_Exceptional Woman: Meet Candy Zhao

Candy Zhao started her career as an auditor for one of the Big Four, and only joined the real estate industry 10 years.  Fast forward another 8 years and Candy Zhao is now our Chief Operating Officer at Knight Frank China.  Candy joined us because of our established brand, long history, and great culture. She confessed that she was really impressed by the leaders during her interview as they displayed professionalism, passion, loyalty, and pursuit of excellence.

The editorial team has spent some time with Candy to get to know her and understand why she has been nominated Exceptional Woman of the Year!

Can you give us an example of long-term decisions that contributed to a colleague’s success?

Candy Zhao: A few years ago, one of my colleagues in charge of financial reporting was underperforming. However, I did note that she had excellent communications skills and was able to connect very well with the wider business. I took all these elements on board and created a special position for her. After consideration and encouragement, she decided to take on this new challenge and was very successful thereafter. It was a risky move, but I made the right decision and I am glad it all worked out!

How do you contribute to your community?

CZ: Contributing to our community is very important to me. Last year, I participated in a charity activity organised by the EGRC Community (Educating Girls of Rural China Community) which is dedicated to helping rural girls in remote and poor areas of China to get educational opportunities. I also decided to sponsor a 5-years primary school education fee for one girl in this program, I really hope this will change her life. I shall continue to support this great cause and help more girls in need.

Relating to this year’s Women International day theme #BreakTheBias, how do you think you could contribute to breaking the bias?

CZ: At Knight Frank, there is no need to break any bias because everyone is quite open and nice. However, we need to keep this good culture intact, here are a few ways that would contribute.

Increase data and facts in decision-making and reduce the weight of subjective judgment in assessment - subjective judgment is more vulnerable to bias.

From a management perspective, we need to encourage empathy and listen to opinions from multiple perspectives - 360 evaluation of employees for example would reduce the impact of personal bias.

Try some creative problem-solving methods, breakthrough traditional thinking, and pursue innovation. Sometimes, the new methods will lead to finding some ignored information in the old way and change the inherent views.