Lenovo's Jane Ashworth: 'Women have to lift each other up'

Speaking to CRN as part of our DEI in Action series, Ashworth explains how a supportive male ally during her early career in consumer electronics made all the difference, and now she is determined to pay it forward

“Oh, stop getting so emotional.”

Many women of a certain age in the channel will have probably heard that phrase round a boardroom table and just gritted their teeth and got on with it, just like Lenovo’s director of global channel partnerships Jane Ashworth did back in the day.

She was also threatened by a colleague who waited until they were the last two left in the office one evening because he didn’t agree with her views on diversity, and because she dared to have a difference in opinion with him.

And she has, sadly, experienced the classic situation where people address any men in the room before her because she is a woman, with the assumption being made that she 'must be' in the lower-ranking role.

“We all have a story to tell, and we all deal with it in different ways,” she said. “I decided to focus on what I had learnt from those experiences and work out how I am going to make a difference.

"I’ve had some really terrible behaviour directed at me over the years such as bad behaviour towards me individually, aggressive behaviour and non-inclusive behaviour. But you have to find the strength to rise above it.

“I don’t want any young females or anyone who may be viewed as slightly different to the ‘norm’ to go through that.

"I’m at a point in my career where I can take all of this great experience and learning to give back and make a difference for the people that are there now and are trying to further their careers.”

Allies matter

Ashworth said she was fortunate to have a fantastic male ally at the very start of her career in consumer electronics at Sony, who really helped her on the right path.

“I was at Sony for 13 years and it was full of wonderful male allies who spotted my talent after we won a major deal off the back of a customer pitch that I was involved in.

"He sponsored me to move into sales, and I ended up being the first female national account controller in Sony, purely because someone saw my talent and believed in me,” she explained. “During those 13 years I moved into senior management and I managed to raise two children because I got the childcare and support that I required, along with the flexibility I needed, and it was a very meaningful place to be.”

While some other roles after Sony were more of a challenge because it was more difficult to balance work commitments outside working hours and having a family, Ashworth said, her time as managing director of Smart Technologies allowed her to create her own environment and culture for her team and lead by example.

“We invested in training, wellness and being. We ensure that we had a balanced work day and that our priorities were correct.

"Also, we made sure that we had an open and safe environment where people could share and nobody was judged. I built a very diverse team of individuals and it was an environment that everybody thrived in,” she said, adding that during her time at Lenovo she has been able to further support and promote female talent and will continue to do so.

Leadership is the key

Ashworth said the level of talent coming into the workforce via the next generations is brilliant, but the responsibility is heavily on senior leadership teams to handle diversity and inclusion seriously.

“Unless leaders understand the benefits that Diversity can deliver for their business, things will never truly change. We need leadership that is making those decisions and are driving that through diversity KPIs. Otherwise, how are we keeping ourselves accountable as businesses,” she said.

She added that women have to play their part, particularly female leaders.

“As females we do need to make ourselves accountable," she explains. "I see all too often women that have perhaps progressed and they have had a lot of support to get to that level, but don’t utilise that authority in the right way.

"Queen B syndrome is a real thing! We should be lifting each other up, supporting and sponsoring each other.

"If we don’t do that we are never going to make the progress we need in diverse environments. We have a responsibility to ensure that we are leading by example and being the role models to those that aspire to be senior leaders.”