Co-chair of Women in Tech, Tami Kuboye, unpacks the resilience and determination it takes to carve out space in industries where women of colour's voices are often overlooked.
Tami brings to light the challenges and victories along her path, drawing from her eclectic experience in law, finance, and tech.
Hear how Tami battled "mum brain" and imposter syndrome after returning from maternity leave.
We spotlight the ground-breaking strides toward inclusivity in tech, shining a light on initiatives designed to bring diverse women into the field.
Listen to learn:
- About the thriving community of Women in Tech
- The power of mentorship
- How to open doors to new opportunities
- The importance of representation and amplifying voices
You can now nominate for the 2025 Northern Power Women Awards to be in with a chance of celebrating with changemakers, trailblazers and advocates on 6th March 2025! Nominate now at wearepower.net
Sign up to our Power Platform to check out our events calendar here.
Keep up to date on the latest news from We Are Power : Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram & Facebook
Sign up to our newsletter.
Co-chair of Women in Tech, Tami Kuboye, unpacks the resilience and determination it takes to carve out space in industries where women of colour's voices are often overlooked.
Tami brings to light the challenges and victories along her path, drawing from her eclectic experience in law, finance, and tech.
Hear how Tami battled "mum brain" and imposter syndrome after returning from maternity leave.
We spotlight the ground-breaking strides toward inclusivity in tech, shining a light on initiatives designed to bring diverse women into the field.
Listen to learn:
- About the thriving community of Women in Tech
- The power of mentorship
- How to open doors to new opportunities
- The importance of representation and amplifying voices
You can now nominate for the 2025 Northern Power Women Awards to be in with a chance of celebrating with changemakers, trailblazers and advocates on 6th March 2025! Nominate now at wearepower.net
Sign up to our Power Platform to check out our events calendar here.
Keep up to date on the latest news from We Are Power : Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram & Facebook
Sign up to our newsletter.
Hello, hello and welcome to the Northern Power Women podcast. For your career and your life, no matter what business you're in. Hello, hello and welcome to the Northern Power Women podcast. My name is Simone and you are so very welcome. This podcast is all about highlighting the fantastic role models, sharing their inspiring personal and professional stories with you, and we want to bring some of those top tips, advice, guidance, side hacks Don't even know if that's a thing, but anyway, we'll bring the side hacks as well as the hacks along, whatever it may be, to help you through you, whether it be your life, your career, whatever it may be. So, without further ado, let us meet this week's guest. It is Tammy, tammy Kuboye, and it is a welcome back to you. Welcome back to the Northern Power Women podcast. Tammy is the Creative Digital Project Manager and Deputy Co-Chair of Women in Technology at the fantastic Barclays Technology. Tammy, welcome back to the pod.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, simone, it's like coming back home. I didn't even intend to rhyme, but there we are. Thank you so much for having me back. I'm excited for today's session. Come on, let's jump right into it.
Speaker 1:Let's get in. Well, do you know what? Um, I think we could just do it all in the form of a rhyme so I am creative.
Speaker 2:So let's just see, and if it doesn't flow, it doesn't flow. But we tried, it doesn't flow but we've given it a go.
Speaker 1:Look at that.
Speaker 2:You are on fire, simone, come on.
Speaker 1:Well, you were on the podcast just over a year ago with the wonderful Laura and it was that whole conversation. Was it a year ago? Was it two years ago? It was a year.
Speaker 2:But it's just over a year. I think it's almost 18 months. Oh, my goodness, it's almost two years's. Just over a year. I think it's almost 18 months. Oh, my goodness, it's almost two years ago. Simone, Too long.
Speaker 1:I thought it was Well one of the things I took about that you talked on that podcast about. We are all learners, you know, it's never, never too old, and we're just in the process as we head fast forward with our trainers on into the eighth Northern Power Women Awards. Reflect on an amazing one of our commended last year was a lady called Professor Diana, and we always have a mentor program that wraps around the awards, so all of the shortlists get offered a mentor and I remember Professor Diana Professor Diana is an octogenarian and she was like when we said, do you want a mentor? She was like absolutely, because you never stop learning and you're passionate about the learning vibe, isn't it? We're all learners every day.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, Look, every day is a learning day and I think unconsciously we don't. I mean, we don't think about that consciously, but really every single day it's a learning day. But then it's up to us to look for the lessons and absorb what that change looks like, because if we're not looking out for the lessons, then we're missing so every day is a learning day, absolutely, and you've worked across sort of spectrum, haven't you?
Speaker 1:whether it be? You know law finance, tech. You know these are pretty male dominated sectors, aren't they that? You know law finance tech? You know these are pretty male dominated sectors, aren't they that? You know what sort of what things have you? What ceilings and walls have you crashed through in those industries?
Speaker 2:Let me tell you about it. So I think, basically, I get my strength from the fact that my parents so I have got Nigerian background. My mother, she, is of Nigerian heritage but she, um, she's a Yorkshire lass. She was a Yorkshire lass god rest her soul and but she and my father gave me that flexibility and the ability to believe that I could do whatever I wanted. And so it wasn't until I started my work life I think I had probably had those rose tinted glasses on and I thought everyone in the world thought like that.
Speaker 2:And I got into the workplace and I'm like I'm speaking, but people aren't either hearing me or they are ignoring me, and I grew up quite shy, so I and I did have quite a quiet voice. So I thought, okay, next time I must speak up louder. And that's when I realized that it's not just about me speaking up louder, it's about me finding a voice that people could not ignore, because they are going to ignore me. I'm a woman, I'm black, I'm in a male-dominated area and we just get taken for granted. I was in a boardroom one day and I was there as a project management analyst and I was told to go and make the teas and coffees and I was like, no, I'm not, I'll go and get the PA and it's not the PA's job. But I was working in a hierarchical community in Germany and that's what the PA's had to do. I said I'll help you out, I go and get them, but I'm not going to make the teas and coffins.
Speaker 1:Do you know and I think it is about that, isn't it? We all got to speak up louder and and, like you just said, you know a voice we've all got to be the voice. You can't ignore. Um, was that I mean? Did you say that you were out in Germany at this time? Was that hard? Was that something you just had to really lean into to do and think if I don't, then this is just going to go on forever, right?
Speaker 2:yes, it was, and I'll tell you why. So I so, prior to my coming to Barclays, I had been contracting for many, many years, because it was a lifestyle that suited me and also because I thought I would get bored just sitting in a job and I love the fact that there are people that can stay in one job and one role for 50 years more to you but I am not that person, and so I wanted a life where I could move about and not be bored. So there was this contract life that I was dealing with, and as part of that I I came into this organization because it was trying to be brought up to um, you know the, the, the british standard um, and I was the only black person in the building that was working on the floors, and it's not because I don't see color, but it's because I choose not to have a victim mentality. So for me I I recognized that the only other black people were the ones that were cleaning or the ones that were opening the door, and I made sure to make friends with them because I didn't want them to think that I was, you know, snotty and my nose was up in the air and I thought I was better than them.
Speaker 2:I'm not. I just came from different, a different background and at different sort of circumstances. And so what I found was, I thought to myself, well, I have to be and obviously this was probably something I shouldn't have done I have to be a representation for them, because everyone in this building does not expect anyone who's who looks like me to be on the fifth, sixth or seventh floor. I'm supposed to be in the basement with the help. So there's a way you carry yourself when you know that there's a certain perspective, unspoken bias against you and that helps, that permeates, because sometimes it's also about the unspoken word. It's the way you carry yourself and it's the way you put your message across, and it took me years to learn how to get my message across. But then that's we fail forward, right? You try it when you're like hmm, hmm, maybe not, and then you fine tune it Again learning day. Every day is a learning day.
Speaker 1:And I love that. Talk about failing forward, but the thing about you, tammy, always strikes me as that intention, you know. And so, whether you're failing forward, whether you've said something oh, maybe that wasn't the way to do it, I think it's just it's keep doing it, it's get up, isn't it? Get up, do it again. You know, do you think it's just it's keep?
Speaker 2:do it. It's get up, isn't it get up? Do it again. You know, um, do you think it's got easier? I think I've gotten better at being able to read the room quicker. I applied a one size fits all and you can't do that. But, like like you just said, simone, you learn like you do something and it either floats like a feather or it drops like a lead balloon, but then you then you know okay, this works, I'm gonna try it again and then maybe slightly tweak it. And this doesn't work. I'm not even gonna try it again. So I've gotten better at reading the room and then that's helped me to be more proactive instead of reactive. But it's never easy. It's every time you come into a room and you have that you can feel the tension and the bias, but unspoken it's um, it's flight or fear, and I choose the adrenaline to be excitement, like, okay, let's tackle this one, then let's see how this one's going to turn out.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah and and and. Then that's what you need. It's that is that advocacy as well, because you're the, you're the one who's kind of blazing that trail, in that There'll be other people in that room who feel that tension, who feel that awkwardness, and you're the one, if it comes back to your point, isn't it? Be the voice you can't ignore, and I know you have the great role of being deputy co-chair of the Women in Technologies at Barclays, of being deputy co-chair of the women in technologies at Barclays. And what is the? How are you going about demystifying some of this? Because you know some of this, you know we talk about oh gosh, we're all the women in tech. How have you kind of broken and sort of disassembled some of those myths? Or have you just got a hammer to it and smashed them?
Speaker 2:And that's really that you say that, because for a while that was my approach. But when I came into Barclays, having come from that so the organization that I worked in in Germany was 300 strong right, barclays is probably the largest organization that I've worked in so I came in and I felt like I had been dropped into an ocean, purely also because I've been on maternity leave for six months, um six months, nine months even and I came back in with mom brain, which is a thing I couldn't remember. I was like why did I, why did I ever think I could do this job? Imposter syndrome set in. It was a new set of people, new, new ways of working, so I was a little bit out. I felt out of my depth. I wasn't, but I felt out of my depth.
Speaker 2:Um, and then the reason, the way I came into Women in Tech, was I thrive on community and I had to find a community. So I went on the internet and I checked around. Where can I, you know, where can I find people that are like me? And at that time I did not consider myself a Woman in Tech, but because of my background my parents are, you know, I come from a long line of freedom fighters. Anything that's got to do with women, young people under representative minorities, I'm there. Whatever it is men, women, black, brown I'll be there.
Speaker 2:And so I found myself in women in tech, and at that point there was a little bit of a transition going on and there came an opportunity to come in as deputy co-chair and I said yes, and this is one thing that I've found that helps me along my journey. I say yes first and then I figure out how to do it. It doesn't matter if I've done it or not. I'll say yes, I'll give it a go, like our flow that we're not doing yet, but I'll say yes and then we'll figure out the way there's always a way.
Speaker 1:That's and you know what that's my mantra say Say yes and work it out later. That has always been when people say you know what's the best advice you'd always give your younger self or you give to someone else. It's absolutely say yes and figure it out. You know later and I think you using that. I think there's so much about this podcast. We're talking about your voice and you want your voice to help fight any injustice, especially, you know, among marginalized groups, and you obviously got your role as the chair, co-chair of women in tech. Um, how are you taking that voice wider in in in your workplace and community, if you like to, to kind of really help fight that injustice?
Speaker 2:indeed, and, and I think one of the one of the key things that stood out to me and this is something that, um, you know, I, I know that a lot um, when I came on on the show um, it's a show, it's a show, um, with with laura. We're talking about how we are looking at ways where we can support our colleagues that work in ops. So if you, if you, if you go to the layman on the street and ask them about barclays, they'll tell you it's a bank because that's traditionally, for 300 years plus, we are known as a bank, and you go to the layman on the street and ask them about Barclays, they'll tell you it's a bank Because traditionally, for 300 years plus, we are known as a bank. And you go down the high street and you see the bank, you don't think about the tech that sits behind it, you don't think about how the ATM machines work, and so we have a lot of colleagues in operations who serve our customers diligently, who are very passionate about what they do, but they don't know or think that they also can partake in the tech side of things, and so it's creating the awareness that there is a life outside of operations, if you feel like you want to explore and expand your wing. So it's creating that pipeline of attraction.
Speaker 2:And also, we've recently moved into pillars from a women in tech perspective for the whole of EMEA, and the pillar that I'm most passionate about is attract, because it's not just attracting women who are in different spheres of life into technology, it's also attracting women who are returning from work like me think well, what do, what can I do? I've been out for so long, I don't know anything about technology, I don't know anything about the trends or what can I offer. And then also understanding that there's girls, pre-pubescent and even girls in primary school, who probably don't know that there is a world open to them in technology. So that attract pipeline starts from the cradle all the way up onto life moments. And for me, that's what I'm passionate about demystifying. If you've got a microwave at home, if you've got a telephone um, a mobile phone they're called these days showing my htv you are, you are technologically active, my girl and you have us voice in technology, and so it's. It's just showing the other ways. If you love sports, there's sports tech. If you love music, there's music tech.
Speaker 1:There's a place for everyone in technology, um, and it's just showing, showing that strength, and you know it's music to my ears, if you like, because I think so often we try and sort of put people in those boxes and people have that. You know you talk about tech and people think, oh gosh, you know you talk about tech and people think, oh gosh, you know. Lab coat and drone on coding, that's all you know. They think that associates it with and, equally, you mentioned sort of sport as well. There We've been doing our International Women's Day series all around sport and it's you know, it's not just there for people who participate in sport, there's a whole ecosystem around that and you this whole attract, if you like, the attract, pipeline it around that, and you this whole attract, if you like, they trap pipeline.
Speaker 1:It's not just come in and work here, it's actually look at me doing this. You know, look at me doing this. This is this is. You know, it doesn't have to be what you think it is, it's actually what are you interested in? You know, come, take a look, be curious, and I think this is why you need the visibility. So we've talked about using your voice. We're now talking about that, one of the other things that I know we are both absolutely mutually passionate about is allyship, and you know, one of the big things that we're really proud to be working with the Barclays and Massive on is about how we really enable and mobilize that community to attract. Use the attract word again so we can attract, so we can be visible. Talk to me about the male allyship. I know this could be a whole other pod in itself, and now we'd probably, but it's important, right, isn't it?
Speaker 2:it's not just important, but it's it's, it's, it's critical to the solution it is and and I think you've hit the nail on the head, and I want to just say big up to Ilka, who's our male champion here he will disagree for allyship, Because here's the thing men and boys are allies from birth, but they are not shaped. I'm going to be a little bit controversial here, but it takes a woman to bring a child into the world, boy or girl, and the concept of allyship is actually fostered in the home. It's about being able to understand the community that you're in. If we take the homestead, for example, you're in a community. You're raised, and I'm going to use Ilka as an example. He's going to hate me for it, but he was raised by the matriarchs in his family and so he's got a strong sense of passion towards them.
Speaker 2:And for me, allyship is being able to stand for what is right, especially when you see that disassociation happen in society and advocacy goes hand in hand. Because if we've got, you know, women on one side and men on one side, then we're working in silos. But the whole point of it is coming together to understand that society has created this imbalance of strengths and weaknesses, that society has created this imbalance of strengths and weaknesses. But we can foster that and strengthen that by having the advocates in our mails coming forward to say you know what? This has been a stereotype for too long. We are going to break that stereotype. We are going to change the status quo. We are going to make sure that if we can't have that space to have that equity, then we're going to shout out about it, and that's what makes me most proud about this.
Speaker 1:You know the synergy that we have it is and it is and I love the way that we've we've come about it, if you like, organically, if you like, and um, you know, ilka, we can. We can we have a whole podcast on our you know, uh, our love of ilka. Ilka is managing director of barclays Tech and has literally sort of have to been at the awards last year, been in the room, was like, you know, we want to do more. What can we do? And he talks so passionately about his passion, if you like, to do and to take action, not just to be passive, because allyship is not passive. It got to be active and you've really got to lean into it and and it was like, well, actually, why don't we do something about it? You know, we've always been all genders. That's always been something I've been really, really, really adamant about. And but why don't we create something that we will kind of, you know, work with and for to really manifest, um, and showcase and spotlight? We took out the awards have always been about showcasing, spotlighting, celebrating role models.
Speaker 1:This is going to be about manifesting, growing, engaging, educating, you know, and really helping support, build and foster that community, as you just said. It's a perfect point that you know, our boys are grown. We're born as allies, you know, but it's how do we foster and grow? We need to make it not frightening, need to make it not sort of scary to be an ally for fear of saying the wrong thing. You know, um, it's about doing. It's about that. How do we be the? How do we bring that activity? So I'm really excited about what this will lie ahead, um, with our advocacy group. Advocacy group because, like I say, it's not just about a picture in a brochure or a or a photo op or whatever it's about. It's about the doing.
Speaker 1:And I think that's where, yeah, and anyone out there who thinks they can't be an ally, anyone out there who thinks that they can't be an advocate for change, you know, whatever it is that you're passionate about, go, just do one small. It can be one small thing. The one small thing adds to truly true change, and you know. So, whether it is, what do you say actually, tammy, how can we give that one lovely piece of advice out there? So we've talked a lot about, you know, being visible and speaking up. So that person out there who thinks, do you know what? I want to call this out or I want to speak up about this, but they maybe haven't got that confidence or belief that they can. What's the one piece of advice?
Speaker 2:you'd give to them. So I'd say this and I love that you asked that question, simone, because even as that question was being formulated, all that I could think in my mind was as a baby crawls, it takes a step and a step and a step until it starts to run Find that one thing that you can say yes, it's difficult, I know you said one line, but I'm sorry, it's difficult to find your voice. But even if you say, actually I don't agree and leave it at that, that's a start. You don't have to go into war and peace. You don't have to go into, because some people don't like confrontation, start. You don't have to go into war and peace. You don't have to go into, because some people don't like confrontation. You don't have to be confrontational.
Speaker 2:All you have to say is actually I don't agree or, if you want to be less confrontational, I have a different opinion, and everyone is entitled to their opinion, because you can't go wrong there. It's how I believe it should be. It's what I think. It's different from what you think. I'm not saying you're better or you're right or I'm right or whatever, but I believe differently, and that's one thing that can change a situation. You'll be surprised how those little words can actually make someone think oh actually, okay, they have a point and that's where someone else alongside you or someone else has gone.
Speaker 1:Thank goodness, me too.
Speaker 2:You know it's yes, it's the me too movement. It is it. Honestly. Some people are waiting for someone else to speak up, Like it's bubbling inside of them. They want to say something and they're fearful, and it doesn't have to be long words. I have a different opinion.
Speaker 1:I love that. I think that is amazing advice. Tammy, you are amazing. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm honest I could do this every week with you. What a great way. What a great way to kick start your day by listening to fabulous Tammy on the podcast.
Speaker 1:Tammy, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for being absolutely a force of nature by speaking up louder and being the voice you can't ignore. And don't forget, say yes and figure out later. I thank all of you for listening today. We absolutely love bringing the phenomenal role models that we've got in and across our community to you, passing on those top tips, that advice, that guidance. Thank you so much and thank you all to listen. We love your feedback, so please keep it coming. Join in the conversation at North power women on twitter and northern power women and all of our other socials. Thank you so much. Find out and keep connected on everything we do on our digital hub. We are power dot net. Thank you for listening. My name is simone. This is the northern power women podcast and what goes on media production.