On Monday, Cathy Engelbert made history. As the next CEO of professional services firm Deloitte, Engelbert will become the first female U.S. CEO of a “Big Four” firm. Formerly chairman and CEO of the audit subsidiary of Deloitte, Engelbert joined the company in 1986. She will be in charge of will take charge of the company’s 65,000 employees and $15 billion in annual revenue.
近日,凯西o恩格尔贝特创造了历史。作为专业服务公司德勤集团的新任CEO,恩格尔贝特成为“四大”会计师事务所中首位美国女性掌门人。恩格尔贝特在1986年加入德勤,此前在德勤集团的子公司德勤会计师事务所中担任董事长和CEO。她将接管这家拥有6.5万名员工,年收入达150亿美元的公司。
Fortune caught up with her to hear about her plans for the future and her thoughts on leadership.
日前接受《财富》专访时,她畅谈了自己的未来计划和对领导力的见解。
Edited excerpts:
以下为经过编辑的访谈内容摘录:
What’s it like to be the first to achieve something?
成为“四大”的第一位女性CEO是什么感觉?
It is a proud moment and a milestone. To the extent that I can be a role model for diverse leaders at Deloitte, I love it. This is a tangible demonstration of our commitment at Deloitte to the advancement of women. I have gotten so many emails today from our women — and men — who really believe that we have an inclusive culture as proven through my election.
这是一个值得骄傲的时刻,也是一个里程碑。就我有机会为德勤不同的领导者树立一个榜样这个意义而言,我爱这一刻。这形象地展示了德勤对推动女性发展的承诺。我今天收到了许多来自女同胞们(当然也有男士)的电子邮件,他们都认为,这项任命证明我们确实有着包容的文化。
Why is it important for women lower down the pipeline to see leaders like yourself on top?
为什么看到您这样的领导者晋升为公司高层,对于基层女性非常重要?
Women and minorities account for about 66% of our new hires, so we clearly want to make sure that our inclusive culture is developing them into leaders and be successors to our top leaders. As you think about the workforce of the future, women and minorities are such an important part of that future. I see it in our clients as well: There are more women in the C-Suite and in the boardroom. I know, as The Broadsheet talks about, we are not where we need to be and we have a lot of work to do, but I am really optimistic.
女性和少数群体占德勤新招聘人数的66%左右,所以我们希望确保我们的包容性文化能够将他们培养成领导者和高层继任者。当考虑未来的劳动力时,你需要清楚女性与少数群体将占有举足轻重的地位。我从客户身上也发现了这一点:客户公司的高层和董事会也出现了越来越多的女性。我知道,正如新闻简报栏目The Broadsheet所说,我们距离我们期望的目标还有很远的距离,我们还有许多工作要做,但我真的非常乐观。
What has Deloitte done to ensure an inclusive culture?
德勤为确保包容性的公司文化做了哪些工作?
We always strive to pick the best person for the job regardless of gender or ethnicity, but in order to ensure that our women and minorities are advancing, it is about sponsorship. It is about those partners that sat in that room and when an opportunity came up for a capability that I wasn’t strong in, offering me the role. That is the culture at Deloitte: To make sure we are all maximizing the capabilities that we have.
我们一直在努力为每个工作岗位选择最合适的人,不论他是什么性别或种族,但为了确保女性和少数群体的发展,我们推出了担保制度。这种制度主要涉及的是合伙人,当有机会出现的时候,即便不是我的强项,他们依旧能支持我。这就是德勤的文化:保证我们都能最大程度地发挥自己的能力。
You joined Deloitte in 1986. What is the single biggest change you’ve seen within the company?
你在1986年就加入了德勤。你看到公司内发生的最大变化是什么?
Our businesses have changed over that time because our clients have changed. We need to match up with how our clients have evolved. I come from a family of eight children. I had five brothers, and I went to a male-dominated university [Lehigh University.] Back in 1986, the public accounting profession was very male-dominated. As I think about the change, we have evolved enormously and [the number of] women in leadership ranks are up considerably. I am proud of that and part of that now.
随着客户的变化,我们的业务也一直在变化。我们需要适应客户的发展。我来自一个有八个孩子的家庭。我有五个兄弟,我就读的是一所男生居多的大学——理海大学。在1986年,公共会计职业还是男性的天下。说到变化,我们的变化巨大,管理层中的女性数量显著增加。对此我感到非常骄傲,现在我也成为领导者之一。
If you could only ask one question of a job candidate, what would it be?
如果你只能问求职者一个问题,你会问什么?
I like to ask what they think the Fortune 500 will look five to ten years from now. My favorite question is around that pace of change and really being a futurist and asking people questions about what they see their business evolving to in the future.
我会问他们认为未来五到十年,《财富》500强公司会是什么样子。我最喜欢的问题都是与变化速度有关,我是一个未来主义者,我会问人们如何预测未来业务的变化。
What’s the best advice you ever received?
你收到过的最好建议是什么?
To take some risks in my career and do some different things. I wouldn’t be a CEO today if I didn’t do different things to build capabilities and build experiences because to come a leader you need varied experiences. So the people throughout my career who said, “Don’t stand still, take risks and take on new responsibilities and opportunities,” they were absolutely right.
在职业发展过程中勇于冒风险,做一些不同的事情。如果我没有通过做一些不同的事情来培养能力和积累经验,我今天便不可能成为CEO,因为要成为领导者,你必须具备各方面的经验。在我的职业生涯中,一直有人对我说:“不要固步自封,要勇于冒险,敢于迎接新的责任和机遇。”他们说得非常正确。