Many organisations are rolling out unconscious bias training. I have a better idea, based on research and practice, for tackling leadership bias in ways that are positive, actionable, measurable and support good leadership. Putting the spotlight on, and improving the sponsorship practices of your leaders can better support your E and I work.
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Creating more gender equitable and inclusive cultures is high on the agenda for many organisations. However there is often a disconnect between existing staff development activities and efforts to create the desired cultures. More explicitly linking individual development to organisational change can make a big difference to the return on investment when developing staff. The ‘bifocal approach’ translates this ideal into reality through clear principles and program design.
Sponsorship: An equity and diversity game changer?
I am very proud to announce my long awaited report Sponsorship: Creating Career Opportunities for Women in Higher Educationis now available here for free download. This sponsorship guide is a practical publication, based on research examining sponsorship practices and my decades of experience with mentoring and leadership programs within the higher education sector.
I believe sponsorship can be an equity and diversity game-changer. Read on for an overview of why.
Read MoreEngaging men in gender equality work
Are our organisations sufficiently 'gender mature' to move towards implementing initiatives where men (at all levels) are squarely within the frame? It is the next step and here's why.
Read MoreSimply Good Practice: A Mantra for Gold
Aiming for fairness & excellence = aiming for Gold. Based on a presentation by Professor Sara Mole at Cambridge in May 2017. Titled Leading the way by simply good practice – cultural change at a departmental level, it reflects on the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology at University College London, journey towards achieving an Athena SWAN Gold in 2016.
Read MoreImperial College: A courageous look at institutional culture
The impetus for this frank and fearless examination of Imperial College culture was a result of what James Stirling described as ‘laddish, blokeish, stupid misogynistic behaviour’ by male Imperial students at a women’s rugby match. As he describes, ‘we thought it was about sexism among students’ but it turned out to be much more than that.
Much of what is written in the report will ring true for Institutions that, like Imperial, pride themselves on their excellence. The key finding of the research is that ‘how we drive for excellence has unintended negative consequences’.
Read MoreEnvisaging a more gender equitable workplace; #TomWeltonTour
Tom Welton’s tour has been enthusiastically received by a higher education and research sector keen to learn from a Department and Institution well progressed on the Athena SWAN pathway. Institutions looking at the year ahead, which for many will involve data collection and analysis, compiling action plans and finalising institutional applications, are keen to receive guidance. We are so keenly tweeting the received wisdom that Tom’s tour has been trending in the top ten twitter hashtags in Australia this week (go Sydney!).
Read MoreWhat is sponsorship and why is it so important for women?
What is the big deal about sponsorship? A few years ago we didn’t even talk about sponsorship. Women were being urged to find mentors, and now this advice is being replaced with women being urged to find sponsors. This change in tack is nicely encapsulated in the title of Sylvia Ann Hewlett’s book (Forget a mentor) Find a Sponsor. Her subtitle The New Way to Fast-Track your Career also provides some insight into the positive hype surrounding sponsorship.
In this blog I want to talk about the research that brought sponsorship into the limelight, and why it is important, particularly but not exclusively from a gender perspective, to distinguish between mentoring and sponsorship.
Read MoreMerit: A trump card or card trick?
Merit is one of those words that gets bandied about a lot in regard to gender equity. Opponents of targets and quotas often use it as the final trump card in their argument – ‘we wouldn’t want to compromise merit’.
But what does merit mean? And is it really a trump card or a troublesome concept that is past its use by date?
Read MoreChampions of gender equality: female and male executives as leaders of gender change
I am very proud to present my newly published article Champions of gender equality: female and male executives as leaders of gender change. It draws on my doctoral research and examines in detail what male and female executives say about gender championing. All agree that it is not an easy role!
As readers of my Blog will be aware, I am keen for men to engage with doing the work of gender equality and this research certainly influenced my thinking.
Read MoreSummer reading: 'Humble Inquiry' and its applicability to mentoring
‘We must become better at asking and do less telling in a culture that overvalues telling’
Working with mentors is one of the hardest things I do. So, when I was drawn to the title of Edgar Schein’s book Humble Inquiry I approached it with this in mind. What, if anything, might be helpful for mentors in this book? Did it contain anything useful in developing their understanding and skills as mentors?
Read More‘I don’t want to be mentored back into the straight line’
My title, ‘I don’t want to be mentored back into the straight line’, quoting a recent research participant, captures very succinctly a key difficulty with mentoring, and one that is almost entirely overlooked by mentoring practitioners and mentoring programs. I understood exactly what my interviewee meant, from both a research and practice perspective. Mentoring can inadvertently be used to help mentees to ‘fit in’, where mentors reinforce gendered norms and cultural stereotypes, teaching mentees to succeed the way they succeeded.
Read MoreMen and women as partners for change
In this blog, which follows on from my previous bolt 'What about the men?' I explore the difference between inviting men to be allies in the gender change work and being partners. As allies men are being asked to help make organisations better places for women. But this assumes that men have no gender, or at least that their gender is not problematic in the workplace.
Read MoreThe 'Bifocal approach': Linking individual development to organisational change
Creating more gender equitable and inclusive cultures is high on the agenda for many organisations. However there is often a disconnect between existing staff development activities and efforts to create the desired cultures. More explicitly linking individual development to organisational change can make a big difference to the return on investment when developing staff. The ‘bifocal approach’ translates this ideal into reality through clear principles and program design.
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