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Hello Works for Women Community!
While it has been what feels like an eternity since we’ve written to you, we are beyond excited to be back. We’ve missed our community and our conversations around workplace challenges to spark dialogue, build awareness, and inspire individual action to drive change. As March 1 is the start of Women’s History Month, and with International Women’s Day right around the corner, we felt it was the time to reignite our community. And what better way to reignite than through connection? Vulnerability expert Brené Brown once said "connection is why we're here. We are hardwired to connect with others, it's what gives purpose and meaning to our lives, and without it there is suffering." We couldn’t agree more! It has been a long two years, we all have felt the disconnection, so it is time to stretch that muscle. Building connecting and shared space to share who we are, and how we want to move forward is going to be key to our new post-pandemic world. To join this Works for Women challenge, simply:
As Brené Brown shares in her most recent book, Atlas of the Heart, “so often, when we feel lost, adrift in our lives, our first instinct is to look out into the distance to find the nearest shore. But that shore, that solid ground, is within us. The anchor we are searching for is connection, and it is internal.” Simply put, connection is our challenge this month. Connection to ourselves, connection to our community, and connection to, hopefully, new communities as well. We will look to bring another challenge to our community in the month of April and bring us back together to hear stories of leadership during the pandemic this fall. Until then, Works for Women
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We hope our message today finds you well, and safe, amidst these unprecedented times. You have been on our minds and as such, we are back and set to inspire our community -- but we need your help! Even though we aren't able to be together, Works for Women still wants to bring our community together with a simple idea: to bring back the power of a hand-written note. Have you ever received a postcard or note from someone out of the blue? Do you remember that feeling of gratitude for the words you received? Works for Women wants to create those feelings again during these unprecedented times -- knowing that a seemingly small gesture can spark joy and perhaps future act of kindness. Launching today, our Time to Inspire campaign asks you to send a hand-written note to someone in your life. Think of someone who could use a little boost, or words of encouragement and send her a hand-written note to tell her why she is amazing. To kick-start this campaign, Works for Women will mail the first 100 respondents to our email (or Instagram post) a blank postcard for you to use to send to a friend. We will even supply the postage! May these 100 hand-written notes become 1,000 (and then 10,000) as you set to inspire and empower the amazing women you know around the world! Note, to be eligible, please send us your full name and mailing address.  Based on the World Economic Forum’s 2018 Global Gender Gap Report, the average distance completed to parity is at 68.0%, which is only a marginal improvement over last year. In other words, to date there is still a 32.0% average gender gap that remains to be closed. The need for continued global momentum for gender parity is still paramount. Collective action and shared responsibility for driving a gender-balanced world is key. March 8 is fast approaching and is International Women's Day – a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, and also marks a call to action for accelerating gender balance. The 2019 International Women's Day campaign theme is a call-to-action for driving gender balance across the world, to accelerate gender balance. Balance is not a women's issue; it's a business issue. The race is on for the gender-balanced boardroom, a gender-balanced government, gender-balanced media coverage, a gender-balance of employees, more gender-balance in wealth, gender-balanced sports coverage. Gender balance is essential for economies and communities to thrive. For this challenge, we are simply asking, how will you help make a difference? Balance for Better We are asking you to commit to a “gender-parity mindset” through progressive action. Select one area to which you can specifically commit and press for progress in gender parity in your own sphere of influence. Categories for which you may want to achieve balance could include maintaining a gender parity mindset, challenging stereotypes and bias, forging positive visibility of women, influencing other’s beliefs and actions, or celebrating women’s achievements. Let’s all collaborate to accelerate gender parity, and use our collective action to power equality worldwide. To join the challenge:
In closing, thank you again for helping to spark dialogue, build awareness, and inspire action. We are reminded that change does not happen overnight, but by uniting our community we can take direct action to impact change. Works for Women is continuing to build a better place for women to lead! 
In celebration of International Women’s Day, Works for Women is excited to invite you to participate in lighting your skyline in purple to create awareness for gender equity in your city. Last year we were humbled and honoured to see over twenty organizations in Edmonton committed to creating a gender parity mindset by participating in our campaign. Each organization took the opportunity to shine a spotlight on women to celebrate today’s leaders, empower tomorrow’s and press for progress in gender equality in the workplace.
The skyline takeover was a visual realization of the community’s commitment to greater diversity, inclusion, and gender equality in workplaces – publicly demonstrating the collective power of the city’s commitment to make positive change happen so that women have a fair chance to advance and succeed at work. When the buildings and structures lit up on International Women’s Day in Edmonton, we saw an indisputable beacon of solidarity among business leaders, which sparked a conversation to accelerate much needed change in the workplace. This year we want to expand our campaign across the globe and would like to ask you to consider participating in lighting your skyline in purple on March 8th in support of gender equality. The ask is simple – reach out to your building manager to ask if your building can participate, and let’s amplify our message beyond the Edmonton community this year! Note: We have already reached out to several buildings in Edmonton already, so please send Works for Women an email directly to coordinate these efforts. We can’t wait to see a purple beacon of light on March 8th! Make sure to use the hashtag #WorksForWomen #WomenInLeadership and #BetterForBalance when you share your skyline images. Works for Women is excited to share their first challenge of 2019 with you as we continue to help spark dialogue, build awareness, and inspire action when it comes to women in the workplace, and this challenge. We know that change does not happen overnight, but by uniting our community and inspiring individual action we can take direct action to impact change!
Creating Psychological Safety On the heels of Bell Let’s Talk campaign, Works for Women is reminded of the importance of mental health and wellness in the workplace, and how we cannot forget the profound impact that inclusive workplaces create for everyone's psychological safety. The annual Bell Let’s Talk awareness campaign that happens every January is driving the national conversation to help reduce this stigma and promote awareness and understanding, and talking is an important first step towards lasting change. Every year one adult in four will have a mental health issue and these conditions can profoundly affect millions of lives, affecting the capability of these individuals to make it through the day, to sustain relationships, and to maintain work. The stigma attached to mental health causes a damaging, albeit ill-informed, attitude, making it more difficult for those affected to pursue help. Bottom line, to make a culture more innovative, a workplace needs to allow its employees to feel safe to voice their opinions and concerns and share their ideas. According to Catalyst, when team members feel this level of ‘psychological safety’, the workplace is has an inclusive culture, and employees feel confident to speak up and make mistakes without fear of being ridiculed or punished. One of the biggest hurdles for anyone suffering from mental illness is overcoming the stigma attached to it. Managers play an important role in shrinking the stigma associated with mental illness, being a support system for employees in times of need and reducing psychological hazards such as bullying in the workplace. Being proactive and engaged in promoting metal health in the workplace can encourage employees to ask for help when they feel that work and life are unmanageable. For this challenge, Works for Women wants to ensure every employees can take risks, regardless of rank or status, trust that teammates won’t undermine their efforts or work, have confidence that mistakes won’t be held against them, and can freely speak up about problems and tough issues. To join the challenge:
If you create this sense of psychological safety for yourself, and for your own team starting now, you can expect to see higher levels of engagement, increased motivation to tackle difficult problems, more learning and development opportunities, and better performance. We can remove the stigma and by educating ourselves and raising awareness that mental health impacts us all. Here are some additional stories to help you on your journey to strong mental health and building a workplace culture that creates psychological safety for everyone. Additional Resources
Works for Women Event Details The date has changed from the original save the date, but we are excited to share that we will be hosting our inaugural in-person event on April 9, 2019 centered around the concept of a Human Library. From its origins, The Human Library is designed to build a positive framework for conversations that can challenge stereotypes and prejudices through dialogue. The Human Library is a place where real people are on load to the readers. We are bringing several leaders from the Edmonton community together to speak to their own career journey and be a sounding board for pushing our participants to build their own support networks to help advance their career (building off the success of our Building Your Own Personal Advisory Board challenge from 2017). So mark your calendars, and an Eventbrite invitation will follow soon. When: April 9th, 2019 Where: Stantec Tower, 10220-103 Avenue NW Timing: Arrive 4pm, event kick-off at 4:30. Formal event to wrap at 6:30pm Works for Women is excited to share our next challenge with you, as we continue to spark dialogue, build awareness, and inspire action to make Alberta a better place for women to lead. We are reminded that change does not happen overnight, but by uniting our community we can take direct action to impact change!
For this challenge, we want you to break down the barriers when it comes to your own Impostor Syndrome. High achievers may have it, never believing they’ve done enough. Perfectionists, who never think their work is good enough. The list of “impostors” goes on and on. Impostor Syndrome (also known as impostor phenomenon, impostorism, fraud syndrome or the impostor experience) is a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts her or his own accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a "fraud". Our Next Challenge Have you ever attributed your success to timing or luck? Thought, “If I can do it, anybody can”? Have you ever agonized over the smallest flaws in your work? Did you answer yes to one or more of these questions? You are not alone! 70% of people at some point in their lives experience Impostor Syndrome and there are actually several different types of people with Impostor Syndrome. Expert on the subject, Dr. Valerie Young has categorized it into subgroups: the Perfectionist, the Superwoman/man, the Natural Genius, the Rugged Individualist, and the Expert. Here is how she defines them:
How can you overcome Impostor Syndrome? We turn to Ashely Stahl, and her article: Feel Like A Fraud? Here’s How To Overcome Impostor Syndrome to give us some more perspective on how to build out our confidence and overcome Imposter Syndrome. Start by acknowledging it. Recognize and call out these disruptive thoughts and feelings when they emerge. Once you know what it feels like and can recognize the “impostor” within you, you’ll have an easier time overcoming it. Make a mental note or better yet, write your thoughts down as they occur. It can be anything from “I’m not good enough to give this presentation” or “I don’t deserve this project” or “I got lucky with this award”. Not. True. While having a bit of humility about your work is OK, experiencing paralyzing fear over it is not. Change your mental programming. Reframe your thoughts and realize that what you’re feeling isn’t founded on anything real. Feelings of inadequacy and fear are all in your head, so imagine how you’d feel if you could turn these thoughts into something positive. Instead of thinking something like “I don’t know anything” why not try reframing it to “I don’t know everything...yet. I’m still learning”? See how it feels when you don’t put the pressure on yourself to know it all. After all, no one is perfect. Realize you aren’t perfect. In fact, no one is. Perfectionism and Impostor Syndrome tend to go hand-in-hand, so cut yourself some slack. Try finishing a project before you “think” it’s ready for completion. Start that business plan, and ask for help if you need it. It’s more than OK to do so. (Don’t let your ego overthink it!) You may never bring that great idea to fruition if you wait for it to be “perfect” in your mind. And wouldn’t that be a shame? Take note of your achievements. While you may not be perfect, you certainly are great at many things. Make a list of your strengths, and take note of everything you’re good at. Then, make a list of your weaknesses or areas you’d like to improve on, and focus on developing those areas. Personal development is healthy. Just don’t forget to also take note of your achievements. Remember, you aren’t alone. You aren’t the only one who struggles with feelings of inadequacy. Find someone you can talk to, whether it be a coach, friend, or colleague. You don’t need to tackle this alone. (You probably think you do since that’s another trait of Impostor Syndrome, but luckily you don’t.) There’s a whole community of people out there who are also struggling to feel good enough. Offer to be “that person” that your colleague can turn to for validation. Connect with each other when you notice a misrepresentation of experience or accomplishment. Encourage your colleagues and friends to accept opportunities and challenges for which they are qualified. For this challenge, we want you to break down the barriers when it comes to your own Impostor Syndrome. To join the challenge:
With effort and mental reprogramming, you can learn to overcome your self-doubt and celebrate your accomplishments. It’s no easy task, but imagine how liberated you’ll feel once your feelings of anxiety and fears of “getting found out” subside. We can have open conversations about our challenges. With increasing awareness of how common these experiences are, perhaps we can feel freer to be frank about our feelings and build confidence in some simple truths: you have talent, you are capable, and you belong. Here are some additional tips, because we know Impostor Syndrome is not easy to overcome:
We can’t say this enough: Believe you can do it, believe you deserve it, and believe you will get it. No really, BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! Consider a new mantra: “I deserve my success. I am qualified for this. I belong in this role.” Here are some additional resources to help you in your journey. Resources
Upcoming Our next challenge will once again focus on mental health as we wrap up the year. Lastly, save the date - we will be hosting our first event, the Works for Women Human Library on February 7, 2019 (3:30-5:30). If you are located in Edmonton, mark your calendar. More details to follow later this year. World events seemingly continue to surprise us all, even when we think something isn’t quite possible, it happens, and the news ripples quickly in our connected world. Of particular interest to Works for Women, we saw the recent deployment of more than 8,000 Starbucks company-owned stores and offices across the United States closed for an afternoon in May for a conversation and learning session on race, bias and the building of a diverse and welcoming company. While this work is intended to be the foundation of a longer-term Starbucks anti-bias, diversity, equity, and inclusion effort, it doesn’t preclude the ripple of effect of one act that was seen around the world.
Taking a page out of an article that our co-founder, Erin Davis, wrote back in March, the pace and frequency of conversation about women's rights continues to rise. We've seen the Women's March on Washington, the placement of the Fearless Girl statue on Wall Street, the #MeToo movement and, most recently, the #TimesUp letter of solidarity. Voices for women's equality, advancement and advocacy continue to gain momentum, but are they making a difference? Are we catalyzing change on a global scale, or are we simply continuing an outdated conversation for women's equality? Whether or not you believe that the right conversation is happening, it can be argued that the rate of change (if any change at all) is not fast enough for our heightened expectations for quality. Data continue to show us that we are not moving toward equality, despite our best intentions. According to Catalyst research, women currently only hold 25 (5.0 percent) of CEO positions at S&P 500 companies, but certainly, the candidate pool is much larger. So, what is holding us back? While grassroots movements can create dialogue and spark conversation around gender parity, they have not yet fueled enough fire to evolve our thinking, or pushed through our own discomfort to see substantive change. If we are to challenge the status quo and impact change, we must consider how our biases, conscious or unconscious, are affecting our daily conversations and practices. For the month of September (and beyond), we are challenging our network to take stock of their own biases. September Challenge – Managing Our Biases On our journey to become more inclusive leaders, we must take the opportunity to self-reflect and understand what can make us the best leaders. Inclusive leaders make everyone feel welcome and appreciated, which in turn leads to more innovation, more team citizenship behaviour, and more feelings of belongingness and uniqueness in employees. However, unconscious biases can sometimes get in the way of being a truly inclusive leader. Unconscious bias speaks to the inclination or preference formed without reasonable justification that can prevent judgement from being balanced, which can sometimes results in prejudice or bias. We cannot eliminate our behaviours, but certainly we can create a level of awareness around the decisions we are making – for example, being as informed as we can be. Research tells us that unconscious bias occurs when our brain creates shortcuts. These shortcuts, while important when we need to make quick decisions, also cause us to make quick assessments or judgments of people and situations without realizing the unintended consequence. Unconscious bias exists in each person's worldview and affects our behaviour from our home to our workplace. We all bring unconscious biases into the workplace. These deeply subconscious attitudes span race, gender, appearance, age, wealth and much more. They influence everything from the car you drive to the employee you promote and the one you don’t. And because they are so reflexively triggered without our knowledge, they are virtually uncontrollable. These biases could include the tendency to associate with people who remind us of ourselves, or searching for information in a way that confirms our own perceptions and firmly held beliefs. These actions maintain the status quo within the organization and do not challenge the established norms that may be excluding underrepresented people in the organization. The facts show us that conscious or unconscious, biases are not moving the dial when it comes to gender parity in the workplace. Perhaps the conversation needs to move to the root cause of inequality – addressing our own biases. We all have unconscious bias, which often creates barriers to inclusion. Understanding our own biases and bringing them to our awareness, can help to build strong, more diverse and inclusive organization, and allow us all to be more inclusive leaders. Are we growing through our daily practices, and forcing ourselves outside of our comfort zones – to lean into the discomfort and take pause in trying something new? To join the challenge:
To create change, the ask is simple – to give others a chance; engage in critical self-reflection; and above all, get to know people by making personal connections. Let's take the step forward with our own self-awareness – the one thing under our own control. Resources There is an abundance of resources out there to help you in your journey, here are a few:
In closing, thank you again for helping to spark dialogue, build awareness, and inspire action. We are reminded that change does not happen overnight, but by uniting our community we can take direct action to impact change. Works for Women is continuing to build a better place for women to lead! Happy summer solstice. Today is the day that the sun appears to stand still as it reaches its highest point, before moving off toward the horizon. As we all celebrate the official start of summer, Works for Women wants to also share their Summertime Challenge with you.
Summertime Challenge – Inspire Her! According to Catalyst, in any work culture, relationships are necessary for employees to attain high-visibility assignments, promotions, and connections. For women, sponsors—advocates in positions of authority who use their influence intentionally to help others advance—are essential to ensuring career advancement and professional development. We know that women have a lot of mentors; but they also need sponsors who will give them visibility, talk about their accomplishments behind closed doors, and promote them for stretch opportunities. For this month’s challenge, we want to explore how the Works for Women network can act as powerful sponsors for women in their spheres of influence – to help them reach their highest career point. Confidence is everything. Women need to know how valuable they are and how valuable their point of view is in any field for us to inch toward gender parity in the workforce. It sounds simple, and of course there are so many external factors that play in to the way things are, but I think that would be a huge step in the right direction. Let’s take the opportunity to tell women they are brilliant. Let them know what kind of brilliance you see, and why it’s so special. We are therefore bringing back #WomenCrushLeadership from our Empowering Female Leaders Challenge last May. We want to hear more of your stories of the women that inspire you, each day. We know that women lack visible role models at senior levels – we often cannot become what we cannot see. There are so many inspirational women out there, but somehow, it’s hard to see (and hear) the collective impact they are all making. This month we want to change that visual and hear about the inspirational women you know – any why they inspire you. Let’s recreate this visual of what we see and remember what inspires us. And what better way to kick-off those summer time vibes with positive messaging for those that truly inspire you to do your best work. To join the challenge, simply:
Let’s inspire and empower women to continue to do their best work! In closing, thank you again for helping to spark dialogue, build awareness, and inspire action. We are reminded that change does not happen overnight, but by uniting our community we can take direct action to impact change. Works for Women is continuing to build a better place for women to lead. We will be back to our regular programming in September and look forward to sharing our September challenge with you. On behalf of Works for Women, thank you for continuing to grow our community of individual champions who want to make Alberta a better place for women to lead. As we look back to our April Challenge, we also thank you for reflecting on your own procurement practices, either at home or at work, and understanding how women-led and women-owned businesses are impact your personal buying decisions. And remember, don’t let this important work stop – be curious to know more about the organizations you are working with, and the companies you are supporting. Now to share the details of this month’s challenge.
May Challenge – Imagine It! Taking Time to Reflect Harvard Business School psychologist Francesca Gino and her colleagues have recently published a paper about how fitting in 15 minutes of reflection to the end of your day makes you more effective. In one field experiment, new employees who had 15 minutes to write and reflect at the end of the day performed 22.8% percent better than those who didn't. "When people have the opportunity to reflect, they experience a boost in self-efficacy," Gino says. "They feel more confident that they can achieve things. As a result, they put more effort into what they're doing and what they learn." If we pull this thinking back to ourselves, we often start the year thinking about our future, what goals do we want to set for ourselves? Even though we are already part way through this year, it is never too late to set some time aside to reflect on your own personal vision. As you dive back into this very important work, reflect on what a knock-the-ball-out-of-the-park look like for you? What is the career that seems so incredible you think it’s almost criminal to have it? What is the dream you don’t allow yourself to even consider because it seems too unrealistic, frivolous, or too big? Well, start envisioning it. That is the true key to beginning the journey to having that career you have always dreamt of. For this month’s challenge, we encourage you to start journaling. According to Stephen R. Covey, keeping a personal journal a daily in-depth analysis and evaluation of your experiences is a high-leverage activity that increases self-awareness and enhances all the endowments and the synergy among them. If you want to start small, take 15 minutes to be grateful. Something that you may not do on a regular basis—but could benefit from—is taking time to write down five things you are grateful for. If you want a challenge, start with those big auspicious questions, thanks to the work of Tara Sophia Mohr, an expert on women’s leadership and well-being. She helps women play bigger in sharing their voices and bringing forward their ideas in work and in life:
Practice allowing yourself to dream into these big visions. Practice setting aside all the questions that come up about what’s possible and how you could get there. The questions will come up, for sure – and you can keep setting them aside. This is not the time to work on the “how” or put the dream on trial. It’s time to welcome the vision, make friends with it, and hold it lovingly in your mind as you walk through your life. To join the May Challenge:
It is through our intentional action that we can drive our career in the direction we want. The takeaways: If you reflect on your work, you can identify best practices as they emerge. If you reflect on your life, you can find the meaning you otherwise overlooked. Additional Resources The following are great reads to get you started with your journaling and reflecting on your personal vision:
If you want to read more from Tara, she is the author of Playing Big: Practical Wisdom for Women Who Want to Speak Up, Create, and Lead, named a best book of the year by Apple’s iBooks and now in paperback. In the book, she shares her pioneering model for making the journey from playing small–being held back by fear and self-doubt–to playing big, taking bold action to pursue what you see as your callings. In closing, thank you again for helping to spark dialogue, build awareness, and inspire action. We are reminded that change does not happen overnight, but by uniting our community we can take direct action to impact change. On behalf of Works for Women, thank you for helping us drive change in Alberta. On behalf of Works for Women, thank you for continuing to grow our community of individual champions who want to make Alberta a better place for women to lead. We are again humbled and honoured to see your commitment to creating a gender parity mindset and sharing how you will press for progress when it comes to gender parity in the workplace – including individuals who pledged to engage in meaningful dialogue and challenge the status quo, further the conversation and leverage empathy and simply challenge stereotypes and biases. Thank you for being unwavering in accelerating gender parity. For those in Edmonton, or who were following along on social media (including this article featured in the Edmonton Journal), we hope you saw the skyline light up in purple. Thank you to each and every organization that participated in shinning a spot on women to celebrate today’s leaders, empower tomorrow’s and #PressForProgress in gender quality in the workplace. The skyline takeover was a visual realization of the Edmonton community’s commitment to greater diversity, inclusion, and gender equality in workplaces across the city – publicly demonstrating the collective power of our city’s commitment to make positive change happen so that women have a fair chance to advance and succeed at work. When the buildings and structures light up on International Women’s Day, we saw an indisputable beacon of solidarity among business leaders and sparked a conversation to accelerate much needed change in the workplace. Below is an image of this public demonstration and shared commitment from the corporate community about creating workplaces that work for women. For those that did not get a chance to tune into our discussion with Global News on International Women’s Day, you can watch the video here.  Now here are the details on this month’s challenge.
April Challenge – Supporting Women-Led and Women-Owned Businesses There has been a strong force behind female empowerment, from government bodies to support women’s contribution to the economy. In February 2018, the Canadian federal government unveiled a broad suite of initiatives in its budget to promote equality and diversity in the workplace, aid female entrepreneurs, and make it easier for underrepresented groups including women, visible minorities and immigrants to enter and stay in the work force. This included a broad suite of initiatives, from giving more aid to female entrepreneurs, to enhancing parental leave benefits. No matter your political views, the conversation to boost the contributions to support female entrepreneurs and have more women in the workforce continues to boost gender equality. From a local perspective, groups like Alberta Women Entrepreneurs are dedicated to enabling women to build successful businesses. They provide unique programs and services to women at all stages of business through advising, financing, mentoring, and skills and network development. This focus can also be seen at UN Women, where they strive to ensure that all operations, including procurement processes, support its mandate to achieve gender equality and empower women. Within the UN system, UN Women has a commitment to promote and enable procurement practices that will improve the degree to which UN procurement processes are gender-responsive. The United Nations, as well as the public and private sector, can use procurement to achieve great socioeconomic change for women and girls on a global scale, by implementing more inclusive processes that endorse supplier diversity. This month we are asking you to personally think about your own procurement practices, either at home or at work, and understand how women-led and women-owned businesses impact your buying decisions. To join the April Challenge:
It is through our individual and conscious buying decisions that we can start to shift the landscape in the number of successful women-led and women-owned businesses. Additional Resources We are pleased to share details on upcoming events in the month of April. Upcoming Event (in Edmonton)
In closing, that you again for helping to spark dialogue, build awareness, and inspire action. We are reminded that change does not happen overnight, but by uniting our community we can take direct action to impact change. On behalf of Works for Women, thank you for helping us drive change in Alberta. |
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