Canadian HR Reporter

CanaDian hr reporTer July 14, 2014 6 NEws Women leaders confident, not suffering from 'victim mentality' But room for improvement in networking, self-promotion: Study By Liz Bernier Professional women are more confident than ever before — and taking a more positive mindset in their approach to their careers. But challenges and barriers toward advancing women in se- nior leadership still exist, and or- ganizations need to be proactive in creating a culture of gender intelligence. ose were among the key find- ings of a study documenting the experiences of executive women across North America. On be- half of Women of Influence and omson Reuters, Barbara An- nis & Associates conducted an in-depth survey of 326 women in senior leadership positions. e results were the basis for the whitepaper Solutions to Women's Advancement. An important aspect of the study is that it provides work- able solutions to help organiza- tions develop female leaders, said Carolyn Lawrence, president and CEO of Women of Influence in Toronto. "We did the study with the ex- press purpose of providing solu- tions that are immediate and are pointed directly at the women but also the corporations that hire women," she said. Confidence, leadership style Despite the challenges of reach- ing high-level career success, the women in the study had a very positive mindset, said Lawrence. "None of the women in this group (see themselves as) victims. at was something that I was not expecting," she said. This positivity was common among the respondents — and it was one of the most interesting findings, said Patsy Doerr, global head of diversity and inclusion and corporate responsibility at omson Reuters in New York. "None of them had what we would call that 'victim mentality' — (that sense) that they had sur- vived a battle of sorts. ey went through their careers assuming that they could achieve what they wanted, and assuming that with great confidence. And they have been very successful in doing that," she said. e women in the survey also demonstrated a high degree of confidence and an authentic lead- ership style — 84 per cent no lon- ger feel they need to act like men in order to succeed. at finding was a pleasant sur- prise, said Barbara Annis, founder and CEO of Barbara Annis & As- sociates in New York. "Women really feel that they can bring their authentic selves, their authentic leadership — they don't have to take on male behav- iour in leadership, which often we find," she said. "What this research shows is that there's a huge shift there, so that was really great to see." e women in the study also negate the idea that women are "opting out" of these corporate leadership roles, said Lawrence. "We've all read the other studies — everyone keeps saying there's still a large percentage of women opting out of the corporate world for work-life balance reasons," she said. "What our study showed was that these women had not consid- ered it themselves, opting out for work-life balance. While they did say it was a challenge, they didn't think it was a barrier. So the dif- ference is in the attitude and the ability to look at this with a posi- tive mindset.'" Self-promotion still a struggle e study examined five differ- ent categories or themes of career success, including big picture, leadership responsibility, leader- ship maturity, self-initiation and career advancement. The area where women tended to have dif- ficulty was around self-promotion and career advancement, said Lawrence. "They have confidence and that leadership mentality and big-picture responsibility, but we saw those other two areas of self-initiation and career advance- ment being a little bit lower on the scale. So (there's) some room for improvement," she said. Women already tend to be strong at relationship-building but they don't always do so with strategic purposes in mind, said Lawrence. "Where men are strong is in building strategic connections. And so there's this difference that, both are great and both are good, and we like elements of both, but in business the strategic one is the one that will help you get ahead." Many women also struggle when it comes time to market their work, said Doerr. "There's a tendency to keep your head down and assume that, by doing good work, you'll be recognized." ere's also an impact when it comes to negotiating, said Annis. "Women are outstanding ne- gotiators when they negotiate for others. But then when we ask them about negotiating for them- selves, they score themselves low- er," she said. "So, for me, it's not a matter that women don't have the tools to ne- gotiate — it's not like we have to put them through a whole bunch of training around negotiation. ey can already do it for others, so it's just really applying it in the context of themselves." Gender-intelligent leadership e study makes a number of dif- ferent recommendations around how organizations can advance women — but the key idea is around gender-intelligent leader- ship, said Lawrence. "You have to be gender-intel- ligent, and that's just the simple bottom line. Companies are not going to get this if they just dip their toe in," she said. "A lot of the corporations we see, they read the business case for women's advancement, they hear the social issues… And they dip their toe in by creating small programs or committees within an organization. "The unfortunate part about that is these are the least effective programs to create change. When you're creating culture, you can't sort of, maybe, create change cul- ture — you have to create new culture. And that only comes from the top." e intent behind this study was to change the conversation around gender-intelligent leader- ship, said Lawrence. "is would break through the small initiatives that aren't cre- ating change. is would break through the numbers being stag- nant for women's advancement for the last five years." Gender intelligence means an understanding and appreciation of the differences that distinguish men and women, including attitu- dinal and behavioural differences, said Annis. And appreciating those differ- ences means seeking out diversity, instead of promoting in your own image. "If you're looking at focusing on numbers in advancing women into senior ranks, you want to think about how you are manag- ing your time, and are you being gender-intelligent in how you do that in the sense that, is it still based on sameness?" she said. "Are you still advancing people in your own image — a younger version of you — or are you look- ing at the fact that to really be an innovative organization, you want the diversity? "We know for a fact that wom- en are highly educated, highly capable… we know that the edu- cation side of it, we've accom- plished. Now it's the advance- ment side of it that we need to look at. And it's not just a num- bers game — you've got to look at it systemically. You've got to look at how you are approaching your processes and also your leader- ship mindset." 2014-15 ATLANTIC LEGAL TELEPHONE DIRECTORY STAY CONNECTED TO YOUR LEGAL NETWORK 2014-15 Atlantic Legal Telephone Directory connects you to your legal community providing accurate and essential legal contact information in all four Canadian Atlantic Provinces. Compiled by the respected legal directories group at Thomson Reuters, you can rely on a directory that grows and expands with your legal community. Each year find new and updated names, mailing addresses, email addresses and phone numbers for lawyers and law offices. 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Visit www.carswell.com or call 1-800-387-5164 for a 30-day, no risk evaluation stREss INJuRy < pg. 5 No binding legal precedent many other types of non-traumat- ic workplace stressors that may be associated with mental disorders, including bullying, lack of mana- gerial support, interpersonal con- flicts and humiliating events." Who could not claim one of those in the last year? said Levitt. But William LeMay, a lawyer at Hicks Morley Hamilton Stew- art Storie in Toronto, has yet to draw conclusions about the case and what it could mean for future decisions. "My impression of the vice- chair's decision is that she thought she had some facts that were con- cerning to her in this case and those won't arrive in every case," he said. e tribunal's decisions aren't binding legal precedent and it doesn't have to arrive at the same conclusion in similar cases, said Beeho. "It's not as though this is a hard- and-fast precedent but it certainly is instructive." e message in this case is em- ployers need to make sure their violence and harassment poli- cies are "up to date, enforced and communicated," said LeMay, and when employers receive com- plaints from staff, it's important to take them seriously. Yamri Taddese is a reporter with Law Times, a sister publication to Cana- dian HR Reporter. She can be reached at yamri.taddese@thomsonreuters. com or visit www.lawtimesnews.com for more information.

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