Slow, Deliberate, Conscious thinking to #EmbraceEquity

My customary Women's Day Post -because I am passionate abt this topic and refuse to accept the status quo !

Happy International Women's Day to all the wonderful ladies and contrary to the somewhat cliched view that every day is a Women's Day( Well - why don't we say I celebrate myself everyday - why have a birthday .. !!) and the likes or saying I wish there was a day when there is no Women's day or we also have a Men's day ( which I believe we do but may not be so much in focus), I love this day as it is a reminder of how far we have come and the distance we still need to cover. It is a tribute to those before us who questioned the status quo and a call to action to reignite systemic changes with renewed vigor. To me it is brings the topic front and center and reminds us to reflect on our own behavior regarding gender equity in personal and professional settings and secondly, to guide organizations and governing bodies to tweak and change policies to advance the achievement of gender parity

Broken rung, leaky pipe, Glass Ceiling , Glass Cliff , Glass slippers - all the metaphors that we associate with the barriers women face - I hope these metaphors are no longer needed and we celebrate Women's Day in future just as a reminder of having changed all of this and honoring those who shattered these metaphors ( and the glass ceilings for us)

Wanted to share, in the organizational context specifically, what is it that different stakeholders need to do to advance the DE&I agenda. 

Organizational Policies and Processes & DE&I teams :

a) Ensuring there is a significant focus on building the talent pipeline at all levels and there is awareness training for hiring managers on the why of diverse hiring. Building the pipeline is the first step to ensure there are enough women to promote in the first place. Asking hiring managers why a man was hired for a role is important - and if it is because enough profiles of women candidates were not received, the talent acquisition team needs to be questioned.

Fundamental to achieving results with a policy on diverse hiring is to have a data driven approach with measurements at all steps in the process and importantly to have KRAs defined for different functions involved which ensure everyone works towards those goals

b) Clearly articulated and well defined objectives for leadership to ensure equity is consciously thought of during promotions to ensure that there is a visible set of women promoted. There needs to be clear evaluation of skills and behaviors but with a conscious positive bias - as opposed to unconscious negative bias . This means the leader evaluating promotions needs to promote the woman if all things equal , and this is the very spirit of equity where the awareness that there has been a systemic bias and systemic lack of support for women, makes it imperative that for all things almost equal, a woman is promoted over a man

c) Supportive maternity and flexibility policies to fix the broken rung. Most women have left their careers at mid management levels either because they believed they'd be seen in a different light and rated lower /not promoted compared to their male peers because of the added demands and the maternity leaves. This can only be addressed with specific policies that ensure Women are not penalized for their maternity, miscarriage, elder care etc

d) Constant training and sensitization across all rungs in the organization about the why of DE&I agenda and the specifics and demonstration of examples and celebrating the successes. Creating champions across the organization who are passionate and can demonstrate this in their actions. Educate, educate and educate - rewind, rinse, repeat till this is a way of life :)

Leadership

Leadership needs to communicate clear vision and goals and this needs to percolate to all levels . Communicating the clear vision and goals alongwith sharing examples of success stories be specifically wrt to business impact is extremely important 

Success stories that clearly articulate business impact are important because they reinforce discussions around diversity and equity and broad base ownership in the organization instead of a top down mandate . More important they pre-empt disparaging conversations around successful women as being the privileged ones that likely benefited from the policy without any tangible results. This can undermine and harm more than benefit . It is important for leadership to constantly showcase the success in terms of business impact of the various DE&I initiatives.

Many women I know have shared instances where they have been told on quite a few occasions by colleagues that a lady is probably part of some initiative/training/growth thanks to their gender . This can create another systemic flawed bias that we are there because of the DE&I agenda and not because of the Capability/Skills/Attitude we bring to the table . It is important that leadership asserts the value we bring to the table to ensure sensitization 

In fact I have found myself questioning why I have certain privileges and I have to quickly remind myself about the skills, behavior, attitude I bring to the table that make me worthy of where I belong

The mental narrative needs to change and this will change if leadership is deliberate in articulating the goals , the achievements against the goals for DE&I but most importantly the business impact and the difference it has made

Sponsoring women ( not merely mentoring, coaching them) and becoming advocates for Women is also extremely important.

I would say ally-ship at the same level and sponsorship for junior levels is one thing every leader should actively take up. Advocacy even when the lady is not present creates a ripple effect of positive reinforcement of the capabilities and builds credibility around the women

Managers

Managers need to consciously think before making statements or judgements and again wrt to gender equity we have to be deliberate and we have to think before we act in matters of equity. We cannot act and execute based on our fast thinking- but we have to use our slow thinking ( Daniel Kahneman)

This does not mean treating women with kid gloves - instead it means focusing and looking at things objectively and overriding our biases 

Can I ask before I assume a woman will not want to travel or it will too bothersome? Can I work against my similarity bias? Can I ensure I don't try and fix the person, but try to fix the ecosystem. 

The fact that we are biologically different does not mean our skills, attitudes and inclinations are also different at work . That is just a lazy fast thinking . Per a HBS article, this is not grounded in science and instead has just been a confirmation bias based on what we have observed 

Pls give specific ongoing feedback to women as much as you give to the men. Use the specifics and avoid saying things like " You are so pleasant to work with ", "You are always ensuring the team remains cheerful" . Introduce women to potential opportunities they may have missed thanks to the smaller network or lesser time spent on building informal connections . Give as much of stretch goals to women as men and give as much of grunt work on arrangements, notes, coordinating to men as to women 

Be deliberate . Be Slow . Be Consciously Positively biased 

Peers

Allyship and advocacy is something you can easily do for your women co-workers. I have had wonderful allies in every organization I've been part of and I am thankful for the same.

Let us all be mindful of what we say or do on matters such as Women's Roles and Responsibilities outside of work. In specific, let us avoid linking professional performance with imagined/biases on personal front. 

Let us appreciate that DE&I initiatives are addressing a systemic bias and a systemic issue and equity is the only way to a level playing field. Let us not mix them up case to case personal struggles which are often faced by men and women alike. 

Several women are told they could afford a break because of their spouses, but data shows the opposite also holds true, it is just that more women have chosen the break to support families and that is a systemic issue and that has nothing to do with the capabilities or inclination of women ( Lets not be biased that men love their jobs over their families :))

Employee 

Well for the employee herself, believe that if anyone can do it, you can too as you are enough. Don't overthink and overanalyze and be ridden with self-doubt on whether you are the right person to be promoted/given a stretch assignment. Be bold in asking for the world ( say yes, even if unsure of how you will achieve an assignment).

Lets be bold and unapologetic about ourselves as a tribe and craft our success stories consciously

For us I would say use the "fast thinking" don't do the "slow thinking" :) . Support and advocate for other women consciously 

My take away for #IWD2023 is #EmbraceEquity Consciously, Deliberately, Purposefully and see the magic in terms of business impact you see and the positive reinforcement cycle. As I read somewhere if we are not intentionally inclusive then we are being unintentionally exclusive !