Stefanie Allen, General Counsel
For Stefanie Allen, who serves as General Counsel for ABGF, having the opportunity to interact with different types of people from an early age helped shape her views on diversity and leadership. She grew up in inner city Melbourne, where her mother rented out spare rooms in their home to support their family.
“I learned early on to be comfortable with difference and that there’s no ‘one way’ to be or to live,” says Stefanie.
However, as she entered the legal profession and started to rise through the legal ranks toward law firm partnership, Stefanie says she found firm leadership did not always share her opinion.
“At the time, I felt there was a lot of pressure to ‘fit the mould’ of what a successful Partner should be. The formula was driven by a traditional view of what worked. It didn’t match my personality or what I wanted in a successful career. I wasn’t prepared to compromise what was important to me to meet that expectation.”
What made the difference in her career development, she says, was having opportunities to interact with and learn from a wider diverse group of professionals outside the law firm environment with different strengths to hers.
“I recall one particularly valuable experience when I was already quite a senior lawyer but decided to take on greater responsibility in a particular field which I was inexperienced. One colleague, senior to me, had expertise in that area and always made the time to answer any and all questions I had. He never gave the impression he saw my inexperience in this one aspect of my role as a negative. He continually looked for opportunities for me to learn more and develop.”
“To me, it was a way of recognising that there’s more than one way to be successful, and a leader. Organisations that don’t fully embrace diversity in all its forms – including cognitive diversity and differences in personality – are missing out on a lot of talent.”