WiNfluence - The WiN-Canada Blog

I’m back from enjoying some vacation time with my family and I’ve come across this very interesting article in the Harvard business Review written by Herminia Ibarra, Nancy M. Carter and Christine Silva, “Why Men Still Get More Promotions Than Women.”

The article reveals that women are getting lots of opportunities for mentoring, but suggests that not all mentoring is created equal and that mentorship alone, without the sponsorship of senior executives, is not enough.

The authors describe sponsorship as, “a special kind of relationship, in which the mentor goes beyond giving feedback and advice and uses his or her influence with senior executives to advocate for the mentee.”

The authors clearly state, "that high-potential women are over-mentored and under-sponsored relative to their male peers—and that they are not advancing in their organizations."

They conclude their article with the following statement: “More sponsoring may lead to more and faster promotions for women, but it is not a magic bullet: There is still much to do to close the gap between men’s and women’s advancement. Some improvements—such as supportive bosses and inclusive cultures—are a lot harder to mandate than formal mentoring programs but essential if those programs are to have their intended effects. Clearly, however, the critical first step is to stop over-mentoring and start accountable sponsoring for both sexes.”

Think about how a sponsor might help you achieve that promotion you have been working towards. Is your mentor simply giving you advice and feedback, but not actually promoting you within the upper circles in your organization? Perhaps providing a copy of this article would help your mentor appreciate the difference between mentoring and sponsoring and help create understanding around how effective sponsoring can be.

Lately I've been coming across a great deal of content on leadership traits. We've touched on leadership behaviors and traits before in this blog, but I want to talk about a leadership trait that isn't always celebrated or achieved - the ability to use your influence to help women inside and outside your own line achieve success.

Recently Catalyst Canada announced the recipients of their Catalyst Canada Honours awards. Amongst the three announced winners was Colleen Sidford, VP & Treasurer of Ontario Power Generation (OPG). Colleen has obviously been successful in her career, but one thing that sets Colleen apart from many other women who have achieved similar success is that she used her influence, in an industry that is very male dominated, to help other women in her organization obtain the skills needed to be successful. To do this Colleen launched a program at OPG called the emPOWered Women's series.

The emPOWered Women’s series, is a leadership development and mentoring program designed to provide professional guidance, develop networking relationships, and to be a platform to advance the careers of women throughout OPG by removing barriers to their advancement. Training includes working on presentation skills, having a presence in meetings and gaining confidence and ability to “take the stage,” vocally, verbally and physically.

Colleen might have left the development of women in her organization to the human resources or equity and diversity people and concentrated on her own development and the development of her team, but instead she saw a gender gap in leadership roles at OPG  and created a program that would help all women from the shop floor to middle management obtain a level playing field, with their male colleagues, when applying for leadership positions.

Women in Nuclear (WiN) nominated Colleen for this award because WiN saw this program as a valuable stepping stone to women's advancement in the nuclear industry. Colleen is very deserving of this award for all her hard work in setting up this program when I'm sure she had an overflowing plate with her "real" job. OPG  should also be very proud of Colleen's efforts and should take pride that they encouraged Colleen to pursue her passion. There has been a lot of press coverage on the announcement of this award, which has put the nuclear industry in the same category with the financial institutions who traditionally have made great strides in diversity and inclusion efforts. The entire nuclear industry should celebrate Colleen's success and congratulate her on dealing with such an important issue in a very positive way.

Colleen is an inspiration to all aspiring and current leaders and we should all work to develop the leadership trait of influence, regardless of where we are in our organizations, and follow in Colleen's footsteps to inspire and develop others in our organizations.

For more information on leadership traits and the Catalyst Award visit:
http://www.leadership501.com/five-most-important-leadership-traits/27/
http://womensmedia.com/lunchtalk/what-are-the-traits-of-a-great-leader/

http://www.wincanada.org/news/win-member-is-named-catalyst-canadas-business-lead
http://www.catalyst.org/blog/cancon/

I have to share this post from Mitch Joel, President, Twist Image & author of Six Pixels of Separation, because it is so near and dear to my heart. Poorly organized and executed business meetings are a waste of everyone's time.

Here are Mitch's 15 Ways to Have a Better Meeting. Jump over to Mitch's blog at http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/15-ways-to-have-a-better-meeting/ to join in the conversation there as well. There are some great additional great tips in the comments.

Here are 15 ways to create a winning business meeting:

1. Set a simple and short agenda. You can figure out the minutia later. If you're pulling people away from their day-to-day work keep it short and simple. Also only put items on the agenda that can be resolved within the meeting.
2. Invite only the people that really have to be there. If you have the right people in the room, those people can then find the additional resources to figure the rest out. Too many meetings have too many people which causes some (sometimes a lot) of the content to not be relevant to others in the room. If something is being discussed it should be relevant to all participants of the meeting.
3. Confirm with attendees on the day before. Make sure to send a friendly reminder the day before. Also re-confirm with those that are presenting to ensure that they keep their content relevant to the entire group, and that they don't kill your meeting with death by PowerPoint.
4. Do some research. If your company is bring in a new potential partner or vendor, do your research before the meeting. A basic online search will help you understand who the company is and what they do. If you have time, hop over to LinkedIn and review the profile of the people who you are meeting. If you don't know who the company is, who you are meeting and why you are meeting them, then why did you show up? Doing that baseline research goes beyond common courtesy... it's just common sense. Leave any (and all) meetings that start with someone saying, "so tell us why you are here and what you can do for us?"
5. Create a space. Bring the lighting up. Bring all of the chairs close together. If the room is too big, move the chairs so people have to sit close to one another. Put the drinks in the middle of the table so attendees don't have to get up or disturb the presenter. Black belt tip: leave name cards on the seats - this will force people to sit next to new/different people and will encourage more interactivity amongst the group. If you want winning results, you have to create an atmosphere to win!
6. Technology first. If you're using a conference call, video conference, Skype or even Internet connectivity, make sure it is set-up and running correctly ten minutes before starting the meeting. Meetings that start ten minutes late because of this are not only wasting people's valuable time but also demonstrate a lack of professionalism. 
7. Hand-outs. If you must have hand-outs (my recommendation is to only give them out at the end of a meeting or to email a digital version after the meeting's conclusion) place one in every seat prior to the start of the meeting.
8. Start on time. If people are late, it will be them who will be missing the content. Don't penalize those that are on time. And yes, this includes superiors. Bosses, managers, etc... should be embarrassed if their own staff can be there and ready before them (lead from the front) - it says something about their respect for the team.
9. Chair it. Always have someone chair the meeting. This person should give a 30-second pitch for the meeting that is ahead and do any formal introductions if you are meeting with people you have never seen before. All meetings should start off with a simple opening statement around the context of the presentation. Great meetings are created by great chairs.
10. Nobody gets out alive. Go to the bathroom before the meeting. There is never any reason to get up and leave. And yes, that means to grab a bottle of water or snacks before. How would you feel if people were getting up and leaving while you were presenting? If you can only stay for a portion of the meeting either check in with the person chairing the session or don't bother showing up at all. People who leave in the middle are a huge disruption and distraction. Black belt tip: if someone does have to leave in the middle, have the Chair let the group know during the opening statement.
11. All hands on deck. Unless you have an agreement that people can use laptops, iPads and smartphones to take notes (which is not the best idea), all of that technology should be banned from formal meetings and presentations. Recently, I was speaking in a meeting and noticed that the three people next to me were on their laptops... working on their email! Why invite someone in and create a meeting if the people attending are doing the same work they would do if there wasn't a meeting? Everyone looses. More importantly, it is totally insulting and distracting. So, even if you are legitimately taking notes, sit far away from the presenter and be very quiet and subtle about it.
12. Never table an item. Why do people say, "let's table that item"? That's stupid. Never table an item. If something was put on the agenda, it's important for the team to come to a resolution on it. Get it done.
13. Clean up. When the meeting is done, please clean up. Don't wait for someone else to do it (even if you have a cleaning crew). Put the chairs back nicely, remove your food/beverages and toss out all papers. Shut down the computers and projectors (and don't forget to put the remotes back in a place where everyone can find them). Leave it in the same way that it was created.
14. Be a human being. Be kind. Use your best manners. Smile. Thank people for their attention and time.
15. Follow-up. Send a thank you note (written is best, but email is acceptable) letting people know that you appreciated their time and what the follow-up/output of the meeting will be.

Mitch Joel is President of Twist Image — an award-winning Digital Marketing and Communications agency. In 2008, Mitch was named Canada's Most Influential Male in Social Media, one of the top 100 online marketers in the world, and was awarded the highly-prestigious Canada's Top 40 Under 40. His first book, Six Pixels of Separation (published by Grand Central Publishing - Hachette Book Group), named after his successful Blog and Podcast is a business and marketing best-seller. You can find him here: www.twistimage.com/blog 

Here's my two cents worth - #1 Do a timed agenda and appoint a time keeper to remind you of the agreed to time commitment for each item. Keeping track of time and chairing a meeting at the same time can be difficult.

#2, 8, 13, 14 really resonate with me. Aren't these all just common courtesies we should be affording to each other as humans sharing the same planet? If so, why are they so difficult to deliver on?

#4 - Review all materials sent in advance before the meeting. Don't come in and ask if anyone else got a chance to print off the material so you can share and admit you never read any of it. The reason it was sent out in advance is so the agenda can be shortened by everyone coming in with their homework done.

#11 Band all blackberries, cell phones, etc. from a meeting if you want it to be productive. It makes me crazy when I give up my time to attend a meeting and someone is texting all the way through and continually has to be brought up to date with what is going on. The clicking of the keyboard is distracting and it wastes the time of everyone in the room if repeat backs have to be given on content. I think a laptop is okay for the scribe of the meeting, but for everyone else if your full attention is not needed at the meeting, you probably don't need to be there.

#12 Feel free to use the "parking lot" for ideas and issues that come up outside of the content of the meeting, but follow up if the ideas and issues need to be addressed.

Thanks to Mitch for sharing these great ideas. Share your great meeting tips by leaving a comment. Learning to organize and execute a great meeting will go a long way to make your career successful.

I just completed this great little on-line survey that assesses your executive skills. You can access the survey at www.workyourstrengths.net/profile. It is based on a book, Work Your Strengths, written by Chuck Martin, Richard Guare and Peg Dawson that assesses twelve executive skills and their relationship to high performing people.

The survey provides you with an analysis of your top three strengths and three weaknesses. I have no idea how accurate the analysis is, but it might be an interesting exercise to compare it to other career testing you have done.

Read more about the book in the June 26, 2010 Toronto Star article, Finding your inner executive skills, written by Donna Nebenzahl.

Oh, I just used the F-word… “Feminism” or is it “feminism” in your world? I read an excellent article in the June 5, 2010 (yeah, I’m a little behind in my reading) Toronto Star, written by Nicole Baute, entitled Feminism, up close and personal.

The article talks about what it means in 2010 to call yourself a feminist, if you actually even want to call yourself that at all. Anyone who lived through the late 1960s knew what it meant to be a feminist. Being a feminist during this time was perceived to include activism, burning bras and going up against the establishment i.e., - men. I was too young to actually participate in any of this activism but my perception was that they were a group of women demanding equality.

Fast forward to 2010: women, who just as strongly believe in equality, may not be so quick to say they are feminists. The term has earned itself some form of negative connotation. So, when I read Baute’s article I had to stop and think, if I were asked today if I was a feminist, how would I answer and if it went one step further and I was asked if I was a capital F or small f feminist, which would I be?

Baute says in her article, “Feminism today is fragmented. There are as many feminisms as there are feminists, and feminists tend to disagree about what the issues are and should be, and how they should be approached.” To me, this statement sums it up nicely. I’m not sure what it means to be a feminist in 2010. I think everyone, including women, should have equal opportunities and be treated equally. I believe diversity of thought should be valued and all opinions, backgrounds and experiences should count in discussions and decision making processes. I think people should be called on their systemic biases and made aware of how damaging these deeply invisible beliefs hamper equality and diversity in the workplace. I do know the more inequality I experience the more willing I am to call myself a feminist.

So, if you were asked the question: Are you a feminist? What would you say? Are you a capital F feminist and if so, what does that mean exactly? Or would you consider yourself a small f feminist and what does that distinction mean to you?

Leave a comment about what feminism means to you. Maybe if we can discuss and define what feminism actually means in 2010, we will all better understand were we fit into this movement, if indeed it is a movement at all.
 

I want to share a great post written for Catalyst by guest blogger, Laura Liswood, Secretary General, Council of Women World Leaders, and Senior Advisor, Goldman Sachs, entitled “Diversity of Nature.”

This beautifully written piece talks about how diversity within nature works well, but when organizations commit to diversity of its people, the organization stumbles.

In her post Liswood refers to the Gender Gap Report for 2009 released by the World Economic Forum. She talks about the good news in that the gaps in healthcare and education are almost closed in many countries around the world and how many people believed that once those gaps were closed, the economic and political gaps would also close, quite naturally. In reality that didn’t happen. Liswood suggests a more affirmative approach is needed to close economic and political gaps, which will not be easy nor will they close naturally.

When we look at the statistics for Canada, we ranked 25th and gained six places in 2009, moving ahead of the United States. Canada is now the 10th highest ranking country on the economic participation and opportunity subindex. Women’s labour force participation increased from 73% to 75% and women’s estimated annual earned income increased from US$ 25,448 to US$ 26,055. Canada also posted gains in the political empowerment subindex as a result of a small increase in the percentage of women in parliament—21% to 22%.

So how do we create a diverse and equitable workplace? Why do our stereotypical beliefs hold us back from creating the diversity in nature that Liswood talks about? I love this quote from Liswood’s post:  I once saw a sign that said, “We hire because they are different and fire because they are not the same.” All too often we talk about wanting diversity and equity in the workplace, but our actions don’t match our words. We need to find a way to get back in tune with nature as Liswood suggests and make diversity of the workplace work in the same natural way. I think Canada should be ranking far above 25th in the world in the Gender Gap index. We should be leading the way and be held up for other countries to emulate.

Over at dictionary.com they define success as:
1.  the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.
2.  the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.
3. a successful performance or achievement: The play was an instant success.
4. a person or thing that is successful: She was a great success on the talk show.

In the business world, success means different things to different people. One person may feel they are not successful until they are sitting in the CEO chair of a large corporation. Another may feel they have achieved success if they have a good paying job they enjoy, which in turn provides them with lots of time to spend with family and friends.

Is success really measured by money, title or awards hanging on your office wall? For some people the answer would be yes. For me I think success is feeling that I am getting the whole “work-life balance” thing right. I want to do a great job at work (and I’m lucky enough to have a job I love), but I also need enough energy left at the end of the day to go home and enjoy time with my family. I don’t always achieve success when it comes to work-life balance, but when I get it right, I feel successful. Feeling successful for me is not about the big bank account, the C Suite title and an office lined with awards, it is about making a valuable contribution everyday at work and at home.

I realize it may be very different for others, in fact, some may read this and think, “she is not very ambitious.” Success probably is about figuring out what will make you “feel” successful in your mind. If that is taking the big chair in the CEO’s office more power to you. We need people like you and we certainly need more women in these positions.

Whatever your definition of success I wish you much luck is achieving it. Just make sure you are truly feeling successful as you go about it.

What does success mean to you? Share your story by leaving a comment.

To all Moms out there, Happy Mother’s Day! Today is your day to relax and be pampered by your children and receive wonderful cards chosen just for you after hours of thoughtful searching in the Hallmark section. Okay, so maybe reality strikes again and Mother’s Day doesn’t always fit the Hallmark perfect picture of family bliss. So, give yourself that perfect Mother’s Day gift - the gift of forgiveness.

Here are a few things you may need to forgive yourself for:

1. You are not Super Mom - I’ve yet to meet Super Mom, although I have encountered a number of women making themselves absolutely crazy trying to gain this title. When you’ve been in the game as long as I have you know there is no such thing. We do the best we can, given all the stressors that get thrown our way on any given day. Give yourself permission to know you are not the best Mom in the world, but you are certainly not the worst. You’ve done your best to give your kids what they need to succeed in life. Motherhood is not an extreme sport.

2. You have never been able to achieve the work-life balance  - If anyone had the answer to the age old question, “How do I achieve work-life balance,” they’d be millionaires no longer worrying about such trival things because they would have a full staff of people to look after them. There are many books, articles, videos and other bits of advice out there to help you achieve work-life balance. Almost all offer the same advice:
-Find good childcare.
-Forget the guilt.
-Divide household chores and childcare fairly with your partner.
-Be in the moment whether at home or work.
-Lower housework on your list of priorities.
-Manage your time effectively at home and at work.
All easily said, not so easily accomplished. Personally, I think the secret to work-life balance is different for everyone. You just have to find what fits for your family and realize that perfect balance is a myth.

3. You have not always made the right work-life choices - We can all play the “what if” game. We make choices and know they have consequences. It is always easier to see what we might have done once some time has passed and we see how things have developed. You make the best decisions you can with the information you have at the time. Leave your regrets in the past, they have no place in your future.

4. You don’t have it all - Does anyone you know have it all? It may appear on the surface that some people are balancing work, home, personal time, relationships all better than you, but I think if we were all honest we’d admit that none of us has achieved “it all”. The trick may be to focus on what needs your attention at the time and give ‘it’ your all. That may mean devoting the time to your kids when they are young or really need you and another time in your life working on upgrading your education if needed for the next promotion at work. We don’t need to “have it all” everyday. Perhaps looking at balance over our lifetime would be more realistic.

So this Mother’s Day give yourself the gift of forgiveness. Sit back and think about how lucky you are to have your children, your career, your relationships, etc. Forgive yourself. Be happy in this moment at this time. Leave all the guilt, regret, wonderment of work-life balance for another day. Today is your day. Enjoy!

Happy National Volunteer Week. In Canada this week celebrates the 12.5 million volunteers nationwide who give 2.1 billion hours of their time, energy and skills to make the world a better place. Our Women in Nuclear (WiN) organization survives on the generosity of members who commit hours of their own personal time to help strengthen WiN and help achieve WiN’s goals.

This year’s theme, volunteers from compassion to action, encompasses what WiN is all about. It is the passion of our members to help the industry reach out to a female demographic to talk about the positive benefits the industry brings to our world, to encourage young female students to keep up their math and sciences so they do not close doors to exciting and well-paying careers and to help each other be successful, that moves us all into action.

So to the many WiNners who volunteer on the Board, help out with GIRLS Science Camp/Club, act as a mentor for Skills Canada, plant trees on Earth Day, present or attend WiN meetings and conferences, or the multitude of other activities our members partake in - a great big thank you! Your hard work and achievements have made WiN what it is today. Well done!