The small changes leaders must make to drive real gender equality

Throughout history, commerce has always impacted society. Migration, import and export laws and even the creation of new social classes were all triggered by progress in business and trade.

Today, our society is slowly trying to reach a state of equality between men and women. Could this be an area where businesses can affect change?

There are hurdles. For example, StatsNZ reports that the gender pay gap in New Zealand sits at 9.3%. And while that has reduced significantly from 16% in 1998, the number has stalled in the past decade. Also, IML ANZ’s National Salary Survey report has seen a steady pay gap rise to almost 15% for leaders at the C-suite level.

Another area where businesses can do more is around performance assessments and recruitment.  Research has found that common rating scales used to assess work performance, could be skewed in favour of males. In addition, Australia’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) also reports that for many roles in various sectors, “women must send out substantially more applications to receive the same number of interview invitations as equally qualified men.”

Looking at it from that lens can make the goal of achieving equality appear monumental. But like all great tasks, it may be useful to focus on the elements that make up the larger goal – the smaller bites of the proverbial elephant.


Spearhead social change from within your business

Consider the recently enacted whistleblower protections under Australia’s Corporation’s Act. These amendments followed a recognition within the business community that those who speak up need protection. The reforms were a result of the private sector coming together to try and take steps to rebuild trust – an essential element for any business that wants to retain customers.

So, creating the change we need might be more accessible than you think. After all, the employee remuneration, performance ratings and recruitment are entirely normal, ordinary business activities that leaders can influence.

Little steps could be all it takes. Plus, these steps can be carried out by leaders in companies, both large and small. Some areas of change could include:

  • Ensuring equal pay for equal work through robust policies
  • Reviewing how performance assessments are carried out and removing
  • Adopting best practice in your recruitment process to avoid any gender bias

 

Push for equality to benefit all

The apparent business benefit of role modelling gender equality is that you’ll improve employee engagement and in turn, productivity. However, there are advantages beyond the company’s bottom line.

It is estimated that if the gender employment gap was closed, Australia’s GDP would rise by 11%. In New Zealand, pay and employment equity means the shortages of labour and skills will be addressed, labour markets will function better and which all feeds economic growth. Not to mention that the equal treatment of women in society would also lead to a reduction in community issues such as domestic violence and other anti-social behaviours.


Challenge your thinking through thoughtful discussions 

Making changes within your business can undoubtedly nudge us closer to real gender equity. But more is required than small moves. Mindsets need to shift, and real dialogue must happen.

Sources:

American Sociological Review: Scaling Down Inequality: Rating Scales, Gender Bias, and the Architecture of Evaluation: https://journals.sagepub.com/stoken/default+domain/10.1177%2F0003122419833601-free/full

Employment New Zealand: Gender pay gap: https://www.employment.govt.nz/hours-and-wages/pay/pay-equity/gender-pay-gap/

Ministry for Women: Gender pay gap: https://women.govt.nz/work-skills/income/gender-pay-gap

Victorian Government: The benefits of gender equality: https://www.vic.gov.au/benefits-gender-equality

Overcoming unconscious bias

By Derek Parker

 

A sign on the door saying ‘business as usual’ can very easily turn into one saying ‘going out of business’ in today’s ever-shifting, hypercompetitive marketplace. The key to survival is new ideas, whether they relate to products, processes, organisation or technology. New ideas often come from new people, but many Australian organisations have not been successful at hiring new voices or, if they recruit them, effectively listening to them.

Everybody has some intrinsic unconscious bias and that can adversely influence hiring decisions, even when a company has a policy promoting diversity and inclusion. Yet there is a substantial body of research showing that diversity has a positive impact on the bottom line. Some of the most convincing is detailed in a 2017 report from McKinsey, Delivering Through Diversity, which indicated that gender diversity in management positions increases profitability, even more than previous studies had suggested. McKinsey’s data analysis showed that companies in the top 25th percentile for gender diversity on their executive teams were 21% more likely to experience above-average profits.

Likewise, according to the McKinsey data, companies with culturally and ethnically diverse executive teams were 33% more likely to see above-average profits. The pattern extended to board level, where companies that were more ethnically and culturally diverse were 43% more likely to see above-average profits – a significant correlation between diversity and performance.

These studies were in the US but specialists in the field believe that the Australian picture would be similar.

“It is very likely, since the countries are comparable, and it reflects my experiences,” says Theaanna Kiaos, an organisational anthropologist for Diversity First specialising in organisational culture, diversity and inclusion within Australian corporations. “What it means is that decisions made with higher levels of cognitive diversity are likely to be better ones. Once, homogenous boards or leadership teams might have been well-suited to make decisions affecting the company’s future. But it is no longer the case. We now live in a more complex, increasingly diverse world.”

 

AFFINITY BIAS

Unconscious bias arises when a first impression leads a senior person to favour someone in a hiring or promotion decision without knowing all the candidates’ capabilities. This is affinity bias: a ‘first impression’ preference for someone who has the same ethnic, cultural and gender characteristics as you do.

Clare Edwards“It has its roots in primitive, tribal times,” explains Clare Edwards FIML, Principal of BrainSmart Consulting. “Our brains developed to consider anyone different as foe before friend. This reaction is still active in our brains today, mostly unconsciously. The issue for us now is how we overcome that and prevent it from creating group-think and stagnation.”

At one level, unconscious bias can be countered by mechanical processes, especially in recruitment.

Edwards explains that removing gender, residential suburb and tertiary education markers from applications can go a long way to mitigating unconscious bias. Holding panel interviews where panel members are of a diverse background and from other areas of the business is also effective.

“In the recruitment space, apps like Textio that have a ‘watch list’ of gender-biased words and phrases to avoid can help ensure the language and vocabulary we use is inclusive, gender-neutral and not influencing candidates one way or another,” she adds.

“Bias can be very subtle. For example, an ad asking for someone to ‘manage’ a team attracts more male candidates, as opposed to ‘developing’ a team which attracts more female candidates.”

Once a shortlist of candidates is created and applicants are selected for further interviews, the criteria being used for selection should also be absolutely clear to the interviewers. The criteria should relate to the capability to do the job most effectively. It is not about whether a candidate went to the same university as the selector, or if the selector can imagine themselves having a beer after work with a candidate. ‘Cultural fit’, while an important aspect in any selection, should not be manipulated to reject people who show themselves the best at doing the job but come from a different background to the selector.

These methods can be useful at preventing non-affinity candidates being knocked out during search and selection. They are part of an answer but not in themselves sufficient to improve diversity in an organisation. The other, and larger part, of the solution is to focus on the attitudes of the people engaged in the more advanced parts of the selection process.

 

FINDING THE RIGHT LANGUAGE

Many organisations have tried to address issues of unconscious bias through training but the results have often been mixed.

“Of all the companies we know who have taken part in unconscious bias training, not one of them was able to tell us, with absolute confidence, that it has resulted in sustainable behavioural change,” says Kiaos. “When we ask if leaders have become more insightful through the application of the key learnings, often there is only an uncomfortable silence.”

Chris Burton
Chris Burton

In fact, when executives and team leaders are told to think about their biases it can sometimes lead to a defensive reaction because it does not fit with their version of themselves. Kiaos emphasises that an environment of safety and trust is imperative to challenge biases and norms related to diversity and inclusion in an organisation. There must also be a deeper understanding of how the training fits into an overall diversity and inclusion strategy.

One problem is that unconscious bias training is often couched in the language of social science research and psychological phenomena. This can be alienating to executives whose expertise is business. For training to be effective it has to focus on workplace situations and implications, and on the business benefits of diversity. In addition, there needs to be a path for further action, such as giving a specific commitment to overcome an aspect of bias.

If the executives in the training course feel that they are being unduly criticised for being who they are, they are likely to become dismissive of the whole concept. Trainers need to think carefully about the language they use and the specific situation involved. The wrong type of training will not just be unproductive but counterproductive.

Chris Burton, Executive Director of Team Management Systems, a consulting firm that specialises in teamwork improvements, sees feedback mechanisms as essential.

“You need to take time and invest in learning programs that create a link between the inner world of how we think and the operational realities of how we get work done together. We need to illustrate to people how important it is that we accept, validate and incorporate our different perspectives because when we do this well, we are collectively performing better,” he says.

“Ultimately, what is universal when addressing bias is that you need to make the unconscious conscious by providing leaders with reliable feedback about how they process their world and how they prefer to approach their work.”

 

CHANGE OF MINDSET

Training to help to overcome unconscious bias is most effective if coupled with process changes and set within a business framework. But there is also another aspect: a conscious attempt by leaders, whether at the organisational or team level, to change their own thinking.

Thinking Fast and SlowOne strategy for this is presented by author Daniel Kahneman in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow. He differentiates between what he calls ‘system 1’ thinking, which is automatic and habitual; and ‘system 2’ thinking, which is slower and more deliberate. Each has its value but ‘system 2’ thinking delivers more considered outcomes and provides a way to get away from the trap of first impressions through self-awareness and reflection. Edwards has had success with a ‘perspectives’ exercise which invites people to consider how their beliefs and opinions were formed. This can cover areas such as values from parents and elders, religious and cultural upbringing, socio-economic status, and the political beliefs of influencers.

“It’s not often that people take time to reflect and challenge beliefs they may have ‘downloaded’ or adopted but no longer serve them well,” she says. “We also encourage people to interact more with people who are traditionally outside their ‘in-group’ to expand their awareness of difference. The more diverse a group we interact with, the greater our understanding and appreciation of difference and the greater the likelihood of reducing bias in oneself.”

An easy test to check for unconscious bias in a hiring decision is to ‘flip it’. A selector who is having reservations about a candidate who comes from a background of diversity might ask themselves: would they still have those reservations if the candidate had the same cultural, ethnic and gender background as the selector? Alternatively, would a preferred candidate still be preferred if they came from a background of diversity? Questions like this help to turn theory into practice, and to understand the real-world consequences of unconscious bias.

 

A LARGER PICTURE

Theaanna Kiaos believes that moves to overcome unconscious bias should be set within a large self-development picture.

Theaanna Kiaos
Theaanna Kiaos

She says, “You can teach people conceptualisations of biases but it isn’t very useful until people connect with insight and personal feelings associated with biases in their own life. Overcoming biases comes about through identifying how these biases play out.

“Ongoing mindfulness training is also valuable. The mindful state allows one to observe their behaviour more easily, so it makes an effective combination with unconscious bias training. If an organisation can afford to do both, then do both.

“A critical thing is to avoid judging oneself negatively when an insight has become conscious. Rather, accept the cognitive deficit for what it is and carefully look at its impact in everyday life, then correct it by stopping that pattern of behaviour. Write it down, become familiar with it, and then stop it.”

Chris Burton offers another path. “Some of the most important resources used to eliminate unconscious bias are psychometric feedback tools used to generate focused self-assessment and self-reflection. A critical reference point for any leader is an awareness of their own default approach to decision-making, so they can then consider whether corrective action is needed,” he notes. “More broadly, as organisations embrace the importance of both learning and employee experience, these two factors have a multiplier effect to enable the workforce to navigate a successful path to better performance.”

A final step in dealing with unconscious bias is to look at personal changes of mindset in connection with the culture of the organisation.

“It would help, from a strategic perspective, to move diversity and inclusion policy and practice out of the jurisdiction of HR and put it into corporate strategy,” advises Clare Edwards. “There, it can function as a key performance indicator for strategic growth and organisational health. And that sort of shift would underline the importance of overcoming bias in order to help the company thrive.”

READ MORE ONLINE

Clare Edwards FIML, Principal of BrainSmart Consulting, shares extensive insights about tackling unconscious bias in recruitment. Read more here.

Theaanna Kiaos also goes into further detail in this article.

This article originally appeared in the December 2019 print edition of Leadership Matters, IML ANZ’s exclusive Member’s magazine. For editorial suggestions and enquiries, please contact karyl.estrella@managersandleaders.com.au.

How to leverage skills from all ages to create an optimum workforce

By Michelle Gibbings CMgr FIML

 

As organisations grapple with more complex decisions and an ever-increasing pace of change building a workforce equipped with the skills and experience to thrive in this environment is critical.

Finding this depth and breadth of talent requires leaders to build a diverse workforce, which covers full spectrum diversity including, for example, age, ethnicity, gender, thinking styles, disabilities and sexual orientation.

This means leaders need to challenge their decision making patterns.

 

Seek out difference

It’s natural to want to work with people you like and find easy to work with, and consequently when you are building a team or forming workgroups you often seek out such people.

This is either done consciously or subconsciously.  In the case of recruitment, for example, search criteria often specifically reference the desire to find a candidate who is a good cultural fit.

Cultural fit can mean different things to different people.  Typically, if you ask people how they define cultural fit they will give comments such as, someone who:

  • Lives the organisation’s values
  • Is able to work well in the team
  • Will fit in with the rest of the group
  • Understands the organisation’s objectives and buys into its vision

 

However, when you strip away the layers and get to the base level drivers, what the person is looking for is someone who they feel comfortable with.  That is, someone who they connect with because they can see aspects of themselves in that person.

 

Avoid likeability bias

It’s often suggested that one of the key success criteria for a job interview is to ensure that the interviewee comes across as likeable.  The premise being that the hiring manager has already positively assessed the applicant’s CV for the required technical skills because they are being interviewed.  Now, all the hiring manager is seeking to test is whether they want to work with the person or not.

This likeability isn’t just about being friendly and a nice person. It’s about whether the hiring manager finds similarities with the person they are interviewing. Research shows we like people who are similar to us in terms of interests, backgrounds and experiences, and this has consequential impacts for hiring decisions.

Kellogg University found that getting hired for a job was not so much about the “soft or hard dimensions of the role”, but rather how similar the person being interviewed was to the person conducting the interview.

It is very easy for leaders to want to hire people who are like them.  Similarity makes a person feel comfortable.  However, when you hire people like yourself, you are filling the team or workgroup with people who have similar backgrounds, experiences and thought processes.

 

Diversity improves decision making

Homogeneity can negatively impact how decisions are made. The more alike people are, the more likely they are to think along the same lines and therefore there is less room for debate, discernment and disagreement.

Separate research from Kellogg University found that diverse teams make better decisions.  That diversity is not just about gender or ethnicity, it includes age, experience and backgrounds.  The diverse groups outperformed more homogeneous groups, not because of an influx of new ideas, but because the diversity triggered more careful processing of the information that’s discussed.

‘Complex problem solving’ and ‘critical thinking’ are the top two competencies that the World Economic Forum identified in its Future of Jobs report. This involves challenge, exploration, suspending judgement, and being equipped with the cognitive capacity to look at problems in a different way. All of which is aided by having a diverse workforce.

Successful sustainable organisations recognise the need for their workforce to be equipped with the capability and capacity to dig deeper into the mental models that drive their thought processes and be ready to acquire knowledge from multiple sources and environments.

Consequently, leaders need to be prepared to challenge their assumptions and expectations when they are building their team.  This involves:

  • Acknowledging the potential for bias, because we all have it to varying degrees
  • Actively seeking diversity of experience, background, ethnicity, age and gender (and all forms of diversity) when forming teams and workgroups
  • Recognising that the person at work who really annoys you is often the person you need to spend more time with. Why? Because the source of tension comes from their seeing the world differently to you and this challenge to your frame of reference is good for your thought processes
  • Inviting other people into the decision-making process who can shift and provide alternate perspectives

 

Build on strengths

As part of this approach, it helps for leaders to understand and then leverage the strengths of their team.

Research conducted over the last 30 years shows that taking a strengths-based approach leads to greater work satisfaction, engagement, and productivity. This is evidenced in Tom Rath and Barry Conchie’s book, Strengths Based Leadership, where they detail how working with strengths helps leaders be more effective.

Leaders play a crucial role in bringing strengths to life at work – for both themselves and their team members.

It starts with the leader understanding their own strengths and how they are best used at work. The next step is to help team members:

  • Appreciate the strengths they bring to their role, and
  • Recognise and value the strengths their colleagues bring to their role

 

This is best done through a series of team development activities, which help the team best understand and leverage the individual and collective strengths of the team.

Michelle Gibbings is a change leadership and career expert and founder of Change Meridian. Michelle works with leaders and teams to help them accelerate progress. She is the author of ‘Step Up: How to Build Your Influence at Work’ and ‘Career Leap: How to Reinvent and Liberate your Career’.

In leadership, respect is about understanding, not agreeing

By David Pich CMgr FIML

 

Respect is undeniably complex. This complexity is only increasing as the world – and the world of work – become simultaneously more polarised and more open. It’s interesting that these two global trends seem to be in such conflict.

Countries and workforces are becoming increasingly diverse, while public opinion about all aspects of diversity seems to be ever more polarised. We seem to be metaphorically pulling down walls, but leaders are appealing to millions with notions of building physical walls. Barriers to trade and those that restrict the freedom of people to move and work across borders seem to be becoming mainstream policy in many nations.

 

DIFFERENCE AND DIVERSITY

These macro trends and developments have made the concept of respect a fraught and complex matter. The typical workplace contains incredible diversity. A relatively small team of, say, 10 people in Australia or New Zealand can be made up of any combination of females, males, and those who identify as either or neither. It may also include people in same-sex relationships, people with or without kids; and it may include Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and atheists. There may be people with a physical or mental disability (or both) and people from quite literally any cultural background you can mention. In fact, it’s safe to say that I have missed more ‘categories’ (and yes, I detest that word) than I have listed.

When all of these people – our workmates – arrive at work each morning, afternoon or evening, they do so against a social and political environment that is increasingly polarised and opinionated. Stereotypes abound, and the impact of these shouldn’t be underestimated.

The best example I can give is from the UK following the Brexit vote in 2016, when Polish and other mainland European nationals living and working in London and other cities reported feeling an overwhelming sense of fear and uncertainty in the workplace.

Similar feelings were reported in Australia among the gay community during the same-sex marriage debate.

The seemingly constant attack on, and airing of, ‘differences’ in lifestyle choices, religious beliefs, cultural backgrounds, nationalities and other aspects of the rich tapestry of individuals’ lives means that showing respect is increasingly portrayed as unnecessary and, even worse, a sign of weakness.

 

RESPECT IS ABOUT UNDERSTANDING, NOT AGREEING

Showing respect as a leader isn’t about agreeing. It’s simply not possible to agree with everyone about everything. Trying to do that is the quickest way to tie yourself up in knots and lose the respect of the team. It’s also disingenuous.

When I joined CanTeen in 2002 as the Head of Fundraising and Marketing I met Carolyne, the Head of HR. We became and remain close friends. Carolyne is a committed and practising Christian, while I’m a committed and practising atheist. We freely talked about – and laughed about – our very different life views and belief systems, and we frequently explained to each other why we had come to our own separate and diametrically different conclusions.

That’s life! As I once said during a conference keynote, “If the workplace was full of middle-aged blokes from Manchester with a love of eighties music it would be a very dull place indeed!” Difference and diversity is interesting, enriching and rewarding.

Respect is about understanding why people believe what they believe, do what they do and are who they are. Despite what we read and hear from a vocal section of today’s media, and read on the more extreme reaches of the internet and social media sites, it’s perfectly possible – and perfectly acceptable – to understand without agreeing. Showing respect as a leader is about accepting that you don’t always need to be right, that there isn’t necessarily only a right and wrong or just a black and white. Respect is about accepting and embracing the idea that other people’s life experiences are different to yours and that that’s OK.

As a leader, respect is about encouraging and embracing the view that difference and diversity bring strength to a team because they open the way to new thinking, new approaches and new ways of solving problems. Once this view is accepted it can be implemented in any number of ways within the workplace or team. For example, in recruitment, leaders should ensure that they do not fall into the trap of allowing personal bias to creep into the formal and informal recruitment process. In the same way, leaders need to guard against allowing their own views to cloud the way they deal with any number of issues and situations that arise each day in the workplace.

Leading Well book
This is an edited extract from IML ANZ’s latest book, Leading Well: 7 attributes of very successful leaders (Major Street Publishing, A$34.95).

The book highlights seven attributes that ignite inspiring leadership. It focuses squarely on the personal attributes that can transform managers into leaders and good leaders into great leaders.

Order your copy here.

 

This article originally appeared in the September 2019 print edition of Leadership Matters, IML ANZ’s quarterly magazine. For editorial suggestions and enquiries, please contact karyl.estrella@managersandleaders.com.au.

The Info: Best books for ethical leadership

Booktopia’s Sarah McDuling reflects upon ethical leadership – and cherry-picks the best books for further reading.

 

At a glance ethical leadership may seem simple enough. By any interpretation, an ethical leader is a good leader. Integrity, justice, compassion and respect are values that must logically lie at the core of any conversation about leadership and ethics. Ethics are, after all, the moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour. To behave ethically is essentially to know and to do what is right.

However, authentic ethical leadership involves more than simply identifying and pursuing a list of core values. It requires a framework based on communication, action and trust.

Values-based leadership creates a working environment where employees feel secure. It fosters a sense of pride among colleagues – which boosts staff performance, retention and morale. Put simply, people who trust their leaders are happier, more productive and more successful.

While transparency and clear communication are core elements of ethical leadership, perhaps the most important is action – or ‘leading by example’. This can be done by aligning systems and processes to promote ethical reasoning, independence of thought, listening, flexibility and resilience. Without these processes in place, a leader may fail to walk the talk. Inspirational speeches are worthless if they aren’t backed up by action.

Ethical leaders are very rarely born, ready-made. They develop via a combination of training, learning and innovative thinking. With that in mind, I have chosen the books in this reading list to guide and inspire you to be the most ethical (and therefore most effective) leader you can be.

 

Recommended reading: Ethics and leadership

ETHICAL LEADERSHIP:

CONSCIOUS BUSINESS: HOW TO BUILD VALUE THROUGH VALUES

By Fred Kofman

 

TREATING PEOPLE WELL: HOW TO MASTER SOCIAL SKILLS TO THRIVE IN EVERYTHING YOU DO

By Lea Berman, Jeremy Bernard and Laura Bush

 

ETHICAL LEADERSHIP: CREATING AND SUSTAINING AN ETHICAL BUSINESS CULTURE

By Andrew Leigh

 

THE THOUGHTFUL LEADER: HOW TO USE YOUR HEAD AND YOUR HEART TO INSPIRE OTHERS

By Mindy Gibbins-Klein

 

THE POWER OF ETHICS: THE THOUGHTFUL LEADER’S MODEL FOR SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

By Pete Geissler and Bill O’Rourke

 

THE ETHICAL LEADER: WHY DOING THE RIGHT THING CAN BE THE KEY TO COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

By Morgen Witzel

 

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

FORCES FOR GOOD: CREATING A BETTER WORLD THROUGH PURPOSE-DRIVEN BUSINESSES

By Paul Hargreaves

 

HUMANE CAPITAL: HOW TO CREATE A MANAGEMENT SHIFT TO TRANSFORM PERFORMANCE AND PROFIT

By Vlatka Hlupic

 

LEAN IMPACT: HOW TO INNOVATE FOR RADICALLY GREATER SOCIAL GOOD

By Ann Mei Chang

 

PURPOSEFUL PROFITS: INSIDE SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES MAKING A POSITIVE GLOBAL IMPACT

By Joanne Sonenshine

 

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS FOR GOOD: HOW COMPANIES AND CAUSES CREATE VIRAL CHANGE

By Derrick Feldmann

 

THE ETHICAL CAPITALIST: HOW TO MAKE BUSINESS WORK BETTER FOR SOCIETY

By Julian Richer

 

AVAILABLE FROM BOOKTOPIA | Find out more about all these books, and order them online at booktopia.com.au.

 

This article originally appeared in the September 2019 print edition of Leadership Matters, IML ANZ’s quarterly magazine. For editorial suggestions and enquiries, please contact karyl.estrella@managersandleaders.com.au.

Diversity, Inclusion and Performance Under the Spotlight

Contemporary corporate culture in Australia presents managers with many different demands. Of increasing relevance is the challenge to ensure we foster inclusion and contribution from an increasingly diverse workforce.

How are successful organisations tackling this challenge and what can managers and leaders do to make a difference?

To look into this, Australian corporate learning and development specialists, Team Management Systems (TMS), recently hosted a series of forums, assembling leading practitioners in the field of diversity and inclusion (D&I). TMS recognises that organisations must identify a discernible performance improvement from the collaboration teams comprising diverse individuals.

Seven major themes of diversity and inclusion

In distilling the outcomes and content from the forums, TMS identified several key issues and recurring themes that emerged.

  1. Organisations must understand and work with differences

Diverse thinking and different perspectives are needed if organisations are to solve some of today’s most challenging and complex problems of the future. Establishing common ground is a crucial factor in this process – once we achieve this, we can improve connections exponentially. We can build our understanding of diverse perspectives by using different lenses and feedback tools.

  1. A focus on the individual is essential

Every individual needs to feel included and valued, which requires acknowledging the whole person and all that they bring to their workplace.

  1. A top-down approach is needed if these initiatives are to succeed

Senior leaders need to personify diversity, which means doing more than just endorsing a policy. All levels of the organisation need to be involved, with passionate advocates developing and implementing the plans across the broader organisation.

  1. Increased self-awareness is central to addressing unconscious bias

Organisations have many initiatives to improve performance, all of which require dedication and resources. Nevertheless, self-awareness and emotional intelligence training is critical to helping people understand each other and communicate more effectively. A key insight is that leaders’ competencies need to be developed to create greater self-awareness so that conflict can be addressed constructively.

  1. Notions like intersectionality also need to be considered

When we look at multiple elements of diversity in combination – e.g. ethnicity, gender and age – we need to be mindful of the compounding impact on an individual’s experience and identity. Our programmes work best when we consider how complex attitudes towards diversity can impact all areas of an employee’s life.

  1. D&I programmes need to foster compassion in corporate life

We must think about the personal impacts beyond policy and initiative, by encouraging a culture of compassion to develop within organisations. There is no place in any corporate culture for ignorance or discrimination. At the same time, we need to be sensitive to lifestyle factors and how they can impact on some of our more significant initiatives.

  1. D&I initiatives cannot be tokenistic and must deliver a performance gain

Inclusion programmes should work at the grass-roots level and be designed to empower people genuinely. Skills training in areas like hosting effective meetings can encourage people to call-out non-inclusive language and behaviour, which helps to create safe, supportive workspaces.

There is plenty of evidence that organisations with diverse leadership have recorded impressive returns and, without assuming causality, we have to ask, ‘why wouldn’t you foster diversity?’ It’s possible to see a change in the bottom line when people are hired who look, think and make decisions like your customer base.

Diversity and inclusion – moving forward

As the Australian workforce recognises the importance of creating inclusive teams, this topic becomes ever more relevant for managers and leaders. The Institute of Managers and Leaders Australia and New Zealand has a suite of diagnostic and development tools designed to improve the ability, of your leaders, to better communicate with a wide range of unique individuals.  Thus addressing the unconscious bias issue through improving self-awareness. If you would like to like to know more about the range of People Analytics tools available, please call 1300 362 631, email corporate@managersandleaders.com.au or visit managersandleaders.com.au/people-analytics.

Cahoots reveal the keys to success in a turbulent environment

By Anthony O’Brien

 

By any estimate, a camping organisation that increases its annual number of camping experiences from 20 in 2015 to 50 three years later has enjoyed phenomenal business growth. IML ANZ Corporate Member organisation Cahoots achieved this stunning business growth and for its achievements earned the 2018 Sir John Storey Catalyst Award for Business Innovation.

The mission-driven, profit-for-purpose organisation Cahoots, and its team of 20 carers, manage a variety of weekly programs, training, and camps throughout the year, catering to children and young people of all abilities. However, in truth, Cahoots’ achievements extend beyond camp numbers. In 2016, Cahoots, formerly known as Kids Camps Incorporated supported 150 families in Western Australia. Today, the registered NDIS provider assists 600 families annually. It also provides disability consultancy and training services to the corporate and government sectors.

Moreover, Cahoots has been able to evolve and thrive in an environment where large numbers of NDIS providers are struggling to remain solvent. Almost one in three (28%) of organisations reported operating at a loss, according to the latest State of the Disability Sector Report from the National Disability Services (NDS), Australia’s peak body for non-government disability service organisations. Of the 44% who made a profit, many said this wasn’t meaningful in relation to CPI.

Cahoots, says CEO Jess Karlsson, has achieved its success by developing new and purpose-aligned revenue streams to create income through fees for services. This income is reinvested in the children, young people and families supported by Cahoots.

“Our mission is to provide opportunities for children and young people with disability and other exceptional challenges, with friendship, skills, and confidence. Moreover, our tagline is ‘connect, learn, celebrate’. So, we break down everything we do into those three words and connect people by bringing them together in camps and programs,” explains Karlsson.

Cahoots also caters to people without disabilities. “We consider ourselves an inclusive recreation and camping organisation, as opposed to a disability service provider. We run some family and carer camps as well.”

Karlsson continues, “We spent much time working on our strategy and realised that disability doesn’t have the same definition. So, a person with a disability isn’t just a person sitting in a wheelchair or isn’t just a person who’s got autism. It’s a lot of people – there’s learning difficulties, social anxiety, or depression. Mental health concerns. People who have trouble socialising.

“We also came to the point where anybody who would experience a challenge accessing the community, or has got some social barrier, those are the people we want to support. This also includes siblings of people with disability. It does include carers and yes, many, many people.”

 

INNOVATING FOR CHANGE

While Cahoots is ramping up its camp and program activities, the Perth-based NDIS provider wasn’t always such an award-winning success. When Karlsson, who has a Bachelor of Applied Science from Central Queensland University and various business diplomas from the UNSW Business School, arrived at the organisation in 2015, it only had two staff members and was offering a fraction of the camps it organises today. Karlsson, also a former CEO of the YMCA of Central Australia based in the Northern Territory, says, “The board recruited me specifically because of my background and commercial knowledge of the broader nonprofit sector and possible funding models.”

Following Karlsson’s appointment, she spent a year with the board on strategic planning, figuring out what Kids Camp Incorporated wanted to be. This process included much consultation with members, staff and volunteers, and the collaboration resulted in the name change to Cahoots, announced in February 2017.

“The traditional meaning of cahoots is about collaboration and working together,” explains Karlsson. “Our mission is about bringing people together. Whether it’s people with disability, or children, or Aboriginal families, or corporate groups, it’s all about just that kind of sense of teamwork, and cahoots is a word that goes with anything. So, it could be Cahoots Consultancy, Cahoots Camps, Cahoots Childcare. Using Cahoots just gave us more commercial opportunities.”

 

SURVIVING AND THRIVING

As mentioned earlier, many NDIS providers are struggling to remain solvent at present. Karlsson believes Cahoots is blossoming in the post-NDIS environment for several reasons. “The fact that we are small has given us the opportunity to build an organisation from the ground up, as opposed to tearing one down.”

The NDS State of the Disability Sector Report 2018 found significant merger activity in the disability sector, with almost three out of 10 organisations saying they had held merger discussions over the past 12 months, mainly to improve efficiency and broaden services. Thirteen per cent discussed winding up in 2018.

Karlsson continues, “Many organisations in the disability sector are known for having reasonably high overheads, and quite a lot of middle management. We’re really lean. As the CEO for example, I was doing things like creating Facebook pages and updating social media. For at least the first year it was me, with only two staff members, who did everything in the organisation.” In other words, the early days of Cahoots mirrored a small business start-up. Karlsson also relied heavily on the theories of management and business guru, Michael Porter.

“Porter talks about strategy being either everything for a very small target market or doing one thing for a large target market,” says Karlsson. “Camping is our core business. We do a few things around it, but camping is what we do. Moreover, we can do that for a large target market whereas most disability organisations tend to go for the opposite strategy, which is to do everything for a small target market. So, all of their revenue is dependent on NDIS funding.”

In contrast, Cahoots has a diversified revenue stream, separate from camping experiences, which includes training and consultancy services to businesses, other non-profits and government organisations. “We show businesses how they can become more accessible and inclusive. Moreover, we’ve had some big wins doing that. We’re expanding that area.” Some of Cahoots clients include Bankwest, the City of Perth, WA’s most significant local government area, as well as other local councils.

If like me, you’re wondering what consultancy and training services Cahoots would offer Bankwest or the City of Perth, Karlsson good-naturedly explains it doesn’t involve instructing bank tellers or council workers about ways to assemble camp tents. “We talk about disability standards and building codes and so on. However, it’s more about giving people hands-on experience about what it feels like to be excluded or have a disability. So, putting people in wheelchairs, or giving people visual glasses that replicate having vision impairment. It gives people the opportunity to know what it feels like to have an impairment, and build their empathy, resulting in a more inclusive business.”

Cahoots also partners with several organisations wanting to offer occasional camps for their clients, which are known as coordinated or ‘contracted camps’. “This is a significant part of our business model and allows for activities and outcomes to be directed by a client organisation, with Cahoots managing logistics, staffing and risks associated with camp delivery,” explains Karlsson.

 

RECOGNITION AND AFFIRMATION

Winning the Sir John Storey Catalyst Award for Business Innovation has proven to be very positive for the team at Cahoots. Karlsson, who recently began studying for IML ANZ’s Chartered Manager (CMgr) designation says the award is a very positive acknowledgment. “It’s good to receive a recognition that we are doing well from an external, accredited peak body such as IML ANZ.

“It’s also good to receive recognition from someone else because we think, internally, we’re doing pretty well. However, it’s good to receive that affirmation, and it also is a great opportunity to continue to develop our staff. There is a handful of our staff who are going to do the professional development that’s available through IML ANZ.”

Karlsson believes Cahoots won the Sir John Storey Catalyst Award for Business Innovation for “its ability to innovate its way through the NDIS, where others are having to go through acquisitions and shutting down”.

“Many organisations are making big, big groups of people redundant. However, we can’t even keep up with recruitment. We’re constantly hiring,” she confirms.

At the same time, Cahoots is heavily focused on staff retention and development, which in combination are major contributors to the NDIS provider’s business success. Karlsson explains, “We’ve done much development with the staff, and we’re generous. We spend about 5% of our overall expense budget on staff development when many companies would spend closer to 1%.”

Cahoots staff are offered interstate exchanges and an annual leadership camp focused on skills development. There are internal workshops for business planning, communication, and sessions devoted to organisational culture. “We did much work on our culture in 2018 and fixed a few problems. A key part of the strategy when it comes to culture and cultivating business acumen has been our decision to recruit from outside the disability sector.

“We’ve got people with backgrounds in early education, recreation, business management, government and who have a diverse range of qualifications,” says Karlsson. “We’ve got a librarian as our office manager, who is very organised, and a fantastically inclusive teacher as a volunteer coordinator. We look for those personal qualities and always consider what type of person we need for a role, and then employ or recruit accordingly.”

 

A LOT MORE THAN MONEY

Working with IML ANZ provides Cahoots with the opportunity to increase the profile of the organisation and the profile of the disability sector. “In community services, whether the organisation is working with a disability or young people, it’s essential that businesses and larger organisations understand what we’re doing, and there are opportunities by working with us and things that we can learn from each other,” contends Karlsson.

“Sometimes large organisations or corporates might think charities don’t know what they’re doing, and that’s why they never have any money. However, it’s not that at all. There’s a lot of brilliant people working in charities because they believe in the purpose.”

Finally, Karlsson advises a manager or leader considering a career in community services to “let go of your salary expectations”.

“Rather, think about the richness that can be added to your life as opposed to how rich you can become financially.” She continues, “I know there’s no reward financially that would take me out of Cahoots right now. I am surrounded by amazing people who share my commitment to our mission, and I don’t think that you can pay for that.”

This article originally appeared in the June 2019 edition of Leadership Matters, IML ANZ’s quarterly magazine. For editorial suggestions and enquiries, please contact karyl.estrella@managersandleaders.com.au.

Female Leaders in the Strongman Era

By Nicola Field | Photo by Michael Bowers

 

Laura Tingle has a celebrated career as a journalist and author. Formerly the Political Editor of The Australian Financial Review, Tingle is currently the Chief Political Correspondent of the ABC’s 7.30 program. Leadership Matters caught up with Tingle to seek her views on the changing nature of leadership, and how different female leaders have adapted their style to achieve success in the male-dominated world of politics.

In her recent essay Follow the Leader: Democracy and the Rise of the Strongman (Black Inc.), Tingle pulls no punches about the state of leadership in modern politics. She kick-starts her commentary noting that the qualities and requirements of leadership are eternal, and observes that history is peppered with great leaders who have shaped our views of what makes a true leader. In particular Tingle observes, “Political leadership should be about building a consensus for change, giving people a map to follow, and bringing together different parties to achieve an outcome.”

It’s a definition of leadership that certainly isn’t exclusive to political circles. The same notion of a leader as someone who can inspire, motivate and galvanise a team to achieve collective goals applies in the business world also.

But that may be where the common thread ends.

In Canberra, at least, recent years have seen a revolving door of leaders, and this has forced incumbents to become more focused on controlling the inner ranks of their own party rather than guiding the electorate.

 

CRASH OR CRASH THROUGH

“There is something of a ‘crash or crash through’ approach in politics at present,” observes Tingle. “Right now we see situations – not just here in Australia, but elsewhere in the world also, where consensus building is no longer valued, and this can pervade the culture in business as well as politics.”

Tingle points to former Prime Minister Paul Keating who is often cited as an example of the ‘crash or crash through’ approach. Yet she notes that he also argued, “You have to bring the mob with you”. Tingle points out that at least Keating regarded his role as setting the right direction and then persuading enough people that he was right, to enable him to follow that path.

It’s a very different matter with some of today’s leaders. And, for many people, US President Donald Trump will come to mind as the embodiment of what Tingle refers to as “our conflicting expectations and frustrations when it comes to leaders”. Tingle’s essay sums up Trump’s presidency this way: “We are as alarmed by the apparent powerlessness of American institutions to contain or direct him as we are by the erratic ignorance and nastiness of his actions.”

The prospect that Donald Trump could be a bellwether for future leadership will be worrisome for many, and Tingle observes that he could herald the return of the strongman to politics. But how will this affect women aspiring to leadership roles – be it in politics or the commercial world?

Tingle is quick to highlight that leadership is not the same as authority and power. “Leadership can come from the foot of the table, it doesn’t have to come from the head of the table,” she says. “But whether it is in politics or business, women are increasingly holding senior, leadership positions – and that is threatening for a lot of people.”

 

A REAL SENSE OF MACHISMO

This threat can make the challenges of leadership far greater for women than for their male counterparts. Tingle notes, “There can be a real sense of machismo in the political arena, and women in politics can face an extra layer of hostility.”

From power struggles to coups, Australia’s first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard faced both – and a whole lot more. Tingle was well-placed to observe how Gillard handled the challenges, and how she responded by cultivating her image to maintain her political clout. An inherent degree of sexism made this transformation essential. Tingle explains, “Since leaving office, Gillard has met other powerful women in politics around the world who tell stories of being in high-level meetings surrounded by men in suits, and being mistaken for one of the catering staff.”

Indeed, Gillard herself has commented that she would often take part in gatherings of world leaders, yet the Australian media would focus on the clothes she was wearing rather than any contribution she made. Tingle agrees with the former PM’s assessment: “Gender wasn’t everything with Julia Gillard. But it was certainly something.”

 

MISOGYNY HAS DEEP ROOTS

In offering an explanation as to why women in political leadership roles can face gender issues, Tingle refers to the UK’s best-known classicist Mary Beard, whose book Women & Power: A manifesto, which traces the roots of misogyny all the way back to classical Greece and Rome. Beard argues that silencing the voices of women was, in effect, a natural part of manhood, and this has established a precedent for women aspiring to leadership positions.

“Mary Beard has really drawn attention to perceptions of women – and how perceptions of power are hardwired within us,” says Tingle. “History has shaped our views about what people in authority should look like”.

Those perceptions saw Julia Gillard take steps to alter her image as a leader. Tingle describes the evolution of Gillard’s public persona, saying, “Over time, Julia Gillard transformed herself. She felt she could no longer make jokes, but rather had to be sombre and serious.”

Tingle notes that Beard argues women have tended to adopt many outward signals of ‘manliness’ in attempts to establish their leadership credentials – from dropping their voices when they speak, to wearing the ubiquitous pants suit favoured by so many modern female leaders.

She adds, “We see something similar in Angela Merkel [who has served as Chancellor of Germany since 2005], who always wears the classic pants suit.”

Not even a political heavyweight like Angela Merkel is immune from superficial criticism. In 2013 for instance, Le Journal International allowed fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld open slather against Merkel’s dress sense in relation to her “special proportions”.

Indeed, when it comes to political leadership, women tread an especially fine line with their wardrobe. The 2016 US election campaign saw Hillary Clinton blasted for wearing a $US12,000 Armani jacket. UK Prime Minister Theresa May sparked outrage for wearing a pair of £995 leather trousers.

Tingle notes, “These examples highlight how we are all struck by implications of what power looks like, and how hard it can be for women to break through this sort of nonsense.”

 

SHOULD WOMEN ADAPT?

Is it essential for women in leadership to alter who they are, what they wear, and even change their voice to fit in with popular perceptions?

Tingle refers again to Women & Power, citing questions Mary Beard raises about how women can be heard – and whether it involves exploiting the status quo. It’s no secret for example that former UK PM Margaret Thatcher followed the advice of minders to lower the pitch of her voice (and thereby sound more masculine) in order to win the 1979 election.

“We often do things to increase perceptions of our authority,” says Tingle, “and that can include changing aspects of ourselves to create a perception of male authority. It’s just what we do.” She points out for instance, that Julia Gillard “eventually developed a persona of speaking slowly to convey a sense of being in control.”

However, some women do successfully break the mould. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has created a very different prototype of female leadership. Not only has she seemingly missed the memo about the need to look and sound more masculine, the announcement of her pregnancy saw her public support swell.

“Jacinda Ardern is fascinating – and an extreme opposite to someone like Angela Merkel,” observes Tingle. “She is not perturbed by motherhood, just as she wasn’t perturbed by issues over whether Russian spies were in New Zealand [which was a question Ardern faced in March 2018 following the Novichok poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the UK].”

Tingle continues, “Jacinda Ardern just stays cool, and focuses on the important things – and this has given her an authority that she didn’t start out with.”

 

TEAM AHEAD OF SELF

In her essay on political leadership, Tingle points out that, “We bemoan a lack of leadership. Some yearn for the good old days when we had it. Yet when we get it, we sometimes don’t recognise it, and even if we do, we seldom reward it.”

She explains this view saying, “We don’t have a very sophisticated assessment of leadership. We have started to adopt a one-dimensional view of leadership, and the continuing change of leadership [in Canberra] has undermined what it means to be a leader.”

According to Tingle, our structure of government has reached the point where it is not possible for any one person to bring about significant policy change, no matter how persuasive an advocate they might be. “It means the skill and obligation of leaders lies in changing relationships within the ranks of their colleagues and the electorate so that they are not operating on their own.”

Tingle believes that effective leadership comes back to identifying self-interest versus collective interest, and cites the Labor Party as a good example of this. “Bill Shorten is not always popular among his parliamentary colleagues,” she explains. “But the collective interest of the party is what drives his team to get on with the job. This is tremendously stabilising because the Labor Party as an organisation knows it won’t get into government if it looks like a rabble.”

As Tingle points out, “This demonstrates that it is possible for people to learn to put team interest ahead of self-interest. The crucial thing is for people to understand the collective self-interest in order to make rational decisions.”

It’s not a bad maxim for managers and leaders, male or female, to follow, and it provides hope that the strongman approach won’t win out – in the business arena at least.

BOOSTING YOUR WILL TO LEAD

Empathy, intuitiveness and the strength to deal with complex situations – all vital skills for leaders. Interestingly, these are also natural abilities that most women possess. It’s surprising therefore that the rise in the number of women who sit at the top levels of organisations isn’t happening quickly enough.

 

Empowering women to lead

According to the latest research by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), there is a need for women to receive support in addressing fears that they lack the skills or experience to make it to the top.

Women need a confidence boost. But that’s not limited to a pat on the back or a novelty reward. They require the skills to tap into their inner strengths.

 

Uncovering barriers to female success

Our brain creates scripts that are used as shorthand to respond to certain situations, once the situation or context changes we often have scripts that no longer serve us and become error scripts.

Often in our own development, our brain hangs on to these error scripts, that become blockers of our own success and we begin to limit ourselves based on these scripts. This often happens subconsciously as these scripts are stored in our amygdala triggering reflexive actions. We often find ourselves after the event wondering why we behaved that way.

To create true change, we must first look to ourselves and make these changes to our own script as this rewrites society’s scripts on gender.

That’s where programs developed specifically to help women overcome these limiting factors, such as the Women in Life and Leadership (WILL) program can help. WILL assists in tapping into your inner strengths, growing your confidence in life and leadership capabilities, by uncovering and overcoming the blockers of your own success.

Theory U

The WILL program is underpinned by the Theory “U” – developed by two professors in the Netherlands, it is currently used extensively by many organisations around the world.

Theory “U” talks about “expanding the inner place in which we operate”. WILL assists individuals to focus on this via self-reflection.

With the support of leadership experts and body therapists, WILL assists you in understanding how to open your mind, heart and will towards performing at your highest desired levels in life.

The approach has helped many professionals – male and female – to unlock their leadership abilities. One such professional is Abbott Pharmaceuticals’ Human Resources Director, Judy Gambin, who said, “I have overcome challenging career objectives while improving personal balance and wellbeing. I’ve grown in my abilities both professionally and personally.”

The difficulty we face in this time of uncertainty and complexity is not in developing new ideas, but releasing the old, no longer useful ideas, from our lives.

 

Time to take a U-turn

Join us in taking a “U” turn at our residential workshop in May.

Book by Friday, 26th April and get A$400 off the program.

Plus, IML ANZ members enjoy a further A$100 discount when you use the code: 9455

Visit www.womeninlifeandleadership.com for more information.