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With the World Economic Forum’s 2017 Global Gender Gap Report findings showing us that gender parity is over 200 years away – there has never been a more important time to keep motivated and #PressforProgress. As we discussed at the start of 2018, with global activism for women’s equality fuelled by movements like #MeToo and #TimesUp – there is growingglobal momentum pushingfor gender parity. We know that gender parity won’t happen overnight, but acround the world women are making positive gains day by day. There is a very strong and growing global movement of advocacy, activism, and support. Now, more than ever, there’s a call-to-action to press forward and progress gender parity. A strong call to #PressforProgress. A strong call to motivate and unite friends, colleagues, and communities to think, act and be gender inclusive. Works for Women, is taking a page from International Women’s Day (March 8th) and challenging our community to collectively Press for Progress. This day belongs to all groups collectively everywhere. So together, let’s all be unwavering in accelerating gender parity. March Challenge – Press for Progress We are asking you to commit to a “gender parity mindset” through progressive action by selecting one area that you can specifically commit to and press for progress in gender parity in your own sphere of influence. Categories for which you may want to Press for Progress include maintaining a gender parity mindset, challenging stereotypes and bias, forging positive visibility of women, influencing other’ 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: 1. Identify a statement that characterizes how you will Press for Progress when it comes to gender parity in your workplace. Download the Pledge file and activate how you will Press for Progress. 2. Share your Press for Progress statement with your network and broaden the reach by using the hashtags: #WorksForWomenAB #PressForProgress #ChampionsForChange. Be sure to use the attached template to capture your statement 3. Connect with others in your network and encourage them to also Press for Progress 
When Works for Women sat down to determine how wewould be pressing for progress on International Women’s Day, we wanted to identify a way to unite the community. What started locally in Edmonton was a plan to light up the High Level Bridge, an iconic sight in Edmonton’s river valley, turning into a bold idea to light Edmonton’s skyline for International Women’s Day. (In 2013, a grassroots campaign to install energy efficient lighting on the bridge was started. Citizens and businesses of Edmonton raised the funds to bring the project to life, and now light the bridge celebrates and builds community spirit in Edmonton). The Skyline Takeover is a visual realization of the Edmonton community’s commitment to greater diversity, inclusion, and gender equality in workplaces across the city – publically 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 the eve of International Women’s Day, our hope is to also show an undisputable beacon of solidarity among business leaders and to spark a conversation that accelerates much needed change in the workplace. It is time to publically demonstrate a shared commitment from the corporate community that we are all about creating workplaces that work for women. Resources
As we thank the Edmonton community for coming together to raise awareness on International Women’s Day, and thank the following organizations for being a part of this inaugural event: Stantec, City of Edmonton, Qualico Developments, Katz Group, John Day Developments & Pangman Development, Jubilee Auditorium, Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, AGA, Fairmont Hotel MacDonald, ATB Financial, ProCura, University of Alberta, Edmonton House and Pattison Outdoor. 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. 
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January gave the opportunity to the Works for Women community to give pause and think about how they are going to characterize the work they do in 2018. The challenge, simply stated, was to choose one word that you could use to remind yourself of how you were going to show up, to be your best self, to drive change, and to pave the way for optimism to ensure that all have equal opportunities for advancement. We heard words like Powerful, Ambitious, Visionary, Strong, Resilient, to name a few – all well suited words to make 2018 a year of progress, and a year for women.
We now turn our attention to our next challenge. February Challenge – Courage “Courage is a heart word. The root of the word courage is cor - the Latin word for heart. In one of its earliest forms, the word courage meant 'To speak one's mind by telling all one's heart.' Over time, this definition has changed, and today, we typically associate courage with heroic and brave deeds. But in my opinion, this definition fails to recognize the inner strength and level of commitment required for us to actually speak honestly and openly about who we are and about our experiences -- good and bad. Speaking from our hearts is what I think of as 'ordinary courage'." - Brene' Brown As many of you may already know, February is the month of the heart. The Old French definition of courage refers to the heart as the seat of feelings. Works for Women is asking you to mark this month by turning inwards to identify and reflect on your courage and the courage of others. Allow yourself to feel the courage in your heart. When we dive deeper into the topic of courage, vulnerability, clarity of values, trust, and rising skills are all pillars of courageous leadership. Brené Brown, author, storyteller, and research professor at the University of Houston defines vulnerability as uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. Leaders exhibit courageous leadership when they’re willing to be vulnerable—they’re “all in”—even though it means they may fail or get hurt. Contrary to popular opinion, vulnerable leadership isn’t soft or weak. Brown says vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness When you choose to engage in courageous leadership, you will have critics and haters. Trust is at the heart of true courageous, vulnerable relationship. Many people assume trust “just happens,” but that’s not how trust works in reality. Trust is built through the intentional use of specific behaviors, and you can teach people how to become more trustworthy and better trust builders with others. To effectively build trust in a team or organization, it requires everyone to have a common definition of trust. To join the February Challenge:
As Brené Brown shared with us, courageous leadership is not comfortable. You will fall and skin your knee. But courage is contagious. Every time we choose courage, we make everyone around us a little better and the world a little braver. This month we challenge you to look within – to start to challenge your inner dialogue. To be the successful leaders we want to be, we must challenge ourselves to be courageous in driving change. We look forward to hearing your stories of courage and how they will help drive you to the next stage in your career. If you want to dive a bit deeper into the topic of courage, here are some great resources:
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. As we enter the new year, the Works for Women community is wishing you a very Happy New Year. A reminder from our December Challenge that we need to continue to be mindful of our mental health and well-being. Let's contribute to our success in 2018 by continuing to employ our strategy for personal well-being - showing the leadership for your own mental health awareness will most certainly have ripple effects on the teams we lead and the individuals we work with.
As Works for Women took time to reflect on 2017, we were reminded of where we started – a movement to spark dialogue, build awareness, and inspire action; a place to education, create connections and provide you with resources to make Alberta a better place for women to work. 2017 saw Edmonton rise in ranks in the gender gap study of Canada’s 25 biggest cities. The Best and Worst Places be a Women in Canada 2017 report speaks to Edmonton continuing to struggle with one of the largest wage gaps in the country, however, the city has started an initiative to support women’s leadership, adding more voices to the public sphere and highlighting the concerns of women in the city. Calgary moved up slightly from 23rd, to 22nd and boosts a new initiative called Ask Her is a campaign aimed at electing more women to city council in Calgary. 2017 was also a year in which women’s issues were truly on the forefront – starting with the Women’s March, International Women’s Day, and the #MeToo movement. There was certainly an unbelievable force to Be Bold for Change. There is a very strong and growing global movement of advocacy, activism and support for a brighter future for women. January Challenge – Empowered You Our challenge this month is simple – how are you going to characterize the work you do in 2018? What is the one word that you can remind yourself of everyday of how are you going to show up, each and every day, to be your best self, to drive change, to pave the way for optimism in 2018 to ensure that all have equal opportunities. To join the challenge, simply:
Together we can use our motivation, voices, and bold leadership to drive change for new social norms to emerge – to increase scrutiny of the number of women on corporate boards and in other leadership positions, increase focus on supporting women in career progression, and gender equality. Let us be reminded of the words of Oprah, "What I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have. And I'm especially proud and inspired by all the women who have felt strong enough and empowered enough to speak up and share their personal stories.” Let's all share our stories and be the change we want to see in the world. Let’s make 2018 a year of progress, and a year for women! Resources Here are a few resources to get you thinking about your word this month: Please stay tuned for a new Works for Women website in 2018 – speaking to how Works for Women connects, challenges, and provides tools to make Alberta a better place for women to 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. On behalf of Works for Women, thank you for helping us drive change in Alberta. Work is getting more demanding and complex, and because many of us now work in 24/7 environments, anxiety and burnout are not uncommon. In our high-pressure workplaces, staying productive and engaged can be challenging. With 2017 nearing a close, we are excited to share our December Challenge with you, as we think about the past year and the likely stressful situations that we have all encountered.
December Challenge – Mental Well-being New research from the Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions places workplace mental health and well-being at a tipping point, with employers increasingly reviewing their activities in supporting employee mental health and well-being. Recognizing the costs of poor mental health and well-being on today’s workforce, the report is designed as a call to action for employers, whatever their current performance regarding mental health and well-being strategies. Mental health and well-being describe our mental state – how we are feeling and how well we can cope with day-to-day life. Promoting mental health and well-being in the workplace is important for employees, their employers, society, and the economy. This is because of poor mental health impacts individuals' overall health, their ability to work productively (if at all), their relationships with others, and societal costs related to unemployment, poor workplace productivity, and health and social care. Over half of the global workforce (53%) are reporting that they are closer to burnout than they were just five years ago, according to a Regus Group survey of over 22,000 business people across 100 countries. Becoming actively engaged in their own health and well-being and participate in strategies that promote both mental and physical well-being can help to combat stress. This includes employee involvement in workplace programs around mental health, with potential actions including volunteering as a mental health champion or making efforts to address stigma through sharing personal stories. This also means that we need to understand and prioritize activities that promote well-being for ourselves and our teams. This could include such things as offering personal development tools, like mindfulness and resilience training; explicitly encouraging people to take time for exercise or other renewal activities, such as walking meetings; or building buffer time into deliverable calendars so that people can work flexibly and at a manageable pace. For more ideas on how to help manage stress, check out this HBR article, Help Your Team Manage Stress, Anxiety, and Burnout. No matter your strategy, know that having one is key to your mental well-being. For this challenge, we ask that you become more mindful of your own mental well-being and develop a personal strategy for combating this very real challenge in our work environments. To join the challenge, simply:
We hope you explore why mental health is such an important factor in your own success. 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, we hope that it has been an amazing couple of months for you in developing new relationships – whether it be through seeking personal mentorship or sponsorship, or setting up your own personal board of directors. We know how important the identification of a sponsor is in your continued success and advancement. Cultivating a strong network and ensuring you have advocates are critical steps for advancement and development. As you continue to cultivate these relationships, we are excited to share our November challenge with you.
November Challenge – Be Inclusive Every Day Increasing diversity and inclusion in organizations is not about “doing the right thing”—it is essential to success. Inclusive leaders make everyone feel welcome and appreciated, which in turn leads to more innovation, more team citizenship behavior, and more feelings of both belongingness and uniqueness in employees. Leaders at all levels who celebrate difference in gender, race, and ethnicity; promote board diversity; engage men as agents of change; regularly check their own unconscious biases; and work to close the gender pay gap can achieve success for their companies. While being “diverse” by recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups onto your team is a start, without focusing on inclusion, it can quickly lead to tokenization. Inclusion is about feeling like you can bring your whole self to work, no apologies necessary, regardless of what background you come from. When that happens, it’s beyond empowering and creates a safe space for everyone to participate without the fear of retribution or silencing. To know that your unique experiences and perspectives are being heard and valued leads to engagement and excitement. To join the November Challenge, consider these five direct actions you can take to becoming a more inclusive leader:
We encourage you to start, or evolve your journey in becoming an inclusive leader this month. We are all leaders in our own way, and by starting this dialogue we can look to remove potential barriers to the advancement of women and help to make Alberta a better place for women to work. In addition to the tools outlined above, when it comes to being inclusive every day, here are some additional resources on recognizing your own unconscious bias. Additional Resources
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. Thank you for continuing the dialogue when it comes to sponsorship and mentorship. We heard from many individuals in the Works for Women network that establishing a mentorship relationship has been so important in their own careers – which we couldn’t agree with more. Building off that topic, we are so excited to share our October Challenge with you.
October Challenge – Building Your Own Personal Advisory Board For the month of October, we are challenging the Works for Women networks to build a board of directors for your career – a group of people you consult regularly to get advice and feedback, which we are calling a Personal Advisory Board. Executives and managers need an array of advisors, mentors and role models to provide critical information and support at defining moments – we believe everyone benefits from building their own advisory board. Just as corporations configure networks to deal with the variety of problems and opportunities faced by knowledge workers, individuals need to configure their networks based on their needs and the resource commitments involved in building such relationships. The best way to start building a personal board is to take inventory of your own strengths and weaknesses. Strive to surround yourself with advisors who fill those gaps. Best practices when it comes to creating an effective personal advisory board:
Once you have cultivated a strong network, ensuring that you have advocates is a critical steps for advancement and development—and why not seek to build an advisory board with those individuals that can challenge you. We all need sounding boards. A place to test our ideas, our strategies, and push us to think beyond our perceived limitations. Yet how many of us have taken the time to formally set up an advisory board? This month we are pushing challenging you to build a support network you can turn to and lean on. And we want to hear from you! To formally join the challenge, simply:
Additional Resources Skilled advising is more than the dispensing and accepting of wisdom; it’s a creative, collaborative process—a matter of striving, on both sides, to better understand problems and craft promising paths forward. And that often requires an ongoing conversation. Check out this article from the Harvard Business Review on The Art of Giving and Receiving Advice. And if you are continuing to seek mentorship and sponsorship relationships, check out this video on why mentorship matters. Catalyst research has found that while mentoring is essential to leadership development, it is not enough, on its own, to help women advance. 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. For the month of September, we are challenging the Works for Women networks to actively seek mentorship and sponsorship from either existing relationships, or build new ones. We know that the landscape is changing and while mentorship is important, the identification of a sponsor for your continued success is paramount. Relationships are an important aspect of any work culture. Cultivating a strong network and ensuring you have advocates are critical steps for advancement and development—especially for women, who are often left out of more informal activities. Nearly two-thirds of men say that the senior leaders who have helped them advance were mostly men, compared to just over one-third of women.
Catalyst research has found that while mentoring is essential to leadership development, it is not enough, on its own, to help women advance. Their research points to a more influential professional relationship: sponsorship. Mentorship and sponsorship are not equal. The power of sponsorship, and the reason it is critical to career advancement, is that a sponsor uses strong influence to help his or her protégé access highly visible assignments and promotions. Sponsors take active risk to ensure their protégés’ success. Over time mentors can develop into sponsors who use their status and influence to create opportunities and make connections for you. Before your mentor will sponsor you, they need to trust that you are reliable and a bet worth making. To build trust, always follow through on what you say you’re going to do and always do your very best work. When you’re consistent over time, you build valuable trust with your mentor – and your coworkers. Mentorship relationships start with a mutual connection – and mentors often select protégés based on their performance and potential. We can mentor other women at any stage in our careers, and it pays off when we do. Women who are mentored by women feel more supported and re often more satisfied with their career. If you’re farther along in your career, pay it forward by investing in a woman just starting out. And if you are early in your career, find a woman who’s coming up behind you or a student who’s interested in your field. Don’t underestimate the value of your input – you may have just been through what she’s experiencing. Mentoring is a two-way street, and value can be found by both individuals. To join the challenge, simply:
Taking a page from #GoSponsorHer, as you start to build your mentor/mentee, or sponsor/sponsoree relationship. Considerations for organizations also looking to develop their own internal programs include: For Mentors and Sponsors:
For Mentees and Sponsorees:
For Organizations:
Upcoming Community Events (in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) You can also join Works for Women on Wednesday, September 27 at The Glass Cliff…Women, Leadership, Life and Flow. This event is geared towards organizations and individuals who understand the importance of having strong women leaders in our community and will continue the conversation that is being held in corporate boardrooms, throughout non-profit organizations, in political arenas and over coffee with coaches and mentors. To find more information, check out: http://globalwomanofvision.com/. We also encourage you to the Women’s Leadership Roadblocks webinar on September 19, where you will learn how to overcome common roadblocks for women in leadership, gain empowerment and confidence in your current role, build confidence in leading strategy, vision and risk, and build an executive personal brand. 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. Thank you to everyone who participated in the June Works for Women Alberta Challenge and celebrated organizations who are using the strategy of flexible work. We hope this challenge inspired you to continue to support and empower female leadership in Alberta.
The month of June also saw Works for Women learning they were an award recipient for Canada 150in150; a project designed to showcase Albertans’ ideas, experiences and stories. Works for Women was honoured in the category of Community – Heritage & Culture and our commitment to the development of diverse cultural communities. Stories in this category explored, celebrated, and built upon as we express and build on collective aspirations for the diversity and inclusiveness of our cultural communities and Works for Women is truly honoured to have been an award recipient for their work to accelerate progress for women in the workplace. Now to share our summer challenge with you. Summer Challenge - Celebrate summer and #BeBoldForChange In March, at the beginning of this journey, we joined together many individuals who wanted to help create change in Alberta. We worked with all of you to distribute purple wristbands and spread the word on the need for change around women’s leadership in Alberta. The goal of the purple wristbands was to create awareness and to inspire you to be a change agent. At Works for Women Alberta we all wear our wristbands daily as a constant reminder we are leading a change in Alberta. Over the past few months we have travelled many places with our wristbands. It has been a great reminder to challenge ourselves in living the change we are trying to create. In the spirit of storytelling, we thought it would be fun over the summer to see where your wristbands go and have you share the story of Works for Women across the globe! Our community can continue to celebrate the Works for Women story not only as an Canada150in150 award recipient here in Alberta, but around the world. For the months of July and August, join the #WorksForWomenAB community in wearing your wristband and reminding yourself that you can be a great change agent and lead change. As summer is a time to relax, spend time with family and take time off, we hope you share the Works for Women story during your downtime. To join the challenge, simply:
Thank you 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. For more information, or to join our distribution list, visit http://worksforwomen.org/. Finally, please stay tuned for our September Challenge – more information to come in September. Working flexibility can often be an issue for many women. Flexible work arrangements (FWAs) define how, where, and when employees’ work, allowing them to best manage their career and personal priorities. Once seen as an employee benefit or an accommodation for caregivers, flexible work arrangements are now an effective tool for organizations to attract top talent as well as a cost-savings measure to reduce turnover, productivity, and absenteeism.
Flexible Work Options Attract and Retain Top Talent At every leadership level, at least half of high-potential employees reported that FWA were very or extremely important. High potential women (39%) are more likely than men (29%) to report telecommuting frequently, very frequently, or always over the course of their careers. At organizations without FWAs, women (57%) were more than twice as likely as men (28%) to downsize their career aspirations. Deloitte determined the cost savings from flexibility by calculating the turnover expense from those employees who would have left without FWAs, and came up with a savings of $41.5 million in turnover costs alone. Flexible Work is a Business Strategy, Not an Accommodation Some benefits of flexible work arrangements for employers include: attraction and retention, increased engagement and loyalty, cost savings and ROI, reduced negative outcomes (e.g., accidents, distractions, sick time), and improved ability to work globally and across time zones. Some benefits of flexible work arrangements for employees include: increased job satisfaction, improved performance, lower stress, reduced turnover intentions, reduced absenteeism, and less time commuting. So, what can leaders do? Switch their focus to productivity and results, and not time spent at the desk, seek out managers who currently work flexibly and find out what works and what doesn’t and encourage your own team to be a role model and consider utilizing FWAs. What can individuals do? Seek to understand how FWAs can benefit your workplace. For the month of June, join the #WorksForWomenAB community to unlock a better place for women to work. To join the challenge, simply:
For those who look to #BeBoldForChange, consider trying a FWA and share with the #WorksForWormenAB community to insights with challenging the assumptions about a typical 8-5 work day. Finally, please stay tuned for our Summer Challenge – more information to come July 3rd. Thank you 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 the heels of Mother’s Day this past weekend, we are certain that many of those in the Works for Women community were reminded of the strength of those that helped to raise us, worked tirelessly to make sure we could reach our full potential, and were there to support us in every effort of our journey, no matter what. Building off that energy, Works for Women is so excited to share our challenge for the month of May with you.
May Challenge - Empowering Female Leaders In many of Alberta's workplaces, employees lack visible role models, at senior leadership levels who happen to be female, and as a result, our definitions of "leader" are often biased toward male. Research shows that almost two-thirds of women reported a lack of senior or visibly successful female role models as a major obstacle to their career advancement. While women are almost half of the labor force, they make up less than 7.2% of Board Directors of Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) issuers and only 7.9% of net earning officers. So, what can leaders do? Be intentional about appointing highly qualified women to your executive team, corporate board, C-suite, and/or CEO position. What can individuals do? Celebrate the female leaders who inspire us. On May 31st, the WorksForWomenAB Community invites you to celebrate the women in Alberta who inspire you! To join the challenge, simply: 1. Identify: Empower a female leader in Alberta by letting her know that she inspires you; 2. Share: Share her picture, name and why she inspires you on social media; 3. Connect: Broaden the reach by using the hashtags: #WorksForWomenAB #WomenCrushLeadership or #WCL. Let’s continue to carryforward the April Challenge and ensure the language that we use on a day-to-day basis isn’t unintentionally reinforcing gender stereotypes, and let’s empower and celebrate the women we know by using words like ambitious, visionary, strong, resilient, powerful, aspiring, to articulate their strength as a leader in Alberta. Many suggest, you don't aspire to be what you can’t see – let’s change that landscape. Thank you 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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