by Nichola Amey |
What are the key leadership issues, challenges and opportunities for women in business? It’s a big topic, and one that our managing director Managing Director, Nicky Amy, was invited to discuss as part in a roundtable discussion organised by Business Insider Magazine. Joining her was a group of inspiring female business owners, with the aim of advancing the conversation on empowering more women to succeed as entrepreneurs. Nicola shares her thoughts on the experience.
I’ve got to admit that taking part in a round table of this nature took me completely outside of my comfort zone. That may sound surprising, considering I’m a female managing director of a haulage firm – traditionally a very male-dominated sector. You might think that I’m used to challenging norms. While that’s true, I’m more a roll-my-sleeves-up-and-get-on-with-it leader, than sit round a board table discussing individual and societal direction.
I was therefore really surprised to find out how much I enjoyed the experience, how thought provoking it was, and how inspiring it was to sit around the table with fellow female business owners, sharing our experiences. How so many of the challenges that we think we face on our own are actually shared by other women. And how we can create solutions to remove obstacles and challenges for the women coming behind us.
Working in probably the most male-dominated sector around the table, I shared some of my experiences – which prompted gasps from some of the other women. Growing up within Castledene Transport, as I did with my dad at the helm, I’ve known from a young age how to change tyres and drive the lorries. When I joined the family firm, I insisted on learning – on doing every single role and learning every single skill that was needed in the business – because I firmly believe in not asking my team to do things that I would not do myself. And I think it’s very powerful if they know that I can roll my sleeves up and step in to help when needed.
When we wanted to take on our first female lorry driver, I had a very robust discussion with my dad, who initially wasn’t keen on the idea at all. He said he wasn’t worried about her ability to do the job, but was concerned about the reception that she would face, and whether she and I were sufficiently prepared for that.
I also recalled the multiple times that I’ve been asked to make the tea and get the business owner. It always seems to be the perception that when people are coming to see the business owner of a haulage firm, they are coming to see a man – even in 2025!
As one of the pro-active members of Palletline, I was invited to sit on one of the steering groups. I am pleased to be able to report that over the years Palletline has embraced having more in senior positions on these influential groups.
Unfortunately, my experiences of people assuming that I’m not the boss of the firm were not unique. Other delegates have faced similar sexism when applying for funding, with discussion around the lack of women on investment boards exacerbating the problem. It’s maybe not surprising that there was talk about imposter syndrome, as well as the challenges of helping female returners and both the pay and pensions gap.
So what are the potential solutions? Among those put forward were being a visible female leader, mentoring, changing our internal dialogues and moving to be in our zone of genius.
Unfortunately, with only an hour, we all felt like we barely scratched the surface of this topic. The good news is that we have all agreed to meet up again, hopefully at the wonderful Ridgeview Estate in Sussex, run by one of the delegates, Tamara Roberts – who has enticed us with the bonus of some wine tasting.
One of my key takeaways was how stepping out of my comfort zone led to one of the most inspiring environments I’ve had been in in a long time. I left feeling energised to continue my role in opening opportunities within the haulage industry, both through leadership at Castledene Transport and through other industry bodies.
You can read the full round table write up on Business Insider.
Over 30 years ago, our founder John Amey clubbed together with a number of other hauliers across the UK to create the network Palletline, which works to make the pallet transportation industry more efficient.
As a longstanding local family run business of 45 years, being part of our local community and nurturing the relationships we have with our neighbours is very important to us. So, we actively look for ways to improve our local surroundings, help contribute to our local community, and leave a lasting and positive impact.
