The role of authenticity in transforming female leadership

Business Impact: The role of authenticity in transforming female leadership

The role of authenticity in transforming female leadership

Business Impact: The role of authenticity in transforming female leadership
Business Impact: The role of authenticity in transforming female leadership

In a world hungry for change, women have the power to revolutionise our future. We need more female leaders unapologetically breaking barriers and shattering glass ceilings. Our unique perspectives, empathy and resilience can transform industries, fostering innovation and inclusivity. Female leaders can bring a diversity of ideas, nurturing collaboration and dismantling outdated norms and structures. We can inspire young girls to dream bigger, paving the way for a generation of trailblazers.

For much of my life as a female leader in the financial services industry, my need to prove myself and earn my worth to feel safe in this world had stopped me from living and leading in a way that was true to myself.

Yet, in working with hundreds of professional women across countries and levels of seniority, I have learned that I am not alone. Whatever our histories, many of us have not learned how to be in a relationship with ourselves that encourages us to believe deeply in ourselves and our capabilities. A relationship that empowers us to step fully into, and lead, our own lives.

What’s holding you back?

We tend to look for answers outside ourselves, but transformation begins when we begin looking within. It’s when we begin gently and compassionately understanding why we do what we do, what unconsciously drives us and what true success looks like for us individually. Being true to ourselves in the way we live and lead our lives is the foundational ingredient to thriving both professionally and personally.

The challenge is that there are an infinite number of factors, both internal and external, that can make it hard to live and lead authentically. Some of these factors are cultural, while others are biological or come from our childhood.

Our family histories are chief among these factors, as they form our underlying beliefs and assumptions and create patterns of behaviours that shape how we show up in the world and go about trying to find our self-worth at work. Often, we will unconsciously implement one of the following three limiting and reactive coping strategies to get our needs met and to feel loved, safe, secure and worthwhile.

  • A complying strategy: driven by a need to be liked, this can often lead to us abandoning ourselves for other’s approval and being overly pleasing.
  • A controlling strategy: here, we may move against people and the world to try and control our environment and those around us, driven by anxiety, a need to prove ourselves and a fear of failure. This often leads to fault-finding, a compulsive drive to achieve, being demanding and forceful and striving to win at any cost.
  • A protecting strategy: we may withdraw and distance ourselves or over-intellectualise as a way of protecting ourselves from feeling vulnerable and not fully participating in the relationships we really need to.

Authenticity is courageous                 

Yet, through awareness, understanding and self-acceptance, we can feel liberated and empowered to create a different life for ourselves. To slowly, gently and with great self-compassion change the behaviours that stop us from showing up authentically, deeply believing in ourselves and thriving.

Authenticity is not something we have or don’t have. It’s a practice; a conscious choice for how we want to live and lead. It is a daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we truly are. Truly being ourselves and leading our lives authentically is one of the most challenging and courageous endeavours we’ll ever undertake in life.

Living an inauthentic life or living with cognitive dissonance is exhausting and drains both our capacity for joy and our ability to live and love fully. However, as we embrace the lifelong transformational ‘inner work’ that frees us to embody our authenticity, we can reveal more of who we are and see our own strengths and talents. We become aware of the beliefs and assumptions that limit us and adopt a broader set of leadership qualities that are necessary to show up with true inner confidence and lead effectively.

By fostering a stronger sense of self-awareness and self-compassion, along with a clear understanding of our values, purpose and vision, we are empowered to fully embrace the chance to lead a life true to ourselves. This enables us to wholeheartedly dedicate our skills and abilities to leading, whatever our role and even when confronted with cultural and societal biases or our own self-doubt.

There is an extraordinary power in women coming together. Together, we can unleash the untapped potential and brilliance that lies within. We can unify and ignite a world where equality and diversity thrive, where voices are amplified and where our collective potential is unleashed. Together, we can create a different future for ourselves and our children.

Jo-Wagstaff_Lead-Like-You-Business-Impact

Jo Wagstaff is a leadership coach and the author of Lead Like You: How Authenticity Transforms the Way Women Live, Love and Succeed, published by Wiley

Read more Business Impact articles related to women in business:

Business Impact: Equal to the task
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Equal to the task

Women hold 60 per cent of leadership roles at IU International University in Germany. Vice-rector of accreditation and study formats Regina Cordes explains how equal opportunities are embedded as a core organisational value

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Equal to the task

Business Impact: Equal to the task

Equal to the task

Business Impact: Equal to the task
Business Impact: Equal to the task

For most people, the ratio of female-to-male staff at IU International University is simply staggering, especially given that many organisations still struggle to hire close to 50 per cent of female professors. More than 61 per cent of our employees are female, while among the academic faculty in the rectorate we are five women and four men. Colleagues ask how we have managed to accomplish that. My answer is: our culture and growth. To create an environment conducive to female leadership, we emphasise collaboration over competition. We recognise that women highly value collaborative spaces that encourage personal and professional growth.

Spatial flexibility for remote working is a key factor

IU’s culture thrives on spatial flexibility, enabling our professors, managers and administrative staff to work remotely from various locations. This is made possible, in part, because a large proportion of teaching at IU takes place online, reducing the need for physical presence on campus. By embracing remote working arrangements, we open doors for highly qualified women in remote positions, who would be unable to relocate to another city for a teaching or research position. The result is a vibrant and talented workforce, enriching our institution with their unique insights and experiences. I have never worked alongside so many brilliant women as here at IU and I feel so lucky to be part of this community.

Given our growth in recent years, we have been able to provide ample opportunity for individual growth. We did not have to wait for leaders to retire and make room for women to succeed, but instead we faced a dire need of people in leadership roles. Our growth presented us with new and unstructured problems that needed tackling. That way, many young and ambitious women with good ideas had a chance to rise up the ranks. We see leaders as people who achieve results, challenge the status quo, foster collaboration, go the extra mile, care for their team and achieve successful alignment with collaborators. 

For young female professionals seeking a rewarding career in higher education, I offer the following advice based on my own experiences. Try to embrace diverse opportunities and explore various job roles during your educational journey. I, too, was fairly entrepreneurial when I was in college. I always had a couple of student jobs. I was even lucky enough that one of these took me to work in London for a few months, while another had me work summers in Greek and Spanish seaside resorts.

During that time I learned a lot, but I remained fascinated by education and hoped to, one day, merge a management job with higher education. I am still fascinated by higher education as a professional service. There is so much room to create a fantastic

service experience for students, to create a great ‘servicescape’ both on campus and online and to facilitate learning in an innovative and better way. In that sense, I would encourage young women to learn by observing successful services and companies outside the academic sphere, where you can gather valuable insights and accordingly shape a more enriching educational environment.

Developing personal and professional growth

At IU, we constantly seek new challenges. Recent acquisitions of British and Canadian universities serve as perfect examples of our commitment to growth and continuous improvement. Integrating these schools into our group introduces lots of new and unstructured obstacles, providing the best learning opportunities.

We encourage our talent to tackle these challenges and, at the same time, offer resources and autonomy to find their own creative solutions. This not only builds self-esteem and resilience, but also promotes independent thinking, creativity and the seeking out of new ideas and collaborators. Moreover, IU provides coaching and formalised training programmes: feedback from a coach you trust is
a tremendous catalyst for personal growth.

As a manager, I actively mentor and empower younger and less experienced female colleagues by providing guidance, creating growth opportunities and fostering an inclusive work environment where their ideas and contributions are valued and encouraged. Some women fall into the perfectionism trap easily, or have trouble delegating effectively. Both are keys to a successful leadership role and to protect women from spreading themselves too thin. Preparing them for leadership roles always needs to include a healthy sense of self‑interest because we want everyone to be active and successful in a sustainable way.

Recently, I decided to offer an optional 10-week development programme for young talent at IU. We called it the ‘unicorn badge’ to signal that those who passed the programme would be uniquely qualified and that it would be fun to participate. We confronted the participants with complex IU challenges or case studies on a weekly basis and encouraged them to be creative, think outside the box and come up with radically new ideas. The personal growth achieved over the 10 weeks was remarkable and it became very clear who had potential to grow further in their career.

My recipe for high-performing teams is this: hire for intellectually brilliant, diverse and amiable people. Set quality standards very high and allow them a great degree of freedom to overcome problems themselves and deploy resources as they see fit. With this approach, I have seen KPIs soar, efficiency go up and employee satisfaction go through the roof.

Promoting diversity, zero tolerance and recognition

In 2022, our diverse workforce, spanning 79 nations, was recognised and awarded by the Diversity Charter (Charta der Vielfalt) for its commitment to equal opportunities and diversity. We have been a signatory of the charter since 2019, further underscoring our dedication to social and political responsibility. To maintain a respectful and inclusive environment, we strictly adhere to a zero-tolerance policy that prohibits any form of abuse of power, discrimination, harassment or violence within our institution.

The award further acknowledges IU’s various initiatives and practices aimed at ensuring equal treatment and opportunities for both learners and employees. These include efforts to minimise bias in the recruitment and integration of new employees, the provision of flexible working conditions such as remote work options, working from abroad and sabbaticals, as well as offering training programmes to support mental and physical well-being. At IU, we adhere to the motto, “A culture of everyone, by everyone”. This is the only way we can create a healthy working and learning environment where everyone can feel at ease, contribute their unique strengths and continuously grow and thrive. As our colleague Tim Kaltenborn, director of people organisation & culture, puts it: “Diversity promotes innovation and it is innovation and creative solutions that are at the heart of IU”.

With initiatives such as Women in Tech and the Study Access Alliance, as well as support for first-generation college students struggling with entry barriers, we have granted access to quality education for more students than most other universities. Embodying our vision of “Everybody can access education to grow”, we are driven to inspire and motivate females to pursue careers in IT. Our Women in Tech scholarship programme is specifically designed to offer educational opportunities for aspiring students looking to pursue degrees in any technology domain taught at IU. We firmly believe in empowering women in the IT industry and fostering a diverse and inclusive learning environment.

In line with our vision of inclusive education, we participate in the Study Access Alliance, a transformative initiative that aims to close the education gap for individuals in African countries by providing 100,000 scholarships for online degrees at top universities worldwide. We provide exceptional value to scholarship recipients by offering our bachelor’s, master’s and online MBA degrees for more than 10 times less the regular price of each scholarship.

IU University’s commitment to facilitating access and promoting educational equity has been recognised through the prestigious German Total E-Quality award. This acknowledgment stands as a testament to our exceptional dedication to fostering equal opportunities and implementing diversity-oriented policies. We take great pride in this achievement, as it reinforces our mission to create an inclusive and supportive environment for all members of our community.

I see IU International University at the forefront of cultivating a culture of equal opportunities and empowering women in leadership positions. With a workforce composed of talented individuals from diverse backgrounds, IU demonstrates its commitment to fostering a collaborative and inclusive environment. Through a dedication to spatial flexibility, emphasis on collaboration over competition and a strong focus on personal and professional growth, IU strives to provide a platform for women to excel and make significant contributions. As IU continues its commitment to diversity and innovation, we remain dedicated to building a more inclusive future in the field of higher education.

Regina Cordes is vice-rector at IU International University of Applied Sciences, Germany, where she is responsible for accreditation and certification. On the academic side, Cordes coordinates the university’s integrated formats such as upskilling/continued education and corporate universities, as well as blended learning through myStudium. She completed her doctorate in marketing at the University of Mannheim in 2010

This article originally appeared in the print edition (Issue 3 2023) of Business Impact, magazine of the Business Graduates Association (BGA)

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Nurturing gender-balanced research environments

Business Impact: Nurturing gender-balanced research environments

Nurturing gender-balanced research environments

Business Impact: Nurturing gender-balanced research environments
Business Impact: Nurturing gender-balanced research environments

Female researchers at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), home to International Business School Suzhou (IBSS), shared their perspectives on promoting women’s participation in the digital economy at a recent roundtable held by the joint venture institution.

The digital gender gap was a focal point at the event and was said to have been caused by many issues, including the lack of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. Countering this is the university’s work in encouraging women to join these fields – women slightly outnumber their male counterparts at master’s degree level in STEM subjects and represent 40 per cent of doctoral students.

“Having more women in STEM is an effective way to eradicate gender stereotypes and gender bias in our digital space. It helps to involve more women in the ongoing digital transformation, thereby contributing to gender equality. I believe we have a responsibility to create a more gender-equal environment for female researchers. I also hope senior academics can provide greater support to younger scholars, especially females,” said Yu Song, director of the XJTLU think tank, XIPU Institution.

One such scholar at the event was IBSS PhD student Yue Zhou. She explained that encouragement from XJTLU academics made her consider the possibility of pursuing a PhD and set her on her journey as a researcher. “I hope my stories about doing the research I love can inspire more young people to find and enjoy their passions,” said Zhou.

The group also spoke about the importance of women in scientific research, as a crucial means of diversity in research teams and in the creation of fresh perspectives, as well as the support they may require in achieving a sustainable work‑life balance.

“I need to take care of my children while managing a research team and a PhD student team. Balancing my life and career is not easy, so it’s important to learn to manage one’s time and plan in advance,” said Professor Li Yang, associate dean of research and impact at XJTLU’s School of Science.

This article originally appeared in the print edition (Issue 3 2023) of Business Impact, magazine of the Business Graduates Association (BGA)

Read more Business Impact articles related to women in business:

Business Impact: Equal to the task
Women in business and leadership

Equal to the task

Women hold 60 per cent of leadership roles at IU International University in Germany. Vice-rector of accreditation and study formats Regina Cordes explains how equal opportunities are embedded as a core organisational value

Read More »

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Business Impact

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Furthering female education in rural India

Business Impact: Furthering female education in rural India

Furthering female education in rural India

Business Impact: Furthering female education in rural India
Business Impact: Furthering female education in rural India

In a sleepy semi-rural spread of the Medak District in the state of Telangana in India, in a cluster of several villages, one government model school in Munipally decided to try and empower its female students who were meritorious but faced hurdles in furthering their education and career. These girls were often married off at an early age and destined to live a life completely dependent on men in the family and community. This clearly put them at a disadvantage and many young girls remained trapped in violent and unhappy marriages, bearing children at a young age. Yet, most girls simply accepted this as their fate.

During a neighbourhood survey visit for Woxsen University’s centre of excellence for diversity, equity and inclusion, the school’s principal and I discussed what they could do to give their female students a better life and secure future.

Business Impact: Woxsen project aspiration

A ‘train the trainer’ initiative

This was the genesis of Project Aspiration, which was conceptualised to offer career development and confidence-building training to female students that would encourage them to aspire to enrol in higher education that leads to a career and supports their upward social mobility.

Together with the school, a group of 22 female students from classes IX-XII (usually aged between 14 and 18) were identified to be part of a ‘train the trainer’ initiative. The training programme created a lot of excitement among the girls involved, who all felt proud to be part of the initiative. A group of Woxsen University MBA students were then identified to manage this training programme, as part of their own DEI training – the idea being that working on the initiative doesn’t just help MBAs to develop awareness of the social disparities that exist around them, but also allows them to work actively towards eradicating them.

A great deal of effort was put into the training programme’s design and the necessary government permissions were sought. For three weeks in December 2022, these bright little girls in school uniforms were often seen walking around Woxsen’s campus, interacting with other university students during lunch hours as part of this novel project. They were on campus with a purpose – to get trained to train their own.

The girls were exposed to different aspects of their future, learning about themselves and the world around them. However, the project’s main intention lies in the idea that the trainee must not remain a student alone. Those trained at Woxsen were also expected to become a trainer in a different setting and teach their siblings, classmates and others. Education has no limit and learning has no age. Allowing these young minds to be responsible for what they take away from the Aspiration programme and expecting them to pass the knowledge on to others is designed to help them demonstrate what they have learnt and develop resilience to overcome challenges and barriers and grow.

Empowering schoolchildren while developing MBA capabilities

In the first iteration of Project Aspiration, 21 girls from Telangana Model School and Junior College received training. All were from a local government school and most live in a rural village. The majority of the families in this context cannot afford higher studies and many of them end their education at the end of class 12 [the end of senior secondary education and, therefore, prior to undergraduate education].  

The students learnt about the importance of having goals in life, how to develop SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timebound) goals and how to work towards them. They also went through various types of soft skills training and learnt about psychological capital, as well as how to build resilience. They were briefed about various avenues of higher education and career opportunities they could prepare for. They also received counselling about mental health and the importance of counselling. A multitude of career development activities and debates were held to boost their confidence and aspiration levels, with several open discussions on crucial social topics.

Project Aspiration was multi-aimed. While the main aim was to empower female students in the region, it was also designed to develop the capabilities of MBA students when it comes to project management. Team members were given different roles, with principal organisers and those involved in the training itself supplemented by those working on graphic designer, photography, social media and content development elements.

The future

Project Aspiration was not designed to be a one-time initiative, but rather a continuous process of teaching and learning. As trainees evolve into trainers, the project will evolve organically.

With certificates awarded to trainees and trainers alike, the last day of the programme was filled with smiles, accompanied by confident presentations from the trainees. The metamorphosis of the students through the weeks was a heart-warming moment for all those involved in the project.

Woxsen believes in developing its ecosystem and empowering the community around its campus to become self-sustainable. Our creative initiatives seek ways to help and support the people and their livelihoods. Our classrooms offered a chance for the female students involved to aspire to create a new world for themselves. Our campus became a stage for them to hone their skills before taking centre-stage in their own school. In this way, we hope that Woxsen can forever be a part of their life-changing journey.

 “Education for girls from a background like this is basically a way to fill their ‘stop gap period’, in which their parents send them to school long enough for them to search for a marriage alliance. The girls are then essentially married off to cook and take care of their families for the rest of their lives. For the students to see girls pursuing higher studies is very important. It might influence them and lead them to change their own futures,” said Miss Jhansi, a biology teacher at school involved in the first Project Aspiration initiative.

A spark was also lit from Woxsen’s perspective, with 2022’s Project Aspiration followed by another training programme called Project Inclusion that was aimed at the boys and which focused on teaching them how they can make a difference to the lives of their mother, sisters, fellow students, wives and daughters, alongside developing their own confidence and ambitions.

Since then, Woxsen University’s centre of excellence for diversity, equity and inclusion has been approached by another government school in a similarly disadvantaged area to offer training for their students. We couldn’t be prouder of our work in this area and the difference we are trying to make to enable a more equitable society, where everyone gets opportunities to grow and live a dignified life.

Kakoli Sen

Kakoli Sen is professor and dean of the School of Business at Woxsen University in Hyderabad, India. She teaches and trains in the areas of organisational behaviour, human resource management and leadership

Read more Business Impact articles related to women in business:

Business Impact: Equal to the task
Women in business and leadership

Equal to the task

Women hold 60 per cent of leadership roles at IU International University in Germany. Vice-rector of accreditation and study formats Regina Cordes explains how equal opportunities are embedded as a core organisational value

Read More »

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Business Impact

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Recommendations for advancing gender equality in business

Business Impact: Recommendations for advancing gender equality in business

Recommendations for advancing gender equality in business

Business Impact: Recommendations for advancing gender equality in business
Business Impact: Recommendations for advancing gender equality in business

Better recruitment processes are one of a number of recommendations for boosting the number of women on boards made in new research from Hanken School of Economics assistant professor Emilia Vähämaa, together with professor Kim Ittonen and assistant professor Jesper Haga.

The research argues for the implementation of new systematic recruitment processes that define the kind of skills that are needed by the candidate and the way these skills are evaluated.

The metals and forest industries, Vähämaa explained, are examples of “male-dominated industries where the majority of those in management are men. It has proven difficult to create more equality with only self-regulation and own choices.” 

Self-regulation is set to end by 2026 when a new EU directive of having women represent at least one third of all listed board members comes into effect. While quotas can often be a divisive subject, the researchers believe Finland should implement this quota sooner. “No one thinks that quotas are optimal, but many see it as necessary to achieve change,” Vähämaa said.

Barriers to equality identified in the report include women being more risk averse and more critical of their skills, as well as having greater responsibility at home. It also suggested that women may lack motivation to go into careers that are known to pay men more than women for the same job.

As is frequently the case, mentoring is put forward by the report as a good way to support career planning. In addition, it underlines the value of female professionals actively promoting their knowledge.

While there is still a long way to go, Vähämaa remains optimistic about the progress made towards gender equality: “Attitudes and values in society mean that companies have increasingly begun to pay attention to the role of women in management. Companies are more aware of all the benefits that diversity creates.”

This article originally appeared in the print edition (Issue 2 2023) of Business Impact, magazine of the Business Graduates Association (BGA).

Read more Business Impact articles related to women in business:

Business Impact: Equal to the task
Women in business and leadership

Equal to the task

Women hold 60 per cent of leadership roles at IU International University in Germany. Vice-rector of accreditation and study formats Regina Cordes explains how equal opportunities are embedded as a core organisational value

Read More »

Download the latest edition of the Business Impact magazine

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Business Impact

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Celebrating young leaders

Business Impact: Celebrating young leaders

Celebrating young leaders

Business Impact: Celebrating young leaders
Business Impact: Celebrating young leaders

Lindsey Nefesh-Clarke is a British CEO and a towering figure in the world of women’s empowerment and information technology. She is also the founder of the Women’s WorldWide Web (W4.org) an online crowdfunding platform dedicated to protecting girls’ and women’s empowerment around the world, as well as promoting human rights and access to technology.

A member of the European Young Leaders (EYL40) network since 2012, Nefesh-Clarke has contributed to many policy discussions in Brussels, and brought women’s technological empowerment to the fore. Led by the think tank Friends of Europe, the European Young Leaders (EYL40) programme brings talented, established leaders that are aged 40 and under together each year. These are leaders who have made their mark in a wide range of fields including politics, science, media, NGOs, the arts and civil society as well as business.

Catalysing empowerment

To celebrate this year marking the 10th anniversary of the European Young Leaders programme, Nefesh-Clarke was selected for her inimitable feats in advancing girls’ and women’s rights and empowerment. It all started in Bangladesh, where Nefesh-Clarke embarked on an IT entrepreneurial adventure. There, she trained with Grameen Bank, founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, and studied the Grameen microfinance model’s impact on remote Bangladeshi villages. Inspired by Grameen ‘telephone ladies’’ leading of a wave of telecommunications connectivity via mobile phones purchased through microloans, Nefesh-Clarke decided to pursue a similar career in women’s empowerment through IT and further a fight she described as “really connecting Bangladesh to the digital era.”

“By harnessing ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) we can really catalyse girls’ and womens’ empowerment, and catalyse positive change. ICTs can yield vast benefits for girls and women, in terms of providing them with opportunities and resources. Of course, that requires access to ICTs, that’s on the one hand. And then today in our digital age, we have an unprecedented opportunity to advance girls’ and women’s rights and their empowerment.”

From MBA Student of the Year to pioneering access to IT training

Nefesh-Clarke has previously worked with Human Rights Watch, UNICEF and Enfants d’Asie. An executive MBA alumna of ESCP Europe, she received the MBA Student of the Year award from BGA’s sister organisation, the Association of MBAs (AMBA) in 2009. In 2016, Lindsey was selected as a Young Entrepreneur and member of the French delegation to participate in the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance Summit in Beijing. She has also been named a Woman in IT Role Model (European Commission), InspiringFifty female leader in Europe’s technology sector, and is the Simone Award recipient for the year 2020. She is now a board member of Women’s Economic Imperative and advisor of UN Women France.

She occupies the role of senior fellow for Friend of Europe’s Connected Europe programme. Today, she continues her pioneering work to provide girls and women in Kenya and also in rural Maasai land with access to IT skills training. W4.org is currently partnering with EmpServe, a youth-centred organisation, to implement training programmes which encompass basic and advanced IT skills and social entrepreneurship.

To today’s female IT graduates, Nefesh-Clarke is more hopeful than she has ever been. “This was a very challenging period for you, just emerging from a global pandemic, and you persevered, you were dedicated, you were assiduous. And today we were able to celebrate you […] But I hope this is just the beginning of your tech journey.”

Led by the think tank Friends of Europe, the European Young Leaders (EYL40) programme brings talented, established leaders that are aged 40 and under together each year.

Read more Business Impact articles related to women in business:

Business Impact: Equal to the task
Women in business and leadership

Equal to the task

Women hold 60 per cent of leadership roles at IU International University in Germany. Vice-rector of accreditation and study formats Regina Cordes explains how equal opportunities are embedded as a core organisational value

Read More »

Download the latest edition of the Business Impact magazine

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Business Impact

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Gender means business: how to create real and sustainable gender equality

women-in-business-gender-equality-workplace

Gender means business: how to create real and sustainable gender equality

women-in-business-gender-equality-workplace
women-in-business-gender-equality-workplace

Beyond the ample evidence clearly proving that gender equality and diversity (as well as other forms of diversity) lead to better businesses, I believe that it is crucial to the survival of our society, environment and the sustainability of life as we know it. To achieve this, we need to treat this issue just as we address any other business goal.

LSE Generate supports students and alumni in building socially responsible businesses in the UK and beyond, providing the infrastructure to develop and scale brilliant startups. I started my collaboration with Generate’s Head, LJ Silverman in 2018, while she was looking to set an example for gender equality and diversity and create a clear strategy for the programme as they develop, and expand their international presence.

In order to ensure that LSE’s programme is able to not only be clear on its actions but also gain consistency and sustainability moving forward, we created the LSE Generate Gender-Sensitive Code of Conduct (the Code). This document includes the programme’s values, vision, its connection to stakeholders, and most importantly, a clear action plan. The Code is a living-breathing mechanism that is subject to review and change. The version that you can see in the link above is a new one, following its recent review.

Impact of a clear action plan on gender

Since the creation of the Code more than 3 years ago, LSE Generate has developed exponentially. It grew from a staff of two to a staff of about 20, plus many ambassadors and collaborators across the globe. It runs several accelerators, funding competitions, regular events, mentoring and business support, and opened international hubs in 11 countries and counting.

Within the first year of the creation of the Code, some of LSE Generate’s achievements were:

  • 50/50 gender balance among its:
    • Board of Directors
    • Accelerator programme participants
    • Funding competition judges
    • Events speakers
  • Doubling the targeted funding from LSE, donors, and investors
  • Specific gender focus in its international hubs
  • Proud winners of two national awards for inclusive innovations:
    • National Enterprise Network Award for Innovation in Education
    • National Enterprise Educators UK

Since January 2021, I’ve been serving as Generate’s inhouse Gender Equality Advisor, delivering regular training in its various accelerators, participating in events, supporting the staff in their day-to-day gender challenges and monitoring the Code on a regular basis.

This work could help provide other institutions and organisations with an example of best practice, demonstrating how gender equality and diversity can be created and what it takes to bring about sustainable and long-lasting achievements, namely:

  • Commitment from leadership
  • Clear and measurable strategy based on expert knowledge
  • Accountability

‘The work has allowed us to embed gender equality into the very DNA of our programming so that it is the default position when anyone in the team organises a single event or a new series of initiatives. Ensuring our various commitments are baked in from the get-go rather than sprinkled over as we go along, sends a message to our stakeholders – be that students or staff – of the importance that we place on the subject. That we walk the talk and that we believe fully that by doing so, change can happen.’

With these elements in place, and LSE Generate’s achievements so far, we are now looking to the next stage of growth and international impact by launching an investor’s initiative that will bring about practical solutions and commitment, based on founder’s experience, to address the gender gap in the venture capital (VC) industry.

Inaction enforces a masculine model

To recognise how crucial this work is, we need to understand that the public sphere at large, and the business world more specifically, has been designed in the image of men, and in many ways is still attentive to their needs and views. What we perceive as ‘normal’, is in fact gendered.

Our current world and the acute problems we are currently facing is a direct result of having the bulk of power, decision making and access to resources at the hands of one gender group, and often of one race and social class as well. To solve the tremendous challenges we are facing, we need everybody at the table.

The masculine image on which the business world has been designed is an old one. Not only that it does not match our progressive social mindset and the reality of the incorporation of women and LGBTQI+ persons in every part of the professional world, but also, in many ways it does not serve men anymore.

Therefore, the incorporation of gender strategy, policy and training in business schools and entrepreneurial programmes is vital to the creation of gender equality and diversity in business and beyond. If we don’t actively engage in this work, we are, in fact, enforcing a model that is not neutral, but masculine in its essence. By integrating this topic, we can build healthy foundations, instead of solving problems further down the line. Without it, serious problems are likely to come.

My work with LSE Generate serves as evidence of what can be achieved when working towards gender equality, and when diversity is taken seriously and addressed with strategy and accountability. Imagine what will happen when others join.

Gender policy applications for business schools

What does the incorporation of gender measures in business schools and entrepreneurship programme mean exactly?

  • Strategy – identify your own internal gender gaps (staff representation, pay, communication, recruitment, retainment etc.), then create an action plan based on measurable benchmarks
  • Policy and culture – make changes and create policies to address your identified gaps (for example, blind recruitment, quotas, longer paternity leave, flexi-work etc.), make them known to all stakeholder and have leadership set an example
  • Training – engage with facts, discuss the various causes for current gaps and trends, and explore practical solution that engage with the core reasons of these issues
  • Accountability – make your commitment known, review and report on your progress, celebrate success and address challenges to find new solutions

By incorporating gender measures into business schools and entrepreneurship programmes, we are doing much more than creating room at the table for underrepresented groups. With this work, we are building solid foundations on which we can move away from destruction towards sustainable creation. It is a work of hope.

Yael Nevo (She/Her) is a Gender Consultant and Founding Director of Gender Rise, helping companies and organisations achieve sustainable gender equality and diversity through strategy, policy and training.

Read more Business Impact articles related to women in business:

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Equal to the task

Women hold 60 per cent of leadership roles at IU International University in Germany. Vice-rector of accreditation and study formats Regina Cordes explains how equal opportunities are embedded as a core organisational value

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Sharing stories to empower women worldwide

Sharing stories to empower women worldwide

female platform empowerment
female platform empowerment

Harvard University is ostentatious, majestic and a pioneer of education and in the autumn of 2019, I was there about to speak at its largest annual conference as a ‘female empowerment expert’. Having only just returned from Tanzania, quickly followed by Switzerland for another speaking gig, you would think I was fatigued yet, as I studied my speech notes, I thought about the unconventional journey it had taken to build a fully-fledged business at the age of only 19, everything that had been required to realise my dream and how far, collectively, the team had come.

Since grafting from a dorm room as that wide-eyed teenager, Smart Girl Tribe has grown to boast a top-rated podcast, an event series with the BBC and a published book.  My job involves arming women with the tools and knowledge to live freely as their most authentic selves. As CEO of a leading UK female empowerment organisation, it is easy to focus on the triumphs, such as moving and making it as a journalist in New York, or walking the famous British Vogue corridors – but there is a lot more to the story than this.  

Women deserved more

When I was growing up, women’s magazines were only promoting three topics: body image, intimate relationships and boyfriends. Desperate to be a writer, I struggled to accept the internships I was offered as I didn’t follow the same ethos as these magazines. Women deserved more from the media, an outlet to concentrate on mental health, confidence, social issues affecting women and tangible ways to become the people we are destined to be. At what price was my dream going to cost?

It was during a summer holiday in my hometown in Italy that I had a monumental conversation with my mother and decided to create my own magazine. Being in rural Le Marche, I had no internet or phone connection and having spent the majority of my time at university in the library striving to be an academic – no valuable mentor or real friends. Persevering, I contacted my entire email list asking if anyone knew someone who could help me build a website. After three months of designing and writing the first few articles myself, the launch date was set with a Twitter account set up to promote my endeavour. Within three days of launching, we had more than 40 applications from writers requesting to contribute to Smart Girl Tribe. At that very moment, I knew we were onto something and realised how many smart girls like me existed but didn’t have a platform to inspire, educate or entertain them.

Know your mission

Women were worth more than what they were being sold. Major magazines perpetually had us buy into the idea that we are not enough, they continued to undermine our intelligence and innate power. Someone had to change the system, someone had to do something, and then I realised I am ‘someone’. It was crucial for all women to have a safe space online to lend a voice to the female experience. Even when having a bad day with Smart Girl Tribe I wasn’t prepared to jeopardise its mission – to redefine the media’s take on womanhood. We didn’t focus on the directions other publications were following but stayed true to our subject matter – becoming the change we wanted to see in the world and developing an all-inclusive platform for every woman. As a result, we have worked with some incredible organisations, including UN Women, HeforShe, Women for Women International and 50:50.

Be obsessed

Entrepreneurship demands everything from you. You have to eat it, breathe it and live it. Being an entrepreneur can also be risky, but not going after your dreams is even riskier. During my final years at university, I began recording my lectures purely because I would end up drafting ideas for Smart Girl Tribe during them. Coding was initially a foreign language to me, but not having the funds or investment to support my venture meant I had to learn everything myself. In one day, I could find myself being editor, writer, proofreader, speaker, photographer, model, activist, graphic designer and web developer. The entrepreneurial life in itself can bring many challenges – it’s not about being the smartest or the most experienced, it’s about being the one who can hold on for the longest.

Leave excuses at the door

I didn’t have an economics degree, business qualification or experience when setting up Smart Girl Tribe. Its foundation was built on its core principles, a strong mission and tenacity. At the end of the day, if you don’t have the answers, Google does. You will either find a way or an excuse. My approach to Smart Girl Tribe has never changed. How do you build a house? From the ground up. I never focused on white noise, such as our following or how pretty our site was, I homed in on the only trait I knew would help me get to where I wanted to be – my hustle.

Know your audience and the times

For some businesses, the priority is the client or customer. For us, it was our readers and later, listeners. Getting ready to launch, I constructed the Smart Girl Tribe reader – their age, hobbies, shopping tendencies and even minute details such as what she drinks, who her friends are and where she travels to. We knew the reader inside and out, so with every conflicting decision that appeared we could come back to that same question – what would the smart girl want? Times have evolved but the readership has remained committed. Everything we have created was a response to what our tribe has asked for.

Max your dream

Women have been conditioned to shrink themselves and apologise for taking up space. Smart Girl Tribe is essentially a personal development community for women where they can heal, grow and become. Despite its astounding growth, for years, I kept this platform to my dorm room, rarely talking about it, even to friends and family, out of fear. It wasn’t until I entered adulthood that I realised the detrimental effect this attitude would have. Seeking validation or permission from anyone can only hinder and hurt, it never helps. Indeed, one woman rising gives other women the courage to rise too, so I started maxing my dreams and building everything on a larger scale. This is how I have been able to work with international organisations and received invitations to speak all over the world.

Smart Girl Tribe, the platform, has served as a great terrain to share stories. They were always the fixture throughout the journey – the magazine, podcast, events and book have really always just been channels to feature narratives that resonate with people on a deeply personal level. Often, we don’t want to be vulnerable or show struggle but Smart Girl Tribe has been the quiet ally that says: ‘you are not alone’.

Scarlett V Clark is CEO and Founder of Smart Girl Tribe and author of The Smart Girls Handbook (Trigger 2021).

Read more Business Impact articles related to women in business:

Business Impact: Equal to the task
Women in business and leadership

Equal to the task

Women hold 60 per cent of leadership roles at IU International University in Germany. Vice-rector of accreditation and study formats Regina Cordes explains how equal opportunities are embedded as a core organisational value

Read More »

Download the latest edition of the Business Impact magazine

Want your business school to feature in
Business Impact?

For questions about editorial opportunities, please contact:

Tim Banerjee Dhoul

Content Editor
Business Impact

Tim

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The case for gender-balanced business schools

The case for gender-balanced business schools

female presenter lecturer
female presenter lecturer

The business case for appointing more women into leadership roles in commercial organisations rests on the premise that homogenous male teams don’t perform as well as those that include women. 

Evidence shows that company performance is superior to its peers when the business has a higher representation of women in key roles. This is due to the better customer insight and innovative ideas that stem from a leadership team with different life experiences and perspectives, complementary characteristics, a balanced approach to risk, more ethical decision making, and high-performing people are attracted to work in more inclusive and progressive workplaces. 

How does this translate to business schools?

It’s intuitive that creating high-performing and inclusive faculties is critical, not only to broaden perspectives and improve decision making, but also to authentically teach students and those on postgraduate and executive programmes how to tap into superior business performance.

Student diversity not reflected among faculty

Business schools across the world have made good progress in recruiting gender-balanced student cohorts.  Yet this balance is not yet achieved within the faculty, and there are still far fewer women than men achieving professorships.

It’s important to note that a significant male majority in a faculty where there’s a gender-balanced skills pipeline of business graduates simply can’t be a meritocracy; women are being excluded, either intentionally or through systemic practices that stop them being promoted proportionately, force them to leave or prevent them from accessing the roles in the first place.

There’s a wealth of research published on the benefits of gender balance in business, and the reasons why it currently eludes so many. A rich reserve of journal articles and papers written by academics from top schools, such as Harvard, Columbia and MIT, offer robust evidence and suggest solutions. Yet if you look at the photos of the faculty in many business schools, you would be forgiven for wondering if those in power had actually read any of them.  As the number of suited grey-haired middle-aged white men occupying boardrooms diminishes, university faculties will seem increasingly out of touch with modern business if they don’t reflect this change.

Success and popularity

To understand one reason why there has been little change, turn to the Heidi-Howard study undertaken by Frank Flynn while he was at Columbia Business School [Flynn is now at Stanford Graduate School of Business]. Half of a student group were given a description of a successful woman called ‘Heidi Roizen’, while the other half were give the same information but with the name changed to ‘Howard’. Both male and female students liked Howard but intensely disliked Heidi, proving that the more successful women become, the less popular they are. Success and popularity are positively correlated for men but negatively correlated for women.

Therefore, if progression in the world of academia is dependent on peer reviews, personal letters of recommendation, or the support of the head of department for any application for a professorship, it could be that high-performing women are disliked and more harshly judged than the man who is liked for being ambitious and competitive. Any subjective means of assessing an individual’s performance could be open to bias, favouritism and impression management, all of which will give an advantage to the current dominant majority.

What other practices might be preventing women climbing the career ladder in academia? Misogyny, micro-aggressions, and sexual harassment will all exist in a workplace that enables male dominance to go unchecked.  It’s essential that colleagues are fully informed as to what constitutes unacceptable behaviour and zero tolerance is adopted, with perpetrators being fired despite excelling in other aspects. Anyone abusing their power can’t be exercising sound judgement or ethics in other areas and will be damaging the institution in ways that will only be revealed after their departure. 

Selection criteria and workloads

It’s widely recognised that women will only apply for a job where they think they meet all of the criteria when men will give it a whirl when they only meet 60%. If the selection criteria are opaque or unnecessarily extensive, women will be deterred. The solution is to keep the criteria realistic and ask women to apply.

Are women being given extra workloads or agreeing to undertake more non-promotable tasks than their male colleagues at business school? Women were assigned 55% of the work compared to 45% for men, in a 2018 report from Hive. Despite this 10% workload difference, both sexes completed 66% of their allocated work and the report noted that women are assigned and spend more time on non-promotable tasks (any activity that is beneficial to the organisation but doesn’t contribute to career advancement) than men. Women in faculty positions may be more greatly encumbered with extra non-research responsibilities as a result of their rarity and the desire to have a gender balance on administrative committees.

The quantity of research published is a key performance indicator for an academic, and it’s usually the case that male academics publish a higher volume than their female peers. This could be due to the extra workload women have both at home and at work, or gender bias in commissioning of academic papers, or the peer review process. Editors should examine their processes and remove bias from the system, and business school leaders should look for quality of output rather than quantity, and ensure fairer allocation of non-promotable tasks.

In business, women feel less comfortable with self-promotion than men. It’s possible that female academics are also less likely to promote their own work, so they could do more to build a more widely recognised personal brand.

Recruitment bias

Business schools often require academics to have practiced in industry, and should therefore moderate for the fact that women face bias and are not promoted proportionately in many businesses. They are also less likely to have been promoted beyond their competence, or to exaggerate roles, than male peers.

To avoid bias in recruitment, the number of female applicants in the recruitment pool is critical. Stephanie Johnson, David Hekman and Elsa Chan [of the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business] examined a university’s hiring decisions for academic positions with regards to women and men in a 2016 study.

They found that if there’s only one woman in a candidate pool of four finalists, there’s statistically no chance she’ll be hired. They established that a candidate pool of two women and two men led to a 50% chance of a woman being hired. A lone woman in the pool was never recruited; whereas a lone man led to a disproportionate 33% chance of the man being hired, rather than the 25% you would expect.

They suggest this is because people have a bias towards the status quo. If the job attracts a shortlist with a greater number of male candidates, then a single woman in the pool stands out as a deviation from the norm, and recruiters make a decision in line with the accepted norm.

The simple hack of always having gender-balanced shortlists could have a significant impact on whether more women are successful because they’re no longer seen as a deviation from the male norm. It’s important that business schools make their female academics visible, are given the recognition they deserve, and given the space in their schedule to do more research. The more it becomes the norm to see women in senior roles, the easier it will be for other women to not be seen as an anomaly.

To create a high-performing business school, you need a faculty of high performing gender-balanced diverse academics, and you must create an inclusive environment to optimise the performance of all of them. It’s as much about the battle against the exclusion of women as it is for inclusion. Business school academics that wish to influence business leaders on how to run successful businesses must walk the talk with regards to gender balance and inclusion, and they will reap the benefits.

Julia Muir is the Founder of the Automotive 30% Club, a network of automotive CEOs and MDs working to close the gender gap. She is also CEO of Gaia Innovation and author of Change the Game (Practical Inspiration Publishing, 2021).

BGA members can benefit from a discount on Change the Game, courtesy of the BGA Book Club. Please click here for details.

Read more Business Impact articles related to women in business:

Business Impact: Equal to the task
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Equal to the task

Women hold 60 per cent of leadership roles at IU International University in Germany. Vice-rector of accreditation and study formats Regina Cordes explains how equal opportunities are embedded as a core organisational value

Read More »

Download the latest edition of the Business Impact magazine

Want your business school to feature in
Business Impact?

For questions about editorial opportunities, please contact:

Tim Banerjee Dhoul

Content Editor
Business Impact

Tim

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Being a woman leader: ‘man – I feel like a woman’

Being a woman leader: ‘man – I feel like a woman’

Screenshot 2020-04-17 at 09.40.48
Screenshot 2020-04-17 at 09.40.48

I went to university to study for my undergraduate degree in 1975, the same year in which the UK’s first Sex Discrimination Act was passed and the country’s Equality Opportunities Commission was established.

When I entered the world of business, I believed that ability, competence and hard work would get you where you wanted to go. I did not know what I wanted to do and was content that my own lack of direction might be a self-crafted obstacle. I did not believe my gender was going to be a problem. After all, we had an Act of Parliament to protect us against gender discrimination. What could possibly go wrong?

I’m sure I wasn’t conscious of it at that time, but looking back over my career I agree with Margaret Heffernan’s book, The Naked Truth, in which she says: ‘Being smart and working hard are entry-level requirements. But they won’t protect you from the weird experience of being a businesswoman in a world that remains dominated by men and their values. The companies we see today were built by men for men. Reluctantly, grudgingly, women were granted access – at first just to lowly positions but, when self-interest was served, to more powerful positions. We called this “progress”. But everything comes at a price. The price was that we had to behave in ways that men could be comfortable with: we mustn’t frighten them, threaten them, usurp them, or in any way disturb their universe.’

Maintaining perspective

As one reaches the top levels of management, these words remain true; perhaps even more so. Despite working in a seemingly more liberal non-corporate environment than most senior women, I still have the experience of walking into some meetings, dinners or board summits to find myself the only woman in the room. Or, if there are other women there, we are still a significant minority. 

‘Mansplaining’ remains rife. If you don’t know what this word means, Google the feminist author, Rebecca Solnit, who says, ‘men explain things to me, still. And no man has ever apologised for explaining, wrongly, things that I know and they don’t’. In the face of mansplaining, I find there is the risk that in sticking up for myself with evidence of greater knowledge, I will be seen as difficult, or boastful, rather than more experienced.

So what helps me persist? A sense of the absurd, a sense of perspective and a sense of humour are important qualities for any senior manager. I also have the blessing of a large family and the most unlikely feminist husband one could encounter who has been 100% supportive of me as a person, whether I want to be a mother, a rodeo rider or a vicar. He is my greatest critic and my greatest friend. 

I am very fortunate to have another life to fall back into when persisting seems too hard in a very male senior environment. This ‘other life’ has not only been a source of comfort for me, but also a rich source of leadership development. I have built the majority of my personal resilience through dealing with tragedies and challenges in my personal life. At an early age, I was forced into needed, but unexpected, leadership roles that later equipped me brilliantly, at a psychological level, with the mental strength required to be a dean. 

If I returned home stressed or moaning, my husband often asked: ‘Did anyone die, Vron?’ Of course, my answer was always ‘no’, to which he would reply, ‘well, it’s been a good day then’. Dear women readers – do not write off experiences in your personal spheres as tangential to your development and suitability for leadership.

Challenging bias

Leadership can be a lonely and exposed place for anyone, but it can be particularly so for those who find themselves in a minority. In addition, some of the pioneering women leaders of my generation have only succeeded, as Margaret Heffernan describes, by developing a Margaret Thatcher-like carapace as part of their leadership style, taking on extreme versions of the dominant male stereotype. This does not really tackle the problem and, even if women take on these extreme characteristics, they will still never gain entry to the ‘boys club’.

Instead, those of us who are even modestly senior must try to maintain a sense of our true self, use our positions to promote the cause of the next generation of women, and challenge bias (whether conscious or unconscious) when we see it. We also need to ensure that the new constellation of female stars have leadership development opportunities that enable them to achieve their full potential while maintaining an authenticity around their own set of values. 

I feel very strongly that, in 2020, we can, and should, expect our senior male colleagues to call out sexist behaviour not ‘for’ us but ‘with’ us. Men – don’t hide behind comforting words such as your ‘concern’ about the numbers of women in leadership roles. Do something about making those roles and teams healthy places for women to join.

I am hopeful that the paths taken by my five daughters and their friends will be easier than mine, and I want to support their career journeys so that they are increasingly able to develop organisations that have been created by men and women as places in which all genders can thrive. For me, ‘thriving’ would mean that my daughters and their partners could flourish in their workplaces without having to do daily combat with unconsciously held, but biased, expectations on how the two main sexes might contribute or should behave.

Veronica Hope Hailey is University Vice President for External Engagement at the University of Bath and the former Dean of the University of Bath School of Management.

Read more Business Impact articles related to women in business:

Business Impact: Equal to the task
Women in business and leadership

Equal to the task

Women hold 60 per cent of leadership roles at IU International University in Germany. Vice-rector of accreditation and study formats Regina Cordes explains how equal opportunities are embedded as a core organisational value

Read More »

Download the latest edition of the Business Impact magazine

Want your business school to feature in
Business Impact?

For questions about editorial opportunities, please contact:

Tim Banerjee Dhoul

Content Editor
Business Impact

Tim

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