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Vancouver | April 5, 2019
CONTENTS
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About The Art of Leadership for Women
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EMILY CHANG Gender Bias and Diversity
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TIFFANI BOVA Growth and Culture
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LAURA GASSNER OTTING Confidence and Potential
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DR. TASHA EURICH Self-Awareness and Performance
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MALALA YOUSAFZAI Moderated Conversation
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EXECUTIVE PANEL
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BILL WILLIAMS Closing Remarks
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Women all over the world are no longer accepting the status quo. They’re rising up, breaking through, pushing the boundaries and carving their own paths. From glass ceilings and “leaning in” to office politics and work-life balance, today’s women leaders face numerous challenges. As they move up the corporate ladder and take on increased responsibilities, leaders require a full understanding of how to pivot within an evolving corporate landscape. In a world of information overload, The Art of Leadership for Women focuses on the topics and trends most critical to women leaders. This unique one-day conference features a remarkable collection of world leaders, business icons and bestselling authors.
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EMILY CHANG Anchor & Executive Producer at Bloomberg Technology, Emmy Award Winning Journalist and Bestselling Author
Know your value—and if you are somewhere that doesn’t, go somewhere that does. You have so much to offer.
GENDER BIAS AND DIVERSITY Why aren’t there more women working in Silicon Valley? According to Bloomberg TV journalist Emily Chang, “women hold a mere quarter of computing jobs in the United States, down from 36 percent in 1991. From the beginning, women were at the forefront of computer technology: Women like Grace Hopper were pioneers in computer programming. But as computers rose as an industry, the number of women in the field did not follow—instead, after 1984, their numbers declined drastically. When most people think of a computer programmer, think of the anti-social, mostly white male nerd. In fact, that stereotype didn’t come from movies and television shows. Chang made the argument that the tech industry created this stereotype. If you go back to the 1940s and 1950s, women actually played vital roles in the computing industry. They were programming computers for the military and programming computers for NASA. In the ’60s and ’70s, when
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the industry was desperate for new talent, this idea that programmers were born, not made, became ingrained. Chang’s argument isn’t that women alone should be building technology she makes the point that people of all backgrounds should be building technology. Men and women do bring different things to the table. So do people of different colors and different sexualities. Silicon Valley is literally changing our lives every day. But often, we take the people who are making the things at Facebook and Google and Apple for granted. It’s even more reason why the people who are making these products should be of all different kinds of backgrounds, because billions of people are using them. Historically, investors have looked for people who look like Steve Jobs, or Mark Zuckerberg, or Bill Gates. That shuts out 50 percent of the population if not more. Chang spoke to so many women who were going to pitch meetings, wearing black and gray, with their hair in a ponytail, that don’t wear jewelry, and they don’t get their nails done. Qualities
that are seen as positive in men are seen as negative in women. So if a man is young, he’s considered high potential, if a woman is young she is considered inexperienced. If a man is cautious, that’s considered a good thing. If a woman is cautious it’s considered a red flag. Chang offered three easy tips for women in any industry that can help make a shift in workplace culture: Know your value And if you are somewhere that doesn’t, go somewhere that does. You have so much to offer.
Speak up Drive forward the progress you want to see by starting the discussions that need to happen. The willingness to talk about the issues that you know to be true is a bigger step forward than you may think.
Be nice to each other Some things that are often common sense are simply not being applied to the workplace kindness, equality, and fairness being some of them, all of which will make huge differences in the end.
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TIFFANI BOVA Growth & Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce and Bestselling Author
If you try to speed up the process, you may miss the opportunity to learn things along the way.
GROWTH AND CULTURE Trust the process Tiffani Bova shared that the best piece of advice she would give anyone starting out their career, but women in particular would be to trust the process. There are no shortcuts to success. Sometimes the road is crooked. Sometimes you need to move backwards before you move forward and more importantly, sometimes you need to slow down before you speed up. If you try to speed up the process, you may miss the opportunity to learn things along the way. Trusting the process is critical regardless if you are at the beginning of your career, in the middle of your career or even at the end of your career. Make sure you understand where you are trying to go and then when you see an opportunity appear, you get to make a choice if it’s the right decision for you. Culture One of the biggest challenges facing large established companies with a lot of history is that it is almost impossible for them to move out of “what was” and move into “what could be.”
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It might surprise you to learn that most executives actually cite internal factors. In a Bain & Company study, 85 percent of the executives surveyed, and a full 94 percent of those running companies with more than $5 billion in revenue, said that internal, not external, obstacles keep their companies from growing profitably. What a shame; after all, it is the internal factors over which you are supposed to have control—as opposed to moves by your competitors, market shifts, and even “Black Swan” events. Personal growth of the leadership team, middle management and all the employees is critical. Without a strong culture, without complete alignment of what the company stands for, what’s its goals are and empowering its people to do what’s right for the customers and the company—without all those things, choosing the right growth path won’t matter.
or language you speak can be dangerous. Diversity is broader than just men and women. We have to be inclusive of people who have a different opinion or different styles of thinking, it might be introverts vs. extroverts or giving the opportunity to employees that work remotely to be and feel more engaged. Diversity and inclusion, while a very hot topic, means something different to everyone but it definitely means something. Firstly, it’s important to know what your employees think it is and what do you stand for as a company. What are the things that you want to make sure is known by the public so that you can attract and retain the best talent and customers.
Diversity and inclusion Diversity and inclusion is a big topic and its defined differently all over the world. Teams that have groupthink regardless of gender, sexual orientation, background
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LAURA GASSNER OTTING Chief Catalyzing Officer at Limitless Possibility and Author
Let go of the pressure of everyone else’s definition of success.
CONFIDENCE AND POTENTIAL Laura challenged us all to ask, “Whose vision of success are we trying to live?” Are we living our dream and our passion or are we following someone else’s dream—perhaps even societies dream of what we should be doing. If we feel stuck it might be because we are not living our passion. What’s important is that whatever we do is our goal not a goal someone else imposed on us. Laura encourages us to set and follow our own path and to stop giving votes to people who shouldn’t even have voices. But Laura warns us, “Don’t be fooled, it’s likely this job won’t come easy; it might be the job we will fail at over and over again until you eventually succeed.” How do we know where our passion is? Laura suggests trying to live a life where we find ‘Consensus’ which includes:
It was encouraging that Laura also recommends we “Let go of the pressure of everyone else’s definition of success,” which was a ‘successful leadership message’ we heard from our other leaders and presenters through the day. Laura reminded us that being busy doesn’t mean we are having impact and to focus on where our passion has impact. We have to be sure to carve our own path and to remember to be open to change. We have to keep in mind that what matters to us will change over time. Our children spend their whole day on the edge of incompetence—living in a world of change. Why shouldn’t we from time to time? Laura embraces the idea that, “Failure
isn’t final, it’s the place where we grow and learn.” Laura also feels that when we fail at other people’s version of success it is an opportunity. Why? Because “It begins to make room for our own version of success,” says Laura, “This is where we can dream big dreams and where we should take chances.” In closing, Laura leaves us to consider, “Are you exactly where you should be?” To explore this question, we might need to ask ourselves the following three additional questions: • What would it feel like to be truly limitless? • What do you need to do or change today to get there?
• What will be the cost if you don’t?
• Calling – What is our calling? It should be a gravitational force.
• Connection – How do we matter? • Contribution – What does this job give that enriches us?
• Control – Our ability to do.
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DR. TASHA EURICH
On a good day, 80% of us are lying to ourselves about lying to ourselves.
Organizational Psychologist, Researcher and New York Times Bestselling Author
SELF-AWARENESS AND PERFORMANCE Do you know or work with someone who is not self-aware? Tasha’s research has identified “About 98% of people work with at least one unaware co-worker.” Tasha calls self-awareness, “The Meta Skill of the 21st century” and her research has identified self-aware leaders are: • More successful at their jobs • More promotable • More respected leaders • More confident and more effective communicators
• More fulfilled in romantic relationship • Better friends • Likely to raise less narcissistic children The good news for women is that research shows women identify as more self-aware than men and are able to decode emotional expressions more skillfully than men. Three behaviours of self-aware leaders: 1. They trust their power 2. They introspect the right way 3. They proactively seek feedback As Tasha says, “On a good day, 80% of
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us are lying to ourselves about lying to ourselves.” In addition, Tasha shared, “The least competent people tend to be the most confident about their performance.” Yikes. Tasha shared two tools we can all use to help gather feedback and introspect the right way.
• What qualities do you most appreciate about me as a leader?
• Can you give me 1 or 2 examples? Once you have their feedback, look for themes in their responses. For example: • Are there strengths you didn’t know you had? • Are there strengths you knew you had and can now feel more confident?
Tool #1: Ask “What” versus “Why” Great self-aware leaders also introspect the right way. Asking ‘Why’ gets us stuck into what is wrong… it holds us back. Instead, by asking ‘What’ we are able to look at possibilities to propel us forward. For example: • Instead of asking “Why do you want to change
The most important part of this exercise is that self-aware people quickly begin to work to correct their challenges by working with a coach, mentor or by taking self-improvement courses.
your job?” ask “What do you like about what you’re doing?”
Tool #2: Reflected Best Self Exercise Self-aware leaders proactively seek feedback. To get an appreciation of how others see us, Tasha recommends we send eight people (who you know will give you honest, respectful feedback) an email and ask the following two questions:
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MALALA YOUSAFZAI Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, International Bestselling Author and Founder of Malala Fund
Believe in yourself. Believe in your voice.
MODERATED CONVERSATION WITH CAROLINE RISEBORO Plan International Canada’s President and CEO, Caroline Riseboro sat down for a captivating conversation on women’s leadership with Malala Yousafzai. Leadership is not about title, position, or age. No one reminds us of that more than Malala Yousafzai. Malala was born into a feminist family and explained that she was lucky to have a father that believed in her. When we allow women to come forward as a society everyone wins and we can all move forward together. According to Malala, there were many girls like her in Swat Valley who wanted to speak out, the big difference was that her father let her speak. The other girls were stopped by brothers and dads. If her father wasn’t a feminist, she wouldn’t be here and she is very grateful for that. “I am seeing young girls doing incredible work. Let us all get involved - boys, women, young girls, men, everyone. I am positive we will have equality in our future.” The education of young men on the subject of women’s rights is a crucial step to ending gender inequality. Everyone
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should take responsibility for teaching young boys to be men. In order to be a man you have to recognize that all women and those around you have equal rights and that we are all a part of the movement towards equality. We are all in this together. No matter what community we serve, what country we live in or what culture we’re integrated in, we are all on this earth together. Despite our differences, we are all the same at our core. Malala put her life on the line to fight for what she believed to be right. As a kid, she was surrounded by war and destruction—bombs lit the night sky around her home. When she went to sleep at night, she thought about the very real fear that she would wake up surrounded by Taliban
forces. But each morning, she started her day with hope of a better future. She stood firm in her beliefs and had the courage to become the face of a movement. Believe in yourself. Believe in your voice. There will be barriers, like how society defines our role. Unequal treatment. Lack of opportunity. Girls told how to act and speak. We need to change that mindset. No matter what your circumstance or who you are leading, never give up on what you believe in. As leaders, we have a duty to use our platforms to do what is right and just, to be a voice for those who have none, and to be the change we wish to see in our organizations, communities and the world.
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EXECUTIVE PANEL
CHRIS WOLFF
KATE ROSS LEBLANC
HEATHER HASLAM
Head of Global OEM and IOT Partnerships
CEO and Co-Founder
Vice President, Marketing
• Organizations need more women and girls in
• Don’t compare the inside of your life to the outside
• Do your best to remove any negative self-talk or
technology. We also need many more non-techie
of the life of others, the only truth we need to
any inner dialogue that you have with yourself that
women entering the workforce in technology driven
embrace is our own and only we can change our lives
might be limiting your ability to believe in yourself
businesses.
for the better.
and your own abilities.
• Don’t be shy in asking senior people to support you
• Living your most fulfilled life means being true to
• People inherently want to help others so don’t be
and your growth. Women naturally want to help out
yourself and allowing yourself to be seen. Let go of
afraid to lean on others within your organization
where they can and pay it forward. Be brave and go
what others have told you about who you are.
for help and guidance.
after exactly what you want and deserve.
• Focus on optimism. Try stepping out of victim-mode
• It’s important to seek out both internal and
and choose exactly how you want to feel. By doing
external mentors to help you along the way.
we need to embrace this in our roles as leaders. We
this you are able to rework your patterns of thinking
Reverse mentorship has become increasingly
need to build the confidence to speak up and share
and behavior.
more popular whereby more senior executives are
• Women are intrinsically great communicators and
our ideas with our colleagues.
mentored by younger employees on topics such as technology, social media and current trends.
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CLOSING REMARKS Stand up for justice for every little girl to be whatever and whomever they are! Check your assumptions. Success equals access to opportunity. Lack of success is the lack of access to opportunity. Women are leaning in but can’t lean in any further if the door is nailed shut. OPEN THE DOOR!! Women are doing their part, now companies need to do their part too! What if?! Growth and comfort can never co-exist. It’s time to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Deliver moments of WOW! Keep your own scorecard. Consonance is a major part of confidence. What is your calling? What is your connection? What is your contribution? And, what is in your control? How do we match the ‘what we do’ with the ‘who we are’? Do, then dream! Find your fundamental state of leadership. Don’t judge your bloopers by everyone else’s highlight real! Mentorship is when someone talks to you. Sponsorship is when someone talks about you! So, unearth your potential. Power UP! Are you an ‘Above Average’ Driver?!? Don’t under-predict how others see you!! Don’t ask “Why?” Ask “What?” Ask “What qualities do you most appreciate about me as a leader?” Give me one or two examples. Education is crucial for women and girls. It’s worse to not speak out! Nothing can stop you; the whole world is standing with you! Believe in your voice So never give up! All of us are leaders! We hope to see you at The Art of Leadership this fall!
To know and not to do is really not to know. To learn and not to do something with the learning is really not to have learned.
Bill Williams Host
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