Jul 21, 2016 | critical thinking, gender roles in business, women
Not long ago I spoke with the leader of a small professional firm about diversity and inclusion concerns within her organization. She — like many of her peers — are baffled at why their firm appears largely unchanged after implementing countless diversity programs and affinity groups, including one for women, another for the LBGT employees, another for African American employees and more. All well-intentioned efforts, but making little difference. Here’s why affinity groups aren’t working As the firm’s principal continued to lay out their affinity groups — connecting African American employees with other African American employees, connecting women with other women, and connecting LBGT employees with others like them — I thought of SeedsOfPeace.com. This is a program that sends teenagers from communities in conflict (i.e. Israeli teenagers and Palestinian teenagers) to camp together to build respect, relationships and leadership skills. Rather than continue in the silo-ed thinking so pervasive in corporate America today — and represented by these affinity groups that are entirely lacking diversity within— organizations would do well to follow the example of Seeds of Peace. It is always the cross-polination of ideas and respect — only born from relationship and interaction— that begins to erode the real enemy to corporate diversity and inclusion: unconscious bias. Affinity groups do the opposite, actually encouraging people to flock together in a group designed to eliminate diversity. Working further against true inclusion, these groups define members by their “qualifier:” woman, gay, black, instead of by their skills, interests, achievements or even corporate role. While strong relationships and unity are built within each affinity group, the divides between these groups...
May 25, 2016 | leadership, networking, women
I make it a point to read the Workologist column in the Sunday New York Times Business Section whenever it appears, not because of the “sage” advice offered… but actually despite it! The responses to real world topics of tremendous and timely significance often lack not only a true understanding of climate, culture and social norms of the workplace but also the context essential to dispense sound, actionable and most importantly, responsible advice. The NYT has taken note of my thinking and published responses both in the paper and on the website but pushback isn’t always published so the Workologist’s advice goes largely unchecked. This is why I’ll be publishing my thoughts on mass market advice here… where the focus is on real work and real results… in real time. As an executive coach focused on professional firms similar to the one mentioned in the article, I’ve learned to embrace (and never ignore) the complexities, nuances and culture inherent in each different organization. However, in an article about ‘mandatory’ fun at work, the Workologist offered a prescriptive solution without fully considering the profound implications of the situation or more importantly of his naive and fairly tone deaf advice … Here’s my — until now — unpublished response: In suggesting a strategy to push back against the questionable merits of “mandatory fun,” I feel that providing any practical, effective solution warrants gathering more information. We know that the company in question is a financial firm but we don’t know its size or whether it’s privately or publicly held, distinctions that can absolutely affect the eventual remedy. For the sake of argument, I...
Aug 13, 2015 | critical thinking, gender roles in business, personal development, women
Last month, Good Morning America did a story on The Surprising Reason Girls Aren’t Learning to be Leaders. (See the clip here). In it, the experts weighed in on the biases girls still face — from many sources including parents, teen boys and even from each other. The clip and accompanying article offered some solid tips, including checking our own biases as parents, assigning chores in less traditional ways, and watching the words we use toward our children — and others. In doing so, they touched on something great when they mentioned “changing things up at home” and assigning boys some caregiving chores versus the more traditional “mow the lawn” assignments. I wish they’d gone further into this critical component to changing the insidious biases so deep rooted in the world — how we raise our sons. Here’s my comment on their post, reprinted for you: “While there’s plenty of responsibility for women to shoulder in the march toward assuming leadership positions, legislating the suspension of bias is useful only in the most superficial way. The fact is that the worst biases are insidious, so deep rooted that they start at birth. So, yes we should check our biases about girls — and those are only the ones we see — BUT nothing will change significantly until we change the way we raise our sons. This equation now has multiple variables (our understanding of gender and sexuality is changing as we speak so it’s no longer about a dyad) and ultimately this mandates an #allgendersolution” I’d love to know your thoughts, so please post in the comment section...
Jun 7, 2015 | critical thinking, gender roles in business, leadership, personal development, women
So far in this article series, we’ve discussed: why the current efforts thrown at increasing the number of women leaders aren’t working the three problems women professionals encounter when moving up the ladder how women can better make themselves heard Now, it’s time to create a real world solution so women (professional women) will not just be heard but heeded in the boardroom heeded in the boardroom. The not-so-obvious solution: building a powerful sphere of influence. Don’t reduce this article to something that is simply about “networking.” Building a sphere of influence is not the same thing as garden-variety networking at all. Largely indiscriminate, typical networking encourages us to cast our net a mile wide but an inch deep. When we do that, we don’t get the prime catch, we get other random stuff in the mix— smaller fish, a boot, used tires, etc. There’s nothing random about building a professional sphere. Building a professional sphere is serious and deliberate work that has as its objective fewer but deeper relationships which you continue to nourish and cultivate throughout your career. It is never too early to start this lifelong career strategy. Start with where you are by answering this question: If I were to be most deliberate in building a professional sphere, which 2 people would I begin to pursue and which 2 people will I stop pursuing or investing...
May 7, 2015 | confidence, gender roles in business, leadership, personal development, women
Women need to be respected at work. The most direct path to generating such respect, while rarely discussed, is all about creating a compelling personal brand. What’s the connection? Both put a premium on trust and consistency. Aside from your ability to communicate effectively, deliberately creating a brand that emanates from your core values will yield the sharpest tool in your toolbox. Become a truly effective communicator, and people may listen. You will be heard. But, to inspire people to follow, perform for and invest in you, you’ll need their respect. A professional’s brand is her word. So, what IS your professional brand? Have you given this any thought? If not, here’s a great place to start: Understand that a great brand stems from core values. Make a list of your most fundamental values and beliefs. These should be values that without which, you wouldn’t be who you are. They need to be rock solid, with all else stemming from there. Next, list your competencies, those for which you want to be known. Finally, create your own visual, your own schematic of what your brand looks like. As an example, I think of mine as a golf ball that encases… a hard super ball center but then has all those rubber band things wrapping around and around it. But that’s mine. What’s yours? Grab an accountability partner and do this exercise. It will change the way you show up at work. So far in this article series, we’ve discussed: why the current efforts thrown at increasing the number of women leaders aren’t working the three problems women professionals encounter when...
Dani Ticktin Koplik —
Leadership consultant, executive coach, change agent and passionate professional development expert and speaker. You can learn more about Dani and her clients by visiting dtkBio page. 