’m doing every moment of every day. So I think it’s a two way street when you’re given that room to grow, to make those decisions and take those chances. It’s probably one of the best places I’ve ever worked.

Can you describe like your leadership style, how do you like lead lead differently your male counterparts?

My leadership style would be very much, lead by example. So I’ll never have somebody doing something that I’m not willing to do myself or that you haven’t seen me do. In this role I’ve had to do all aspects, for example last Thursday I provided care for three clients in the morning because we don’t have the care staff and I’d rather go out and provide the care than have the clients go without. So I’ll jump in and do whatever needs to be done. So I expect everybody else to do the same. Also encouraging and supporting the team is really important to me.

What do you think is the most significant barrier to female leadership?

I think that in the employment world, if you have a male and a female going for the same job, it is incredibly difficult for the female to get ahead of the male because it always comes down to families. Nobody will ever admit it, but it always comes down to families and it’s always the woman who has to look after the kids. It’s never the male. This is a huge, huge barrier to female leadership. I see this across the board but it’s definitely an issue with my care staff, if one of their children is sick it’s my female care staff who has to go and collect the child from school. It’s the female care staff who has to pull out of work for the day or for the week or whatever it is while the dad is still in work as normal.

Do you experience resistance when you’re leading men and if so, how do you deal with it?

I have in the past, not so much in Future Care. You’d have that resistance that they just don’t respond to female authority and sometimes you can’t get around it, sometimes it just doesn’t work. Other times, I suppose it depends on how open they are to accepting that you’re not going anywhere and you either work with me or you don’t.

I think also again it goes back to leading by example as well. It’s about gaining respect from people regardless of gender. When people see that you’re willing to do their job and your own and everybody else’s you gain their respect.

An example for me was I had this one employee who was a coordinator and anything you’d say to him he knew better. He knew the answer better than you did, but would also try and challenge you, would ask you questions to see how you’d answer them. When he was started to understand that I actually was fully aware of my role, I was fully aware of the business, the job, the industry, he began to come around. I think once people start to break down their own issues you can actually then start working with them and start planning and figuring it out together.

What do you think is the most dangerous behaviour or trait that you’ve seen derail female leaders?

I think probably negativity and resistance is going to derail any leader. If you’ve got a team that’s negative, I think females, males, it doesn’t matter. Once you’ve got negativity in the team, it’s incredibly hard to get rid of and it’s incredibly hard to turn around and make a success.

How do you balance your career, your personal life, and your passions?

It’s a difficult one to say because for the last six months of last year were wild in Future Care and that it was incredibly hard to balance personal life, work, passions. Something had to give. And it does have a knock on effect, my problem is me. I put an incredible amount of pressure on myself. It’s not the business, it’s not my managers, it’s me. It’s me that wants this to work. It’s me that wants it to succeed. So you run while the going is good and you breathe when you can. I think that’s probably been a consistent issue of mine. The more driven you are, the more you want to succeed, the harder it is to maintain that balance.

What is the best way do you think to negotiate salary and scope of work?

I’m probably not great at negotiating salary. For me the second part of that question, the scope of work, I think it’s all around your vision, it’s where you see the business and it’s how you can you can manage, what supports you need and how to make that work to make your vision come to life. There’s a lot of planning and a lot of presentations that go into it. It’s about being incredibly realistic as to what workload you can take on, which again is not my strong point. Regarding the scope of work, it’s all about the vision and planning. It’s about seeing where you will be in 6 months, 9 months, and 12 months time. It’s about planning on how you get to those places and what you need to get there.

Have you ever felt impostor syndrome, and if so, how did you navigate it?

Yes, every day, I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing! I definitely would hold my hands up and say to anybody that I 100% sometimes blink and go “How did I even get here? Have I just been winging it?” I genuinely think that sometimes it is just about winging it. But I also believe that you need to trust in your own judgement. Have the confidence to be making those decisions and standing by those decisions. Having a mentor also plays a huge part as well in confidence and in your own ability, having somebody to support you and to guide you, to be that sounding board. I think if you don’t have that, it’s very difficult to navigate imposter syndrome and also to navigate day-to-day. For example I would go to my mentor with a question I would know the answer to but I would just need to say it out loud and she would very little back to me. So it’s important sometimes just to say it out loud and tell your mentor what you’ve done to resolve it. Sometimes you just need that reassurance. But yes, imposter syndrome every day.

How can women, do you think support other women in their organisations?

I actually think of it regardless of gender, how do we support each other? It’s the encouragement side and we’ve done a lot of training with Steering Point’s Leadership Coach, Johnny Cooper around this. It’s trying to come together to help each other instead of looking for somebody when you need something. It’s recognising that maybe on a certain day that somebody’s not themselves, and it’s about linking in with them. Reaching out. “Is everything OK? Do you want to go for a walk? Do you want to have a chat?” It’s encouraging people. I’m looking at it from if somebody comes to you and says I have a problem but it’s not in your area of expertise, you can bring your own knowledge to support them in some way. Sometimes it’s literally just hearing them, just by listening that you can be supportive. Often they have their own solutions to the problem. They just can’t see it because they’re stuck in their own head. So I think just in general supporting each other and encouraging, helping, listening, They are such important factors to working together.

What advice would you give your 25 year old self?

Trust your own judgement. Have confidence in your ability. At 25 I was quite lost. I didn’t have a career path per se, nor did I know what career path I wanted. My hard work has definitely paid off and but I have been incredibly lucky with the people that I have come across in my life to achieve the career path that I’m on now. At 25, things were incredibly different but what I did then I’d probably do again in the sense of you put your head down, you work, you work so hard, and you get recognised for that. And I think when you’re working hard doors open for you that you didn’t necessarily ever think would, or that you’d never given it really much thought. So I think just trust in your own judgement, don’t second guess yourself and have confidence in what you’re doing.

What advice would you give the next generation of female leaders?

Play to your strengths, hire people for your weaknesses and don’t compare yourself to others.

I think to the first point, a lot of people are afraid to hire people for their weaknesses. I think people have that threatened outcome to it where I think it’s a really positive thing and I think you need to trust your team. You hire people in areas that you lack and it just gives you more of a robust team. And don’t compare yourself to others.

What motivated you to step up and become a leader in the organisation?

I’ve always been driven by the impact that strong leadership can have on both individuals and businesses. I saw an opportunity to shape the direction of my organisation, foster a culture of inclusivity, and drive meaningful change. Stepping up as a leader wasn’t just about personal ambition—it was about creating an environment where people could thrive and contribute to a shared vision.

Describe your leadership style and how you “lead” others. Is it different from your male counterparts?

My leadership style is collaborative, strategic, and results driven. I believe in empowering my team, providing clarity, and ensuring people feel heard. Leadership is about enabling others to succeed, not just directing them. While leadership styles vary by individual rather than gender, I’ve noticed that women leaders often focus on relationship-building and emotional intelligence, which fosters engagement and long-term success.

What do you think is the most significant barrier to female leadership?

The biggest barrier is unconscious bias—the ingrained perception that leadership traits are inherently masculine. Women are often judged more harshly for being assertive, and there is still an expectation that they should “prove” themselves more than their male counterparts. Additionally, structural barriers such as lack of representation at senior levels and limited access to high-profile assignments can make it harder for women to advance.

Do you experience resistance when you are leading men?  How do you deal with it?

There have been moments where I’ve encountered subtle resistance—whether it’s being questioned more than male colleagues or having my expertise second-guessed. I address it by staying confident, focusing on outcomes, and ensuring that my decisions are backed by clear reasoning and data. Ultimately, respect is earned through competence, consistency, and decisiveness.

How do you balance career, personal life and passions? Is there such a thing as balance?

Balance is a moving target. Rather than aiming for perfect balance, I focus on prioritisation—understanding what is most critical at any given time. Setting boundaries, being intentional about where I invest my time, and surrounding myself with a strong support system all help. There will be times when work takes priority and times when personal life comes first—what matters is ensuring that neither is consistently sacrificed.

What’s the most dangerous behavior/trait that you have seen derail female leaders’ careers?

Perfectionism and over-apologising. Women often feel they need to be 100% ready before taking on leadership roles, while men tend to take opportunities even if they meet only a portion of the requirements. Hesitation and self-doubt can hold women back from seizing leadership positions or negotiating for what they deserve.

Have you ever been so discouraged you wanted to quit?

Yes, leadership comes with its challenges, and there have been moments of frustration. But in those moments, I remind myself why I started—the impact I want to make and the people who rely on strong leadership. Having a network of peers and mentors to provide perspective and encouragement has been invaluable.

What is the best way to negotiate salary and scope of work?

Preparation is key. Research market benchmarks, know your value, and approach negotiations with confidence. Focus on data-driven arguments rather than emotions. Instead of just asking for a number, articulate the business impact of your contributions. Also, never be afraid to negotiate beyond salary—consider flexibility, professional development, and additional responsibilities that align with your career goals.

Have you ever felt the imposter syndrome, and if so how did you navigate your way through it?

Absolutely. Imposter syndrome can creep in, especially in male-dominated spaces. I’ve learned to reframe self-doubt as a sign of growth—if I’m outside my comfort zone, it means I’m evolving. I also remind myself of my track record and seek feedback from trusted colleagues to counteract negative self-talk.

How important is it to have a mentor to grow as a leader?

Invaluable. A mentor provides guidance, perspective, and access to opportunities that might not be immediately visible. They challenge you to think bigger and navigate workplace dynamics. I’ve benefited from both formal mentors and informal sponsors who have championed my growth.

How can women support other women in their organisations?

By being intentional in mentorship, advocacy, and sponsorship. Women should actively recommend each other for opportunities, amplify each other’s voices in meetings, and create space for open conversations about career growth. We should also call out biases when we see them and lead by example in fostering an inclusive culture.

What advice would you give your 25-year-old self?

Stop waiting to feel “ready”—just go for it.

Advocate for yourself as much as you advocate for others.

Your career is a marathon, not a sprint. Pace yourself, but don’t be afraid to push forward.

What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders?

Lead with confidence but never stop learning.

Build a strong network, your peers, mentors, and allies will shape your career.

Speak up. Your perspective is valuable, and the room needs to hear it.

Lift as you climb, create pathways for other women to rise with you.