Three Ways to Join the All Boys' Table

When DTZ director of business development Dimple Mehta arrived in Canada from her native Bombay in 2000 with an MBA in hand, she was by herself with no business contacts. (We hope she at least had a sweater.) But since then, she's been on a steady climb. Here's how she did it.

1) Join like-minded folks

Dimple just joined DTZ this past March, after spending the bulk of her 13-year career with Otis Elevator Company in sales/business development. Dimple credits her five-year membership in Toronto CREW in helping her build up both industry experience and contacts, and she's now a senior executive and mentor to other young women getting their start in the industry.

2) Stay gender-neutral and don't be afraid to ask for what you want

According to Dimple (here with DTZ research analyst Jessica Recchi), what women still lack in a still-male-dominated business is the confidence to go after the deal. "What we are here for is business. So let's not be afraid to ask for it," she says. Dimple says the key for her in becoming a leader--and for getting more women into industry leadership positions--comes down to conducting oneself more politically within an organization while being sensitive to both sexes. "Make sure all your comments, all the work you are doing, is very gender neutral," she says. When you start working in a gender-neutral manner, the whole differentiation between a male-dominated environment and a female-dominated environment goes away, she says. (Your English teacher was right, there is power in pronouns.)

3) Exude confidence

Talent is talent, regardless of gender, she adds. And there's plenty of opportunity for women in commercial real estate "Men work with certain age-old values they follow, and it's hard to penetrate that and break that glass ceiling," she says, "but things are changing...we have a right to be here as much as anyone else." Right now the priority at DTZ is to further grow the facility management business, adding projects similar to the work DTZ does with Carleton University—one-stop, turnkey property services. The brokerage side is in good shape. Although well-established in Europe, Asia, Australia, and the US, DTZ is still relatively new to Canada, and there's room to develop, she adds.