Category: Unit 8

This learning assignment has truly been eye-opening.

First, I was taken aback by my results on the Gender-Leader Implicit Association test. Even though the test itself explicitly states that many of us have have subconscious biased association favouring males and leadership that we are unaware of (Northouse, 2016), I was still unprepared when confronted with that reality. I was surprised by how often I associate leadership traits with the male gender.

Second, I was surprised by how little I am doing to foster recognition and belonging for other women in my workplace. Health care is typically a female dominated workplace, and the situations that stand out in my memory are the ones where men are prejudiced against. For example, in Home Care I have had the responsibility of communicating with more clients and families who have refused to have a man provide their personal care than the opposite.

As a woman leader in my workplace I haven’t really taken the time (well, sometimes I feel like I haven’t really HAD the time) to think about myself or other women in leadership roles. There are as many men as women at our Director table and I am not consciously aware of any overt prejudices against women in leadership, however, the learning materials from this week have caused me to reflect more on what I am unconsciously accepting or ignoring. Certainly I do think that there are always opportunities to promote recognition and foster a sense of belonging amongst my fellow women in senior leader and frontline management positions. The positions come with multiple responsibilities, and building support and capacity is important for their individual and team success.

After reading the Catalyst report (2016) I have identified many ways that I can personally foster recognition and a sense of belonging:

• Make personal connections with my staff – not just the managers that report directly to me, but the front line staff that report to them. This includes seeking to understand their successes and challenges at work, but also getting to know them personally.
• Recognize when other staff are engaged in inclusionary behaviours, and where possible (within a unionized environment) reward this behaviour. This recognition and reward can be personal (a quick thank you in person or by email) or public (a “bouquet” in the organization’s newsletter, or a mass email to all the staff in the department with a cc to the ED, or VP)
• As I am the Chair of a number of meetings I can seek out those who aren’t normally vocal and encourage them to participate, and capitalize on the information they have to offer if possible
• During staff meetings include an agenda item where staff can share experiences of inclusion and exclusion. There would need to be enough time to validate these experiences, and then time to ask for staff input into how we develop share language, understanding and vision so that the number of inclusion experiences go up, and the number of exclusion experiences go down
• Although our organization has policy that makes overt biases and stereotyping unacceptable, there is an opportunity to me to be more aware and conscious of language in the workplace and to role model behaviour that immediately addresses unacceptable language and actions
• There is an opportunity to recognize and coach the champions and ambassadors to continue to role model positive change
• I need to role model inclusionary behaviours.
• One value can be highlighted each week at our weekly huddles and then follow up with this education during personal interactions
• I can work with my managers and champions to celebrate success stories and share setbacks and barriers that the teams can work on correcting or eliminating
• I can work with the team to establish metrics, develop plans, and openly share the strategies created by the team to get to where we want to be

I am truly intrigued by this week’s learning materials that have challenged my assumptions and directed my thinking towards what I unconsciously accept as fact or truth. Have others’ discovered personal unconscious biases? Have others been challenged by their assumptions? Are others in work environments where women leaders are not recognized as equals with their male counterparts? Looking forward to the discussion.

References

Northouse, P. G.  (2016).  Leadership:  theory and Practice.  (7th ed.)  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage Publications Inc.

Nugent, J. S., Pollack, A., Travis, D. J.  (2016). The Day-to-Day Experiences of Workplace Inclusion and Exclusion.  Retrieved from http://www.catalyst.org/system/files/the_day_to_day_experiences_of_workplace_inclusion_and_exclusion.pdf

Responses to Case Study #1 – “The Glass Ceiling”

Refer to P. G. Northouse, Leadership:  Theory and Practice (7th ed.), pp. 412, 413.

In the case study Lisa encountered a number of advancement barriers:

a. She was devalued in a typically male leadership role and although informally sought out for her knowledge, she wasn’t formally or publicly recognized for her knowledge by her peers
b. There was an implied prejudice that her promotion would negatively affect the public perception of the company (“there has never been a female partner in 103 years”)
c. There were only male raters assessing the performance, potentially negatively affecting the evaluation
d. There is an assumption by the CEO that she doesn’t know what is happening globally within the firm and has to be brought up to speed
e. She would not promote herself initially using the justification that she just wanted to be a team player, and “one of the boys”. There is a possibility that she was making this decision due to gender bias or the perceived threat of social disincentives
f. There is a prejudice that she won’t be able to handle it as a woman leader if she makes a mistake, and that she is not agentic enough
g. Though not explicit it appears that the CEO is engaging in homosocial reproduction specifically continuing to recruit and retain all male partners.
h. Although not explicit there is the potential that Lisa is experiencing pressure to represent her gender in a male dominated work environment

There are a number of steps that the CEO and executive leadership could have taken to retain Lisa:

a. Acknowledged and recognized her knowledge and expertise
b. Done an individualized evaluation with peer input when assessing her performance
c. Developed a promotion policy based on set standards including the success of accounts, the number of new accounts, customer satisfaction
d. The CEO could learn to refrain from making derogatory and sexist comments (Eg. “two women in one room, that’s scary”)
e. She should have been made a partner prior to her colleague if her performance indicated that she deserved to be a partner
f. If her performance didn’t warrant a promotion to partner this should have been constructively communicated to her, and she the CEO could have offered to provide training and coaching so she could be successful in this pursuit eventually

A number of organizational policies and opportunities could be developed to help women in this work setting:

a. Policy for promotion to partner based on objectives and standard criteria
b. Policy of non-acceptance of gender biased comments
c. Policy that supported mentorship and training available to all employees independent of gender
d. Education of clients if reluctance to have a female partner truly exists
e. Education of the staff that there does not need to be gender bias

Some ways the organization could raise gender consciousness are as follows:

a. Mandatory education sessions that include case studies
b. Have CEO spend time in a gender inclusionary work setting so that he is able to learn to role model
c. A review of policies to determine if there are gender biases inherent in the organizational documentation
d. Public recognition of all employees that are meeting or exceeding performance expectations so that it is evident that performance of genders are equitable
e. Adopt or develop a monitoring tool so that progress or setbacks are identified and acted on

“Then it came to me that reform should begin at home; and since that day I have not had time to remake the world.” (Durant, as cited in Watson, 1951, p. 245)

Durant discovered this truth when searching for the answer to the question: what is happiness? In observing another family he was able to come to the realization that his greatest blessing was the family unit that had been given to him, and then made the intentional change to invest in his daughter rather than allow the other affairs of this world take precedent over time spent with his loved ones. Too often I find that I fall into the trap of not making time with my family a priority, and as Durant discovered, my happiness is adversely affected when I lose sight of this.  I have been created for relationship, and when there is depth and intimacy in my family relationships, I am truly happy.

Yet the reason I was drawn to the quote above is because I am not certain that I entirely agree with it. I do agree that reform should begin at home – I owe that to my family and to myself. I have been granted the privilege of being the steward of my children, and I have an obligation and responsibility to steward them to the best of my ability. But I would argue that when reform begins in my home, that is when I truly have the time to remake the world.

I really have a very limited impact to remake the world on my own, but by investing in the people around me, and in particular my daughters, my reach extends far beyond my own ability. My daughters all have characteristics and traits that have identified them as leaders. They have been recognized and selected for leadership roles by teachers, peers, coaches and others. As their mother I have one of the largest roles to play in their lives when it comes to teaching them and modelling what effective leadership should look like. And as I make the time to grow them into effective leaders, that is when I choose to make the time to remake the world. I will do my own part, and they will do their part; if I have mentored them correctly their achievements will be greater than my own. As I teach them to invest in others, to serve others, to put others above themselves and purpose themselves for causes greater than themselves the possibility of remaking the world within our sphere of influence grows exponentially. And picturing that legacy adds one more drop of happiness into the joy that I already experience by being in  close relationship with them.

As I finish with my personal thoughts, my heart is saddened because I know that there are many who are not as sheltered or privileged as I am, and many will not find their happiness where I have found mine. And yet in spite of broken family relationships I know many who found happiness elsewhere. I look forward to learning from the varying perspectives and experiences of others, and expect I will be challenged to broaden my thinking as a result of your responses.

Reference

Watson, L.E. (1951). Light from many lamps. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, Inc.