Flow T&T executive urges women to stop “playing small” in the workplace

Women look­ing to move up in their ca­reers need to re­think how they ap­proach op­por­tu­ni­ties and stop hold­ing back.

That mes­sage came from Si­mone Mar­tin-Sul­gan, Vice Pres­i­dent and Gen­er­al Man­ag­er of Flow Trinidad and To­ba­go, as she ad­dressed close to 700 at­ten­dees at the Amer­i­can Cham­ber of Com­merce of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s 12th Women’s Lead­er­ship Con­fer­ence.

The event, held un­der the theme #Give­To­Gain, fea­tured a pan­el dis­cus­sion on ne­go­ti­a­tion and pow­er dy­nam­ics in the work­place. The ses­sion fo­cused on how cul­tur­al ex­pec­ta­tions and un­con­scious bias con­tin­ue to shape how women are treat­ed on the job and how they can push back.

Mar­tin-Sul­gan spoke about a mo­ment ear­ly in her ca­reer when she re­alised that sim­ply work­ing hard was not enough.

“Not re­al­ly ad­vo­cat­ing for your­self,” she said, re­flect­ing on her ap­proach at the time.

She told the au­di­ence that ne­go­ti­a­tion goes far be­yond ask­ing for a high­er salary.

“Ne­go­ti­a­tion is not just about pay. It is about the re­sources you need to do your work ef­fec­tive­ly. It is about the de­ci­sions you are mak­ing every day.”

As a wife and moth­er of two, she al­so spoke about the re­al­i­ty many women face try­ing to bal­ance work and fam­i­ly, and the need to be clear about pri­or­i­ties when mak­ing ca­reer moves.

She en­cour­aged women to shift how they think about job of­fers and in­ter­views.

“Any­time you are ne­go­ti­at­ing, and some­body wants some­thing from you, ask them, 'How much is this worth to you? Some­times we be­come so fo­cused on the fact that we have been cho­sen that we lose sight of every­thing else.”

Her com­ments come as stud­ies con­tin­ue to show a gap in out­comes be­tween men and women, even as more women ne­go­ti­ate for bet­ter pay and pro­mo­tions. Re­search in­di­cates that men who switch jobs of­ten se­cure high­er salary in­creas­es than women.

The pan­el al­so in­clud­ed Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus Prin­ci­pal Rose-Marie Belle An­toine, Rosco Pro­com Fi­nance Di­rec­tor and Com­pa­ny Sec­re­tary Vani­ta Bal­roop-Kublals­ingh, Sco­tia­bank’s Stacey Dhanes­sar, and Shell Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Roslan Schofield.

Dur­ing the dis­cus­sion, ques­tions were raised about work­place cul­ture, in­clud­ing sit­u­a­tions where women may not al­ways sup­port each oth­er in se­nior roles. Mar­tin-Sul­gan ac­knowl­edged those chal­lenges but urged at­ten­dees to stay fo­cused on their own growth.

She closed by en­cour­ag­ing women to build con­fi­dence and be clear about what they want be­fore en­ter­ing any ne­go­ti­a­tion.