Katherine Gobbi, CEO of EMLife believes that there has never been a better time to be a woman and insurance.
Gobbi said that the days where “tough, objective, old school,” managers ruled the show has long gone, paving the way for her own emotionally-intelligent leadership style.
“I think the worst that anyone has ever called me was too emotional,” she said, adding that she likes to lead her team with passion and emotion.
Reflecting on the changing role of women in the insurance industry, Gobbi is optimistic about the future.
“Doors are being open for women now,” she said.
Gobbi says she is often invited to speak at conferences to provide a female perspective and to break up what she describes as ‘manels’ (panels featuring only male speakers).
A big believer in diversity, Gabbi says that conference panels should ideally involve women, men and people of different sexualities and nationalities.
“Those are the panels that we want to see,” she said.
Diversity leads to what she describes as “a much more interesting conversation.”
Gobbi, who shared her advice on how to be a resilient leader at the recent Women in Insurance Summit, believes that resilience is a key attribute for all leaders, regardless of gender.
With a workforce of 1,400 employees at EMLife, Gobbi deals with her fair share of workplace pressure, but she finds that journaling helps her to develop resilience and work through her problems.
“I journal the things that I am grateful for. I journal the things that have frustrated me and made me anxious and I try to understand those and I overcome them,” she said.
Gobbi is also a big advocate of getting enough sleep.
“I’m massively committed to sleep. I sleep more than most people I know and I just don’t buy into this whole you can survive with 4 hour sleep a night. I need my sleep for my brain to work properly”.
When she feels pressure and finds herself ruminating , believes its best to deal with it quickly, sometimes cancelling meetings to “small something out”.
“You just need to make a change, to act on it,” she said.
