Voice of Experience: Dianne Ledingham, Director, Bain & Company

by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)

The Glass Hammer recently spoke with Dianne Ledingham, Director in Bain’s Boston office, member of Bain’s North America Telecom, Media & Technology Practice and leader of the consulting firm’s Global Sales Effectiveness group. Ms. Ledingham has played various local and global governance roles in the firm and is currently a member of Bain’s Worldwide Compensation and Promotion committee. In addition to serving corporate clients, Ms. Ledingham has advised several early stage technology start-ups in her career at Bain. She is also a Board member of City Year, a multi-regional non-profit.

An electrical engineer by training, Ms. Ledingham started her career designing chips and circuit boards for IBM. After moving into marketing and sales, she realized that she found the cross-functional role engaging, sparking a return to school to get an MBA from Harvard. She was not sure, however, where she would end up after the program. “Unlike some of my peers walking into business school, I didn’t even know what a consulting firm did. I really didn’t know much about the industry.” That all changed after a summer associate position with Bain in 1989. “I felt like kid in candy store. I felt consulting was great place to determine what I wanted to do. My then-life plan was to get into consulting for two years and then figure out what I wanted to do.”

She joined Bain as a consultant in 1990, working in a variety of practice areas, including financial services industry and healthcare, but fought being pigeonholed into the technology sector. Five years later, her mentor brought her quite reluctantly into a software case. Although she had originally resisted, that tech case made her realize that by avoiding technology, she had left some of her basic knowledge and interests untapped, which led her back to ‘her core.’ Now, thirteen years after that original case, Ms. Ledingham is still in consulting and with Bain, having worked on a variety of telecom and technology-related matters, including those dealing with telecom equipment, IT services, software, computer hardware, and media.

“One of the things that I learned early on [based on advice from a mentor] was that it is not what you work on it’s who you work for and who you work with. I learned that consulting is an apprenticeship business and working with people who do this well is going to be the thing that accelerates [my] learning curve. As I look at the successes that catapulted me to the next level, I was always working with someone I respected who helped pull me up to the next level – a good teacher.”

When asked about failures that may have moved her career forward, Ms. Ledingham responded, “I do whatever it takes to meet client expectations. Failures [for me] were more around where a project was not scoped appropriately and the team over-delivered or where I personally overinvested and work/life balance got out of kilter.”

Speaking of work/life balance, for eight of the past eighteen years, Ms. Ledingham has worked a flex-time schedule, which allows her to spend time during the week with her three children. She has dialed up and down her work schedule over the past 16 years, depending on what was going on at home with her kids, her husband’s career (also a HBS alum) and how much she wants to be working at Bain. She said that when her kids were younger, she got particular pleasure from the fact that one day a week she would be in sweats with her hair up in a ponytail, in the sandbox with her kids, and the very next day she’d be in a suit, in a boardroom, presenting a high-level strategy to a CEO.

Ms. Ledingham still travels two to three days a week, although depending on where the client is, she’ll try to make it a day trip instead of overnight. “While it may be personally taxing, I do try as much as possible to take a 6 am flight out and to be home for dinner. When that isn’t possible, I’ve gotten quite good at doing homework by email.”

She says the most important thing when it comes to creating work/life balance is setting boundaries, coming up with a list of things that are personally non-negotiable and finding an effective schedule that evolves over time as the needs of her family and her roles at Bain evolve. “Being home for dinner when you have teenagers is really important. It’s then … and when they are going to bed is when they begin to tell you what’s really going on. Teenagers really don’t talk much in the morning.”

And when there are those times that the balance leans considerably towards work, she finds a way to shift the balance back. “Last February to July, things were incredibly busy at work with a very demanding client and my internal leadership roles. [When working the extra long hours] I made a commitment to myself to take a step back this summer – to manage my workweek back to three days a week. I met all obligations but was physically in the office only two times all summer. “

Ledingham shared with The Glass Hammer five principles for women to follow at when it comes to their lives and careers:

(1) When in the hunt, make sure you know what you are hunting for. “A person’s definition of success should be a reflection of that person’s career and personal ambitions. As trite as it seems, for women, the definition of success is sometimes slightly different than that of men. Women shouldn’t look sideways and compare definitions, especially when they are rearing kids. Women should make sure to define success for themselves otherwise it can be quite frustrating.”

(2) Recognize that you can’t have it all at once. “I haven’t come across anyone who is a perfect professional at the same time she was being a perfect wife/mother/girlfriend/daughter/friend. The individual woman must define what that means at any given period. Twenty years ago, when I was leaving HBS, I believed could have it all. And while I don’t feel like I’ve made major tradeoffs, there certainly have been times when I scaled back on a certain area of my life – sometimes I did it consciously and sometimes I realized it in retrospect. Now, at age 46, I try to be more conscious of those decisions and communicate the intention to others.”

(3) Surround yourself with a support system and ecosystem to make happen. “At the office, that means mentors – but not only female mentors. My mentors have been largely male peers that could offer career advice along the way. At home, it means to outsource /offload stuff that is not going to contribute to personal happiness. Don’t be distracted by the mundane tasks; outsource stuff like laundry and cleaning that doesn’t matter. But, do not compromise on reliable child care because you can’t live up to your full potential if don’t have peace of mind. Also, have a clear conversation with your husband/spouse about what they/you need.”

(4) Be nice along the way. “Women should be nice not only to others but, as importantly, to themselves. If we look at the trends, women on average have a predisposition to beat themselves up more than men. Women need to learn to realistically assess our own performance and make sure that we are not giving ourselves an overly aggressive hard time.”

(5) Remember to have fun along way. “The journey is often the destination. And you really never know when the merry-go-round is going to stop so if you don’t have fun now, you may miss your chance.”

Ledingham practices what she preaches. In her spare time, she skis, collects wine, and is an avid cook, making a variety of dishes including, “some mean French meals.”