Laura Baker

"My personality types answers were Coach, Communicator and Manager. These fit really well with me. I really enjoy working with people. I enjoy getting to know individuals, understanding what drives them and then working with them to help them achieve their objectives. I try to be approachable and accessible at all times so that people feel they can come to me for advice as they need to. I care deeply about the people I work with and try to take an interest in them personally and professional. Everyone adds value in their own way and as a manager i believe it is my job to help them do this. My engineering training has helped me develop a skill for digesting complex information and communicating it in a way which is easy for people to understand. Being a good communicator though isn't about what you say, but how you say it and it is important to understand your audience and be able to interpret the feedback and body language that you get from them when communicating."

"My role is to lead and manage a team of 25 product engineers who are responsible for making sure all the steel products we make are suitable for the customer and can make money for our business. Typical starting salary for this role is £50kpa. Whilst I have technical qualifications and my team are highly technically skilled, I don't spend much time using my engineering skills. Most of my time is spent helping the team deliver as much value as they can through coaching and mentoring and providing the environment for them to succeed. Watching people achieve their professional goals is the most enjoyable part of the role."

"I started my journey studying Materials Science and Engineering at university. I then went on to complete a doctorate in engineering which was sponsored by the steel company. When this was completed, i joined British Steel as a Customer Support Engineer, working with customers to understand their product requirements and resolve and product issues they had. This is where i got my love of product design and customers so my next few jobs were all in the product development area where i got a greater understanding of how steel is made and how to design products to meet customer needs. My first department management role was in 2005 when i had a team of just two people. Since then, i have had a further five department management roles and have managed around 100 people during that time many of whom have gone on to have very successful careers themselves. I believe that you should treat people the same way you would like to be treated so always aim to be a fair, compassionate manager and admire all those leaders that have the same traits."

"As a mother of a five year old, I don't have a lot of spare time, so I try to get my daughter interested in the things that I'm interested in. We enjoy gardening and this year have been having a go at growing fruit and vegetables which has mostly been successful. I also enjoy a lot of reading and end every day reading a good novel before bed. We're all big animal lovers in my family so we love a trip to the zoo or wildlife park, usually with a picnic and the promise of an ice-cream.I also spend quite a lot of time outside work promoting STEM to youngsters, particularly young women as i feel it's really important to break down some of the negative perceptions that can exist about STEM careers.My absolute favourite thing though is a good movie and a take-away pizza."

"Before I leave the house to go to work I will take a look at my diary to remind myself what meetings I have that day (it's usually a lot!). The first thing I do when I get into work is turn my laptop on and then make a cup of coffee and say \"hello\" to the team. After that, anything can happen. Between 50% and 100% of my day will be spent in meetings. These might be with my team to see how they're getting on with their projects and to understand if they need any help or with other senior leaders in the organisation reviewing progress and agreeing the next actions that are required to continuously improve the business. Meetings can be a really important opportunity to communicate to a lot of people at the same time and can be used to get agreement from different parts of the organisation on a particular question. Meetings can also sometimes be really boring! When I'm not in a meeting, I'll be catching up on emails. I get between 100 and 200 emails a day, so they soon pile up if I don't regularly action them. As I will have my office door open if I'm not in a meeting, it's common for members of the team to call in for a quick chat about something they need help or advice on.I do quite a lot of travelling, mostly within the UK now, but I have done a lot of international travel in the past. I travel to Universities to talk to them about research programmes for steel, to customers to talk to them about their steel requirements and to other institutions to promote the steel industry.I try to leave work at a sensible time so that i can be home in time to read my daughter her bedtime story and put her to bed."

"A level Maths (I failed my Physics and Chemistry A-Levels!)BEng (Hons) Materials Science & EngineeringEngD Steel TechnologyCEng FIMMM (Chartered Engineer, Fellow of Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining)2001 - 2003 Customer Support Engineer, British Steel2003 - 2004 Product Application Engineer, Corus Steel2004 - 2005 Product Specialist, Corus Steel,2005 - 2007 Product Manager, Corus Steel2007 - 2011 Supply Chain Manager, Tata Steel2011 - 2015 Technical Manager, Tata Steel2015 - present Head, Product Management & Development, Tata Steel"