Last week I attended a session called 'Women in Leadership' hosted by the Calgary chapter of the
Strategic Capability Network. Despite being of the female gender myself I have never been a huge fan of sessions exclusively focussed on one gender or the other. Unless, of course we are talking about Women's health! There was a panel of six females from different areas of the business world: Sippy Chhina, Partner at Deloitte, Allison Love, VP and Corp Secretary at Enbridge, Debbie Toole, HR Director at ATCO Structures and Logistics, Helen Weir, CEO of YMCA Calgary, and Deborah Yedlin, Energy sector columnist for the Calgary Herald.
There was a large audience in attendance despite the early hour (started at 7.30am) and there were even a handful of men there. An observation I will come back to.
The panel was led through a list of somewhat obvious questions such as 'what led you to take on a leadership role', 'is it more difficult for women to achieve leadership in different sectors', and 'what is your leadership brand'. There were some interesting insights and some great sound bites. For example did you know that only 1.5% of YMCA Leadership in North America is female with only one female CEO in YMCA Canada? Despite the fact that it is the Y 'M' CA.
What about the fact that reportedly 50% of legal graduates are now female? Or that women constitute a paltry 9% of Executive Board membership in Canada? Compared with 15% in USA and an impressive 40% in Norway but only because it has been legislated in that country. There is a bill in the Canadian House of Commons right now seeking to ensure Gender Parity on Executive Boards (see Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette's blog for more information http://www.eurekablog.ca/)
I particularly loved some of the phrases that the panel used such as the reference to 'Pink Ghettos' that describes the female dominated professions. Sippy Chhina, Partner at Deloitte, stood out for me with her forthright style and no nonsense approach. She created more than a few laughs with some of her responses including the one in reference to speaking to men about topics that interest them i.e. sports, where she reminded the audience that young men today love to talk about shoes and clothes also!
The panel ended the session by each giving their own perspective on what women 'do' bring to leadership. All are sweeping generalisations of course but women are adept at identifying risks and thinking about the longer term, both of which are key attributes for a leader. Women can also sometimes ask the tough questions and tend to be more engaging and collaborative in their leadership style. Plus, Sippy reminded us that men behave better when there are women in the room!
Some key challenges were also identified for women in leadership. Are women their own worst enemies in organisations? Are women guilty of not supporting their own gender very well? Is the way that women network hurting their ability to gain top leadership roles? Indeed, as Susan Pinkers asks in her book the of the Sexual Paradox (Sexual Paradox on Amazon),'are women less ambitious than men'? Women appear to suffer inequity in how their styles are viewed in their comparison to men e.g. "ambitious versus ball buster".
What I really appreciated from the session was the parting reminder to simply know what 'you' are good at and focus on your strengths. Not to worry about other’s perceptions of you and that there are many styles of leadership, so find your own style. Leadership is not a popularity contest – you are not going to be liked all the time and that the most important person who should like you, is you! All really good advice for any gender of leader. But one question I kept coming back to is why were so few men there? Do they 'know' this already? Or, do they even care? I don't know the answer to this, do you? One thing is for sure though, if you are thinking of holding a session on leadership you have to have Sippy Chhina on the panel!
Natalie@emergelearning.ca To lead or not to lead? That is the question.
Posted: 2011-01-23
Last week I attended a session called 'Women in Leadership' hosted by the Calgary chapter of the
Strategic Capability Network. Despite being of the female gender myself I have never been a huge fan of sessions exclusively focussed on one gender or the other. Unless, of course we are talking about Women's health! There was a panel of six females from different areas of the business world: Sippy Chhina, Partner at Deloitte, Allison Love, VP and Corp Secretary at Enbridge, Debbie Toole, HR Director at ATCO Structures and Logistics, Helen Weir, CEO of YMCA Calgary, and Deborah Yedlin, Energy sector columnist for the Calgary Herald.
There was a large audience in attendance despite the early hour (started at 7.30am) and there were even a handful of men there. An observation I will come back to.
The panel was led through a list of somewhat obvious questions such as 'what led you to take on a leadership role', 'is it more difficult for women to achieve leadership in different sectors', and 'what is your leadership brand'. There were some interesting insights and some great sound bites. For example did you know that only 1.5% of YMCA Leadership in North America is female with only one female CEO in YMCA Canada? Despite the fact that it is the Y 'M' CA.
What about the fact that reportedly 50% of legal graduates are now female? Or that women constitute a paltry 9% of Executive Board membership in Canada? Compared with 15% in USA and an impressive 40% in Norway but only because it has been legislated in that country. There is a bill in the Canadian House of Commons right now seeking to ensure Gender Parity on Executive Boards (see Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette's blog for more information http://www.eurekablog.ca/)
I particularly loved some of the phrases that the panel used such as the reference to 'Pink Ghettos' that describes the female dominated professions. Sippy Chhina, Partner at Deloitte, stood out for me with her forthright style and no nonsense approach. She created more than a few laughs with some of her responses including the one in reference to speaking to men about topics that interest them i.e. sports, where she reminded the audience that young men today love to talk about shoes and clothes also!
The panel ended the session by each giving their own perspective on what women 'do' bring to leadership. All are sweeping generalisations of course but women are adept at identifying risks and thinking about the longer term, both of which are key attributes for a leader. Women can also sometimes ask the tough questions and tend to be more engaging and collaborative in their leadership style. Plus, Sippy reminded us that men behave better when there are women in the room!
Some key challenges were also identified for women in leadership. Are women their own worst enemies in organisations? Are women guilty of not supporting their own gender very well? Is the way that women network hurting their ability to gain top leadership roles? Indeed, as Susan Pinkers asks in her book the of the Sexual Paradox (Sexual Paradox on Amazon),'are women less ambitious than men'? Women appear to suffer inequity in how their styles are viewed in their comparison to men e.g. "ambitious versus ball buster".
What I really appreciated from the session was the parting reminder to simply know what 'you' are good at and focus on your strengths. Not to worry about other’s perceptions of you and that there are many styles of leadership, so find your own style. Leadership is not a popularity contest – you are not going to be liked all the time and that the most important person who should like you, is you! All really good advice for any gender of leader. But one question I kept coming back to is why were so few men there? Do they 'know' this already? Or, do they even care? I don't know the answer to this, do you? One thing is for sure though, if you are thinking of holding a session on leadership you have to have Sippy Chhina on the panel!
Natalie@emergelearning.ca