Teeshal Bal

In her own words

My career has been extremely non linear.  After obtaining my Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, I went into rail as a graduate. It was extremely challenging. There were very few young people in the industry, and fewer women. Furthermore, there was little cultural diversity in the workplace, making it hard for me to fit in across almost every aspect. Also, rail was not a subject covered in depth at university and I struggled to find ways to communicate with people I couldn’t quite relate to. When I was working in the Pilbara the complexities of working remotely was added to the mix. There were no senior female role models to look up to and it was very much about learning on the job. 

I ended up leaving the transport industry and went into the start-up world to build multiple businesses from the ground up, using my engineering skillset. 

When I returned to rail and joined Metro Trains Melbourne in 2016, I brought the learnings of the start-up sector with me along with greater resilience, maturity, and enhanced communication skills. 

In the past seven years I have been promoted into five roles at Metro which I am very grateful for. I have been able to bring to each of these roles my skills in building teams, dealing with change, and embracing continuous improvement.

Walking in another person’s shoes

When I was studying my masters in life coaching initially I didn’t have any plans beyond learning. But four months into the program I reflected on the professional development I had received throughout my career and felt there was so much more that could be done, given many organisations approach training merely as a tick in the box exercise. I started thinking about how professional development could be provided differently to create real change. I decided to start a not-for-profit training organisation called Grit Leadership to help drive gender equality and specially help women to have a place at the table. We deliver unconscious bias training using virtual reality and gamification to allow leaders to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, and hopefully that experience goes from their hearts to their heads and helps participants think and act differently.

We also build bespoke programs for women’s sponsorship, as I believe women are over mentored and under sponsored. All profits get channelled to Flourish Girls a charity which delivers programs to teenage girls in high schools. This is Grit Leadership’s fourth year, and we have trained close to 90 people – an even split of men of women. We purposely use gaming to create psychologically safe environments and have a new and novel experience to embed the learnings. 

One hand up, one hand down

I was given the advice to crawl before you run but I didn’t follow it. I feel life is too short! What I tell people is your role doesn’t define you and you are a product of your environment, so you need to surround yourself with people who will support and help you. I always picture it as having one hand up and one hand down as you receive support in your career but at the same time are helping others. You must have the right people around you if you are to do more, give more and be more. 

In the past 12 months I have been pushing myself outside of my comfort zone sharing my stories across panel discussions and chairing events. What is exciting is the number of young women who come up to me afterwards to say: ‘wow, I haven’t seen a culturally diverse female engineer doing the type of work you are doing before.’ I am continually working to be an inspiration for the next generation and still have a long way to go.

The opportunities in transport are limitless but we need to dispel the myth that is all about hi vis vests, hard hats and working six days a week. Metro Trains increased its number of train drivers from 26 in 2009 to now be more than 550 through setting targets and KPIs. If you don’t set targets and just expect people to do things out of the goodness of their heart it doesn’t work. People need to be held accountable.