Tamara is Business Manager, Digital Identity Solutions at Datacom
What do you do and what is it about your job that gets you out of bed in the morning?
I look after the Digital Identity Solutions business at Datacom Systems Ltd. Our unit has a current focus on offering the delivery of those solutions within the public sector and is re-branding our service model and offering. What gets me up in the morning is the thought that my efforts in building the new strategy and direction for this unit will soon result in shaping the IAM capability and its potential within the different sectors we serve. There’s so much potential there that would mean what we do will impact the way our citizens interact with the different ministries and institutions, to hopefully make it a lot more seamless and secure.
How did you get to where you are today?
Great allies and mentors. I have been blessed since stepping into the IAM space to have networked and worked alongside some great minds, both in the IAM domain and in leadership in general. I have been shaped and directed by their faith and trust in my capability, and that has helped me get this far and continues to help me strive for more.
What is the most important lesson you have learned along the way?
Leadership without empathy is tyranny. I had certainly lead for a long time by fear and arrogance. I felt for a long time that because I’m able to deliver then I’m entitled for a seat with the boys. While half of that was true, I did earn my seat, I also needed to earn the respect of my staff and colleagues, delivery alone wasn’t enough.
What’s your pitch to CEOs in the identity space? What do you suggest they START / STOP / CONTINUE doing and why?
Stop repeating the pattern, doing the same thing on a new tool is just trying to grab a slice off the market that is seeking that solution. We need to step back and look at uplifting our thinking and architectural patterns in this space, globally. With privacy and security as design partners (not the only drivers or leaders) and the citizen experience as a motivators and centre of our thinking, we will see a significant shift in how we look after people and serve our communities and uplift the experience of those who interact with or administer the tools.
Start to innovate with global citizenship in mind. Look at the smaller organisations that are finding those gaps in the way digital identity is utilised and how they’re wanting to bridge those gaps. Invest in them, grow them, you will benefit (and globally, we will benefit) when we realise how better, safer, and early ways of adoption digital identity will enhance how we offer services and shift economies as a result.
Continue to make access to interoperable digital identity solutions, while competition is healthy, and finding that niche or gap in the market is good to fill, we need our solutions to be interoperable, so that their acquisition becomes more palatable and their use expands. As we extend the use of good IAM solutions and practices, we would find the flow on effect will positively shift the way digital identity is created, consumed and looked after.
In one sentence, why does diversity matter to you?
Diversity is important as it brings new ideas, innovation and challenges the norm.
What are you reading?
The 5 languages of appreciation in the workplace – because ‘each of us wants to know that what we doing matters” Gary Chapman and Paul White.
What advice would you give to the teenage ‘you’?
Look after yourself.
Exercise more.
Take time off, work will still be there.
Your mental health and wellbeing are as important as delivering or leaving a good legacy; they’re not mutually exclusive.