Season 3 Episode 7 - Claire Talbot – Creating a culture for success
Claire Talbot – Creating a culture for success
We welcomed Claire Talbot. Claire is the VP of IT at Smartest Energy, a people-powered energy company that helps businesses buy, sell and trade energy with confidence. Within this role, she is responsible for the design, development and implementation of their Enterprise information systems, software applications, IT support and infrastructure systems.
Having studied Computer Science, Claire started her careers as a computer programmer. Throughout her career she has moved up to a senior role within IT working at board level across a variety of businesses in manufacturing, retail, and utilities. A strong support of Women in Technology Claire regularly speaks at schools and mentors’ young women starting their career within.
In this episode, we discussed how understanding Your Team Beyond the Workplace is highly beneficial for everyone. Claire talks about the importance of truly knowing your team members, including aspects of their personal and home lives.
Claire explained how cultivating a No-Blame culture, where mistakes are treated as learning opportunities is crucial.
Claire used the metaphor of a good leader being an umbrella; when it rains being a shield and stepping aside when the sun shines. In addition, she explains that people are your best asset as a CIO – “otherwise, all you have is technology”.