Voice At The Table

By Melissa Jackson

Hands up if you know that there is a football world cup happening right now.

Keep your hands up if you can name any of the players!

OK, so I have grudgingly lowered my hand… in dismay because if this was men’s football, even though I do not follow every England match in the calendar in (somewhat desperate) hope that we can close a 50+ year gap of trophy privation and reclaim our global reputation, I would be able to identify at least two or three players in the squad.

Shame on me.

And for that matter, shame on my 14-year-old son, who said, “I didn’t even know there was a women’s world cup.”

Or are we being judgementally harsh on ourselves?

How much media coverage is there not just during, but months ahead of the men’s football world cup? It is inescapable – who could possibly not want to know every intimate detail of the players, both on and off the pitch? It’s almost impossible to escape from the ubiquitous “game on” mentality.

Not so, for the women’s championship, in fact it feels distinctly under the media radar. Is it because there is less money to be made in merchandising, ticket sales and TV rights? It does seem to be relegated to the side lines of the prime-time tv schedule and the prize money inequity is scandalous.

The winners of the Women’s World Cup will receive just $4m (from FIFA) compared to last year’s $38m for the men. Even the teams who ranked from 17^th to 32^nd place in last year’s men’s tournament received $8m. Is it just me or does this seem unreasonable?

If the Sun’s back-page headline after the first England match is anything to go by, potential sponsors are missing a (hat)trick.

“England women attract five times more viewers than men’s team as World Cup opener vs Scotland breaks UK TV record,” it proclaimed.

An audience of 6.1million people watched the Lionesses beat Scotland 2-1; an impressive 38% of the audience share. It was also reassuring to see an all-female line-up of pundits on the BBC.

By contrast, the men’s national team scored an (estimated) audience of just 1.2 million in their Nations League third-place play-off with Switzerland, the day before.

The attendance of just over 13,000, at the women’s match, which was blamed on FIFA’s marketing strategy rather than a lack of interest, was not so impressive.

My friend’s 10-year-old son, Balthazar, who admitted to being a fan of the women’s competition, thought it was “sexist” to call the men’s tournament “the World Cup” and the ladies’ version “the Women’s World Cup”.

He is wise beyond his years, especially when he swiftly addressed the disparity with, “Why can’t there be mixed football?”

It was only when I delved into the history of the women’s game that I gained an understanding of why it has been marginalised.

The women’s sport started in the late 19th century and became popular during the First World War, attracting thousands of spectators.

However, in 1921 the FA declared the game unsuitable for women and FA-affiliated clubs were forbidden to allow women’s football on their grounds. The ban was in force until 1971; so little wonder the men’s game has dominated the professional football mindset. It took another 40 years to establish the “semi-professional” FA Women’s Super League in 2011.

Aside from suggesting Balthazar’s mixed teams idea to FIFA, I’m familiarising myself with the names of England’s key players, to appease my guilt and to alert my friends – both male and female – to the significance of women’s football.

If you want to be an ally to women, there are many practical steps you can take. Some are simple, others might require more effort. Even incremental changes in individual behaviour can contribute to advances for women.

1. Recruit women.

In doing so, recognise that some of the best candidates might not come to you. Men apply for jobs when they meet 60%t of the hiring criteria, while women wait until they meet all of them. Seek out female candidates via LinkedIn, through references and internships, and by making sure hiring committees put women and other diverse candidates on the shortlist. Some organisations use text-analysis software to help human resources create descriptions that resonate with women.

2. Provide constructive criticism.

Sometimes men in power are uncomfortable providing negative feedback to female colleagues or employees. The result is that women don’t get the feedback they need to advance their professional development. Be honest and fair, just as you would with your male counterparts.

3.  If you have workplace flexibility benefits and parental leave, use them.

In taking this course, you empower women to do the same. We can’t achieve gender parity if women are the only ones taking child-care leave. As novelist Liza Mundy writes in The Atlantic, “The true beneficiaries of paternity leave are women.”

4.  Be a mentor.

Women often seek out other women as mentors. But research shows that women who also have male mentors get more promotions and make more money. As a mentor, you can give general advice, but also specifics, such as negotiation advice. Actively seek-out women to mentor. Identify a woman who has made a strong positive impression on you and consider what you see as this woman’s particular strengths and talents and what you know about her experience, career goals and ambitions. Explain how you want to help her and why. Ask open-ended questions, listen attentively to her answers, and try to see things through her eyes. Be sure your conclusions are based on hard facts, not on what you assume to be true.

5.  Learn not to “manterrupt.”

Research tells us that men interrupt women in conversation far more often than they interrupt other men. Likewise, women get less credit for their contributions than men. Progressive workplaces and their like-minded male employees recognise this phenomenon as a common micro-aggression and are working to correct it, largely by modelling different behaviours. The obvious example for men to employ is simply listening more than talking, but a more active tactic is to visibly solicit ideas and questions from women at meetings, and then to affirm them.

6.  Raise the number and visibility of female leaders.

Research shows us that one of the reasons women’s aspirations dwindle early in their career path is that they don’t see female role models ahead of them in the pipeline. Unfortunately, data supports women’s views. While women enter the workplace in equal numbers to men, their representation decreases step-by-step throughout the career pipeline and falls to about 19 % by the time they reach senior “board” positions.

7. Call out injustices, even if they don’t impact on you.

Being an ally means noticing injustices you don’t feel or experience. And once you notice injustice, act. Silence about injustice is interpreted, or misinterpreted, as support for the status quo. If a man makes a sexist joke, a male advocate can simply say, “That comment unfairly stereotypes women and I don’t think that’s ok.”

by Melissa Jackson

So, we have a new royal baby.

A boy, 7^th in line to the throne, means the nation isn’t gripped by the fever accorded to the first-born of Prince William. But the innocent Archie Windsor or “baby Sussex”, as he has been lovingly tagged by the press, has certainly made an impact in royal circles, by bumping a few relatives down the pecking order and “claim to the throne” hierarchy.

There is only one girl above him, four-year-old Princess Charlotte – and this is due to rule changes, which were introduced just four years ago, replacing “male” with “absolute” primogeniture, where gender is irrelevant for inheritance. Progress has been slow in the higher echelons of the establishment.

It’s a world away from Japan, where a new dynastic monarch was recently anointed. Emperor Naruhito has one child – Princess Aiko and for a while this raised the debate over whether to adopt absolute primogeniture. However, the birth of a son to Naruhito’s younger brother in 2006, suspended the discussions.

Unpalatable as this is, I am more vexed that the ceremony itself belched under the weight of conscious bias and sexist dogma. All Imperial women – including his wife and daughter – were banned from his enthronement.

The absence of female royalty at the ceremony casts a critical spotlight on the role of women in Japan’s Imperial family and its traditionally archaic rules. In the 21^st century, it seems some conventions have escaped the march of enlightenment.

There is one reassuring irony in all of this – a woman did manage to legitimately attend the ceremony. Among a sea of men in black tailcoats, there was one guest, dressed in a light silk kimono.

As the only female minister in the current government’s cabinet, Satsuki Katayama earned herself a place in the history books to become the first woman in modern times to officially witness the ceremony.

I am thinking of inserting a happy emoji here, but had better not get ahead of myself!

Back home, I was delighted to learn that the UK has its first female Defence Secretary in Penny Mordaunt after Gavin Williamson was sacked.

She is the daughter of a paratrooper, attended a comprehensive school and is a Royal Navy reservist. Perfect credentials. In her role of Minister for Women and Equalities, one she will keep, she has been outspoken on abortion law, privately pushing the prime minister to work to end the ban in Northern Ireland.

She now has to navigate what is still a very male dominated world.

She has spoken previously about the difficulties of being a woman in the armed forces, notably  calling for them to become more accessible by highlighting her own training.

“I felt that the lecture and practical demonstration on how to care for the penis and testicles in the field failed to appreciate that some of us attending had been issued with the incorrect kit,” she said.

Clearly a woman who is destined to make an impact.

Meetings are opportunities to benefit from the team’s cumulative thinking. Yet at most meetings, 70% of the contribution comes from 30% of contributors. To ensure everyone participates equally, create an inclusive team meeting environment that allows everyone to tap into the diversity of thought of their colleagues by following these 10 guidelines:

1. Set up each agenda item in the form of a question. This engages the mind and improves thinking.
2. Check titles at the door and allow everyone to speak freely, no matter how junior or new.
3. Encourage everyone to speak up early by asking a simple/ice breaker question and going around the table for each person to answer in turn.
4. Agree with each person to listen attentively and to not interrupt other speakers.
5. Create a judgment-free zone. Everyone is entitled to their view and, while views may vary significantly, there is no right or wrong view.
6. Encourage discourse. To avoid ‘groupthink’, encourage team members to openly (yet politely) disagree with each other to generate some friction. The more disparate the ideas, the closer you will get to finding those gems.
7. Acknowledge that you don’t know everything. Being humble and admitting that one does not have all the answers builds trust and respect.
8. Encourage a growth mindset. When someone doesn’t know something, they don’t know it – yet!
9. Fail fast and fail forward. Failing at something is a milestone to learning, not a sackable offence. Acknowledge failures and learn from them as a team.
10. Adopt a “disrupt” approach. Revisit existing assumptions and conventional approaches. Encourage team members to think creatively – no suggestion is a dumb idea.

For more information on how to run inclusive team meetings, please contact us.

Have you ever asked yourself why Diversity and Inclusion always appear together? Why isn’t Diversity in itself enough? Surely it should be sufficient to work alongside people of different backgrounds and experiences?

Diversity, unfortunately, is only half the story.

Benefiting from diversity of thought means more than having a diverse group of people. I worked in an office where we counted over 50 different nationalities, but in the workplace, most assimilated into a corporate culture that discouraged us from being ourselves.

That’s why we need Inclusion. An inclusive culture is an environment in which every individual feels welcomed and valued. In this environment the advantages of diversity can be fully harnessed; we can attract and retain future talent and develop a distinguished and sustainable competitive edge.

How do we create an inclusive environment? Here, I often quote Ghandi: Be the change you want to see. Try to role model inclusive behaviours that invite others to open up and be themselves without fear of judgment, retribution or career sacrifices.

There are nine inclusive behaviours that we can adopt. Here are three of them:

1. Empathy

Empathy is described as the ability to understand another’s feelings. This is a key attribute of inclusion because understanding a person’s motivation allows you to adapt your behaviour and judgment accordingly.

Empathy is about asking yourself “If the roles were reversed, how would I feel? What would I do?” Imagine being the only vegetarian in a group of friends going out to dinner. How would you feel if everyone wanted to go out for steak? Would you feel encouraged to go along? Now think about that colleague of yours who doesn’t consume alcohol when you’re all preparing to go out to the pub. How do they feel? Are they likely to feel invited and included?

Understanding how others feel allows you to step into the shoes of your colleague, your boss or your client to understand the world from their perspective and tailor your responses, demands and services accordingly.

2. Listening Skills

Listening is different from hearing what’s being said; it’s about listening with purpose to understand what the other person is saying.

How often do we jump in with our thoughts – and sometimes words – while someone is speaking to us? How common is it to interrupt and try to finish the speaker’s sentence? How frequently are we simply waiting our turn to speak instead of actually listening?

Listening without interruptions allows people to grow and develop. It allows the speaker to open up and to start building a trusting bond with the listener. It allows you to better understand the speaker– to show respect and acknowledgment of their perspective.

3. Bias and Self-Awareness

Bias is our brain’s ability to make split-second decisions about people and matters based on our own filters and experiences. Our brain filters information all the time to help us make decisions. It assumes that all similar situations are the same. We judge based on those initial assumptions. When we’re in the hospital, we think the whole world is sick.

But what if those assumptions are wrong? When we’ve been bitten by a dog, we assume that all dogs will bite us.

What if they get in the way of making good decisions? When we encounter a timid person, we think they’re not cut out for leadership.

To avoid making poor decisions, we need to become aware of our assumptions, prejudices and judgements. We need to check them and test them: are we making a reasoned judgment or is it based on a potentially wrong assumption? That is where self-awareness comes in.

Self-awareness is the ability to have a clear perception of our own personality – our strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs, motivation, and emotions.  It also allows us to become aware of our own assumptions and to challenge and test them. Self-awareness allows us to take charge of our emotions and thoughts and change them; it allows us to be more aware of our innate biases, be more inclined to question our actions, our thoughts and our feelings. In other words, the more self-aware we are, the less biased we can become, creating an environment that values our differences.

If you want to create a culture that benefits from the diverse contribution of each individual around you, start by grasping these three inclusive behaviours.