25 years at Specsavers: from trainee dispensing optician to managing director of optics

To celebrate August/September’s Women in optometry edition, and more than two decades after joining the organisation as an 18-year-old prospective dispensing optician, Hummel tells OT what she has learnt.

Did you always have management ambitions? Was a role like this something you consciously planned for?

What really motivates me is the difference that we make for our customers and patients, and for our people. I have always wanted to find opportunities where I can influence that in some way. Every job I’ve done with this company has been a real privilege and a joy. It’s always been great fun and a great opportunity. So no, it was never my conscious plan to be a managing director of Specsavers but I’ve tried to get myself doing things where I feel like I’m making a real difference, and where I know I’m going to enjoy what I’m doing.

Obviously, it’s a massive privilege to be here, and I’m absolutely delighted – I have always just been really interested in all the different parts of our business, and that has helped me across the years.

Have you benefited from mentorship in your career?

Yes, both formally and informally. I’ve been through development programmes where I’ve had mentors, and I’ve also had people within the organisation who have been either formal or informal mentors for periods of time.

I’ve also mentored other people, and I have probably learned as much through this. I think it’s a really unique experience to be able to give back in that direction too.

Also, it’s about recognising when you’ve got that mentor relationship. It doesn’t have to necessarily be a sit down, formal mentor session. Knowing what you need from people, and being clear with them how they might be able to help you – I think you can have that in a more informal way with people, if you’re clear where you need support.

What is the best advice you have been given about balancing career and other interests or responsibilities, and who gave you that advice?

Something quite recent comes to mind. As I stepped into the optics managing director role [in March 2025], Charlotte Hall, who was our supply chain commercial director, stepped into my old role as the audiology managing director. We were on a session together, and she was asked that question. The thing that she said has really stuck with me. She was told that the only person who can set your boundaries is you. If you don’t respect your own boundaries, other people will start to not respect them either. If you start sacrificing what’s important to you in terms of time with your family, time with your friends, time for fitness, time for hobbies, or whatever your boundaries are, people will notice, and they’ll start expecting it of you. It’s harder for you to then step away from that.

If you’re in a leadership position, it’s potentially worse, because your team will start expecting it of themselves as well. I think that is so important to realise the impact as a leader that you can have on others, through the behaviours they see you displaying. If you don’t have those boundaries, and you’re not clear about how you create that balance, you’re almost setting what could be seen as an example for others. That’s something that has really stuck with me.

I have probably learned as much being a mentor as I have been mentored

And what is your own advice on achieving that balance?

I don’t really think in terms of work and life balance, because it implies that they’re separate things. Work is part of your life, so I just think of balance. I know the things that I enjoy, whether that’s around work, my husband, my family, my friends, or colleagues. I know the things that help me be my best, and I try to make sure I get them into my week.

Sometimes, work will be the main thing that I have to do that week, and it will be a particularly busy period. I’m accepting of that, because I know that I can take that balance somewhere else.

It’s important to have some flexibility in how you set up your week and your days. I’m clear what helps me be at my best, and I try to get that into my day, even if it is just the tiniest amount. If you’ve got a really busy day with work, just having a 15-minute walk in the morning, even if you can’t get to the gym – it’s those sorts of things.

Over time, I’ve started to understand warning signals around needing to take a step back, take a breath, and get some rest. I know if I’m starting to not feel my best – I watch out for that and then make a change if I need to.

I’m quite conscious to actually switch off. I’ll finish whatever I need to do within a day, but then I do try to make sure I have a good chunk of time in the evening where I don’t send lots of emails. I don’t check in constantly. You do need to rest. If I need to work at the weekend I’ll consciously do it, but I try not to. I try to take that time, to have that break.

On the flip side, if I’m on a holiday, I actually quite like to check into my emails once every three or four days, just to make sure I know what’s going on, so it doesn’t feel stressful for me when I get back. I used to get stressed about work whilst I was away, and I thought, ‘well, just stop stressing and look at it, and it’ll be fine.’ It always is fine, and then I can just go back to enjoying my holiday. It’s just finding those things at work.

I’m really clear what helps me be at my best, and I just try to get that into my day, even if it is just the tiniest amount

What are the key skills that you think have helped you progress into your current role?

I’m really interested in people. I’m interested in how people think and what they’ve got to say. If I think about the dynamics within a room or within a team, I’m often more curious about the quietest person in that room than the loudest. I want to make sure I get the best from people. I want to hear different views; I want to hear different perspectives. Within that context, I try to be very inclusive – that’s always been very important to me.

As a leader, I try to give my team the space to lead. I don’t micromanage. I try to build trust. On my side of that, I always try to do what I say I’m going to do, and if I can’t do it, I’ll be honest about it and why. I think that’s key. It certainly helps that I’ve done lots of different jobs across the business, including in-store, and in supporting roles. I work closely with different teams and functions, which allows me to see different perspectives and different priorities, in a more holistic way, across the business.

We talk a lot about squiggly careers – encouraging people to try something new and to experience something different. I often say to people that, if you think just in linear terms, so it’s always about going up, you won’t get the breadth. And actually, the breadth is where it's really interesting and exciting.

Sometimes, being willing to take a risk and go sideways can really help you. My whole background is optics. I’m a dispensing optician. I used to be within the optics retail support team, and one day I was asked to go and do audiology. I thought, ‘I don’t know anything about audiology. Why would I want to apply for a role in audiology?’

But doing that gave me a whole different set of skills and experiences, working with clinicians in a different discipline. That’s probably where I got a lot of my leadership experience, because it gave me a different opportunity. I think you should be brave and be willing to say, ‘Yeah, I’ll go and do something new.’

What do you look for in potential future leaders?

I think a sense of curiosity and that willingness to take a bit of a leap of faith. People who are willing to try something new in order to support the business, but also to support their own growth – I think that is important.

Showing up with a lot of authenticity is vital. I can generally tell if people are putting on what they think I or other people need from them. People who bring out the best in others – that is important for me as well.

After 25 years at Specsavers, what do you wish you had known at the beginning that you know now?

I wish I had known 25 years ago to show up as I am, and to not have a ‘work’ me and an ‘out of work’ me.

When I was younger, I used to think that I needed to act in a certain way – that I needed to look at that person over there, being a leader and being in charge- and that I had to be like that to progress.

There’s no right or wrong way to do things, but trying to emulate somebody else’s behaviour, for me, never felt comfortable. What I ended up doing, for quite a while, was staying a bit too quiet, not feeling comfortable saying what I was really thinking.

There’s no right or wrong way to do things, but trying to emulate somebody else’s behaviour, for me, never felt comfortable

As I progressed, and as I had some coaching, I started realising that actually, I didn’t need to do that. I could just be me, and that would be ok. Life got much easier; work got much easier. I think I contributed more, in a way that felt a lot more genuine. Realising that the more authentic you are, the better you’re going to do, was really important for me.

In my early career, I quite often was the only woman in the room, and the youngest in the room. Subconsciously, I think that used to show up in some of my internal chatter. Once I was able to get past that, I started to do a lot better.

There is another learning, which is specific to Specsavers. One of my previous bosses used to say, ‘the truth is always in the stores.’ I completely agree with that. Whatever you need to know, whatever you need to learn, whatever you need to solve, you can pretty much always find the answer if you go and speak to our partners and our practice colleagues.

That has stayed with me... Going out to practices, and hearing it like it is, is important – being able to say, ‘Do you know what? I don’t know the full answer to that. I’m going to have to go and get some people to help me find out.’

People in the early years of their careers might be tempted to, or think they have to, move companies or change roles quite often – what would you say about the decision to stick with a company and work up the ranks instead?

I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer. I think everyone’s career journey is different. My advice would be, just don’t look at what other people are doing, think about what you need to be doing too. . What are you looking for in terms of opportunities, and where can you get that? If you can get that with the organisation that you’re in, that is a brilliant thing, and you should embrace the opportunities that are there.

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