A Behind-The-Scenes Look at the Incredible Women Group

Lillee Tissot’s path to Destination Manager, Nordics, took determination and a supportive growth environment. Along the way, she was inspired to volunteer for the Leads Group of Incredible Women, a community that encourages and develops women’s leadership.

Four years ago, I knew two things for sure: one, that I wanted to follow my passion for travel; and two, that I loved Berlin. Those two certainties led me to GetYourGuide. While applying, I happened to find a blog post written by the person who would later become my manager. In it, he compared the growth mindset, goal-setting, and grit it takes to work at GetYourGuide with his love of running. Since joining, growth has been a constant throughout my journey with the company, too — not just my own, but also supporting others as part of a community called the Incredible Women group.

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From Supply to Sales – via the Nordics

I joined the company as a Project Coordinator in the Supply Team. My main focus was to support operational tasks for our Sales Team. From there, I was promoted to Project Manager where I took on starting a program to promote business trips to better link teams in our local offices and HQ in Berlin. I also oversaw building an integrated onboarding plan for our Sales Team; and managing our Sales Database, called Basecamp.

I then moved to our Originals Program, which is a strategic project for GetYourGuide. My work there got me promoted to Senior Project Manager while continuing to stay well-connected with the Sales team. Last year, a Destination Manager position for the Nordics opened up: I jumped on the opportunity to move across to Sales, a team I had worked with closely throughout my GetYourGuide journey, and where I knew I’d thrive.

In my current role, I manage our partner relationships in Sweden, Finland, and Denmark in order to ensure GetYourGuide has all the activities and experiences our customers want to do in these destinations. I absolutely love taking on this new challenge, and the opportunity to work externally with our partners that help make our success possible.

Incredible Women at GetYourGuide

I am so grateful for the career path I have had at GetYourGuide. Although a big part of my success comes down to my own determination, it’s also thanks to the company and my managers helping facilitate an environment for me to grow and develop. While on my own growth journey, I decided to get involved with the Incredible Women group. Its goal is to help women like me learn how to think about personal growth, advocate for themselves, network, and build a community.

The group was founded in 2019 by GetYourGuide colleagues Julia Randow (Director of Sales APAC/EMEA + General Manager, Dubai) and Claire Davidson (former Global Director, Brand, and Insights). Inspired by a Women in Tech conference, the pair realized that GetYourGuide could benefit from fostering a similar community. Fast-forward to 2022, and it now numbers some 300 colleagues from across the organization, with the mission of encouraging and inspiring women within GetYourGuide to grow and develop to increase the pool of women in leadership positions, both within the company and beyond.

We achieve that by delivering a program of workshops, trainings, and events, and creating space for conversation. Managing a calendar of activities for such a sizable – and growing! – group takes work, and is coordinated by a Leads Group. When a position opened up to volunteer last year, I was only too pleased to step up: having enjoyed being a member of the Incredible Women group, particularly the opportunity to network with and learn from some of our senior women in leadership, I was excited to contribute more.{{divider}}

Curating a Program: The Leads Group

The Leads Group comprises five individuals from across the company. We take in feedback from the wider group and use that to create a calendar of events, workshops, and training that meet members’ preferences and needs. With that in mind, we meet weekly to discuss upcoming activities, working to a one-year roadmap that gets finetuned each quarter according to topics or themes that feel pertinent.

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I always encourage colleagues to get involved! Not only do our members bring a huge amount of knowledge and experience, making them great workshop leaders, speakers, and organizers, it’s also a fantastic way to meet people.

Typically,  volunteers will step up to take overall responsibility for a particular event, and update the Lead Group with progress. Because everyone can raise their hand and run with an idea, we are fast and efficient in organizing events.

Our overall goal is to offer educational activities that cover a range of topics that can help women and allies at GetYourGuide. Most recently these have included workshops led by the Berlin branch of The School of Life, an institution aimed at helping individuals fulfill their potential through self-awareness and decision-making. We also hosted Caoilfhhionn Buckley of The Thrive Programme, which empowers individuals to take control of negative behaviors. She led a mini-series centered on an unhelpful mindset that impacts many of us from time to time: imposter syndrome.  

Other formats include fireside chats, with GetYourGuide board member Sharon McCollam being a particular standout. With more than 20 years of leadership experience, it is always a privilege to hear her insights and stories from the frontline of business and retail, and we’re grateful to her for giving her time to this initiative. The Incredible Women group has also enjoyed panel discussions around balancing parenting with career growth, and we were proud to share just some of our stories for Women’s History Month.

What’s Next for Women in Leadership

In numbers, presence, and impact, the Incredible Women group at GetYourGuide continues to go from strength to strength. The support it receives from GetYourGuide’s executive team is illustrative of the company’s broader investment in driving women in leadership. That includes company targets focused specifically on increasing the share of women in leadership and senior roles, and anonymous monthly employee surveys to give feedback and input on how GetYourGuide can continue to improve in this area.

Looking ahead, the Leads Group has much in store, including an external networking event in Berlin, and bolstering a portfolio of resources aimed at supporting parents and parents-to-be. As always, we are looking into launching additional workshops and training with new and existing partners. We’ll also be publishing a series of inspiring growth stories by some of our Incredible Women - watch this space!

For me personally, being a part of the Incredible Women Leads Group has been a great learning and growth opportunity: I get to work with an inspiring group of people in order to help engage and grow a network of women and allies at GetYourGuide.

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