10: Cynthia Chung on making big decisions and leading the way for others

In this episode, Helen chats with Cynthia Chung.

Cynthia is a procurement guru. Her 20-year career spans diverse industries including consulting, technology, automotive, FMCG, and retail.

Cynthia has a track record of building highly effective teams that drive award-winning outcomes.

Having spent the last 8.5 years with one of the world’s most recognised brands, Nandos, Cynthia has recently taken the leap into a new role with Vicinity Centres, a leading retail property group here in Australia.

In recent years Cynthia has been active in leveraging her professional achievements to promote the benefits of a diverse workforce, to encourage more varied representation in leadership roles, and to advocate for and be a role model for women from multicultural backgrounds.

In this conversation, Cynthia talks about making big decisions, accepting not everything is going to work out perfectly or as you might hope or expect, and stepping out of her comfort zone to be a role model for others.

Highlights:

• Stop blending in, start standing out: How her early life experience of trying to “blend in” led her to realising that she should be proud of not being the same as everyone else and step forward to showcase her differences.
• Challenging unconscious bias: Cynthia explains how even after more than 20 years experience she is still dealing with, often unintentional, but mostly unfounded perceptions about who she is and what she brings to a professional setting.
• Developing diversity in the workplace: The importance for businesses of having a diverse workforce, to benefit their growth and bottom line.
• Avoiding analysis paralysis: A procurement expert’s advice on how to get unstuck from making big purchase decisions (or any big decisions!).
• Fitting your oxygen mask first: Prioritising self-care and protecting her energy in order to best support her professional and personal responsibilities and commitments.

 

More about Cynthia

If you’d like more information about Cynthia and her work, you can follow or connect with her on LinkedIn - @cynthia-chung-au

 

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How To Get Unstuck With Helen Thomas is hosted by Helen Thomas and edited and produced by Snappystreet Creative.