Saturday 11 March 2017
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E-mail: editor@leaderonomics.com
Website: www.leaderonomics.com
CELEBRATING THE EVERYDAY HEROES AMONG US
MARRYING PASSION WITH PLANNING
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BEYOND DIVERSITY TO TRUE EQUITY
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CONUNDRUM OF THE WORKING MUM
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Cover photo credits: Rohaizat Md Darus/STAR (Datuk Nicol David); United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (Prof Datuk Mazlan Othman); US Department of State (Hillary Rodham Clinton); Low Lay Phon/STAR (Zee Avi); The Malala Fund (Malala Yousafzai); Ibrahim Mohtar/STAR (Datin Paduka Mother Mangalam); Fabrice Coffrini/AFP Photo (Datuk Michelle Yeoh); Fariha Harith/ LEADERONOMICS (foreground pic).
EDI T ED BY ROSHAN THIRAN
Leadership Nuggets from LEADERONOMICS.COM
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here are several themes and initiatives running in conjunction with International Women’s Day this year. On the International Women’s Day website, the hashtag for 2017 is #BeBoldForChange. The Women’s March movement, which formed out of growing concern over misogyny following the election of United States President Donald J. Trump’s election, declared March 8 the day for an International Women’s Strike. At the time of writing, allies of the Women’s March in more than 30 countries have pledged solidarity with their sisters in the US by committing to “A Day Without A Woman”. Among other things, this means taking leave from work on the 8th and refraining from all shopping except at smallscale women- or minority-owned businesses. The irony of the strike is that its impact would be most visible precisely in societies that already enjoy relatively high levels of women’s participation in the workforce and access to education and information. Which brings us to a third theme for the day. This year, the rallying cry of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women – better known as UN Women – is “Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030”. It’s a call for equal workforce gender representation in every sense – not just in terms of employment but also the quality and level of employment. UN Women reports that globally, only 50% of working age women are represented in the labour force. (In comparison, the rate of representation for men is 76%.) Also of great concern is that an overwhelming majority of
BEING EACH OTHER’S BETTER HALF the world’s women work in the informal economy. They tend to contribute significantly to domestic work while holding lower-skill jobs that pay less, are less stable, and offer little or no social protection at all. Although Malaysia has more women than men enrolled in local tertiary education and has raised its female labour participation rate to 55% – higher than the global average – local think tank the Penang Institute noted that many Malaysian women remain in vulnerable, lowly paid or unpaid employment. Despite women outnumbering their male peers in university, the Malaysian workforce gender ratio stands at 60:40 in favour of men. Somewhere along the line, our female university graduates drop out of the workforce. Many stop working to care for young families and never return. It is an internal brain drain for which our nation’s talent pool becomes far poorer in the long run. The Star reported last year that women held 26.3% of top management positions public-listed companies (PLCs) in 2015. The Malaysian government aims to raise this figure to 30% by 2020, but what will it take to reach and surpass that number? In this issue, the Leaderonomics
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team and our contributing writers weigh in on the challenges we must tackle to make the workplace more conducive not only for women’s participation today but also for their success and long-term career pathing. Louisa Devadason discusses women’s representation in the workforce, why it matters and how every one of us can help through various roles both at work and outside the office. Evelyn Teh and Vinesh Naidu examine how women and men unknowingly maintain systemic barriers to gender equity and what can be done to start dismantling these hurdles for women in the workplace. Be sure not to miss out on this week’s exclusive bonus online content! Key in our shortlink or scan the QR code on our centerspread to read Vinesh’s thoughts on what Star Wars’ Princess Leia can teach us about leadership. So do women make better leaders than men? Sandy Clarke lays out the history and suggests that we would all be so much better off if women had had greater freedoms and opportunities to participate in business, science, art and government. The time to keep pushing for that change is now. Offering a glimpse into the struggles and second-guessing that working mothers face every day, contributing writer Kwan-Ann Lin and Leaderonomics’ Prema Jayabalan write
candidly from their respective personal experiences about juggling the competing demands of motherhood and career. For women contemplating the challenge of building an enduring personal and professional brand, Adam Gilad draws timeless lessons from pop icon Madonna. We also revisit our interview with Datuk Mazlan Othman – Malaysia’s first astrophysicist, the first Director of the country’s National Space Agency Angkasa, and the woman who led the Angkasawan Project that successfully launched the nation’s first astronaut, Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, into space. The insights she shares are in turns both grounded and practical, as well as out-of-the-box and richly imaginative. And in this week’s Be A Leader column, our CEO Roshan Thiran reminds female and male leaders alike not to get caught up in dualistic thinking. Both passion and planning are necessary to achieve and sustain success, although each in its turn may play a bigger role at key moments in our careers and lives. To all women and allies in the struggle to grow leaders and communities of love: May the celebrations of this past week be but a further catalyst to galvanise us in supporting one another’s efforts to build a more gender equitable future. And let every day be an occasion to encourage and celebrate the contributions and achievements of the women in your life! Siaw Mei Li Leaderonomics Editorial Team
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Women (and men) win by marrying passion with planning Passion without a plan can be aimless By ROSHAN THIRAN roshan.thiran@leaderonomics.com
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speak at many womens’ leadership sessions and the question of “luck” generally rears its head. Some women truly believe that others are luckier than they are and are always in the right place at the right time. I wrote a piece on luck a few years ago and I always respond that there is more to success than luck. Invariably, the conversation then goes to passion. Women (and men) who are passionate succeed. Others will disagree and say hard work and planning are much more critical than passion. So which is most important – to have passion or a plan? I’ll bet many people will have an initial reaction to this question, and everyone will have well-thought out reasons as to why their choice trumps the other. Personally, when I first pondered this question many years ago, I was instinctively drawn towards passion as the most important trait. Without passion, there’s no commitment and without commitment, there’s no perseverance. And with no perseverance, most people fall at the first hurdle in pursuit of their goals and ambitions. But passion without a plan can be aimless. It can also become an obsession and, like a raging fire, if there is no careful direction, it can get out of control and consume us. Of course, on the other hand, a plan without passion can be a laborious and cumbersome process – I’ve yet to hear of any success story that was built solely on a plan without an intense passion driving the overall vision.
STEPPING OUTSIDE THE BOX
In business, as with life, we can get caught up in dualistic thinking. The
“this or that” approach is more often a hindrance than a help, and yet it’s one we see embraced all the time. How many career choices are weighed by this measure? You could try to become an artist, but you probably won’t make any money. Better to become a banker; that way, you’ll have a solid career and income. Here we see “this or that” in full flow: you can either be creative or sensible, but you can’t be both. . . Why not? This modern-day conventional wisdom directs us to be boxed in, to compact the complexity and range of who we are into a single space. Passion is for the few who are creative enough to put it to good use. And yet, when we think of great minds of the past – those who weren’t born great – we see this dichotomy smashed into pieces. Albert Einstein was told at school he’d never amount to much. The renowned and revered physicist was a genius. . . and one who credited his success to his ability to play the violin. Einstein once said of playing this instrument that the “most joy in my life has come to me from my violin,” and he would often play classical music as a brainstorming technique. Another giant of history, Leonardo da Vinci, had a whole range of talents. Many people associate the Italian icon with his famous paintings. And yet, he was also a musician, cartographer, mathematician, sculptor, engineer and geologist, among
other things. And don’t get me started on my all-time favourite – Benjamin Franklin – who did literally everything and did it well. Also, let us not forget Helen Keller.
POTENTIAL BEYOND BOUNDARIES
Whenever I advise young students and professionals, I try to remind them to delve into as much of the human experience as possible, just as any great mind of the past and present has done. It’s by immersing ourselves in the world that we come alive to the possibilities that we can create through the passions that we discover. We all see things through different perspectives, and so our potential to contribute to the world is absolutely unique. The flip-side to this, of course, is the requirement for a plan of action. To briefly counter the “luck” objection I mentioned at the start of this piece, yes, there are people who successfully “wing” their way to success thanks to an unyielding dedication to their passion. But these truly are the lucky few who are able to make use of their circumstances, timing, opportunities and other factors that happen to come together at the right moment. We risk falling into the trap of believing that passion and success are reserved for the few and not the many when we look to exceptional examples of those who both work hard and find Lady
Fortune on their side. But success and deep satisfaction is available to anyone who takes the time to discover and evolve their passion, while at the same time making sure they have a plan in place, an idea of where they want to go and how to get there. Within that plan, there needs to be room for flexibility to allow for unexpected circumstances and challenges that might arise. If we are able to have a framework within which our passion can thrive, it’s in that space that we can truly maximise our potential to achieve great things. It’s by dropping clichéd conventional wisdom that this process can flourish. There’s a reason why we’re often advised to “think outside the box” – because inside is where well-worn ideas are kept. If we want to make changes for ourselves, we can’t make those changes by repeating the same thoughts, words and actions. By marrying our passion and a solid plan, rather than seeing the two as mutually exclusive, we can reach amazing heights. As the saying goes, electric light didn’t come about by constantly improving candles.
WOMEN AND LEADERSHIP
As I interact and observe the best women leaders in the world, from PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi to our top Malaysian women leaders like Anne Abraham, Fatimah Merican, Vimala Menon and Chin Suit Fang, to name a few, they impress me with both their vision and relentlessness in achieving their laid-out plans. Their passion stems from their deep desire to make a difference in this world and not from the pursuit of monetary gains. And I think for women the world over to succeed, the combination of hard work, clarity of vision and focus coupled with a deep passion to make a difference and leave a legacy will surely yield success. In conjunction with International Women’s Day this week, I would like to wish every girl and woman my deepest and sincerest blessings that you will work hard and push relentlessly and that you may be filled with a deep reservoir of belief, passion and conviction to make your dreams come true. Have a blessed Women’s Day!
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n Roshan Thiran is the chief executive officer of Leaderonomics - a social enterprise working to transform lives through leadership development and nurturing potential. He is a mentor to the Women In Leadership programme and has a leadership team of which more than half are women. If your organisation is looking for powerful women leadership programmes to help galvanise and inspire your women employees, e-mail info@leaderonomics. com Connect with Roshan on Twitter and on Facebook for more insights into business, personal development, and leadership. He also shares leadership insights on LinkedIn.
As a CEO, part of your challenge is to be able to scale and continually grow your business. Many CEOs struggle to reinvent themselves at different phases of their leadership journey and this translates to an inability to grow their own businesses and organisations. CEOs also face significant challenges with little support or people to talk to about their struggles and pains. In 2016, Leaderonomics, together with the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), pioneered the Leadership Dojo programme specifically designed for CEOs to learn from CEOs, senior CEO mentors and from global leaders who have succeeded in their respective journeys. If you are a CEO who is looking for a programme to help you grow in your leadership journey and enable your business to scale to the next level, do register your interest for the 2017 intake at goo.gl/EqnLp9
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Do women make better leaders?
5 women
who changed
the world
Studies show women EXCEL across all management levels This article is available at www. leaderonomics. com, where you can download the PDF version.
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By SANDY CLARKE editor@leaderonomics.com
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T is a question that’s likely to be debated for some time to come: Do women make better leaders than men? To take a brief look at the evolution of “a woman’s place” from the traditional point of view, we head back to 1930s UK – a time when gender roles were clearly defined and conservative patriarchal views were firmly in place. Women were expected to stay at home while the men went out to work. Although it was acceptable for women to work outside the home, they were paid less than men (some practices have sadly remained intact). If a woman was to be married or have children, she would be expected to leave her job. As World War II broke out, all of that changed. For the first time, as fathers were conscripted to the armed forces or summoned for other work, women found themselves left with having to manage the household as well as go out to work. Young, single women often found themselves away from the family home for the first time, working jobs miles away from their loved ones. Flexible working hours and other necessary arrangements became the norm to accommodate these new working mothers. And if you think they were stuck in comfortable office jobs, think again – women pretty much held the country together across all sectors. They serviced the railways, worked on canals and buses, built infrastructure and tanks, maintained vehicles, and worked in metal and chemical industries – I could go on, but I don’t have the space.
A PARADIGM SHIFT
n Sandy is a writer who owes much of his good fortune to three women: his mother, the teacher who inspired his passion for reading, and the lecturer who showed him what to do with words. To connect with Sandy, you can follow him on Twitter @ RealSClarke To learn about Leaderonomics’ leadership development programmes for women in the workplace, email info@ leaderonomics.com
“Before the war,” one of my former lecturers told me, “women were seen as emotional, dainty little souls who got on with looking after the children and having afternoon teas. When the war came about, it changed everything. Suddenly, it was discovered that women could do a man’s job to the same standard, if not better – and all the while, they carried on with their everyday duties outside their new roles.” World War II proved to be a catalyst for social change: when its end finally arrived in 1945, it was impossible to undo this new known: that women were just as capable as men – and often even more so – at getting the job done, whatever the job may be. In 2014, a study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology analysed the findings of 99 different studies from 1962–2011 in order to discover nuances within leadership in relation to the gender divide. Predictably, the results suggested that environment played a key role in determining each gender’s general effectiveness in leadership. In maledominated areas such as military or government, male leaders were viewed to make better leaders than women.
As World War II illustrated, the notion that a woman’s place should be exclusively confined to the household wasn’t just ridiculous–it likely prevented substantial economic and social progress that could have otherwise manifested. . .
Conversely, women were seen as most effective in areas such as social services and education – they also came out on top in the sweeping term “business”. It’s important to consider the validity of results, particularly when we consider the variables. In relation to the findings, the meta-analysis researchers noticed that the answers given depended on who was being asked. When leaders were asked to evaluate their contributions, men tended to rate themselves more highly than women rated themselves. However, when others (bosses, employees, and customers) did the rating, women came out on top, particularly in the studies that took place from the 1980s onward.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Author and anti-slavery campaigner
Overall Leadership Effectiveness by Gender and by Position (Percentile Scores)
MISSING OPPORTUNITIES
In 2011, research by Zenger & Folkman surveyed over 7,000 leaders from successful companies around the world. The survey found that 64% of the leaders were men – the higher the level of management, the more men there were. The stereotype that women were better than men at “nurturing” competencies prevailed (e.g. building relationships), alongside women scoring higher in terms of exhibiting integrity and engaging in self-development. Interestingly, despite the figures that placed men in the majority of leadership roles, women scored higher than men across all management levels that described overall effectiveness of leadership, as illustrated in Figure 1. In addition, when measured across 16 leadership competencies, women came out on top in most areas, with men scoring considerably higher in just one area – the ability to develop a strategic perspective. The full outline of the scores are included in Figure 2. The late Christopher Hitchens once said of Third World countries that, if they really wanted to alleviate poverty, the best course of action would be to empower women. “The whole floor lifts up,” he insisted, adding that when women have control over their lives and can enjoy the same rights as men, the whole of society benefits as a result. In a New York Times article, Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant wrote that, “Start-ups led by women are more likely to succeed; innovative firms with more women in top management are more profitable; and companies with more gender diversity have more revenue, customers, market share and profits.” From the same article, Sandberg and Grant reveal that, when male executives speak up, their competency scores rise by 10%. When women executives speak up, their ratings among peers plummet by 14%.
WANTED: A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD
Despite the incredible progress that has been made since World War II, there’s still a lot of work to be done to fully address the gap in gender equality for women in leadership roles – to say
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Male Female Top management executive, senior team members Reports to top management, supervises middle managers Middle manager Supervisor, front line manager, foreman Individual contributor Other Total
57.7 67.7 48.9 56.2 49.9 52.7 52.5 52.6 52.7 53.9 50.7 52.0 51.3 55.1
Source: Zenger Folkman Inc., 2011 Figure 1
The American author’s bestselling 1852 novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” helped popularise the anti-slavery movement. Legend has it that Abraham Lincoln greeted Beecher Stowe at the White House by saying: “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this Great War,” in reference to the civil war. Her novel followed the life of black slave Uncle Tom, and was the second best-selling book of the 19th century after the Bible.
Emmeline Pankhurst
Led women’s right to vote movement
British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women’s Social and Political Union, a group known for extreme forms of protest such as chaining themselves to railings and going on hunger strikes. “We are here, not because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law-makers,” she said during a court trail in 1908. Sadly, Pankhurst never lived to see her dream become reality, dying three weeks before a law was passed giving women equal voting rights with men.
Rosalind Franklin
The Top 16 Competencies Top leaders exemplify most
nothing of the substantial pay gap. Perhaps what some are reluctant to say, but which nevertheless appears to be the reality of gender inequality, is that the hierarchical traditions where men rule are still the accepted norm, so much so that, in 2016, we consider it a celebration of progress that America has seen its first female nominee for the presidency. While positive progress should always be celebrated, however slowly it arrives, it nonetheless betrays a deepseated problem that men are still seen as the superior sex when it comes to leadership, despite growing evidence pointing to the contrary. Even in areas such as the military – those that are male-dominated – there’s no proof to suggest that women can’t make just as good leaders and commanders as men. The reason why men have traditionally been predominantly capable in such areas is precisely because the rules were set by a
patriarchal system in the first place. As World War II illustrated, the notion that a woman’s place should be exclusively confined to the household wasn’t just ridiculous – it likely prevented substantial economic and social progress that could have otherwise manifested had women been able to contribute fully to society prior to the outbreak of war. When it comes to the question, “Do women make better leaders than men?”, the research would suggest that, at the very least, they perform equally well as leaders. Given women’s superior emotional intelligence and nurturing competencies, both of which aid the building of relationships and navigating the nuances of leadership challenges, it’s surely safe to stick one’s neck out and say that they might just make better leaders after all. Of course, it’s important to note that leadership is a complex practice in itself and, regardless of gender, effective
Take initiative Practices self-development Displays high integrity and honesty Drives for results Develops others Inspires and motivates others Builds relationships Collaboration and teamwork Establishes stretch goals Champions change Solves problems and analyses issues Communicates powerfully and prolifically Connects the group to the outside world Innovatives Technical or professional expertise Develops strategic perspective
Male Female Mean Mean Percentile Percentile +-value 48 56 -11.58 48 55 -9.45 48 55 -9.28 48 54 -8.84 48 54 -7.94 49 54 -7.53 49 54 -7.15 49 53 -6.14 49 53 -5.41 49 53 -4.48 50 52 -2.53 50 52 -2.47 50 51 -0.78 50 51 -0.76 50 51 -0.11 51 49 2.79
Source: Zenger Folkman Inc., 2011 Figure 2 leadership boils down to whether or not any particular individual possesses the necessary skills, competencies, and character to lead others. But with an existing gap waiting to be filled, we can only hope – for the sake of all concerned
– that we see a rapid increase over the coming years of more women in leadership roles. To date, the world’s troubles have transpired under the watch of male leaders. At the very least, female leaders would find it difficult to do a worse job.
Scientist who helped with the understanding of Dna British chemist and X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin’s research was key in revealing the structure of DNA. Her X-ray photographs of the double helix were used by scientists Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins, who in 1962 were jointly awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on the DNA model. However Franklin missed out on a Nobel Prize, dying from ovarian cancer in 1958 at 37.
Wangari Maathai
Founder of the Green Belt Movement
“When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and hope,” said 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winning environmentalist Wangari Maathai. The Kenyan political activist founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977 in an effort to empower rural women who had started reporting their streams were drying up, their food supply was less secure, and they had to walk further than ever before for firewood. The movement has since spread across the world, campaigning on climate change and teaming up with the United Nations Environment Programme.
Simone de Beauvoir
Philosopher and writer of “The Second Sex”
French existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir’s 1949 book “The Second Sex” became a landmark feminist work. It analysed the treatment and perception of women throughout history, and was deemed so controversial that the Vatican put it on the Index of Prohibited books. “All oppression creates a state of war; this is no exception,” said De Beauvoir who, along with partner Jean Paul Sartre, was one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century.
(Source: CNN.com)
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By EVELYN TEH and VINESH NAIDU editor@leaderonomics.com “Mum, can I be a scientist?” “Of course, you can be anything you want, you just need to put some effort into it” “But mum, I don’t see any female scientists on the National Geographic show.”
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n Evelyn hails from a background in talent management and change management. She is currently part of the human capital team of a major consultancy firm in Malaysia. She is a huge advocate for diversity and embracing differences rather than getting everyone to be the same. n Vinesh works in the talent management space focusing on leadership development for new managers. He finds joy in supporting people to realise their potential and believes that when we remove our tints of biasness, the world really can be a beautiful place.
HIS was an actual conversation I gleaned from one of my interactions with a human resources (HR) leader. Today, diversity is not just data; diversity is evident in stories, in visuals and in everyday life. We know from data that diversity is a top agenda for most organisations, but does that become a priority in action planning? If we take women in top positions as a yardstick for the success of the diversity agenda, then the underrepresentation of women in boards and top management level indicate that its effectiveness is far from satisfactory. Data shows that women only make up about 4.6% of chief executive officers (CEOs) in Fortune 500 companies and 16.9% in corporate board positions. Even if we take a wider range of companies, such as the Fortune 1000 companies, it would take an additional 1,400 women for all these boards to have at least three female members according to a McKinsey quarterly article in 2013. In a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) study on “Developing tomorrow’s female leaders”, it is estimated that female millennials will form at least a quarter of the global workforce, and the status quo is not likely to help employers attract and retain this talent pool. Even with diversity initiatives, 29% of the female millennials who participated in the research felt that employers were too biased towards male employees when it came to job promotions. That’s a third of the female population feeling sidelined even with initiatives in place. What’s worse is when diversity initiatives are used as a ‘Diversity Defence’ so that organisations have minimal accountability when they walk the talk. Thankfully, not all initiatives end up as ‘window displays’ as there are some that have been proven to help women thrive in their careers. One example are those found in the top 100 companies based on the Diversity Woman Media survey. Using criteria such as women’s upward mobility, presence of female managers, mentorship programmes and family-friendly policies, these companies were identified as having initiatives that progress the women’s career agenda. Global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney for example has revamped the old model of consulting and time pressures on women. At Cisco, women are involved in succession planning and make up 75% of the top management) in their finance group, with senior vice president positions particularly common. At global hotel chain Marriott International, 50% of the top salaries go to women. We are starting somewhere, so how can we move the agenda further and sustain this progression?
DIVERSITY PROMOTES BETTER DECISIONS
We know that there are benefits in having a diverse workforce. The European Commission Factsheet on the ‘Economic Arguments for Women on Boards’ shows that more gender diversity on boards does lead to improved company performance, better mirroring of consumer decisions, better quality decision making, improved corporate governance and ethics and better use of women as talents. According to Betsy Berkhemer-Credaire, author of The Board Game: How Smart Women Become Corporate Directors, risk aversion could be a key factor for these benefits. A 2012 Credit Suisse study showed that when there is at least one female director on the board, nett-to-debt equity ratio was lower compared to companies who have all-male boards. I distinctly remember a story from one of the top female CEOs in Malaysia’s finance industry who shared that, in her years being in all-male
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Diversity, not Divert-sity: Focusing on the women’s agenda and beyond FEMALE POPULATION and the system may be putting a stop to their progress
equality versus equity
Datuk Mazlan.
In this first image, it is assumed that everyone will benefit from the same supports. They are being treated equally.
In this second image, individuals are given different supports to make it possible for them to have equal access to the game. They are being treated equitably.
In this third image, all three can see the game without any supports or accommodations because the cause of the inequity was addressed. The systemic barrier has been removed.
Source: City for All Women Initiative (CAWI)
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Figure 1: Equality vs Equity
meetings, she often found herself as the lone member saying: “Wait, let’s take a step back”. That helped them make the right decisions for the organisation, something she believes is one of the key values that women can bring to the boardroom. A quick Google search will show you some of the key gender diversity initiatives and best practices around the world but here we can look at three approaches that can help an organisation kick-start its diversity agenda or refine their current model for a sustainable impact.
INDIVIDUAL APPROACH: EMOTIONS 1 THE
Claire Shipman, an ABC news correspondent and author of The Confidence Code, posits that the confidence portrayed by a woman is not necessarily equivalent to Mad Men bravado and ‘playing hero’. She believes that distinctions in gender exist not only in biological terms but also in management and thinking styles. When a person, regardless of gender cannot be authentic in their style, then it is likely to negate effects of diversity since we all become the same kind of leader or manager. Hence, it is important to acknowledge these differences and manage the perception that results from these differences. Because diversity is not just about data, common stories we hear are: “Her family needs her more, let’s not burden her.” “Are you sure we should consider her for that role in Philippines? She is getting married soon right?”
“Well, she’s been on flex work, I’m not sure we can say she has contributed as much as the rest of the team.” And then, even more common are the stories women tell themselves: “I can’t be a good mother, I’m staying late at the office again.” “If I take that secondment, am I too ambitious?” “I think I should hold my thoughts until someone asks me; it will be more respectful.” Do women feel safe to share their thoughts and emotions, especially those that diverge from stereotypes? Are we ready to accept a different perspective of how we think a woman’s role should be? Shame and guilt are the primary emotions that keep many women from leaping onto the diversity bandwagon. Being able to bring concerns to the surface without judgment could be a foundation for the success of diversity initiatives. Most organisations that promote this form of openness use sponsors, mentors and awareness training, but what about day-to-day engagements? One way to keep the openness on the ground is to encourage frequent and consistent feedback. In the same research on millennials by PwC, setting clear targets and providing regular future-focused feedback was found to be important to 50% of the respondents. A culture of constant and regular feedback is likely to keep leaders abreast of the challenges women face.
It is also a simple enough skill to be adopted by everyone who is not directly championing the diversity agenda. The essence: Create an environment that allows for regular, consistent feedback to signal psychological safety and direction to women who may feel challenged in the day-to-day work environment. It is also an actionable skill for a majority of firms that have yet to ride on any diversity initiatives.
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THE GENDER APPROACH: EQUITY
At this stage of maturity in organisational diversity initiatives, it is worth paying attention to female-orientated initiatives. The #HeForShe campaign by the United Nations Women on gender equality signifies the important role men and women jointly play in advancing the agenda. Interestingly, two studies by Dover, Major and Kaiser showed that diversity initiatives tended to be perceived as a threat to the majority population (i.e. white males) and, at the same time, do little to make companies fairer. They speculate that this could be a reason for the lacklustre success of the diversity agenda. When people feel threatened, the likelihood of buy-in decreases and they may be keener to oppose any effort to make the workplace more inclusive. The coffee house at my office lobby offers a 30% discount to women on Tuesdays. While I have been enjoying it, this gesture has been met with criticism from my male colleagues who feel it is unfair – and I understand why. Diversity in today’s terms has gone beyond
the typical biological connotations or societal role. If we want more women who are mums to come to work, promoting men who are fathers does not help because these men will spend more time at work and much less time at home. Organisations have involved men as part of diversity through initiatives such as having a male panel at a women’s conference. Very often, we think of the diversity agenda in terms of its role in promoting equality while in reality, it equally covers equity. Our assumption is that all men want to rise to the top, though this is perhaps a major misconception as many modern men would like to be able to dial back their office hours and spend time with family. The essence: Equity in this sense means we need to put a spotlight on women’s careers and at the same time remove barriers to men’s opportunities beyond work. Are your diversity initiatives equal or equitable?
ECOSYSTEM APPROACH: JOB DESIGN 3 THE
This approach focuses on the ecosystem which means it veers towards the idealistic but can also be more long-term and sustainable. Currently, most ecosystem-orientated practices focus on implementing policies such as flexible working hours, gender quotas for boards and personal development (e.g. MBA scholarship) funds. The ideal target, though, is to design our jobs to allow for better work-life integration. We know the work-life balance ship has long sailed and the focus is now on healthy integration of work and life. With this in mind, it is likely that future roles will be designed to manage energy rather than time since the number of hours in a day is not changing anytime soon. This healthy level of integration will be more automated with the advent of technology. For example, one of the professions most likely to be replaced by automation is the accounting industry. For those in the industry, however, rather than a point of anxiety, this should be seen as an opportunity to redesign how we work. AuditFutures, a thought leadership programme of ICAEW in partnership with
Finance Innovation Lab, for instance, is studying how future audit firms will look. They believe a successful firm in the future is likely to focus on entrepreneurial attitude, technology-enabled data and even user-generated content. This is a far cry from our current professional audit firms, which are more regulated and bureaucratic. Inspired by the design of firms, could we design our jobs to consider human-centred needs regardless of gender? Whether it means integrating automation so that less energy is spent on mindless work or designing a service chain that allows employees to leave at 6pm, a human-centred ecosystem can help sustain our diversity agenda on a broader perspective. The essence: Designing roles based on work-life integration will enable men and women to perform better at work and other life priorities. Think about the roles that women fall out from and consider how it can be designed (i.e. through technology) to enable them to maintain their career trajectory without compromising overall quality of life.
AT A GLANCE
Of course, all this is not going to happen overnight, but we can start now. Imagine the diversity of the future when it is no longer just an agenda. Regardless of where your organisation is on the progress of the women’s diversity agenda, it will always be an intentional choice to focus on the growth of women and, ultimately, the growth of people. If we are letting our daughters wash dishes at home while our boys kick up their legs in front of the TV, then we cannot expect changes at work. So, as we intentionally decide on our personal choices, these three approaches will hopefully be a good foundation on which to build engaging and sustainable initiatives. BONUS CONTENT ONLINE! Psst! Check out a few leadership lessons we can glean from Star Wars’ Princess Leia. Just type goo.gl/gPgQPU into your browser. You can also get there by scanning the QR code on the right.
Reach For Your Stars By LAY HSUAN, LIM layhsuan.lim@leaderonomics.com STARGAZING as a child outside the house while singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star really made me wonder what the universe is like out there beyond planet Earth. Although it makes us earthlings feel small in the midst of many galaxies, it also helps us appreciate the magnificent creation of the almighty Creator (though some will dispute this with the Big Bang theory). The universe and space exploration have always fascinated mankind because of the enigmatic nature of the unknown. When the Leaderonomics team caught up with Datuk Mazlan Othman, our very own trailblazer in the field of astronomy and astrophysics, we gained fresh insights not only into space exploration but also the challenges of being a leader in this exciting new territory. Mazlan played a key role in pioneering projects with great national interests such as the setting up of the National Planetarium in 1993 and the National Angkasawan (Astronauts) Programme between 2003 and 2007. She has four key takeaways for us. . .
what you want and pursue it 1 Know
Mazlan was initially groomed by her parents to enter the medical field though her interest was in physics. She thought that if she couldn’t do physics, she could venture into neuroscience. Fate has it that she received a 1981 Colombo Plan scholarship to read physics at the University of Otago, New Zealand. It was in the land of The Hobbits that she discovered the beauty of astrophysics, which essentially is the physics of the stars and astronomy. According to Mazlan, astronomy itself is a conducive ground for imagination without boundaries as it’s closely related to aesthetics, philosophy and religion – areas which remained close to her heart till this day.
Lesson: As a leader, you have to be aware of yourself before investing your time and effort into an endeavour. Do not let others determine your life’s direction, but carve one on your own. Once you find that passion, pursue it relentlessly. At the same time, have a Plan B in case your original plan doesn’t work out.
Be curious and ignite your 2 creativity
“Doing my doctorate in New Zealand back then was tough because it wasn’t well-equipped with the latest technology, unlike other universities in the United States or the United Kingdom,” reveals Mazlan. However, there was a blessing in disguise in that experience, as it pushed her to think outside the box for alternative solutions. It helped her dig deep into her creative mind to invent, build and create her own equipment necessary for her studies. Not only did it build confidence in her but also the spirit of independence in planning and executing a task, a skill which proved valuable in the later part of her career. Being geographically isolated from the rest of the world, the experience also allowed her to fully focus in her studies and excel. Lesson: Being a leader is never easy. One has to be original in their style of leadership, coming up with ideas and solutions when faced with obstacles. It may be a lonely journey, but perseverance and sheer grit will pull you through, as long as your focus is set on your end goal. Be curious enough to think beyond the present tense.
Intrigued? Check out www. leaderonomics.com for the full article or simply scan the following QR Code and it will take you there. Datuk Mazlan Othman’s interview on The Leaderonomics Show can also be viewed on the same page.
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THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
Whether you are a stay-at-home mom or working, you know what to do!
By PREMA JAYABALAN prema.jayabalan@leaderonomics.com
This article is available at www. leaderonomics. com, where you can download the PDF version.
Help your organisation to grow the women leaders among you and cultivate an organisational culture that is gender inclusive. Find out more about Leaderonomics’ bespoke Women’s Leadership Development training programmes by emailing info@ leaderonomics.com
n Prema who is part of the digital learning team in Leaderonomics loves to involve her daughter in most of her endeavours through creative methods, in a bid to spend quality time with her. If you have a story to share, write to her at prema. jayabalan@ leaderonomics. com
W
HEN I was asked to write this article by my colleague, (bless you Tammy) I decided that this was going to be an ode to all the working mothers (WMs) and stay-at-home mothers (SAHMs). I have an amazing group of wonderful friends who consist of WMs and SAHMs. I fall in the former group. I am a mother to an adorable, feisty almost four-year-old Shakthisri who has her mind of her own. I hold a full-time job and I am one of those lucky moms who have Shakthisri’s grandmother looking after her while I am at work. Nevertheless, I do get overwhelmed with a sense of guilt when I don’t spend enough time with my child. My SAHM friends are inspiring women who were lecturers, corporate executives and journalists but they made a conscious choice to take a break and tend to their children simply because they wanted to. Hats off to these women. There is one mother who is pursuing her PhD, on top of managing the household. These women face the dilemma of guilt when they do not spend quality time with their children, because they are bogged down with household chores and attend to the needs of their families, from sunrise till sunset. We all take guilt trips due to the situations we are in. For example, I once saw a friend post on social media on how she and her kid were having a blast splashing water paint on the canvas at 3pm and I was at work. I will be honest here, I felt guilty that I wasn’t able to do the same with my daughter. At the spur of the moment, the hidden competitive streak in me surfaced as the little voice within me screamed, “Oh no, Shakthisri has not tried her hand at water painting yet and now all the other kids, whose mothers are at home, will master the art before she does.” Yes, that’s me when paranoia sinks in. Thank God for my practical husband who knows how to knock some sense into me when these little gremlins emerge. Thanks papa! Lately, when I met my friends and their children for play dates, I noticed a few valuable characteristics that were being displayed by the children and I ended up chatting with the mums about this discovery. We then realised that we may be WMsor SAHMs, but we are instilling leadership traits in our children directly or indirectly. Here are a few examples that I’ve discovered and I am sure that as a WM or SAHM, you will have your own stories that relate to this.
BEING INDEPENDENT
I was on leave one day as my mother was away. Shakthisri came back from playschool and I was about to help her with her shoes but was surprised to see her remove her own shoes and place it on the shoe rack. Her socks went into the laundry basket, her bag was placed in her room and she proceeded to put her water container in the dishwasher. I was gob smacked. This is the same child who whines when is asked to put her toys away. She then turned to me and said “Amma, I am a big girl now and I know
The writer with her husband, Gunaseelan, and daughter, Sakthisri. how to put my things away neatly. Aatha (her grandmother) taught me how to do this once I come back from school.” Her sweet explanation was enough for me to reward her with a hug. I realised that my coping mechanism – my mother whom I sought help from while I was at work – played a big part in getting my child to be independent So, dear WMs, I am sure the ‘coping mechanisms’ that you picked will help instill the art of being independent in your child, whether you realise it or not. Have any of you gone through this dilemma where you’ve tried to get your child to be independent but they’ve refused to listen? Perhaps you could share a successful trick or two with us.
VOLUNTEERING TO HELP
When my cousin, who was an aspiring journalist, told me six years ago that she was quitting her job to look after her newborn, I literally laughed my head off. She is an ambitious, go-getter who is always in need of an adventure to stay occupied. Well, I guess she met her
biggest challenge because she is still a SAHM and an amazing one at that. I was at her place one day and was shocked to see my six-year-old nephew helping out with chores and even asked her if she needed any help. I realised that when he saw his mom on her feet all day, it prompted him to offer a helping hand. I am sure this is one of the traits he will carry throughout his life. Likewise, a few SAHMs have also shared that as their children grew older, they voluntarily offered to help when they saw their mothers juggling too many things.
ADAPTING AND PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS
My friend who is a SAHM always plans the play dates for our daughters. Thanks to her, Shakthisri who is an only child has formed a special friendship with her daughter, Riya. My friend had always wanted her child to mingle with others her age since she is always home with adults. The first time the two children came
together, they hit it off well. The arguments and complaints about each other came much later. When her daughter complained to me about mine, my friend was wise enough to ask me to ignore it. I was surprised, as I thought she would rush to sort things for her child. When I got up to see what was going on, my friend told me to take a backseat. “Relax Premi. Trust me, these are petty arguments that they will have. Let them sort it out for themselves.” She was right. After a while, we heard them negotiating and compromising. It was a simple issue of who gets the bicycle first, but my friend’s action actually empowered these little girls to find a solution and move on. At the end, they took turns to ride the bicycle. Not only did they learn the art of problem solving, they learnt the beauty of sharing as well. Another incident was when I had to bring my daughter to work one day. She was extremely shy and refused to speak to my colleagues. She wanted me to play with her, but I firmly told her that I needed to work and that if she did not want to speak with the nice aunties, she can just sit beside me and do her colouring. Eventually, after hitting the pinnacle of her boredom, she slid down from her chair and started wandering around. Next thing I knew, she was happily chatting with a group of interns and helping them with some decoration work as it was close to Christmas. I was happy to see my daughter, stepping up and happily interacting with an older group of people. I was glad to have brought her to the office that day; I exposed her to a new situation and empowered her to adapt. To all WMs and SAHMs, we will always question ourselves if we are good mothers and if we are doing the right thing. We are human after all, but rest assured, that no matter what situations we are in, we are constantly seizing those moments to instill valuable lessons in our little ones.
www.leaderonomics.com | Saturday 11 March 2017
By ADAM GILAD editor@leaderonomics.com
M
ADONNA first leapt to my consciousness as a savvy business person back in the 1980s when on a late-night talk show, the host denigrated an outlandish move by her, saying, “But isn’t that just a way to get publicity?” And the young Madonna just smiled slyly. The host, the entire audience and I “got it”. Look past the Greenwich Village black leather get-up. There’s a mogul inside plotting to take over the world. And 30 years later, in 2013, she was named by Forbes as the top-earning celebrity in the world at over US$125mil in revenue. Whereas other veteran stars have struggles, her light burns as bright as ever. Beyond her musical talent – which few people claim is what sets her apart – what are the key factors of her endurance? Why is Madonna seemingly eternal, even in the face of massive changes in the music industry whether in terms of fan tastes, culture or the passing of generations? And what can you learn from her to assure your enduring and adaptive leadership?
so that detail becomes memory 1 Prepare
Madonna is no prima donna. She doesn’t swish into a stadium 30 minutes before a concert and wing it. It was noted that before every performance of her last world tour, she would run through the complete show, beginning to end, so that her muscle memory and what’s called “proprioception” (that ability to operate on seeming “autopilot”) would take over. This allows her to “play” on stage, to be more responsive and interactive with the audience – that is what makes her live performance so special. Practice (and visualisation) makes perfect. And it frees you up to be extemporaneous.
2 Get fit
Madonna, whose highly athletic dancing can mesmerise a stadium, is nearly 60. You can use technology to fix someone’s tonality in the studio, but you can’t fake fitness. And when a robust personality is core to your brand, it’s going to take discipline and sweat in the gym – and more than one trainer. When you study most leaders, they
4 Lessons On Endurance From Madonna Like this article? Follow us @Leaderonomics on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
are in the gym every morning, or at least married to a rigorous workout programme. And Madonna is known to work out daily. More than that, she has been very public about maintaining her lean strength by eating whole, organic foods, eliminating processed foods, practising mindfulness meditation and cultivating long-term intimate bonds with family and friends. All of these activities add up to the perfect neurochemical for youthfulness and longevity.
This article is available at www. leaderonomics. com, where you can download the PDF version.
(strongly) for what’s important 3 toStand you
Madonna has been a long-term, fearless and vocal advocate for many causes. For example, when most people were hesitant to speak out on AIDS, Madonna stood upfront. Leadership is not a “trick” or a series of “techniques”. Ultimately, it comes from your core. She famously said, “I stand for freedom of expression, doing what you believe in, and going after your dreams.” And every song, speech, interview and comment she has made has backed that up. Madonna’s consistent, unapologetic and fearless advocacy for the dignity of all people is her unique selling proposition. Beyond that, she defends her core values vociferously and is not afraid to wrestle with the powers that be. Over the years, she has been denounced by the Vatican, politicians and parenting groups. Her fans don’t care, and neither does she. “Better to live one year as a tiger,” she said, “than a hundred as a sheep.” With this, she has managed to stay in the spotlight for 30 years as a tiger.
4 Experiment with style
Just because your values don’t change doesn’t mean your hairstyle or shoes don’t! Part of Madonna’s genius has been to
26 9AM – 6PM APRIL 2017
VENUE: Connexion
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Conference & Event Center Nexus Bangsar South
Madonna (centre) during a gaming performance in Czech Republic in 2015. The singer has always been known for her outstanding stage presence. deliver her consistent message of bold self-expression through different packaging. And that packaging often exactly represented her response to a culture that tries to box her in, define her or trivialise her voice. When they tried to demean the early Madonna as a has-been big-hair pop act, she electrified the music world with Like A Virgin. When her financial success caused so many to dismiss her as just another rock star, she redefined sacred music with Ray of Light, inspired by her work with kabbalah, an ancient belief that reveals how the universe and life work.
“I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art,” says Madonna. By living it authentically, she has inspired many to have the courage to do the same.
PARTING THOUGHTS
Constant reinvention keeps you and your personal brand alive. Madonna is not afraid to be outlandish and she never confuses her current stylistic expression with her core values as a person. She’s versatile and keeps herself relevant to each generation. Each time, she remakes her image to fit in with the current trend while still maintaining her ‘Madonna-ness’.
n Adam Gilad, an Emmy-nominated producer, screenwriter and entrepreneur, leads a community of men and women on their quest to create love and a bold, inspired life. Having served as a Stanford Humanities Center Graduate Research Fellow and host of National Lampoon Radio, Adam blends a mix of research, humour and global wisdom to help men and women break through the habits blocking their ability to open up to love and freedom.
SME CEO CONFERENCE
Growing and Scaling Your SME to Greatness A special conference for Chief Executive Officers, Managing Directors and Company Directors of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) This exclusive conference aims to expose SME CEOs to the impact of digitalisation on their respective industries and highlight the importance of continuous personnel development and learning. Stay tuned for details on the keynote and panel speaker line-up – industry leaders who will share their insights on how to leverage technology and stay competitive in a dynamic international business environment.
For more information, call Prema at 012-2753810
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Why Hiring Women matters By LOUISA DEVADASON louisa.allycyn@leaderonomics.com
“What I learn from talking to so many women around the world: If you can empower them with the right things, the right tools, they can lift up their family. And that ultimately lifts up their community and their society” —Melinda Gates
This article is available at www. leaderonomics. com, where you can download the PDF version.
n Louisa is a psychology graduate, pursuing further study in Development Practice, and a freelance writer for Leaderonomics. She believes the time to change and be greater than you’ve ever been is now. For more insightful articles by Louisa, visit www. leaderonomics.com
Every segment of the society has a role to play when it comes to gender equality
P
ART of being a leader, particularly one in the working world, is selecting the right team to fulfil your vision and hit your targets. As no man is an island, an effective leader must gather a team of people who fill gaps in his leadership and who will simultaneously support and challenge him. However, no matter how experienced we are in our fields, humans are fundamentally vulnerable to association biases. Meaning, we often think of a certain type of person as better suited for specific jobs largely based on superficial qualities. Men, who make up most of senior management, naturally gravitate towards men when recruiting because they think they understand their own gender and men are often more likely assumed to be natural leaders. So, women are often overlooked in filling key leadership roles due to these unconscious biases. More often though, women are consciously overlooked; a survey of 500 managers found that 40% admitted that they prefer to hire men in their 20s or 30s over women of the same age because they want to avoid the possibility of them taking maternity leave. It is particularly rampant for women to be passed over in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields. Research in Silicon Valley found that without any information other than a candidates’ appearance, both men and women were twice more incline to hire a man over a woman. Worse still, when recruiters received objective knowledge about all candidates’ past performance – they still preferred men over women despite being equally qualified. As we know, STEM fields are growing and becoming increasingly important so the exclusion of women in these areas is particularly alarming and needs to be addressed. Besides doubt shrouding women’s competencies, the idea that women, through maternity leave etc, will cost companies more money or reduce efficiency is simply not true. In 2015,
EMPLOYERS
McKinsey Global Institute reported that if women participated in the workforce just like men, a whopping US$12 trillion could be injected into the global economy by 2025. South-East Asia would see an 8% increase in their GDP, if this were our trajectory. However, this can only happen if the public, private and social sectors start taking significant strides to close gender gaps in both work and society.
The first and easiest step employers can take is to introduce blind résumé screening – removing candidates’ names, address, age and gender from CVs – will eliminate unconscious biases against a candidate’s gender, race, or socio-economical background. Furthermore, companies should create anti-harassment and discrimination trainings that include unconscious bias into its programme so colleagues can learn to treat each other with respect and support one another more effectively.
PARENTS
Parents should take strides to learn how to raise children in a gender-blind way; equally encouraging boys and girls to develop values that make them competent in dealing with household management as well as in education and leadership development. While it’s rarely the intention, some more traditionally rooted beliefs lead us to raise boys and girls with different views of the world and different sets of responsibilities. It need not be this way.
EDUCATION
Education has long been a steppingstone to a better life and opportunities. However, sometimes education misses those in the lower income bracket by not addressing their needs and setbacks – focusing instead on driving As. By doing so, the system fails to redirect girls and boys facing hardship – whose parents might be incapable of supporting them
and educating them in ways mentioned above – on to a track that elevates them to middle-class living through more skilled work etc.
ADMINISTRATIVE
According to McKinsey Global Institute, there are six interventions pivotal to bridging the gender gap. i. Financial incentives and support ii. Technology and infrastructure iii. Economic opportunity creation iv. Capability building v. Advocacy and shaping attitudes vi. Laws, policies, and regulations These are interventions that companies can independently work on without government intervention and something which many nongovernmental organisations are already trying to address in rural areas and around the country. These are issues we should use our voice for as citizens and as leaders. If we know better, we should do better and raise each other up.
5 reasons why the corporate world needs more women 1 Diversity
Women are more conditioned towards customer service, teamwork, and nurturing capabalities. The inclusion of this in the workplace, particularly ones that are male-dominated, brings a challenging but complementary edge to decisionmaking and problemsolving.
2 Female consumers
Women make up a large percentage of consumers. Having more women on board means being able to more efficiently conceptualise, design and strategise ways to market products and services to this demographic.
3 Balance
More women in the workplace leads to women and men having more equal representation in society and at work. This creates more role models for young women and girls looking to step up in their careers or seek a less traditional home life. It also means greater workplace dynamism and diversity, which translates to more varied and innovative ideas.
4 Financial Inclusion
Giving women and families more purchasing power is good for the economy. It also gives women independence and freedom to live and protect herself.
5 Women are half of the world Women need to be as represented in the workplace as they are in terms of population. At the end of the day, women can legally work and many want to work and be independent, so depriving these women of their dreams and rights is inhumane and counterproductive to society.
www.leaderonomics.com | Saturday 11 March 2017
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Career Or Motherhood?
Not every woman can juggle motherhood and career and that’s OK too
By KWAN-ANN LIM editor@leaderonomics.com ‘BEEEEEP beep beep…’ goes my alarm clock.
I
t is 5am on Monday. After hitting the snooze button multiple times, I force myself to wake up and, in a daze, go through the motions of my morning ritual. I check off items on my topack list, lock my bags and get dressed in semi-corporate attire that is also airport comfy. I hear a car pull up on the driveway, I grab my luggage, give my husband who is still in dreamland a goodbye kiss and zip out of the house to be chauffeured to the airport to catch my 6:30am flight. What I just described is the typical Monday morning of a management consultant. As a consultant, the joys are many – the work is challenging and meaningful. No two days are the same. However, as with most jobs, it is not perfect. I would go so far as to describe it as demanding and consuming. Working on projects with remote clients may mean interstate travel and being away from home five days a week. The hours are long when there is a looming deadline. Assignments to projects are often down to the luck of the draw meaning that you could be travelling with only a week’s notice for a period of three months through the cold winter season. Now try picturing holding down a job like that while juggling motherhood.
MY PERSONAL STORY
“So just in case you were wondering, I haven’t just been gorging myself lately – I’m actually having a baby!” That was how I broke the news to my colleagues at our annual Christmas gettogether. I kept my pregnancy a secret for five months; unsure about the reaction my workmates would have towards my news, dreading the questions that would follow, or the potential prejudices that I might have to endure. Let me give you a narrative of the thoughts that raced through my mind when I first found out about the baby: Will I be treated differently after I tell my bosses about the baby? Will they question my drive and motivation at the workplace? Will I be given fewer opportunities to work on interesting projects? Will I be passed over for work opportunities and promotions? How will my workmates react to the news? How will I balance work and motherhood when I return from maternity leave? As a management consultant in a small consulting firm, women in leadership positions are few and far between. Only 20% of the senior leadership team are women, none of whom are mothers. Out of 35 employees, only two are working mothers and both work part-time clocking in just three days per week. Partnering with these working mums has made me acutely aware of the impact motherhood has on work. While this may not be representative of all working mothers, there have been times where the part-time hours – having to leave work early at 4pm to pick up children or missing out on crucial meetings on off days – have impacted the quality of work delivered to the client. These experiences have made me dubious as to whether or not women can really do it all – have a successful, thriving career and be a committed mother.
WHAT’S YOUR PERSONAL NARRATIVE?
A workmate shared this story with me: “Before the baby arrived, my wife planned to return to work after eight months of maternity leave. At the sixth month, she called work to resign instead and ended up taking eight years off to be a full-time mum.” I couldn’t help but wonder, will this happen to me as well? I know deep inside now that being a stay-at-home mum is not for me, it is simply not in my nature, but what’s to say that I won’t change my mind after the baby comes? Why do women feel obligated to stay at home with their kids? Perhaps it is these narratives that are driving more and more women to be full-time mums.
IT’S TOO HARD
There is no shortage of people who have called out my ignorance and reassured me that raising a baby is much harder than going to work each day. The sleep deprivation, the loss of freedom for an independent woman, the vomit on your clothes that you don’t notice until you turn up for an important appointment, the never-ending clutter in your home. “Your life will change forever,” they all chime in unison, as if performing a choreographed ditty straight out of a Broadway musical. Add a stressful job to the mix and it is little wonder that so many women decide to leave their workplaces.
I FEEL GUILTY
Think of the bawling baby left under the charge of a nanny or distant relative crying out for you while you leave for work. Imagine the regret of missing your baby’s first smile, first words, first steps, first time eating solids and other life changing milestones. Picture receiving a call from the childcare centre explaining every detail of your little one’s mishap: “Oh, it’s nothing
really, she fell and hit her chin on the corner of the table, she cried and there was blood but it’s stopped.” They reassure you that she is fine but all you want to do is drive over as fast as you can and give her a cuddle; instead you are stuck at a client presentation, distracted, no longer on your maternal ‘A’ game. That night as you put her to bed, feeling guilty as hell you wonder: do we really need the extra money? Isn’t it better if I stay at home and make sure this never happens again?
Be it the right time to return to our careers, or never at all, we as women have to make the decision to do what is right by us each step of the way. We must have the confidence to choose what is best for us, our child, our lifestyle and our priorities. IT’S WHAT WOMEN DO
Traditionalist culture, society expectations and a woman’s physical body dictate the roles of a male and female. The male as the hunter-gatherer is responsible for looking for food while the female cares for the offspring through breastfeeding, nurture and love. Consider the role reversal option where the woman provides for the family. A quick Google search on this topic will result in tons of articles, research, books and even movies (think: The Intern) dedicated to this topic. There is a wealth of advice out there that if we want, we can spend hours researching, swinging from one end of the spectrum to another. The risk of emasculating the man and drawing resentment from the woman is just too
high. It may even break your relationship. You may end up divorced. Isn’t that worse?
THE KEY TO BALANCING WORK AND PARENTHOOD
There will always be a book, a hospital childbirth class, an experienced parent, or even a stranger on the street who can’t wait to dish out advice about the right way to birth, raise and discipline your child. At seven months pregnant I have already received more advice than I know what to do with. Having a natural birth is better because the hormones released – endorphins and oxytocins – are transferred to your baby, making them more likely to breastfeed. Don’t take drugs because it reduces those happy hormones. Breastfeeding is better than formula milk. The list goes on. Don’t get me wrong, as a first-time mum I welcome it because knowledge is wisdom, right? However, every woman goes through labour, breastfeeding and mothering differently. Experiences are vastly different for each child. Enforcing a certain way of life may be helpful for some, but may bring on unnecessary guilt or even postnatal depression for others if it doesn’t go well. Be it the right time to return to our careers, or never at all, we as women have to make the decision to do what is right by us each step of the way. We must have the confidence to choose what is best for us, our child, our lifestyle and our priorities. We must remember that there is no right or wrong answer, no matter what others say or what society dictates. We have to trust our motherly instincts. We must stand strong and be willing to make mistakes, then learn from them, because there is more at stake if we don’t. We could be sacrificing the happiness, satisfaction and wellbeing of not just ourselves, but our children and partners as well.
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n Lim Kwan-Ann is a business consultant and motherto-be who has worked on many large-scale organisational change programmes. She is passionate about inspiring others to live life to their fullest potential. For more inspiring articles, visit www. leaderonomics.com
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www.leaderonomics.com, Saturday 11 March 2017
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