eve-olution latest newsletter - January 2010
Contents of newsletter this month
- Can you make the time?, message from Tracey Carr
- Why Sex Matters at the World Economic Forum this week, update from Davos
- Gender IQ for Effective Meetings, latest webcast available on-demand now
Can you make the time?
If there is something you really want to do then you can make the time - and we can show you how. The Grab Your Future by the Horns project is about to take off! It's a new approach to time management ideally suited to busy women juggling complex lives. On 12th February Cisco have very kindly offered to host the first event using their wild and wacky Telepresence technology. I never thought I would be excited about technology until I started to work with Cisco … you may already use this technology but if you haven’t experienced it then it is really worth your time commitment to see Telepresence in action.
This month we also introduced our next module in the Gender IQ on-demand training programme - Gender IQ for Effective Meetings. Lots of new material has been incorporated to increase the learning experience - more details below or on the website at www.genderiq.tv.
And I've been following the debate at Davos with interest - it's great to see the politicians at last waking up to the need to make the most of all the great female talent that risks being wasted if we stick with the status quo and the all-male rules in business and leadership.
With Passion!
Why Sex Matters at the World Economic Forum this week
On Wednesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy opened The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos. Sarkozy’s party currently has gender parity ‘quota’ legislation on the table that would turn the Paris Stock Exchange 50% female by 2015). Norway has already taken this drastic measure.
The Forum’s Women Leaders and Gender Parity Programme promotes women’s leadership and the closing of global gender gaps. One of the debates is called 'The Gender Agenda: Why Sex Matters' and will centre around the question: With men at the helm of most large companies, could the key to gender equality lie in convincing male CEOs their companies will perform better with more women at the top?
Sadly there are still so few cases of voluntary proactive work in this area but Deloittes in the US still stands out as the leader with it's initiative that it began 16 years ago. My understanding is that they educated the whole workforce on gender differences - not just once but that they continued to increase momentum each year and they now enjoy the highest number of female partners of all the professional services firms.
I had some free time today and, as always, I like to see what bubbles up in my critical thinking time. Today I began to ponder the hard facts between the success of Deloittes and any other global organisation who hasn't achieved the same results. No-one (or few people) these days doubt that women have the intellectual ability and leadership capability to take up leadership positions, and more female graduates than ever are joining the ranks of the big businesses, but the rate of attrition is much higher than for the men. Turning the question on its head I believe that organisations should ask themselves why people should stay, not why they leave.
Deloittes focused on creating an environment where the women, alongside the men, could flourish and really feel valued. They had done their business case and clearly thought it was worth their while economically - through increased opportunities to earn business as well as cost savings on recruitment. A view supported by the Norwegian politician Ansgar Gabrielsen, an archetypal alpha-male businessman.
"What's the point in pouring a fortune into educating girls, and then watching them exceed boys at almost every level, if, when it comes to appointing business leaders in top companies, these are drawn from just half the population - friends who have been recruited on fishing and hunting trips or from within a small circle of acquaintances?" he says. "It's all about tapping into valuable under-utilised resources."
Do you know what this difference could be worth to your organisation? And what investment it would really take to deliver it? I think you would be surprised how great the return could be - and I'm happy to help you work it out! Get in touch if you would like to know more.
Gender IQ for Effective Meetings - Available Now!
It was a real pleasure to welcome Christine Ashton, Group Strategy Director for Transport for London, as our executive interviewee this month. Christine has had a very impressive career in mostly male dominated industries and was able to give us valuable advice about how to run an effective meeting as the only woman on the team.
Christine advised that one of the best tools we can use is structure. Don’t allow the meeting or participants to run off at tangents. You can watch a short preview below.
In the Gender IQ series we strive to give you practical tools that you can use immediately to increase your effectiveness at work. In this month's webcast we explore how men and women bring different sets of chemistry and brain functioning to meetings and give you some tips on how to easily run a gender balanced meeting.
But that's not all! The additional resources and workbook covers practical management techniques, such as:
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Understanding the dynamics of management meetings
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How to maintain control under pressure
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How to identify games and develop strategies to stop them
We hope that you enjoy this film and that you will encourage your team or workforce to sign up and watch it too, as this is an amazingly cost effective way to train your people in basic management skills whilst also teaching them Gender Intelligence. You can find out more on our Gender IQ website.