Picture this. You have your weekly one on one. Your team member promises to complete the inventory report for the project by next week. Next week arrives and it’s not done. What do you say? Is it, ‘Why didn’t you complete the report?’ If you’re like most leaders, that’s exactly what you’d say. Or at least, it’s what you want to say.
We won!
I saw the call for the awards email and deleted it… Three times.
Then I had a conversation with my client about how well the current Coaching skills program was going. I was feeling quite chuffed!
Then I saw the award email again, and this time I read it.
We know that diverse teams deliver the goods. Science knows it. Academia knows it. And anyone who’s worked on a diverse team knows it. But what we don't’ talk enough about, is how it feels to be a part of this diversity. If we are doing our job, showing up with ideas, challenging other team members, and generally pushing ourselves and each other to be brilliant, then diversity feels difficult. There is push back. There is scepticism. There is discomfort. BUT...if we can just hang in there long enough, trust our colleagues enough, and have faith that we all want to make a positive difference, then we can reap the rewards that diversity offers.
Today I turn 48 (and mark 18 years as an independent consultant in communication dynamics – Wahoo!). Feeling nostalgic about my life, my mind has wandered to my early jobs, and how they shaped my work today. I figured you might get a laugh out of these early jobs so I’m sharing some here. (I guarantee you’ll be surprised by some!)
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!
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.
In the workplace, confidence is a critical launch pad for new skills, new opportunities and new jobs.
Confidence for women is a conundrum, however.
Women are told to be more confident, yet when they display more confidence, they are seen as arrogant, and when they downplay their confidence, they become invisible.
Simply telling women to ‘be more confident’, it seems, misses the point.
As a result of being conditioned to show less confidence, and being penalised for being overly confident, women are more likely to wait too long before acting and putting themselves forward.
Women hold back while men push forward – and so men are rewarded with jobs they have little experience in, assignments that will stretch them and opportunities they might not be ready for.
What are the unwritten rules women are supposed to follow at work?
And what is the resulting backlash when these rules aren’t followed?
𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞! 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞! 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄!
I am so thrilled to share my latest book with you 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲: 𝐓𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐛𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤.
Do you...
🔹 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘥, 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬?
🔹 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥?
🔹 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦?
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲 is a playbook for navigating career success in a male-dominated environment. If you want to stand out without stepping on toes, get what you want without compromising who you are, and make your mark without becoming someone you’re not, this book is for you. (Plus you can take men with you on the journey. Hooray!)
Packed with easy-to-follow practical strategies, insights, case studies and stories, (and a bunch of bonus resources) this book will help you not only overcome the gender penalties on the field, but also change the game of work for good – for yourself and other women.
𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞?
I recently walked around with a bunch of bananas on my head in the supermarket (as you do). I did this as part of a challenge issued at the last Professional Speakers Australia event. We were challenged to walk around the supermarket with bananas on our head and take a picture of it. Why? I hear you ask. To show how little others care about or take notice of what we are actually doing. To face into our fears of judgement and to know that they are usually unfounded. This is about freeing us up to be perfectly imperfect humans… and embrace it.
There is much being written right now about employee burnout. And for good reason. Employees are burning out. There’s been a lot going on. A pandemic. A shift to remote work. The flu season. A shift back to the office. Travel back on. More pandemic. Travel off. A shift back to remote work… oh, and the great resignation, which means new jobs, new expectations, new workloads or (for those left behind) shrinking teams doing expanding work, and less people delivering more projects. And so on it goes.
All the while, dedicated and committed employees have been working their butts off to keep up. People are trying to stay on top of the rising pressures of ‘just getting on with it’. But they are struggling.
Don’t let the experience of burnout be your teacher. Let the idea of burnout be your preacher. Let it be the motivational speech that spurs you into action, before it’s too late.
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.
