Women don’t need to be fixed to lead. - Amazon S3 · leadership of women. This is costly for business and frustrating for women. Women don’t need to be fixed to be able to lead

CATHY BURKE

A Cathy Burke White Paper 2018

Women don’t need to be fixed to lead.

Empower women to own and express their unique leadership potential.

CathyBurke2018 2|Page

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction

2. Misconceptions

3. Organisational Context

4. A Leadership Framework

5. In Summary

6. Where to from here

7. About the Author


INTRODUCTION Many organisations have a corporate commitment to empowering gender diversity and inclusion. Yet the experience for many women is often one of being overlooked, not being heard, and not stepping into leadership roles. Women in large numbers feel resigned that this will not change, and many personalise their frustration, making it mean something about them that they need to fix. Women do want to lead and express their power, and most organisations know that enabling this is good for business. McKinsey & Co found in 2015 that companies in the top 25% for gender diversity are 15% more likely to perform better financially than their national industry medians. Yet companies are not as successful as they’d like to be in keeping and empowering the leadership of women. This is costly for business and frustrating for women. Women don’t need to be fixed to be able to lead. Strategies to empower women’s leadership will fail if they come from this personalised perspective. This paper offers a framework to empower women to express their leadership potential.


MISCONCEPTIONS There are some common misconceptions about why women are not progressing in their careers as they would like. These beliefs often feed the mismatch between the intention an organisation has to empower its female staff, and the execution, which too often falls short of the mark. Unexamined assumptions are in part responsible for the development of programs that are not as successful as they could be. Let’s dive in and explore three of these beliefs. 1. Women just need more confidence. There is a prevalent belief that what’s holding women back is a lack of confidence, and that fixing this will boost professional success. This is so ingrained, in part because it places the onus solely on the shoulders of women. It points to something about women that they need to fix. But is this true? Many women can feel ill equipped and lacking in confidence to lead at work. Internal research by Hewlett-Packard showed that women will apply for jobs only when they think they meet 100% of the criteria, while men apply with 60% of the criteria met. Whilst that figure hasn’t been independently corroborated in other studies, it is so often quoted because it appears to validate women’s lived experience. Women do feel that they’re not as confident as they should be to speak up, to lead and to get what they want. The book The Confidence Code by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman covers extensive research into this perceived gap in confidence for women. They show that women, when compared to men, are found to second guess their readiness for promotions, expect they’ll do worse on tests, and generally play down their abilities. Maybe it’s true that more confidence is all that women need to be able to progress. Maybe not.


Recent research by RMIT acknowledges that while confidence is a factor, more of it for women does not correlate with career gains. In their research, an increase in women's confidence did not translate to increased promotions in the same way it does for men. Additionally, whilst confidence in men is seen as leadership material, in women double standards mean that the same traits might be viewed negatively. Women can be penalised when they do show confidence, in the classic ‘he’s assertive/she’s a bitch’ narrative, and this hampers her ability to step up and lead. Whilst it is true that many women would like to be more confident in different stages of their career, and that attention to building women's confidence is helpful, confidence as a solution on its own is flawed. It still falls within the paradigm that there’s something internal to women that needs fixing. If it’s not all about confidence, what else is at play? It turns out that work context is key. As McKinsey’s global executive survey from 2014 shows - “Collective, cultural factors at work are more than twice as likely as individual factors to link to women’s confidence that they can reach top management”. We’ll explore the impact of the environment later in this whitepaper. 2. Women are not very ambitious. This belief is sometimes used to justify women’s lack of presence in leadership positions, as it presumes that lack of ambition is inherent in being a woman. The research tells 2 stories.

1. Women are ambitious! McKinsey’s 2014 global executive survey found that female executives are ambitious and sure of their own abilities to become top managers, and that both men (83%) and women (82%) want to reach top-level management.

2. A study across 3 countries conducted by the Center for Talent Innovation

showed that men and women were equally ambitious, placing similar importance on aims to ‘flourish, excel, reach for meaning and purpose, be empowered and empower others, and earn well’. The study also showed that over time women lose interest in leadership positions and power, while men remain focused for longer and in a more intentional way on power to achieve their desires.


Why are women losing interest? Well, it’s not because of children, as is often attributed. The Centre for Talent Innovation’s research found the real reason is that women perceive that the burdens of leadership are not worth the price, without fully realising the benefits that being a leader can bring to achieving their goals. The research recommended that organisations develop strategies to change women’s perception of power, and encourage visible role models to give voice to the substantial benefits, joys and fulfilment in leadership and power. This is a critical piece. There is a very real need for women to reframe their meaning of, and relationship to ‘leadership’ and what it means to lead. And the same is true for power. Leading can then become something that empowers women and calls them forth. Women need to own leading and power on their own terms. Women often don’t see themselves as a leader, and in fact shy away from describing themselves as such, which might be seen as lacking ambition. Yet too often what it means to be a leader is imbued with the belief that a leader is male, white and older, and that to be a leader you need to be ruthless and domineering, and only out for what you can get. If this is the epitome of leadership, no wonder women are repelled by it! Raina Brands, assistant professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School, calls this the “think manager, think man” syndrome. It occurs “because the traits we typically associate with leaders – forceful, dominant, strong, competent or even heroic – are stereotypically associated with men.” It’s crucial then that women reinvent and claim leadership – not just for their own sake, but because this false notion of leadership is damaging our organisations and our world. There is much research proving that these macho traits of leadership are counterproductive to truly being an effective leader. Women's ambition to lead can be empowered with a new perspective on what being a leader truly means, coupled with strategies to claim that power and lead authentically. Leadership can and must be expressed uniquely for each woman. This makes any organisation richer and more robust.


3. Women need to do or be something different before they can lead Tara Mohr, author of Playing Big, wrote that women may feel they require more experience, education, qualifications etc before they can take action, but usually don’t. It’s a delaying tactic, like an insurance policy, based on a deep belief that women tend to second guess themselves, and go for more training or preparation to avoid failure. Part of why women feel that they are not equipped or skilled enough to lead might be linked to women typically profiling as more risk averse than men (KPMG, McKinsey & Co et al). This can be a great thing when managing hedge funds, but it may inhibit women at the beginning of their careers or new ventures from taking action without every single detail and strategy worked out. But this needn’t become a self-fulfilling prophecy for women While preparation is important, action is the precursor to leadership. Women really don’t need anything more to be able own and claim their inherent ability to lead. Still convinced you need that extra certificate before you go for that promotion? Then meet Irene, a woman food farmer in Malawi. She wanted to mobilise her community to create openness around HIVAIDS to reduce stigma and deaths. She could have put off her activities to get the high school diploma she never got, (married at 14 as she was). But she didn’t. She knew that she was enough and had enough to lead. As Susan Jeffers once wrote, ‘feel the fear and do it anyway!’ Confidence, which can be described as a belief in your ability to succeed, has been shown to stimulate action. As Kay and Shipman write, “Confidence accumulates—through hard work, through success, and even through failure.” Put another way, taking action reinforces your belief in your ability to succeed. Research by psychologist Zachary Estes shows that even if women hold themselves back, when they do act, they perform as well as men. He also found that the natural result of low confidence is inaction. This makes sense. Could the antidote be that action builds confidence? I believe it is. As a guiding principle, it is possible that nothing innately needs to change for a woman to be able to act successfully – except taking the action!


ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT So how does this play out in an organisational context? The different stages of empowerment (from sub optimal to fully expressed leadership) that women experience in their careers often looks like this:

At the bottom, women are disempowered and Disengaged. They’ve pretty much given up. At best, they are actively looking for other roles, or at worst, expressing their frustration in detrimental ways to other team members, customers and suppliers. This has a very real negative impact on the business. The 2 middle levels are where women typically sit in an organisation. Pacified is when women are treading water. They’re not actively disrupting or undermining a culture, but they are also not positively contributing. They are not true believers - in themselves, others or what the business stands for. They are a drag on the effectiveness and vitality of an organisation, but they are also very close to being tipped into a more empowering leadership paradigm.


When women reach Enlivened we see a tipping point in the positive influence they bring. Women here are engaged in their careers, going for promotions and active in seeking leadership opportunities. The value they bring the business is positive and noticeable – it is always great having more women who are leading and thriving. This group are more focused on their own careers. They help others but only in the context of what they hope to achieve. At the top of the chart we have women who are Connectors and influencers. They have achieved success and recognition in the roles they are in, and in the way they themselves define success. They are about more than just themselves. They find joy and purpose in supporting and growing other women to thrive and experience momentum. The value to the business is significant. These women are the glue – fostering the ambition and confidence of other women throughout the organisation. They link and provide tangible opportunities between different parts of the business or different teams, as well as demonstrating vivid examples of leadership for women to aspire to. The work then for any organisation is to empower its female staff so there is an abundance of connected, inspired women who love what they do, role model passionately for other women, and bust out in ways that open up new horizons for themselves and their company.


A LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK There are some real barriers (both seen and unseen) that keep women from expressing the leadership that is rightfully theirs. How do we get to the heart of this so that meaningful change can happen? The following model provides a way of seeing how this might be possible.


1. Own Your ‘Enoughness’ The first circle is about fostering a belief that We Are Enough. As seen above, women especially feel that they’re not good enough, experienced enough, or qualified enough to lead. We live in a world where women feel they are insufficient and lacking. Too many women believe that “I’m not (good/smart/experienced/confident) enough… to grow my career or make the difference I can in the way I know I have the potential for. I call this mindset ‘not enoughness’, and it’s an insidious worm burying within, corrupting women’s health and integrity. Believing We Are Not Enough feeds a disabling narrative that women need to be fixed or made better to be able to lead and reach their potential. This makes women particularly hard on themselves, focusing on the perceived gaps, because ‘we are never enough’. This scarcity thinking is a trap, and it prevents women from owning their abilities and leading with authority and humility. For women, owning that ‘We Are Enough’ is radical and liberating. And women really are enough – intrinsically. Women have enough to lead, to serve, to thrive – just how they are. They are not missing any inherent piece. They are not flawed or ‘less than’. As human beings, women are not lacking in the deepest sense. And while additional help and support from time to time is needed, it needs to be given from the context of empowerment and not because women are coming from an inherent place of scarcity, lack or worthlessness. Transforming this belief from one of scarcity and inner lack – to being enough is a crucial step in unleashing the potential of women’s leadership. 2. Claim Your Inherent Leadership The idea on the top right is about not needing permission to lead. Leadership is rarely given – it has to be claimed. Women often find themselves waiting to be anointed to make the changes they want to make – but hoping to be selected is not a good leadership strategy! There are ways to claim leadership that are independent of hierarchy and job title.


I think of women I worked with in India who wanted to build a school for their daughters. If they had waited for agreement or approval, it would never have happened. Instead they needed to claim that mandate from within themselves first, and then work the steps to get alignment from often hostile stakeholders. The school stands today, full of girls! Another example is a mid-level executive in Australia’s largest bank who was upset that customers needed to wait weeks before money paid in error was refunded. There were layers of protocol that made sense to the bank, but it was inefficient and alienating customers. She took a stand on this and bought together different stakeholders including legal, risk and retail banking. Together a new procedure was instigated that took only 2 days for the refund to happen. This executive wasn’t tasked to solve this problem, but she saw something that needed to happen and she claimed the mandate. Owning one’s ability to lead reframes challenges as opportunities for growth. At the intersection of Owning Your ‘Enoughness’ and Claiming Your Inherent Leadership is Influence. With these 2 distinctions connected, you can access your power to enrol others in your vision. You can influence because you know you have what you need to take action. 3. Master Your Mindset The third principle is about examining underlying and usually unconscious mindsets that limit one’s ability to lead and thrive. These beliefs are often based in the past – “oh I tried that once and it didn’t work”, or ‘I’m not the sort of person who could …”. Creating expansive mindsets is crucial to moving beyond resignation and stasis. Our lives are not preordained, though many of us live like it is so. Carol Dweck’s seminal book Mindset showed how expanding our perspectives is possible and indeed necessary for effective leadership, and I’ve seen the truth of this unfold in unimaginably difficult situations. In villages across South Asia and Africa I sat beside many people who have always been hungry. To them, understandably, their future looks like more of their past, and it seemed impossible to imagine a future where they were able to feed their families. And yet shifting this mindset from ‘no to go’ is the first step to making it a reality. Without this, all action is operating on the top of resignation. It seems hard to imagine, but when people living with hunger make this leap in their own mindset from hopelessness


to possibility, then the process for ending hunger begins. I have seen the power of creating expansive mindsets the world over - from deserts to concrete jungles, from small villages to large cities, and in every organisation I’ve worked with. The intersection connecting mindsets and claiming leadership allows for Visibility. When these 2 principles are mastered, ‘I am seen’ and ‘I relish being seen’ happens! Visibility gives you access to the people and institutions who can assist you in your projects and commitments. Finally, the intersection between mindset and ‘enoughness’ allows for Agency. This is a person’s singular ability to make something happen. This is the power of taking a stand. When you own that you are enough, you have the capacity to act and make your own choices in the way that is authentic to you. At the centre, connecting influence, visibility and agency, with owning your ‘enoughness’, claiming your inherent ability to lead, and mastering your mindset, sits an empowered woman. An empowered woman challenges her limiting beliefs, knows she has what it takes and is committed to leading because she can, not because someone told her to. She is influential, visible and in action. She is empowered. 4. Enabling Environment What underpins these 3 distinctions and their connectors is the background I call the enabling environment. Leadership isn’t just a matter of personal will. Our environment and culture play a big part in how and who shows up. Working together to build, nourish and safeguard this environment is crucial to women’s empowerment. This environment consists of the known and unknown laws, policies and practices that determine how things are done and by whom in an organisation. These company and cultural mores play a huge role in shaping how successful a woman will be - irrespective of how confident she was before joining the organisation. This is true whether you are a woman in a large company or a woman in rural India. The arena may be different but the context is the same – the environment women show up in determines so much more than we think.


In a small rural area of India, women wanted to fish from a nearby pond to feed their families. They knew how to fish. But there was an old law that prohibited women from fishing. This was the environment they worked in - it was just how things were done around there. Their ability to thrive was not linked to confidence but to access and inclusion. Having spoken to these women, many were shy and deferred to their male family members. They seemingly lacked confidence – and in that environment who could blame them! But once they mobilised and got the law changed – gaining confidence through working together, they were able to achieve their goals. It ended up not being about being better at fishing, but about standing for their rights as human beings to show up and live in the way they wanted to. The steps in this process did include personal empowerment, but it also included changing the system so that succeeding meant opportunity for all. The work environment - wherever and whatever it may be - is critical to determining how women express themselves and how successful they are in leading. It needs to be carefully created, nurtured and safeguarded, and it takes active and ongoing leadership and citizenry to make that happen.


IN SUMMARY 1. Women’s ambition to lead can be empowered

through developing a new perspective on what being a leader truly means, coupled with the tools and insight to claim that power and lead authentically

2. Cultivating an expansive mindset and challenging

limiting ideas is foundational to expressing power, and this can be learned and practiced.

3. Women don’t need to be fixed to be able to lead.

Coming from any other paradigm when working with women won’t get lasting results.

4. More women lead when visible role models are

encouraged to give voice to the many benefits, joys and fulfilment that leadership brings.

5. Building the leadership confidence for women is

difficult if it happens in isolation of, or indifference to, the work culture or environment.


WHERE TO FROM HERE Cathy Burke works with organisations that are ready to support their female employees to lead powerfully. Cathy can help by: • Speaking: Delivering keynotes and workshops that inspire women's leadership.

• Global Women Program: Transforming women’s relationship to leadership and power. Designed for organisations wanting to enable women's success.

• Mentoring.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR Cathy Burke is a leadership developer, speaker and mentor. She honed her understanding about leadership working for 20 years as Australian CEO and Global Vice President for The Hunger Project, a global organisation working to end hunger through empowering women. She has developed women’s leadership in the most difficult conditions in the world, as well as training leaders in some of the world’s largest companies. Cathy is the author of Unlikely Leaders: Lessons in Leadership from the Village Classroom.

“Cathy Burke's unique voice and insights on leadership will influence the way we think about change and culture for years to come.” Jon Williams Global Leader, People and Organisation, PwC “Cathy’s grasp on leadership and her ability to translate that into action is incredibly impressive.” Michael Rennie Global Leader, Organisation Practice, McKinsey and Co “What Cathy Burke has to say should be listened to.” Speciosa Wandira-Kazibwe UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Former Vice President of Uganda

CONTACT

[email protected]

www.cathyburke.com

+61 411 699 482


Copyright: Copy this the right way. You have permission to post this, email this, print this and pass it along for free to anyone you like, as long as you make no changes or edits to its contents or digital format. Please pass it along and make as many copies as you like. We reserve the right to bind it and sell it as an e-book. Disclaimer: We care but you’re responsible. So please be sure to take specialist advice before taking on any of the ideas. This white paper is general in nature and not meant to replace any specific advice. Cathy Burke and her team disclaims all and any liability to any persons whatsoever in respect of anything done by any person in reliance, whether in whole or in part, on this paper.

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Women don’t need to be fixed to lead. - Amazon S3 · leadership of women. This is costly for business and frustrating for women. Women don’t need to be fixed to be able to lead