International Women’s Day: interview with Kerry Rooks

Frazer Jones is proud to be supporting International Women’s Day 2019. International Women’s Day celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. Whilst we all know that gender parity within the workplace has improved over the past decades, we all also know that there is still a long way to go.

We would like to join the discussion and be part of International Women’s Day 2019 #BalanceforBetter campaign on the 8th March by interviewing inspiring women we work with and, in particular, understanding the role confidence has played in their career.

We interviewed Kerry Rooks, CHRO, Prudential Assurance Hong Kong.

How do you define confidence, particularly in the workplace?

Confidence in the workplace is belief in yourself and conviction that your actions or opinions are in the best interests of the organisation and key stakeholders. Confidence also means being authentic, having the courage to show vulnerabilities and seeking support from others when required.

How important have confidence and self-belief been in achieving your career goals? Please explain why.

Confidence and self-belief are critical to achieving career goals because if you don’t believe you can, no one else necessarily will.  This doesn’t mean having the utmost complete confidence and self-belief 100% of the time, but you need to believe that you can do it most of the time.  Self-doubts will rear its ugly head from time to time – this is natural but needs to be managed so that it doesn’t become your self-created obstacles from achieving and exceeding your goals.