The link between diversity and organisational resilience

In this ever-changing modern business environment, organisations need to build up their capacity to cope with unexpected events. The key to effectively handling turbulence may rest on your level of organisational diversity.

Latest research reasons that diversity can lead to the development and improvement of specific capabilities that contribute to organisational resilience. That is – anticipation, or the preventative aspects of resilience; coping, or the implementation of solutions and reactions to change; and adaptation, or the development of new capabilities following unexpected events.

In addition, the Australian Government named respect as one of the key factors in improving organisational resilience. One of the most powerful ways to demonstrate respect in the workplace is inclusion – meaning background, beliefs, age or gender are not seen as a reason for exclusion.

So, how can diversity strengthen an organisation’s resilience? Here are three ways:

 

Diversity assists in observing, identifying and preparing for major change

Our differences, when harnessed collectively, can greatly enrich our capability to detect and prepare for changes. Having a group with diverse experiences in work and life results in an increased ability to perceive changes in the environment and to identify necessary adjustments. Further, the greater the variety of ideas explored, the better prepared an organisation will be for the consequences of change and the less likely they are to be caught off guard.

 

Diversity improves an organisation’s problem solving

As change and turbulence are complex these cannot usually be solved with existing approaches. Creating solutions demands broad knowledge, the interaction of different people, and creativity in coming up with a way to tackle the challenges. Again, the more diverse the ideas are, the better equipped an organisation will be at arriving at the right solution.

 

Diversity enriches team learning

Having diverse perspectives when reflecting upon the aftermath of change pushes organisations away from simple conclusions. It encourages deeper discussions about what actions to take and challenges any common thinking that may exist. Thus, a heterogeneous knowledge base can reduce the tendency to simply skim the surface. Rather, it promotes using logic instead of blame when analysing why things went wrong.

Source: Duchek, S., Raetze, S. & Scheuch, I. Business Research (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40685-019-0084-8

Straight Talk: See the world differently

By Jane Caro

 

Throughout all the years that I was one of the few women working in creative departments in ad agencies, I often asked myself the question why so many managers seemed to prefer employing clones of themselves. To be fair, I did have one creative director who hired a variety of people for his department – women, people from other ethnic backgrounds, different ages and sexual orientations. It was the best creative department I ever worked in, but it was also highly unusual. Most creative departments were (and still are) staffed by white blokes in their thirties, many of whom (oddly) were English. He was also the only manager I ever had who hired his staff with care and then left them alone to do their job. That was also rare.

In the end, the only answer I came up with about why so many bosses seemed to prefer homogeneity was fear. They felt at home and at ease with people like them. Difference – be it of gender, race, class, sexuality or anything else – seems to present a challenge to many people. Perhaps that’s why we have turned hiring a variety of people into a buzzword and tamed it under the cloak of ‘diversity’.

Difference can be challenging but it can also be exciting and lead to much better results. There is now so much research indicating that the greater the variety of people you employ (particularly at decision-making tables) the healthier the business, it almost does not need commenting on. Yet the resistance remains.

 

GENDER AGENDA

Women, in particular, were lectured for years that we needed to make ‘the business case’ for our right to progress up the management ladder (aka diversity). And we have, yet that ubiquitous ladder still remains out of reach for most of us. While enduring that lecture, I confess I often wondered where the business case was for justifying having overwhelmingly white, privately educated, blokes at the top. To this day, no one has ever been able to find a copy of it for me.

As my enlightened boss from the late 90s showed, managing diversity does not need to be either difficult or frightening, especially if you see difference and new ways of looking at things as an opportunity. Perhaps it is hard for bosses who want to be the authority on everything and do not like their decisions to be queried or analysed from a different perspective. If you are genuinely open to new ideas; however, I can’t see how it is any harder than managing any other group of human beings.

Sure, women, people of colour, people of different faiths, ages, sexual identity or orientation and social class have different life experiences, which, of course, is a large part of the richness they bring to any table. However, they are all in essence just other human beings. They are not some kind of alien ‘other’ to be feared and distrusted. Every human on the planet, whatever their background, likes to be treated with courtesy and respect, to have their professional contribution fairly acknowledged and rewarded and to be taken seriously as a colleague. Do that and I doubt you will go far wrong.

After all, there is just as much diversity within groups as there is between them. Women are not a job lot, nor are people of colour or members of the LGBTQI community or those from a working-class background. Managing anyone is sometimes difficult. People have personality clashes. They can be needy, particularly when work gets stressful. And this applies to everyone – whatever their background.

In fact, once you try, you may find that managing diversity is no different from managing homogeneity. It won’t be easier, certainly, but I bet it isn’t harder.

Jane Caro runs her own communications consultancy. She worked in the advertising industry for 30 years and is now an author, journalist, lecturer and media commentator.

Leading ladies weigh in on gender balance

By Karyl Estrella MIML

 

While the day dedicated to all things women’s equality might be over, it takes more than 24 hours to transform and shape the social order. In fact, International Women’s Day’s (IWD) #BalanceForBetter campaign will continue to run all year long.

Building a gender-balanced society requires courageous leaders. So IML ANZ spoke to three fearless, leading women – all of whom spoke at our IWD Great Debate events.

We get a glimpse of their views on the current state of gender equality, the role of professional development in moving the needle and what practical steps leaders can take to achieve true balance.

 

Gender balance: current state of play

For Privcore’s Managing Director and data privacy thought-leader Annelies Moens CMgr FIML, the current state of gender balance is a precarious dance. “I am reminded of a quote about Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire attributed to Bob Thaves. While Fred was great, let’s remember Ginger Rogers did everything he did backwards and in high heels,” said Moens.

That women usually have to perform better than men is a sentiment shared by Clariti Group’s CEO, Belinda-Jane Dolan CMgr FIML. Herself having to battle through disadvantages including being rejected for top leadership roles due to her gender, Dolan reflects, “As women, we have to work incredibly hard. Now, should we? The reality is no, we shouldn’t have to work any harder than anybody else. But how can we now change the conversation to ensure this doesn’t have to happen for generations to come?”

A crucial area where gender balance is obviously lacking is on the boards of the largest Australian companies. According to Maroondah City Council’s Director of Corporate Services, Marianne Di Giallonardo CMgr MIML, the problem could be rooted in change aversion – for both men and women. “The reason why women on the boards of ASX corporations is only 30% is that for the men, the other 70%, it’s hard to give up the benefits of those roles,” she said.

Di Giallonardo adds, “To get to 50-50, 20% of the male groups that are currently participating have to not participate, and then an extra 20% of females need to participate. So the big question is how do we gear all of the systems, processes and unconscious biases for that to happen.”

A poignant question which isn’t resolved with just one answer.

 

Visibility is key

One possible response seems to rest on role models. Dolan emphasises that the visibility of women in leadership plays a crucial role in helping younger women attain for it. “I do believe that you definitely can’t be what you can’t see. If you are not able to see women leaders then how do you know that’s a role you can achieve?” Dolan added.

And visibility must stretch beyond the workplace, as Moens explains, “Advertising for airlines’ premium products, such as business class, often shows images of men sitting in business class seats served by female cabin crew. I would love to see more images of women in those business class seats being served by male cabin crew.”

Indeed, seeing women in powerful or influential positions can help shift perceptions and alter mindsets about what leadership really looks like.

 

Not a numbers game

“Often the notion of quotas come through,” Di Giallonardo points out. But she adds that it’s much more than a numbers game. “You don’t want to set a number and then just get people into the roles because you’re trying to meet the quotas,” she says.

Dolan agrees, “From what I’ve seen at high-performing organisations, they’re not hiring in leadership roles based purely on gender. It’s imperative that the correct person is hired for the right role. As a female leader and a board director, I want to be in that role because I’m the best candidate and not based solely upon my gender.”

 

Development matters

Moens is quick to point out that the skills and competencies that leaders need to respond to a society seeking balance, is changing fast. She explains, “You need a broad range of interdisciplinary skills, including people leadership skills, communications, technical or competency areas depending on your industry. Constant learning is required, regardless of your role, but especially as a leader.”

Additionally, there’s a real danger when the thinking and mindset of a leader stands still. Dolan confirms, “Neurologically, our brains need to be stimulated. We need to be stretched and challenged in order to grow, if not we become stagnant or worse still our skills are not relevant. As leaders, we need to take accountability for our growth to actively seek out development opportunities and challenge ourselves to always be better leaders.” Dolan adds, “Being a leader means we should be learning alongside our teams too, establishing connections and growing with them.”

Hence, there’s merit in ensuring leaders are measuring up to the best. Di Giallonardo agrees, “With the Chartered Manager designation, I think it’s a fantastic opportunity to get yourself benchmarked with an international standard.”

She adds, “I’m always encouraging everyone to think about growth and development – so that people can shine and at the end of the day, that’s what all companies want. We want all our staff to shine. Not only for themselves but for the whole team.”

 

Practical steps to fuel change

 

  • Rethink recruitment. Moens challenges leaders to step outside of their comfort zones when it comes to hiring. She concludes, “The less we hire people that look like us or think like us the better for a diverse and inclusive workplace.”
  • Improve work-life balance. Di Giallonardo believes in creating as many opportunities that promote equality in the roles of men and women. “Depending on where you work, men are given a few days of paternity leave whereas women can take much longer. That could be seen as being unequal. It’s worth looking at it with fresh eyes to see what you can do to try and swing that around,” she says.
  • Professional support. Having a strong network is vital. And this must not stop at the occasional networking event or time-bound coaching sessions. “Managers and leaders need to encourage and train sponsors, so they can be confident with people who are different to them or who may ultimately challenge them. Inevitably, when sponsors become comfortable with people not like them, outdated attitudes will fall to the wayside,” Moens points out.

 

Change and ultimately balance, can be achieved with sustained effort by both men and women. Dolan is hopeful in what she’s seen happen so far. She reflected, “If I go back 10–15 years, there were substantially less women leading. In 2018, 15 of 146 world leaders are women, eight of whom served as their country’s first female leaders. Whilst we have more women in leadership than ever before there is much more we need to do.”

For Di Giallonardo, the strive for balance requires the efforts of both men and women – but women especially should take heart. “There’s strength on the male side and there’s strength on the female side. But there’s nothing women can’t do if they’re given the opportunity to do it.”

Karyl is IML ANZ’s content producer. Contact her for queries regarding the IML ANZ blog and quarterly magazine, Leadership Matters.

The real battleground for gender equality

By David Pich CMgr FIML

(Warning: This is not an article about the ins and outs of Brexit!)

As a dual citizen of Australia and the UK, I tend to keep a foot in both camps, so to speak. Whilst primarily focusing my attention on local leadership issues, I do keep a keen eye on leadership matters in the land of my birth. This inevitably brings me to the absolute shambles that has commonly become known as ‘Brexit’.

Before your eyes glaze over, before your finger twitches towards the minimise button, let me restate that this isn’t another article about Brexit! It’s about something arguably more significant. It’s about institutional gender inequality. It’s about the fact that – typically – our institutions remain male-dominated domains. And it’s about the fact that this needs to change.

A reality check is needed

On 14th January there was (yet another) crucial vote on Brexit in the House of Commons. (It was a vote so crucial that most people, including me, have long since forgotten what was being voted on). My interest was piqued not by the vote itself but by the reports and images of Tulip Saddiq, the MP for Kilburn being wheeled into the voting chamber in a wheelchair.

The issue was – and still is – that Westminster doesn’t have a proxy voting system that allows absent MPs to vote in debates when they are away from Parliament. In fact, the British Parliament almost has a proxy system. About 12-months ago all political parties agreed that a modern political system needed this facility. And then nothing happened.

Back in 2018, Harriet Harman MP arguing in favour of the introduction of proxy voting pointed out that there 200 women MPs in Parliament and that an increasing number were young. She went on to say that ‘there are two babies in the offing and it’s time we just got on with it’.

Indeed. I find it almost unbelievable that the institution that arguably holds a good many of the keys to political power in one of the most advanced democracies in the world doesn’t have processes in place that accommodate the realities of modern life. And that promote one of the very basic principles of gender equality.

Of course, I’m actually not that surprised at all. The ‘Tulip Saddiq incident’ is just one example of the way that women in leadership roles are viewed and treated.

What often surprises me the most about this, and other examples is the reaction of men (and yes, I’m one of those!). One notorious Parliamentarian at the time of the discussion around proxy voting in the British Parliament proudly pointed out to a newspaper that he was no ‘modern man’ and that he hadn’t changed a nappy in his life (or in the life of his kids!). That he said this proudly says it all really. That he said it at all should surely disqualify him from voting on issues such as this!

Systemic change is needed

As leaders, we are always accountable for the decisions we make. Taking personal responsibility for the way we view, decide and act on matters is part and parcel of the job description. The equal treatment of women should be no different. ­

Unfortunately, the fact remains that men continue to dominate many of the positions of responsibility in society. Until there is parity in positions of power men must play both a leading and a supporting role in the fight for gender equality.

This is a real battle and better leaders need to lead the charge. Better leaders are key. The mark of a great leader rests on decision making based on the highest standards. The highest standards of our society demand that decision-makers show the respect and consideration that women deserve. Our actions, great or small, as leaders is what will shape the society we desire. Indeed, we need to rethink how to create a gender equal future. This cannot be done in isolation, it needs the cooperation of all regardless of gender.

Cooperation is needed

Right thinking men need to be there to support women in the push for gender equality. That struggle isn’t a one-sided battle; we are stronger fighting inequality together.

My view is that cooperation is always desirable. This isn’t a fight of us and them, of men v women. It’s a battle between equality and inequality. The battlegrounds are everywhere – in the workplace, in our political institutions, in religion, families and throughout society.

The only way to fight inequality of any sort is through collaborative action.

David Pich is the Chief Executive of IML ANZ.

Mind the gap

By Anthony O’Brien

The latest IML Gender Pay Report reveals that if you’re a female working in a C-Suite role, you could be earning as much as 15% less than your male colleagues.

The report presents findings based on an analysis of pay differentials from 2014-2018 between male and female full-time employees within the Australian workforce. The research considers different employment levels and job families ranging from administration to general management. The analysis uses IML’s National Salary Survey, updated in October 2018, and data collected from 460 organisations across Australia, covering more than 250 job roles.

The research doesn’t reflect casual or part-time workers, or maternity leave which explains differences between the IML report and the gaps reported by government organisations such as Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), according to report author, Sam Bell FIML, General Manager, Corporate Services and Research, IML. The full-time total remuneration gender pay gap based on WGEA data is 22.4%, meaning men working full time earn, on average, nearly $27,000 a year more than women working full time.

WHY THE GAP PERSISTS

According to the IML report, the C-Suite pay gap fell to 9.8% three years ago after a high of 14.7% in 2014. But over the past three years, the gender pay gap for C-Suite roles climbed steadily and is now approaching the levels of five years ago. Bell explains that isolating the reasons for the widening gap at the C-Suite level is challenging. “There are probably more female managers in lower-paying industries. However, our research measures like-against-like job levels and job families, so more female executives working in lower paid industries doesn’t explain the C-Suite gap thoroughly.

“That there is a 14.6% difference in like-against-like general manager salaries is certainly an eye-opening statistic that organisations need to review.”

Libby Lyons, Director of the WGEA, says, “The gender pay gap is a symptom of a broader issue. It reflects the fact that women’s work is traditionally undervalued, and women are often paid less than men.

“As a nation, we need to be talking about what is behind the gender pay gap – the barriers women face in the workplace that cause the gender pay gap.”

WHERE THE GAP IS CLOSING

If you’re seeking work in an industry with closer to equal pay, then look no further than information technology (4.6%) and engineering and science (4.8%). That said, in 2014 the IT pay gap slightly favoured women (-0.1%), and the difference was only 0.3% for females working in engineering and science. On the flipside, the salary gap for women in finance and accounting improved from 13.7% down to 7.1% over the past four years.

IT continuously rates well for women’s pay rates because it’s a result driven industry that typically doesn’t differentiate between male or female employees, notes Bell. “The salary gaps in finance and accounting have dropped because there is greater awareness of gender diversity issues in that profession because of CEOs such as former Westpac boss Gail Kelly.

“That industry was heavily male-dominated, but with high-profile CEOs like Kelly championing the issue and taking it head-on, the pay gap almost halved in the past four years.”

ADDRESSING THE GAP

Paul Jury, Managing Director of Australia for global HR executive search firm ChapmanCG, resolutely believes there should be no excuses for gender pay gaps. He elaborates, “Moreover, there’s plenty of research indicating that up to 70% of employers report they have policies in place to support gender equality.

“With the gender pay gap, it is all heading in the right direction, but the speed of improvement is still too slow.”

Personal biases can come into play particularly where objective measures of performance are deficient and create incidences of gender gaps in promotions and pay, reasons Jury. “For senior roles, some managers without access to objective data may tend to promote and reward people they like and whom they perceive are more like them.

“While unconscious bias is hard to rewire, more training, education, and awareness within an organisation can help to mitigate its impact on gender diversity, promotion and pay. This includes putting in place guidelines, along with checks and balances within a business to minimise the gender pay gap.”

Bell agrees more investment in educating managers about gender equality issues is required. “Educating managers who hire staff that pay gaps are not acceptable is a start,” he reasons. “And the fact that skills, experience, and qualifications should be paid for, irrespective of whether a recruit is male or female.”

From a leadership perspective, Bell believes an organisation should have a gender pay gap policy or statement in place that all managers “understand and take seriously”. WGEA research indicates that actions to correct like-for-like gender pay gaps are three times as effective in reducing overall pay inequities when combined with reporting to executives and boards. Bell says, “There’s a lot of large Australian companies that are certainly taking all these steps. All of them probably have a statement from a leadership level, whether it’s CEO down, saying that pay gaps won’t be tolerated.”

ACCOUNTABILITY COUNTS

Using market data such as IML’s National Salary Survey is another prudent step towards minding the pay gap says Bell. “Employers must understand what the market is paying for a C-Suite role or line manager and it shouldn’t matter whether someone is male or female.”

Another critical way to strengthen employer accountability would be to end pay secrecy, according to Alice Orchiston, an Associate Lecturer in Law at the University of Sydney. To this end the federal Australian Labor Party announced in September last year that, if elected, it will legislate for the introduction of publicly available company-specific gender pay gap data. In an opinion piece for academic journal The Conversation, Orchiston wrote: “If women discover they are earning less than their male counterparts for the same jobs, their legal avenues for pursuing equal pay are limited. It’s difficult to prove and costly to litigate.”

Orchiston continued, “Requiring employers to make their pay records publicly accessible or accessible to employees across the same organisation would create greater transparency and a basis for women to assess their pay, which in turn could facilitate negotiation or legal action.”

READ THE FULL REPORT

The IML 2018 Gender Pay Gap report can be purchased at managersandleaders.com.au/national-salary-survey

Why balance is better: for women and men

By Tori Cooke

To me, International Women’s Day is important because it recognises the full spectrum of women’s contribution to the world. In such diverse ways it brings ‘balance’ to the world in which we live, work and play. Part of bringing much needed balance is challenging structural conformity to male privilege. Diversity and inclusion makes so much sense when we consider what women have achieved historically – and it makes sense for men too.

 

Barriers: internal and external

Women’s achievements are rarely appreciated within the context of unequal access to higher education, employment and advancement opportunities. This means that overall, women are likely to work harder to overcome internal and external barriers to achieve success in the first place. Sometimes, the external barrier is, ‘the glass ceiling’ and unequal pay. It can also be that the structures are designed for a dominant paradigm that excludes the needs of women.

Then there are the internal barriers, the ‘soundtracks’ women are taught to play in their minds that prevent some women from believing they can achieve the full extent of their potential – leading to under achieving and high levels of stress. These are the ingrained social messages.

For some of us who grew up in lower middle class families, the soundtrack focused on working in a meaningless service job until you found your prince, got married and lived happily ever after. In my family, the women’s role was to take care of your husband, the home and the children.  Any employment was usually part time with your pay considered ‘pocket money’.

But listening to the men I work with, tells me too that these social messages can be stressful for some men to live up to. For example; the provider, the protector, the hero are socially constructed masculine roles that play a part in driving the need for financial and social success for men. The pressure of not living up to or not being able to participate in these roles can lead to a sense of listlessness and despair because access to the economic fortunes deemed socially acceptable and their associated status remain unachieved.

The key difference is these barriers do not impact on men’s access to opportunity or their thinking that they deserve opportunity to the same degree as women. 

The fact is, gendered forms of social status were enshrined in legislation. Women who sought to contribute in the same way to society were considered highly problematic, simply for challenging the social norms of the day with ideas of inclusiveness and equality.  The few men who shared and collaborated in raising a family were considered ‘not real men’.

But without these inspiring influencers, both men and women, we would not have the ongoing discussions, research and movement about the need for gender equity today.

Getting a university degree required overcoming barriers that most men do not have to experience because of what we now know and call structural male privilege. Having worked with victims of family violence and now also with the men who perpetrate abuse, it is clear to me that the attitudes and beliefs inherent in male privilege continue to heavily influence the drivers of violence against women. This violence is also a further barrier to women’s access to income equity and long term financial security. Conversely, these same issues become a cage that lock women into violent relationships.

It is a cycle that is all too often deadly.

 

Diversity and inclusion

This is why diversity and inclusion are important to me – to stop striving for this as an abiding social norm is simply dangerous. Violence against women is now a serious and widespread problem in Australia, with enormous individual and community impacts and social costs (Our Watch, 2019).  Recently, the National Community Attitude survey (NCAS, 2018) results indicate concerns that a substantial minority of Australians do not believe women’s reports of violence. Of even greater concern is the view that this large minority believe the problem of gender inequality is exaggerated (NCAS, 2018).

Women have made many significant contributions within their families, communities and across societies. While, these alone are praiseworthy, when you consider them in context of the many visible and invisible social barriers they had to overcome, I realise that it may take more than one International Women’s Day to fully appreciate their achievements.

For inclusivity to become a valued social norm we simply must address these barriers and work hard to challenge the ingrained ideas that have no relevance for the kind of futures our daughters and granddaughters will be living in the next 100 years.

I grew up at a time when it was a challenge to finish high school and have access to higher education. My grandmother’s words often echoed as motivation in my heart, “education will be your liberation” she used to say. I am the first woman in my family to finish high school and will be the first to complete a post-grad qualification. However, the cost at times of moving past limited ways of viewing women were at times, desperately hard.

Today women are more highly educated than men, yet still earn less.

International Women’s Day continues to tell the story of why ‘balance is better’, why our collaborative work to focus on better access and celebration of diversity is absolutely critical to society’s success and an enriched life for each one of us.

References:

Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety. (2018). Are we there yet? Australians’ attitudes towards violence against women & gender equality: Summary findings from the 2017 National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey (NCAS) (Research to policy and practice, 03/2018). Sydney, NSW: ANROWS.

https://ncas.anrows.org.au/findings/

Our Watch. (2019). https://www.ourwatch.org.au/

Tori Cooke is currently the Practice Specialist Family Violence & Child Safety at Relationships Australia Victoria. She is a highly regarded conference presenter, senior clinical practitioner and specialist trainer in the field of family violence in Australia. She is a White Ribbon Advocate, a current member of the Victorian White Ribbon Committee and a current Board director for the Society for Professional Social Workers. Tori is a trainer and program designer of men’s behaviour change programs. Currently, she works with clinical teams in Relationships Australia Victoria to reduce violence against women and children.

The past, present and future of maternity leave

By Andrew Fenlon

As a society it’s really important for us to have a steady stream of ‘the next generation’ coming through. The alternative is a society which is steadily aging – and as a result contracting. Governments understand this and have given various incentives to assist in the cost of having children over time.

Currently, the largest financial burden relating to child birth and child caring is carried by women. It is estimated that women having children earn 20% less than the average. Conversely men having children, with their partner undertaking the primary caring for the children get a premium of 15% (not really sure why!) compared to the average.

There are some programs which aim to help women through maternity – such as paid maternity leave and the option for 10 ‘keeping in touch’ days. Unfortunately, these are often not enough – or lack promotion, awareness and consistency.

The position is made worse by some terrible employment practices such as:

  • Making pregnant women redundant either before or during maternity
  • Making the ‘keeping in touch’ days either unknown, difficult or impossible to use
  • Not holding the person’s role open for them so that they cannot return to their previous job
  • Not providing any return to work program for returning mothers
  • Not supporting flexible work – often by requiring a role to be filled 100% by one person working nine-to-five.
  • Upon returning to work should the woman request to do the role part time, often no one is hired to fill the other days, thus the woman does the entire role, in fewer days and is paid a pro-rata salary

Hopefully your organisation is better than this – but we see many instances of the above!

It is no surprise, then, that many women, once having children, do not return to their previous employer. They either look for part time work which might support their caring responsibilities, or they decide to set out on their own.

Caring doesn’t finish when the maternity period stops. Children need support and assistance for many years after being born (in fact many parents still have children living with them into their 20s!) This support includes regular care – but also the unexpected demands when a child is either sick or had an accident. In many instances (personal and professional) the assumption is that the mother will continue to cover the bulk of these duties.

The negative impacts on women because of this approach are significant:

  • They can lack confidence (because they have been out of the work environment for an extended period)
  • They can get caught in a ‘poverty trap’ – the net earnings are less than the cost of child care – so they stay at home or are in a ‘break-even’ scenario
  • They earn less – and this continues throughout the rest of their career
  • They are more likely to work in part time jobs that are below their capability
  • They are often overlooked for promotion into management roles
  • They accumulate less superannuation
  • There is an increased chance of homelessness in older age

Society suffers too. It is estimated that if women could be fully engaged in the workforce, then there would be a 20% increase in GDP. This is larger than any other single sector – it’s three times the size of mining!

As Australians, we need to reconsider where the burden of birth and child-caring lies. The main economic beneficiary is society (children grow up, consume and pay taxes!) – so society should bear more of the cost.

If we want to continue to have a vibrant country where the creation of the next generation of Australians is supported – we need to change things. Fortunately, there are examples from overseas and some forward-thinking organisations that we can use to help us.

A start could include:

  • Recognising that the financial burden of bringing up a child should not all fall on the shoulders of the mother. The father and society need to bear more of the effort and cost
  • Having more open-minded workplaces that allow men to look after their child. Removing the stigma around a man asking to be home with their child
  • Working to the point where child care is substantially funded by the public purse – just like childhood education
  • Providing realistic and enforceable (on the manager) options for the ‘10 keeping in touch days’ (which might well be part days to assist the mother with her caring duties)
  • Ensuring that men are supported by their organisations to be more available for their children – two weeks of paternity leave doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface
  • Ensuring women cannot be retrenched just because they become pregnant
  • Ensuring mothers have the right to a reasonable return to work plan (which might need to be over a period of years) to their previous job
  • Ensuring flexible working options are available to everyone as a default
  • Ensuring organisations offer management positions either as flexible roles or as job shares

I’m not saying that these changes will totally address the current maternity chasm, but if we can start to make these changes, we’ll all be better off!

Andrew Fenlon is the director and co-creator of Women into Leadership. He has over 20 years of international experience in public and private sector organisations. After doing some analyses on what was impacting women and their ability to become leaders, he saw a need to help women – organizationally and individually – thus Women into Leadership was born. As a brand of Fast Track Leadership, Women into Leadership has a range of programs that implement systemic and lasting change at an organizational level so more women can achieve leadership roles. It also provides leadership development programs for individuals.

My Brain made me do it – Exploring unconscious gender bias in the workplace

By Clare Edwards FIML

Let’s start with a brain teaser.

Two judo experts take a bow and the match begins. One is wearing a brown belt the other a black belt. After a long tussle, the black belter player has the most points and is declared the winner, even though during the entire contest no man threw the other to the ground.

How can this be?

Before you read on to the answer, if you haven’t figured it out yet, take a moment to think and reflect.

 

The answer – both judo experts were women.

When you first started reading this riddle what images came to mind? What was your brain making you think?

Let’s explore this a little further. Read the following roles to yourself and be conscious of the images that come to mind:

  • Surgeon
  • Nanny
  • Engineer
  • Midwife
  • Builder
  • Secretary

Despite all the above roles being equally open to both sexes, there’s a good chance your brain assigned a gender to them and you have just demonstrated unconscious gender bias. Why is this?

Before you start castigating yourself for reverting to ‘the obvious’, it’s OK, it just means that you’re human.

Our brains make shortcuts and associations to simplify our complex world where we are inundated with billions of bits of information. When it comes to gender, we have schemas, generalisations and stereotypes borne out of associations we made when growing up.

The reality is, if we have a brain, we are biased. Gender bias is only one of the 150+ biases we have, and it plays out extensively in the workplace both explicitly and implicitly.

Let’s explore some of our unconscious biases with implications in the workplace.

  • Similarity bias. The unconscious belief is “people like me are better than others”. Similarity bias, like many biases, has its roots in evolution where ‘same’ or ‘similar’ equalled safe and ‘different’ equalled possible danger. Our brains default to ‘foe before friend’ (Baumeister 2001) and so our decisions can be unconsciously influenced as we select people for employment, promotion or sidelining based on aspects of similarity such as education, location of upbringing, interests and of course gender.
  • Gender stereotype. Conditioning still exists at an unconscious level and this is further influenced by media portrayals of women as nurturing cooperative home-makers, and men as competitive, competent providers. So, when it comes to making a decision about a certain candidate for a senior role, for example, might this conditioning influence our choice? In one study (Moss-Racusin et al), a science faculty from a university rated the applications of a student who was randomly assigned a male or female name for the position of laboratory manager. Faculty participants rated the male applicant as significantly more competent and hireable than the female, despite identical resumes. They also selected a higher starting salary and offered more career mentoring to the male applicant.Symphony orchestras have traditionally been male-dominated until the introduction of blind auditions where a screen was placed between the audition candidate and the selection panel (women were also asked to remove heels that made a noise).  As a direct result, women are now 50% more likely to be selected for a final interview and membership of the orchestra.

What’s the lesson?

Awareness isn’t enough. Why? Because it is neurologically impossible for our brain to decide and, at the same time, be aware if that decision is biased or not.

However, we can implement systems and processes to mitigate gender bias in the workplace.

Reflection and disclosure. Be aware of our own biases when we reflect on decisions made and whether bias came into the process. This helps us to become more aware of our biases. If we courageously disclose them to others, we can achieve greater objectivity.

Transparency and challenge. Whilst it’s hard to see bias in ourselves, we can spot it in others. Once you are familiar with the key biases that impact work performance, aim to be more open in your meetings and create an environment of ‘permission to challenge’ on possible biases.

In BrainSmart’s ‘Getting to Grips with Unconscious Bias’ workshops, we use a model from the Neuroleadership Institute that simplifies and condenses our 150+ biases into five categories using an easy to remember acronym.

Diversity. When making decisions involving gender, it is important to have them reviewed and challenged by a diverse group of people ensuring the greatest degree of objectivity possible.

If you use selection panels consider a diversity of thinking, culture, personality and even people from a different part of the business.

Ask yourself, “If this person were of another gender, what, if any, difference would it make and why?”

Anonymity and neutrality. Because our biases are primarily unconscious, we may not be aware of how our words in job adverts and other communication influence readers. Applications like Textio can help highlight and neutralise our language. In addition, consider removing names from resumes before presenting it to decision-makers.

I work with medium to large organisations and whilst the overall gender balance of the employee base is fairly even, the executive leadership team or the board is another kettle of fish. It’s time to redress the balance don’t you think?

 

Make known the unconscious

Our unconscious biases directly affect not only who gets hired, developed and promoted, but also the ability of teams to perform at a high level, the effectiveness of decision-making and change, the health of an organisation’s culture and the relationship it has with its clients.

By taking steps to mitigate gender bias in the workplace we can move closer to an equal and diverse work environment that has proven to be more productive, engaging and enjoyable.

Let’s make the unconscious conscious.

Clare Edwards is the Principal of BrainSmart Consulting. She is also a speaker, facilitator and author. Clare worked in a team serving Europe, Africa and the Middle East, between them speaking 13 languages – highlighting for her the value of diversity in business. After moving on from her corporate career, she studied the Neuroscience of Leadership – how knowledge of our brains can help us to be more emotionally intelligent and effective leaders and managers.  Clare now consults with organisations from a variety of industry sectors internationally. She helps people effectively manage and lead themselves and others in complex and uncertain business environments.  

Culture Club

Chair of the Canberra Raiders, Allan Hawke, says leadership and culture are critical to the club kicking goals.

By Anthony O’Brien.

Allan Hawke AC FIML is a former senior public servant and diplomat. He served as Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Paul Keating, led three major government departments including the Department of Defence, and was High Commissioner to New Zealand from 2003 to 2006, later adding Chancellor of the Australian National University to his list of credentials. For the past five years, Hawke has been Chair of the Canberra Raiders National Rugby League (NRL) team, where his unique brand of leadership is galvanising players, fans and the Canberra community to share a culture of success.

A winter’s night in Canberra can be inhospitable. But it takes more than sub-zero temperatures to dampen the spirits of the 12,000 Raiders fans who have turned out to barrack for their team. The gate count amounts to more than one in two of the club’s 20,000-plus membership, a figure that has doubled since Hawke took the helm and which he credits to the Raiders’ administration.

Hawke is justifiably proud of the growth in member numbers, and puts it down, in part, to culture. “Culture simply describes the way we do things around here,” he says. “It involves developing a set of shared and lived values about what it means to be a Raider.”

Results through people

Culture comes from the top, and the Raiders’ board has bucked the trend of most other NRL clubs by helping to crack the glass ceiling. Hawke, a long-time advocate of women in executive roles, explains; “One thing that has changed during the course of my five years as Chair, is that we now have two women on the Board. One is former group accountant, Yvonne Gillett. The other is former elite athlete and lawyer, Bronwyn Fagan.”

Combined with other leaders in their field on the current board, Hawke says he has “a good group of people”. Nonetheless, he is aware that having women on the board sends a clear message of inclusion to the broader community, and this, he believes, has helped to bolster the club’s female membership and participation. He’s recently been looking at the board’s composition and renewal and expects to add another female in the not too distant future, based on a particular skill set and aims in the longer term to achieve a ratio of 40 to 50 per cent women on the board.

However, one issue the board doesn’t touch is player selection. “You hire the Head Coach and the CEO to do that,” says Hawke. “You don’t second guess them by doing the job for them; it’s not the USA model where the Chair is also CEO and President.” This notion of giving employees the scope to effectively perform their role is at the heart of Hawke’s leadership philosophy. “I call it ‘results through people’,” he explains. “It’s based on a fundamental belief that unless you get the people side right, you cannot deliver and sustain high performance on the results side of the equation.”

Hawke’s views were formed early in his career when he moved from being a subject matter expert to having others report to him. Hungry for guidance on what it meant to be an effective leader, Hawke read widely and attended seminars. But it wasn’t enough. Finding the answers lay in self-reflection.

“I started looking for ways to maximise and optimise people’s performance and contribution to the job,” recalls Hawke. “I realised my role as a leader was to mentor, coach, and help people strive towards their potential and a continuing high level of performance. It’s all about bringing the best out in people; lighting the fire inside them rather than the all too prevalent control freak approach of lighting a fire underneath people.”

Indeed, Hawke is unwavering on the value of nurturing people: “If you get the people, the results will follow. If you spend all your time worrying about finances, results and the like, you’re just spinning your wheels; you won’t get the best out of people and you can’t create and sustain a high performing organisation.”

A sense of community

Hawke’s mantra on the value of people has seen player welfare become a cornerstone of the Canberra Raiders. Considerable support is given to help players invest in their future. However, they are expected to give back: “We’re interested in turning out good people,” Hawke says. “So our players are heavily involved in community-based activities, and that’s been very well received by the local community.”

Over the course of the season, the Raiders raised more than $70,000 as part of their game day charity fundraising for 12 local charities. And one of their first-grade squad, Sam Williams has been nominated for the NRL’s community award, the Ken Stephen Medal, in recognition of his ongoing role as an Ambassador for Ronald McDonald House as well as his personal fundraising and support for a young person in his home town, who was left a paraplegic after a backyard trampolining accident.

However, “community” can also be a very personal concept at the Raiders. Hawke cites the example of debutante Emre Guler, the first person of Turkish origin to play professional NRL. “His mother was given the honour of presenting him his first Raiders jersey,” says Hawke. “Anybody who saw that video clip would have been touched by the emotion of the moment. It was just extraordinary. It garnered so many positive responses, even from fans of other NRL clubs.”

Part of being a Canberra Raider is an expectation that players will embrace the club’s culture. Hawke notes, “I was a young player once and it’d be fair to say that I was no angel. And sometimes our players misbehave too. We have a reputation for helping people through their mistakes. But, if we feel they’ve really breached our culture, we move them on even though that has sometimes worked against us in terms of results on the field.” Despite this, Hawke believes the Canberra community supports the club’s disciplinary actions because “they can see that we are acting for what is right, not who is right”.

As head of the green machine’s board, Hawke admits it is a challenge steering the ship through Australia’s crowded sporting market. “We face competition, particularly from Australian Rules and soccer, which drives us to engage with the broader district to identify, recruit and develop talented kids through our junior development system.” He also  continually looks at ways the club can make a difference to its supporters – a focus that has yielded results. Hawke says:
“We are currently in the best position
we’ve ever been in, in terms of sponsorship, membership and financials, which should deliver us an assured future.”

An independent report pinpoints the value delivered by the Raiders to the ACT in the 2017 season at almost $15.5 million. According to Hawke, “The Raiders give back to the Canberra and district community in a way that no other sporting club does in the ACT.” That concept of giving back is broad. “If you look around the Rugby League, there’s a disproportionate number of coaches, administrative people and media commentators, who have all come out of the Raiders,” says Hawke. “We’ve also made a big contribution in identifying and developing talent that goes on to play with other clubs. Maybe there’s something in the Canberra water; maybe they leave us with lime green in their bloodstream and an imprint of the Raiders DNA.”

Sticking to a game plan

Being inside the club at a high level has changed Hawke’s own experience of being a Raiders fan. “I figure it increases your blood pressure,” he quips. Though he adds, “When you can see clearly what this team is capable of and you try and rationalise this against some of the close losses we’ve had in 2018, it’s a bit of a conundrum.”

Hawke says an area of focus has been the players’ resolve to stick with a game plan. “In the past, they were unsure about how to handle adversity, and they would do things they would never do in the other 70 minutes of the game. These days they are executing what everyone has agreed on. The players have really come of age in that area as we saw in their last three games of the season, beating two of the top four teams at home and narrowly losing to the eighth team in Auckland, while remaining committed until the final whistle blew.”

Although 2018 won’t be the year the Raiders take out the premiership, Hawke says he will be “completely flummoxed” if the team doesn’t make the top eight in 2019.

Hawke continues to be passionate in his belief that through good leadership one man or one woman can make an incredible difference to an organisation. He stresses too the importance of life-long learning and says becoming a Chartered Manager sits near the top of his “To Do” list. (See managersandleaders.com.au/chartered-manager for details.)