eve-olution newsletter November 2003
Contents
- Our Manifesto
- Glass Ceiling
- Autumn Action Plan
- Mars and Venus at Work
- Women and Money with Fiona Price
- The IoD's Women's Leadership Summit
- National Register for Non-Executive Directors
Our Manifesto
We have been reflecting and in the process asked ourselves questions such as 'what do we stand for?' As we moved into assisting more companies with their objectives in creating a balanced workforce this question was a natural extension of our thinking in working in partnership with large Blue Chips. This is what we came up with:
'We are dedicated to excellence and passionate about your development as inspirational leaders. eve-olution celebrates gender difference and works with that difference to promote and sustain an inclusive and diverse workforce'
Glass Ceiling
by Tracey Carr, Managing Director, eve-olution
I may be upsetting the Status Quo by sharing these thoughts but I hope you will indulge me, consider my opinion and then respond. I would very much like to begin a debate on this issue and this seems like a good place to start.
I have for some time been considering the effects of the phrase 'Glass Ceiling'. My own personal philosophy is that words can have powerful influence over your destiny. Everything starts with a thought. A thought produces an action produces a habit produces a character produces a destiny.
The concept of a 'Glass Ceiling' is limiting in the extreme. What is it? What is it made of? You can't see it and you have no way of getting through it unless you smash it and, presumably, get hurt. You don't know what it is and yet you know that it holds you down. You don't know how it got there and you have no way of knowing how to get it down.
Consider this - a common experiment in Psychology is the 'fleas in a jar' where fleas are put in a jar with a lid and as they jump up and hit the lid they soon learn not to do it and they reduce their aim. Strange thing is - when the lid is taken off they never again jump higher than the top of the jar!
I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Do you think that the 'Glass Ceiling' is a useful concept or do you believe as Satya Kartara (Diversity Director at Royal Mail) 'There is no glass ceiling just a thick dense layer of men'.
lease email me with your thoughts to tracey@eve-olution.net
Autumn Action Plan
Our October Creative Female Leader Programme for HR Professionals was a huge success. In the past two years we have all enjoyed the richness in going through the programme with women from other professions and backgrounds. However, the delegates enjoyed being in a group with like-minded others and feedback was excellent: 'Good value, good environment, very useful. Thanks!' 'Loved the abundance principal - sharing not competing' 'Brilliant'.
We had HR expertise from companies such as Accenture and Prêt à Manger and delegates from this course were interviewed for Radio 4 World Tonight.
All in all - a huge success and we will certainly be planning some more events for women from specific professions and industries. Please let us know if you would like us to consider your profession for 2004.
Mars and Venus at Work
We are very pleased to announce to he launch of our new product 'Mars and Venus in the Square Mile' To compliment the work that we are doing on Senior Women's Development Programmes we have designed a new workshop aimed at delivering diversity awareness training with a lighter touch!
We are very lucky to have Suzy Tuomey on board for this project as she brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise from her time at Citigroup where she worked with Lynn Fisher on their diversity initiative.
For more detail on these workshops please email us on info@eve-olution.net.
Women and Money with Fiona Price
Last chance to register for this free event!
What is it which makes this such an emotive subject for so many women? Why do we tend to put money matters to the bottom of the pile and hope they will simply evaporate? The financial world is a particularly inhospitable environment to many, especially women. But here's your chance to be enlightened! This seminar is about empowering you through your finances, explaining the jargon, clarifying your priorities and allowing you to ask all those 'silly' questions which no-one ever told you were the downright 'shrewd'. Find out what you need to know now and how to plan effectively for the future and take control of your money. This will probably be the best hour and half you have ever spent on your on finances! Don't miss it.
The seminar will be held at Dryden Wealth Management Limited, 63 St Mary Axe, London EC3A 8LT on 19 November from 6.30pm to 9pm. Come to this FOC event and have some nibbles, do some networking and learn some essential skills at the same time Click here to reserve your FREE place...
Fiona Price & Partners Ltd., is the UK's leading firm of Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) to women. The firm has worked with women for the last 15 years and is frequently quoted in the press, on TV and radio. It was also voted best small IFA firm in the UK in 2003.
The IoD's Women's Leadership Summit
A great day and lots of advice and inspiration - not just from the speakers but from the audience as well. The audience were asked to identify the key skills for leaders and this is the list they came up with:
- Resilience
- Passion
- Persistence
- Enthusiasm
- Stamina
- Tolerance
- Confidence
- Self Motivation
- Self Belief
- Tenacity
These are not qualities that you can acquire through doing an MBA or any other business skills course. As you move further up your organisation who you are becomes far more important than what you know.
These qualities can be learnt and this is our focus for the Creative Female Leader Programmes. Rosie Tomkins, co-presenter on the Programme, is an inspirational role model. She started her own company from scratch and ultimately became the only female on the board of a large PLC. All of this whilst raising a family!
National Register for Non-Executive Directors
A new member based register provides practising and aspiring NED's access to positions in the private, public and not for profit sectors. A programme is currently being developed with the business led group, London First, to encourage FTSE 250 companies to consider board appointments of women and minorities.
For more information please visit www.exec-appointments.com or call 0845 458 9850.