Most leadership advice tells you to lean in. Katherine Nguyen and Tracey Broers say the real work starts with letting go.
For Katherine Nguyen, Group CFO at SKG Services, the journey to influence began with a decision to stop performing a version of leadership that never quite fit.
“One of the most important things I had to let go of in order to gain influence was the belief that leadership needed to look a certain way,” she says.
Nguyen works at a company celebrating 50 years of delivering cleaning, maintenance and security services across Australia, and she describes starting her career in environments where leadership was largely male-dominated.
The pressure to perform
There were moments, she recalls, where the pressure fell on her to adapt rather than lead on her own terms. “There were moments where I had to work harder to be heard, demonstrate my capability, and ensure my perspective was taken seriously,” Nguyen says. “At times, it can feel as though the pressure sits with you to adapt, to soften your voice, reshape your style or mirror how others lead in order to be accepted.”
The shift came when she recognised that her most effective work happened when she stopped trying to fit a mould. “Over time, I realised I was most effective when I led in the authentic way that felt natural to me, direct, fair and values-driven, rather than trying to fit a preconception,” she says. “That realisation continues to shape how I show up as a leader today: decisive in my choices, open to conversation and focused on outcomes rather than perception oriented.”
Stepping forward anyway
Nguyen also names a second mindset she had to shed: waiting until she felt ready. “Leadership opportunities rarely arrive when everything feels comfortable or certain,” she says. “Many of the defining moments in my career came when I stepped forward despite uncertainty. Confidence is rarely the starting point; it develops through action, experience and the willingness to take responsibility. That is where both personal and professional growth often begins.”
Her message to women considering careers in male-dominated industries is direct: “Your perspective matters and your voice deserves to be heard.”
When decisions get uncomfortable
For Tracey Broers, Group GM Risk at SKG Services, the cost of influence has looked different. In her role, the hardest thing to let go of was the comfort of seeing decisions through a personal lens.
“One of the most significant things I have had to give up to gain influence is the simplicity of seeing decisions purely through a personal lens,” Broers says. “Leadership demands that you step beyond individual perspective and consider the broader impact on teams, organisations and stakeholders. This often means participating in conversations and making decisions that you would never encounter in your ‘real life.’ They can be uncomfortable, confronting and at times deeply challenging.”
Influence, she adds, also means learning to separate personal feeling from professional duty. “There are moments when leaders must make difficult business decisions, choices that may affect colleagues, challenge personal ethics or create tension between what feels right emotionally and what is necessary strategically,” she says. “Navigating these situations requires balance: acknowledging empathy while maintaining clarity about organisational priorities.”
A seat, and what comes with it
Broers connects her experience directly to this year’s IWD theme, and to a tension that many women in leadership will recognise. “Progress is not only about gaining a seat at the table; it is about navigating the responsibilities that come with that seat,” she says. “True influence means holding space for complex conversations, advocating for fairness and inclusion, and recognising that leadership sometimes requires personal compromise in service of a greater outcome.”
She goes further still. “In striving to balance the scales, leaders sometimes must weigh business outcomes against personal biases or values to achieve results that may not fully align with their own ethical or moral perspectives, often a genuine navigational challenge.”
Both leaders, in their own way, are pointing at something that is rarely named directly: the cost of influence for women in business is real, personal and ongoing. What they are saying on IWD is that it is also, ultimately, worth it.
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