McKinsey reported in 2015 that if women participated at the same level as men did in the workforce, this would add USD 28 trillion to the global GDP. Women continue to be underrepresented throughout all levels of the workplace, not merely in senior leadership roles, despite the fact that women make up more than half of university graduates.
We’re all aware of the glass ceiling preventing women’s ascension into the C-suite, but it is actually the “broken rung” that first needs to be fixed before they can be promoted to manager role. See McKinsey and LeanIn’s 2019 report here: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/gender-equality/women-in-the-workplace-2019
How do we fix this broken rung? Here are some of the suggestions from the panelists at the Women in Leadership (WiL) Forum in Dubai this week about what: A) Organizations; B) Women: and C) Men can do.
A. What Organizations Can Do
1. Nurture, coach, and sponsor female talent. Offer coaching programs for women in the early stages of their career on topics like personal branding, negotiation, and train them for more senior positions. ~ Ozlem Fidanci, CEO, Phillips ME & Turkey
2. Publicize benefits of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I). Set a target percentage of women on the leadership team and have succession planning to replace high performing females. ~ Mona Abdulla Al Hebsi, HR Director, Jumeirah Group
“We need 30% of C-level decision-makers to be women or else D&I change will not happen organically”. ~ Hoda Abou-Jamra, Founding Partner, TVM Healthcare
3. Promote work-life balance. Institutionalize paternity leave for male employees and encourage them to actually take this leave. This will destigmatize maternity leave for women. ~ Hani Ashkar, Senior Partner, PwC
I’d go one further and suggest allowing sabbaticals for all employees, parents or non-parents, who may choose to take the break to raise children, climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, return to school, voluntour to build a school, or go sailing around the world. These sabbaticals can help retain talented employees, particularly Millennials, who want to take a break from work to do something different or to follow their passion.
In his Harvard Business Review article, David Burkus found that extended vacation time not only helped employees rejuvenate, recharge, and become more creative, the organizations benefitted as well by enabling other staff to step into fill in the gaps. People who filled in for their colleagues continued to be more effective and responsible even after their colleagues returned. Companies like Patagonia, Adobe, BCG Consulting, Deloitte, and General Mills already offer sabbaticals.
4. Hold management accountable for Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) initiatives by linking performance to D&I outcomes. ~ Franco Atassi, Head of Smart Infrastructure, Siemens ME
B. What Women Can Do
1. Women need to be more willing to take risks and be more confident in going after what they want. ~ Luciano Poli, CEO, Dow Chemical (IMENAT) and Ali Matar, Head of LinkedIn MENA.
Ali Matar reported on LinkedIn’s findings that women are more selective when applying for a job (generally only applying when they have most of the skills unlike their male counterparts), but tend to be 18% more successful than men. Women also tend to be less willing to use their networks to ask for a referral.
Most of the panelists made similar suggestions:
· Don’t wait till you have 100% of the skills. Take a leap of faith and say yes.
· Don’t expect others to give you that promotion or raise. Ask for it!
· If want the job, go for it and learn along the way. We see courses for “Women on Boards”, but not for “Men on Boards” yet they are sitting on all these boards!
2. Don’t assume that men don’t care. Assume good intentions and bring men into the conversation. Invite them to join diversity and inclusion initiatives. Be sensitive to the biases men face as well. ~ Franco Atassi, Head of Smart Infrastructure, Siemens ME
One great reminder from both the men and women on the panels were that most of the time, men are not against women. They are simply not aware of gender issues or biases.
It made me think about how scissors, devices, sports equipment, and pretty much every tool we use has been created for right-handed people. I have never once thought about how left-handed people have had to struggle with things I take for granted and this is likely the same for male privilege.
3. Find and create male allies, especially those who have faced biases themselves such as men of colour. ~ Franco Atassi, Head of Smart Infrastructure, Siemens ME
4. Mentor junior male colleagues, not just on D&I issues, but in your technical expert role so that they don’t work in male-dominated work environments. ~ Franco Atassi, Head of Smart Infrastructure, Siemens ME
C. What Men Can Do
Franco Atassi, Head of Smart Infrastructure, Siemens ME made these recommendations:
1. Commit to gender inclusivity. Take active steps to include women. Speak up when you notice gender bias.
2. Be a role model and take paternity leave and work remotely to promote flexible work arrangements.
3. Make the business case for D&I teams, e.g. how they outperform homogenous teams (made up of similar people) by a factor of 3 or how gender diverse boards are likely to have above-average profitability, and not just to be inclusive to be ‘nice’.
Most Inspiration Panel
The most inspirational panel of the conference was comprised of refugees from Tibet, Rwanda, Congo, and Palestine, some of whom have experienced unspeakable atrocities yet remained so passionate in helping others.
Currently, there are 75 million children worldwide without access to education and only 2% of all humanitarian aid actually goes towards education. Only 50% of refugee children have access to elementary education, 22% to secondary school, and 1% to higher education. ~ Maysa Jalbout, Global Advocate for Vulnerable People.
“We need to teach tolerance, love, and equality to children so that we can prevent wars, but first we need to breed peace in ourselves and then we can help each other”. ~ Marie-Christine Nibagwire, Founder, Safe Refuge Rwanda: https://www.saferefugerwanda.org/
The other panelists were Tenzin Seldon, Founder, Kinstep: https://www.kinstep.com/ and Noella Coursaris Musunka, Founder, Malaika: http://malaika.org/
#women; #womeninleadership; #wilforum; #womenatwork; #genderequality; #diversityandinclusion; #D&I; #genderbias
