My lovely friend Denise Walker recently spoke at Recruitment International’s ‘Inspiring Women in Recruitment’ Conference. She was on the panel at the event and as the most prepared person I’ve ever met it’s no surprise that she did some prep before hand. These were her pre-event views and opinions:
1. I have never, to my knowledge, been discriminated against due to gender; and, regardless of gender, talented people at all levels are highly valued and sought after – in fact, most couldn’t give a fig about gender! I also see this in my clients’ teams (mostly recruitment industry SMEs) so our industry is to me, a great role model for other industries.
2. If someone has an issue, my advice is this: are you being honest with yourself? Do you really have the skills, attributes and motivation for the role you want? If not, what are you doing about it? What does your personal brand say about you? If you were considering you for an executive role, what would be your impression? What evidence do others have that you are capable of what you aspire to?
For example, when advising my friend on her career (highly successful senior exec in a famous technology business), I was surprised that she had stopped working on her own career development and hadn’t even told her boss she wanted to sit on an executive board. She also wasn’t using the fact that she already had some relevant experience outside of work – trustee on a charity and a school board etc. And her presence on the Internet and her company’s intranet was, to put it bluntly, pants. I asked my friend if she thought her boss was a mind-reader…
Another example is my work with The Plus Team, Lyn Cecil and Tina Rycroft’s fantastic back to work initiative. Through this, we work with unemployed executives – of fantastic calibre – this has reinforced my knowledge of how important a personal brand is today. You are what research says you are. We have these people work on their personal brand (CV, LinkedIn, face to face networking, personal image, clarifying their value – to themselves as much as anyone). Their confidence soars, they apply themselves more effectively and a consistent 70% are hired within 12 weeks. Men and women!
3. Take the strategic approach to your career – look up and step up: If you have an idea of where you want your career to go, put a plan in place to get there. If you don’t plan this, you are likely to end up somewhere else! What steps do you need to take to gain the relevant experience and qualifications? If you want to be on the board, talk about it with your boss – how can s/he help you gain the relevant experience to get there? How can you help yourself if they can’t? If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
For people that can’t put their finger on exactly what they want to do, even a vague idea helps. For example, I grew up in relative poverty but I kind of knew from an early age that education might give me a way out. It wasn’t easy going but I chose to study subjects that were right for a ‘career’ (business and finance) and early on, I took jobs – no matter how low level – that might lead to ‘a career’.
4. I am convinced that improving leadership and management capability in our country is a factor – not gender. It’s known that employee engagement is a challenge in the UK – a mere 29% of the workforce is thought to be fully engaged. This means that most organisations are at risk of losing PEOPLE – both female and male. Those that have their ‘employer brand’ sorted are the ones that keep their PEOPLE.
As leaders, we are responsible in our organisations for creating the vision for future. Setting the culture is as important as setting hard objectives. A culture that nurtures and develops all talent, in my experience, enables human capital to be maximised – and this has a direct positive effect on the bottom line.
5. Sheryl Sandberg is right – women should lean in. And so should men. But there is also nothing wrong with not wanting to lean in too. And don’t forget, people can’t have it all, something has to give. I knew I needed a career but I wasn’t prepared for my daughter to be looked after by strangers, so my husband stayed at home.
6. Rather than “can women learn from men” we should be asking: “what can we learn from people that we admire/aspire to be like?”
7. Quotas are not the way forward. I have a personal dislike of quotas. I believe in meritocracy and, as I said before, I have never been held back because of gender. And I’d be mortified to feel I had won something just because I’m female.
Denise then went on to ask some of her business network what they thought . She has shared their thoughts on her site and it’s well worth a read. Lots of the thoughts echo my own (which are also shared there).
Denise came away from the event having come to the conclusion that there are at least two key things we can do in the Recruitment Industry to address the perceived issues:
1. Continue to set a great example in our own industry
There are more women in senior posts in our industry than in most others. We can definitely improve on this by empowering leadership and management teams to really engage their people – to bring out the best in them and help the reach their true potential.
2. Ensure good old fashioned consultative, partnering relationships with our customers (clients and candidates)
In terms of the recruitment services we offer, we in the recruitment industry are in a prime position to influence leaders in other sectors. Partnering takes time to build and most professional recruiters aspire to do this. But for clients’ sake at least, a good consultant would attempt to educate them…wouldn’t they?
Finally I wanted to share Denise’s aim in participating which was to get the message across that, actually, if people want to get ahead, there is not much stopping them – least of all gender. I have to say I totally agree!
