Dealing with uncertainty

Uling Hu is a partner at Deloitte, where she specialises in Business Transformation and Human Capital. For over 22 years, she has worked at the helm of technology-enabled business transformations for multinational organisations, which means she works across countries and cultures to help companies through transitional times. Uling will join us at the RightBrains annual awards event on 16 November, where she will share some new trends in technology and talk about the importance of people within your company.

It’s never one size fits all

A typical day in the work-life of Uling is rarely the same as the last. As a consultant at Deloitte, Uling spends the majority of her time brainstorming, advising, and coaching her clients through transitional periods in their businesses, which can throw up a whole spectrum of challenges and possibilities to work through. Whether a company is restructuring, expanding, standardising, redesigning, or taking over another company, Uling is tasked with the responsibility of helping her clients to solve problems and improve standards. “The job requires a high degree of elasticity because every business is different. It’s never one size fits all. As a consultant you always need to be two steps ahead of everyone else, it’s a challenge but that’s what I like most about it.”

Combining the hard and the soft

Asked if she always knew she would follow this career path, Uling mentions two common threads in her life. The first is her heritage. Growing up as the one of the first Chinese families in a provincial town in the south of the Netherlands, the experience of living across two cultures and dealing with its complexities has become almost second nature to her. Uling’s interest and receptivity to people and what makes them tick has equipped her with tools for bridging differences within business settings. The second thread is her education in Information and Change Management. This formal training allows Uling to read and translate complex information easily. “I didn’t know I would make my career in consulting, but combining the hard elements of Technology with the soft elements of change is really where my passion lies.

Learn how to deal with ambiguity

While Uling’s job is highly people-centered, the underlying enabler to her work is always technology. Inherent to a career in IT is dealing with uncertainty and ambiguity, because the landscape is forever changing and renewing, with new programs, systems, and ways of working. But this is how Uling thinks young women beginning their careers can do well. To be successful in your career in IT is not about what you know – contrary to what traditional education may tell you – it’s about how fast you can adapt and learn new things. “If you can develop skills that will enable you to deal with uncertainty and ambiguous situations, you can definitely be a front-runner in the area of technology and business,” says Uling. “You are always creating new things and having to think outside the box.”

Everyone is a leader

On the subject of leadership, Uling believes that everyone is a leader, regardless of their position within an organisation. “We should move away from the conception that leadership is hierarchical. You can show good leadership skills by taking responsibility and ownership wherever you are, regardless of your position in the overall organization.”

Uling Hu is a keynote speaker at the RightBrains awards event on November 16. Join us!