Jun. 1, 2019 "How business women can establish presence at their workplace": Today I found this article by Harvey Schachter in the Globe and Mail:
For many women, establishing presence at work is an enduring issue. It seems to come easily to most men, but not to women.
In Understanding Gender at Work, psychologist and lawyer Delee Fromm says that women are taught that it’s important to fit in, while men seek to stand out. So women instinctively reduce themselves – their very presence – and thus fail to convey vital leadership traits such as confidence and authority.
Ms. Fromm urges women to counter that tendency by displaying expansive postures. Think of an actor on stage: To convey power, the person walks with a swagger, chest out, arms relaxed. Pulling shoulders back, standing or sitting, adds to the signal.
One of the clients she coaches, a vice-president at a major bank in the United States, found that when she started taking up more space when seated across from her boss he started to approve all her requests.
Here are some tips:
- Start your day with an expansive posture. Stretch like a starfish or sit expansively in a chair with your hands behind your head. “You might even want to sit with your feet on your desk or stand over your desk with your feet shoulder-width apart and your hands on the desk supporting you,” she adds.
- When seated in a chair, open your shoulders and fill the chair back so that none of it can be seen. Place your arms on the arm rest or far apart on the meeting room table. Be ready to deploy these postures in challenging situations.
- Before an important meeting or presentation, sneak off into the washroom or another private area and practise your expansive postures.
- Pay attention to the temperature. If the office is too cool, you will shrink. Keep a suit jacket in your office, or layer up. It’s hard to look relaxed and expansive when you’re chilly.
- Make sure your chair height doesn’t place you in a subordinate position. “If you are petite, crank the height to a maximum, even if your feet don’t touch the ground. Many petite women in seminars have told me this is how they feel comfortable – when they are at an equal height at the table with others. It is also important from a psychological perspective; when a person is lower in height than others they can tend to feel less confident and competent than others,” she says.
- Avoid crossed arms, which can make you appear withdrawn and less engaged. One woman keeps her elbows out on the meeting room table as if playing aggressive hockey – it stopped others from figuratively knocking her out of the game.
- When waiting in a reception area, don’t sit down, which may lead you to scrunch up as you work your smartphone. Remain standing while you wait, which will give you more energy.
Beyond expansive postures, you must reduce any distracting movements, she says. People who command authority and respect don’t fidget. And you must shun subordinate signals, such as nodding and offering assenting reactions or smiling excessively. This non-verbal behaviour might make you look less confident.
Beware of casual days, Ms. Fromm adds. If you are petite and young, casual clothing can make you seem more junior. Dress as if you are about to be called into a client meeting.
These tweaks can help you establish yourself as confident and competent, a woman of presence.
Quick hits
- Novelist Mark Haddon announced he was leaving Twitter with these words: “I am taking a long break because every tweet had begun to feel like a peep of steam through my whistle – Listen to me! Listen to me! – which reduced the boiler pressure I needed to write another novel.” You may not be a novelist, but we all must tend to our boiler pressure.
- Don’t put your hobbies on your resume. Business Insider writers Rachel Gillett and Allana Akhtar say nobody cares: If it’s not relevant to the job you’re applying for, it’s a waste of space and the hiring officials’ time.
- To decide whether a job is a good fit, journalist Rebecca Muller recommends asking:
- Does my personality mesh with the company’s culture?
- Is this work meaningful to me?
- Can I show up with my whole self here?
- Listen to a podcast when you wake up. Tee it up the night before and push play upon awakening, suggests freelance writer Erin Greenawald. It will help you get out of your brain fog and start the day with learning.
- It’s difficult to say “I was wrong.” But entrepreneur Seth Godin says things change – the environment we are operating in, for instance, or the information we have – and we regularly get a chance to make things more right. Try this alternative to saying you were wrong: “Based on new information, I can make a new decision.”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/management/article-how-to-establish-presence-at-work/
What!!! This is terrible advice! Mr. Schachter - please - don't advise smart, educated and experienced women in business to jut out their elbows, make like a starfish or hide in the bathroom to practice such ridiculousness. And definitely - no one should put feet up on the desk or sit at a chair where your feet dangle. Nothing says "child" like a grown person swinging their feet with their work toys taking up too much space! Would you suggest any of this nonsense to a man?
Joanne Livingston
Joanne Livingston
Don't shower.
I am retired and boy am I happy I don't have to think about this stuff any more.
The reason so many women sell their souls in order to fit in is because if they don't, the other women will destroy them.
And that's the cold, hard truth.
Generally speaking, men are competitive, but they want the competition to be fair.
Not so with most women. Fairness does not enter into the equation.
It should be an embarrassment to my half of the species.
And that's the cold, hard truth.
Generally speaking, men are competitive, but they want the competition to be fair.
Not so with most women. Fairness does not enter into the equation.
It should be an embarrassment to my half of the species.
I enjoy reading Mr. Schachter's columns. But on this one I think he is off the mark.
Seems to me that men exhibit 'expansive' postures not to get noticed or to show authority, but to reflect their confidence and authority.
I agree with a commenter who said a lot of confident men don't do these type of gestures.
Watch videos with Margaret Atwood; or Angela Merkel; or the Hannah Arendt movie; to see a few women with great confidence and authority. They each have/had their own style.
Seems to me that men exhibit 'expansive' postures not to get noticed or to show authority, but to reflect their confidence and authority.
I agree with a commenter who said a lot of confident men don't do these type of gestures.
Watch videos with Margaret Atwood; or Angela Merkel; or the Hannah Arendt movie; to see a few women with great confidence and authority. They each have/had their own style.
I'm a woman, and I've no desire to do some of the kind of posturing described here for any money. And quite frankly, I don't think much of the men who do it either.
Let's aim for that equality of opportunity, women - but let's not take on the bad habits of our male counterparts to do so.
Let's aim for that equality of opportunity, women - but let's not take on the bad habits of our male counterparts to do so.
"Put your feet on the desk" ......poor advice! The world has not changed that much !
My opinion: I have read this before in women's magazines and the internet where you practice and build more confidence by expanding your body.
My opinion: I have read this before in women's magazines and the internet where you practice and build more confidence by expanding your body.
"Survey sheds light on how MBAs handle gender inequality": Today I found this article by Jennifer Lewington in the Globe and Mail:
Recent alumni credit their graduate business programs with equipping them to tackle gender inequality in the workplace, according to a global survey, but men and women differ in their assessment of the severity of the problem.
Of 900 male and female MBA alumni from the United States, Canada and other countries who graduated between 2005 and 2017 and responded to an online survey, differences emerged by generation.
Of those who graduated in 2016-17, 62 per cent credited business school course material, class discussions and “men-as-allies” affinity groups with opening their eyes to gender discrimination, according to the U.S. Forté Foundation and researcher Michelle Wieser, interim dean of the School of Business at Minnesota’s St. Catherine University.
By contrast, only 40 per cent of survey participants who graduated between 2005 and 2015 felt the same way, according to the online survey.
“The work we are doing in the MBA space is really changing the mindsets of future business leaders,” says Elissa Sangster, chief executive of Forté, which works with business schools and top companies to advance future women leaders. “We hope that [gender equity knowledge] takes hold and that the men and women who have gone through the MBA are changing the culture.”
When asked in the survey whether males and females have achieved equality in the workplace, 82 per cent of women replied no, compared with 63 per cent of men.
Notably, 29 per cent of women and only 8 per cent of men reported personal experience with gender inequality at a past employer.
Notably, 29 per cent of women and only 8 per cent of men reported personal experience with gender inequality at a past employer.
A strong gender difference also showed up when women and men were asked how their MBA helped them confront inequity issues at work.
In the survey, 34 per cent of women (and only 1 per cent of men) said they gained confidence to address workplace problems
while 18 per cent of men (12 per cent of women) said they gained “awareness” of sexual harassment, gender pay gaps and unequal opportunities for promotion and career advancement.
In the survey, 34 per cent of women (and only 1 per cent of men) said they gained confidence to address workplace problems
while 18 per cent of men (12 per cent of women) said they gained “awareness” of sexual harassment, gender pay gaps and unequal opportunities for promotion and career advancement.
“For women, getting that degree, getting the skills and ability, all that contributed to them walking away from the MBA experience with confidence that you then could see play out in the workplace,” says Ms. Sangster.
With only 1 per cent of men reporting they gained confidence from their MBA, she notes “they had very little room to grow in that area.”
With only 1 per cent of men reporting they gained confidence from their MBA, she notes “they had very little room to grow in that area.”
While praising the expansion of gender-related content and practices, including the formation of men-as-allies clubs to enlist men as champions of gender equity, business schools have work still to do, say advocates. Case studies are a particular sore point.
“When we are delivering the curriculum, we now have 40 to 45 per cent women participation in some of these [MBA] programs … but the case studies only have 15 per cent women protagonists,” says Ms. Sangster.
As a result, she adds, “you are not exposing this next generation of MBA students to women leaders, men leaders and diverse leaders.”
As a result, she adds, “you are not exposing this next generation of MBA students to women leaders, men leaders and diverse leaders.”
Last year, a study by Canadian researchers Colleen Sharen, of Brescia University College, and Wilfrid Laurier University’s Rosemary McGowan concluded that case studies “contain a ‘hidden curriculum’ that presents and reinforces implicit assumptions and stereotypes about women’s fitness to lead.”
In their analysis of written cases, the researchers found “women protagonists were absent in more than 80 per cent of the cases,” and when present, were portrayed as less visionary and risk-averse, and more emotional and cautious, than men.
In their analysis of written cases, the researchers found “women protagonists were absent in more than 80 per cent of the cases,” and when present, were portrayed as less visionary and risk-averse, and more emotional and cautious, than men.
A similar plea for diversity in case studies comes from Jana Raver, an associate professor of organizational behaviour at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University.
“It is something that, as a leadership professor, I would love to see more of,” she says. “It is hard to find women protagonists [in case studies].”
In her classes, she says she discusses unconscious bias, the ‘leaky pipeline’ that leaves MBA-educated women opting out of career advance opportunities, and the role of men as allies in fostering a diverse work culture.
Dr. Raver also invites business leaders, including women, to speak to students about workplace equality issues. “I think the MBA students this year were very surprised to hear that less than 5 per cent of chief executives in Canada are women,” she says. “There is a lot of nodding among the women [students] but it is a lot more new to men.”
Some argue that business schools alone will not solve gender equity and diversity issues in corporate Canada.
“It’s always good to see MBAs are trying to embed more awareness,” says Ikram Al Mouaswas, a partner at Deloitte Canada and named one of Canada’s top 100 most powerful women by Women’s Network Executive in 2015. The Forté survey, she adds, “was helpful but I didn’t find it shocking.”
She argues employers need to lead the way “on the education and practical application of what does it mean to be equitable.”
Deloitte, she says, provides regular training on unconscious bias and promotes inclusion practices by senior leaders. “Being an inclusive leader is just table stakes [the minimum requirements] for us,” she says.
The litmus test for gender equity, she argues,
“is not only how many men and women [are hired]
but what is the language you use every day
and how you interact personally when you bring yourself to work
and when you decide how to act on behalf of your team as a leader.”
“is not only how many men and women [are hired]
but what is the language you use every day
and how you interact personally when you bring yourself to work
and when you decide how to act on behalf of your team as a leader.”
Corporate allies on gender equity are essential to making progress, says Forté’s Ms. Sangster.
“We need corporate partners in Canada to come alongside,” she says. “We are not going to make major changes unless we have the [corporate] institutions on board.”
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