A breakup letter to the old patriarchal corporate structure
The #greatbreakup. It’s happening.
Women leaders everywhere are leaving the corporate sector at unprecented rates. I could throw the stats at you, but I won’t bore you with what you already know.
It comes down to this: we’re done.
We are so fucking done with the lack of integrity in corporate.
We’re done with being overlooked for promotions, being mistaken for junior staff because of our gender, hitting up against the glass ceiling or even better - being promoted to that oh-so-lovely glass cliff.
We’re done with putting up with the micro-aggressions and missing out on professional development opportunities all because you’re too busy focusing on the wrong metrics to measure our success.
We’re done doing all the diversity, equity and inclusion work just because we’re women and somehow it’s expected of us, despite that fact that it’s not recognised in our performance reviews. And you can forget about us bearing the brunt of the ‘office housework’ and the bulk of actual housework when we get home too.
We. Are. Done.
So if you’re looking to keep your talent (and I’ll remind you that companies with at least 30% of women in leadership perform 48% better than those with less), it’s time to listen up.
Stop recruiting women with the promise of your great diversity and inclusion policy, flex work policy and name any other policy focused on attracting women, if you don’t follow through with in depth training for your staff. Because guess what - attraction is NOT retention.
Do create a performance framework that looks beyond the billable hours someone is doing. Our performance frameworks, which need more transparency and accountability, needs to be broadened to take into account leadership skills that aren’t just ‘masculine’.
They need to weigh things such as building relationships with clients, identifying new areas of business, growing new sector with cross-sectional opportunities as heavily as they do output, hours and being seen around the office.
And whilst we’re speaking of promotion, we need to change how we promote because not all managers are people leaders.
Some people are exceptionally technically gifted - and we should create opportunities for them in the organisation structure to do what they do best - which doesn’t necessarily include managing people. Poor people skills, lack of self-awareness, lower emotional IQ in management will inevitably lead to people walking out the door.
If you really want to promote someone to manage people, then make sure they do the self-work, have the training and support, so they don’t create a toxic culture which will just result in other talent walking out the door.
Because just in case you haven’t heard. We’re done.
Inspired to create change and not sure where to start?
You can book your free value call with me now. In this 30 minute session, I’ll help you get clear on your values so that you can start taking the steps you need to create the impact you want.
