The upshot of the distinction between closed and open questions, is that it can tell us if we are actually coaching our people to explore their own ideas and solutions, or if we are feeding them answers they can try, through closed questions.
Communication is a critical workplace skill. It is a way to contribute value, demonstrate knowledge, influence outcomes, build relationships and build your leadership brand – unless you’re a woman. Then it’s not so straightforward.
Enter the Gender Penalty….
When men speak up, their voices are valued. When women speak up, their contributions are often challenged. This makes being seen and heard a constant battle for women in the workplace.
This dynamic means men are likely to speak up and women are likely to be shut down. Not only are women silenced in their speech and discounted in their contributions, they are accused of not ‘sounding like a leader’. When women communicate, their voices, styles and speech patterns are unconsciously compared to the male model – and often come up lacking in credibility and authority.
Why are women’s voices overlooked and undervalued? Why does society hear women differently when they speak? What can we do about it?
In the workplace, women are routinely interrupted, talked over, ignored and overlooked. Women’s ideas are discounted, and their competency is assumed to be lacking compared to men.
Contrary to the common perception that women talk more than men in the corporate setting, the reverse is true. In mixed groups, women speak less than men. This isn’t because they don’t have anything of value to say, it’s because they can’t get a word in edgeways. Men are given more space to talk, and they take up more space when they do talk.
OMG OMG OMG!!!
On the 7th October I attended the gala event for the ABLE awards (Author Book Launch and Expo). The night was a celebration of books launched this year as well as the announcement of their annual book award winners.
I entered three categories. And...I WON THREE CATEGORIES!!!! Can you believe it??!! I’m still pinching myself. I am over the moon!
Women who have children are more likely to be the primary caregiver. As such, they will either take a career break or work part-time in order to raise their kids. This means less money comes in each week, lower pay and less superannuation. I mean it literally when I say care is costing us.
It was never my intention to be an advocate. It was never my intention to be a feminist, and nor was it my intention to run a Leadership program for Women. And yet here I am.
A gender advocate, a feminist, and founder of the award-winning program Women at Work (not to mention the author of a book to help women navigate a male-dominated leadership landscape - The Gender Penalty, but I digress…)
I always thought women could look after themselves. I thought the hard work of picketing and marching and striking was over. That we had fought for equal rights, and won. And we did. Sort of.
Whilst we have come along in leaps and bounds in terms of women's rights in society (at least in the Western World); we also have a way to go for the cultural norms to catch up. And part of those norms are the messages we send girls and women about how to fix themselves in order to get ahead.
That’s why I designed my Women at Work program.
Now we are back in the office (in some way, shape or form) we need to decide what comes back with us, and what stays on line. This is particularly important for training and development and team building. Over the last few years, we have proven that not only can we work remotely, we can also learn remotely.
So, should we go back to doing these things in person now that we can?
Read the full article to know more.
The secret to getting people back to the office, is not to get them back to the office. Yep. You read that right. It might not be the answer you want to hear, but it’s the reality.
Of course, there’s a little more to the story but let’s start by ripping the band aid right off. Blanket mandates forcing people to come back to the office, will have dire consequences. Not only will your people resist coming back, they are likely to leave altogether.
Thankfully, over 15 years of studying human behaviour and obsessing about why people do what they do, has shown me that there are other options.
𝐈𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 ‘𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐣𝐨𝐛’, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 '𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦'? Do you believe in the power of diversity to deliver results? Do you believe in a champion team, or a team of champions? Do you pick the best person for the job even if they are not the best person for the team? Maybe ‘best person’ for the job, isn’t the best person for the team. And maybe that's an equally important measurement. Food for thought. Perhaps we need to broaden our definition of best person for the job, to account for the actual impacts we have on one another – it's how we work together; how we deliver results together; it's how we are made better together that will get real results.
You no doubt heard the reports, saw the photos, or watched the video. There was our Prime Minister, in a very public moment, being given the cold shoulder by the outgoing Australian of the Year, Grace Tame. It was clear, she was ‘not happy Jan’. Now, I’m not going to talk about whether that was the right thing to do, or the wrong thing to do by Grace. I’m not here to talk about the cause she is fighting for (weird I know, given it’s an IWD article), nor the politics of the day that led to this uncomfortable moment for the nation. Nay my friends. I’m here to talk about what we can learn about our own leadership style based on our personal reaction to that moment. In this article, I explore a common leadership need to 'shave off the edges' to help people fit in the box and 'do better at work'. But are we really helping?
Supporting women into leadership roles can look, to some people, like a shift in prejudice. But it’s not. Not if the woman ultimately earned the right to be there, too. Gender equality is not just about having more women in leadership roles, it’s about fairly promoting women into leadership roles, then unreservedly supporting them to succeed. There are things each of us can do, as women, as men, and as leaders, to make sure no-one has to hear this line again. You can read more in the full article here.
Positive feedback can be motivating, uplifting, morale boosting and esteem building. But it can also be a practical tool for further developing skills, if you know how to do it correctly. Read the full article for some examples of how to
'𝑺𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒕, 𝒕𝒐 𝑮𝒓𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒕' and cultivate great behaviours in your people with the right kind of positive feedback.
