Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER October 5, 2015 10 NEWS No one ever expects to have cancer. When it strikes, having CAREpath as part of your benefit package shows your employees and their families how much you really care. Employees diagnosed with cancer are assigned a personal oncology nurse providing guidance and support throughout every stage of their cancer journey. CAREpath is the only complete cancer navigation provider in Canada. No one ever expects to have cancer. cancer? Does one of your employees have We'll be there. 1-866-599-2720 www.carepath.ca THE CANCER ASSISTANCE PROGRAM Anita McGowan, RN, CON(C), OCN Head Oncology Nurse Manager and you just take two weeks, like Marissa Mayer, well then you're a bad leader, you're a bad role model for junior women because you're showing that women shouldn't take their full maternity leave. So, no matter what she does, she's go- ing to be criticized for it." Added scrutiny For highly visible senior wom- en leaders, any decision they make will face added scrutiny, said Konrad. There's also the issue of being seen as a role model. "It is added pressure, and it's just harder," she said. Mayer is high-profile and really a pioneer in this area, said Konrad. "She is getting pregnant and bearing children while being the CEO of a major company — and we don't have a whole lot of histo- ry of people doing that," she said. "So no matter what she does, being the first, she's going to be the one that gets the arrows in her back. People are going to be evaluating and judging." A CEO on mat leave is still relatively novel, said Carolyn Lawrence, president and CEO of Women of Influence in Toronto. "Part of that is really curios- ity because there's so few female role models in CEO jobs in the Fortune 500 companies," she said. "ere's a real element of curiosity there where we're trying to figure out 'Who is this strange bird, the working mother CEO? How does she do it?' ere is a real interest and craving for 'How do you do it?' and 'What's the personal story to the professional career path?'" On top of that, there is also an element of backseat parenting all mothers face, said Lawrence. But all that aside, Mayer really is blaz- ing a new trail for female leaders. "She is a role model, like it or not, and agree with her choices or not," she said. "at is what we should be taking away (from this) and learning from — this is her choice, and she was able to do what was best for her. And that's actually what the generation coming up through the corporate ranks wants — they want the abil- ity to have choice. "She's leading by example, she's doing what she thinks is best, and we can learn from that." Managing mat leave Other women shouldn't feel pres- sure to model their mat leaves after those of elite female execu- tives, said Reva Seth, Toronto- based journalist, lawyer and au- thor of e MomShift. "We over-focus on what elite women do, and then we think we have to draw lessons from that. But really, (Mayer's) situation is so insanely different from even most senior corporate women," she said. "We hear about the Sheryl Sand- bergs (COO of Facebook) and the Marissa Mayers but what we need to hear about are slightly more re- latable role models. And whether the relatable role models are tak- ing two weeks' (mat leave) or not, just the way in which they're doing it is a lot more relevant." With that said, we need to be honest in our discussions about what's feasible for different wom- en in different roles, said Seth. "If you're the CEO of a giant company like that, you can't re- alistically disappear for a whole year. You just can't. And that's OK… we have to have the honest conversation." Women in senior leadership have thought all about what's best for their employer, said Konrad. "If someone's been chosen for the CEO spot, it's because they're trusted to make the decision that's best for the company," she said. If a company is going through a difficult time and needs a lot of hands-on guidance, many senior women leaders might design dif- ferent ways to stay involved with the company instead of taking a long leave, said Seth. "At that kind of a point, a woman who is going to have a child might decide, 'Well, I'm going to have to have the balance toward taking less of a mat leave and spending more time (at) the company.'" On the flip side, if things at the company are moving smoothly and there is a strong executive team backing her up, maybe she can take more time off. "With current technology, you can keep in touch with what's go- ing on but not have to be physi- cally present for as many hours. ere's lots of ways that people can do these jobs now," said Konrad. "We see companies like Google that are headed by a tri- umvirate — three people at the helm. We're going to have to see what the pioneers come up with, and I would not be surprised if they come up with new ideas that we haven't thought about." Creating awareness One of the most important take- aways from the Mayer announce- ment is that having a discourse around maternity leave for senior women is key, said Konrad. Open- ing up that discussion, and not shying away from the challenging aspects, is so important. "A woman I really admire is Sheryl Sandberg. And how she's been a role model is by talking about these questions explicitly and making it OK to discuss and making it OK to say, 'is is hard, and I'm struggling with it,'" she said. Seth — who interviewed 500 different working mothers for her book — would tend to agree. "We too often hear the shiny packaged end story but we don't actually hear the messy bits in the middle that actually tell you how to get there," she said. "Each story contradicts the last one because there's really no 'right way' to do this." Employers need to understand that maternity leave will be dif- ferent for each woman — but it doesn't mean her career needs to be put on hold, said Konrad. "Don't judge anyone too early. ere's research data that shows when people managers, man- agers of professionals, look at a hypothetical case on paper, they rate people who take time off for family as less promotable in the future," she said. "But I did a piece of research that looked at this from a more long-term perspective... and found that people who take a work-life flexibility accommoda- tion were slightly more likely to be promoted a year later. "In the immediate term, we judge: 'Oh no, this is going to be so much harder to manage, what am I going to do without the person?' Over time, we realize, 'Oh, this person is self-managing, they're still getting their work done… my goodness, they're a great candi- date for promotion.'" 'We over-focus on what elite women do' CEO < pg. 1 different views — and that leads to an enormous lack of diversity. "Potential outcomes include (a) lack of innovation because no- body's going to step outside of the mould." Cultivating a positive workplace culture So how can employers cultivate the positive aspects of culture while still maintaining healthy boundaries? "Choice," said Arnott. "In oth- er words, give the employee the choice — and the real choice, not just the stated choice but the cul- tural choice." A second consideration is del- egation, he said. "e more people you have in the decision-making process, the more diverse decisions you're go- ing to get, and that helps to avoid corporate cults." Another critical consideration is maintaining self-examina- tion and self-awareness when it comes to corporate culture, said Cancialosi. "Culture is not a fire-and- forget missile. It's something that you need to be continually monitoring and you need to be thinking deeply about, and you need to — more importantly — be engaging people in dialogue about," he said. "You can't just set it and forget it. As things in the environment change, you need to be under- standing what kind of keystone behaviours are going to continue to help you succeed, and which ones may need to be left in the corporate museum." Lack of innovation a problem CULTURE < pg. 8 Credit: Ben Nelms (Reuters) People walk past a store of yogawear retailer Lululemon Athletica in downtown Vancouver in the summer of 2014.

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