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:

• The Perfectionist – do you double and triple check everything and are afraid your work isn’t good enough? 
• Superwoman – are you a workaholic and can’t deal with downtime?
• The Natural Genius – do you expect to be able to learn things quickly, and if it takes effort, then you must be bad at it?
• The Rugged Individualist – do you not like to ask for help and think you should be able to do everything on your own?
• The Expert – do you need to know everything in order to feel competent or qualified, and tend to over-prepare?

 
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:

1. 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.
2. Find someone you can talk to, whether it be a coach, friend, or colleague. There’s a whole community of people out there who are also struggling to feel good enough.
3. Activate change by broadening the reach of your journey and share your story on social media using the hashtags #WorksForWomenAB, #WomenCrushLeadership or #WCL, and #PressForProgress. Let's share our stories. Believe you can do it, believe you deserve it, and believe you will get it!

 
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:

• Take a best-case scenario approach, instead of worst
• Acknowledge your accomplishments – keep a list
• Own your success. Don’t minimize what you’ve achieved
• Don’t give power to the assumptions people may make about you (age, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.)
• Don’t compare your weaknesses with other people’s strengths 

 
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

• 5 Different Types of Imposter Syndrome (and 5 Ways to Battle Each One)
• What is Impostor Syndrome and how can you combat it? - Elizabeth Cox (video)
• Four Ways Women Can Overcome Impostor Syndrome
• Do You Suffer From Impostor Syndrome? Take This Test to Find Out

 
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 6, 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:

1. Take a moment to reflect on your own potential biases – are they getting in the way of your becoming an inclusive leader?
2. Building on your moment of self-reflection, share your “ah-ha” moment with a colleague, boss, or mentor – have a conversation on how understanding your own bias may have influenced the outcome of a recent decision and share that learning.
3. Consider sharing your story with others on social media using the hashtags: #WorksForWomenAB, #WomenCrushLeadership or #WCL, and #PressForProgress. We can all learn from each other’s stories, and we are reminded how easily a story can resonate with someone else. We continue to be in this journey together.

​
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:

• Facebook – Managing Bias
• Google – Unconscious Bias at Work – Making the Unconscious Conscious (video)
• PWC – Blind Spots

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:

1. Identify: A female leader in by letting her know that she inspires you and tell her why;
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 #PressForProgress

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:

• What does my knock-the-ball-out-of-the-park life look like? 
• What is the career that seems so incredible I think it’s almost criminal to have it? 
• What is the dream I don’t allow myself to even consider because it seems too unrealistic, frivolous, or insane?

​
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:

1. Identify: Put aside some time that you can really think about your big vision and identify the key elements (no really, force yourself to set some aside some time and image it!)
2. Share: Get clear on your next steps. Use the journaling questions to start putting pen to paper. And if you are brave enough, share your vision on social media and broaden the reach on by using the hashtags: #WorksForWomenAB and #PressForProgress
3. Connect: Ask the key members of your network, or your Personal Advisory Board, to be a sounding board for your new refined vision

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:

• 10 Surprising Benefits You’ll Get from Keeping a Journal
• 6 Ways Keeping a Journal Can Help Your Career
• 80,000 Hours

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.

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

• Additional ideas to Press forProgress: https://www.internationalwomensday.com/PressforProgress

 
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. ​

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:
​

1. Ask yourself the following questions – What does courage mean to me? When have I been courageous? Think about the leaders in your life who have had a direct influence on you. How would you describe their courage?
2. Share your own personal stories about being courageous and broaden the reach by using the hashtags: #WorksForWomenAB and #BeBoldForChange
3. Have a conversation with a close friend. Ask them to identify when you have been courageous and encourage them to also share their story with the Works for Women community

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:
​

• Courage as a Skill
• Maya Angelou on Courage and Creativity
• Courage: The Defining Characteristic of Great Leaders
• Courage in the C-Suite

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:

1. Identify how you are going to characterize your year – how will you be bold for change?
2. Share your word with your network and broaden the reach by using the hashtags: #WorksForWomenAB #BeBoldForChange
3. Connect with others in your network and encourage them to join our community and ask them to think about how they what to characterize their own year ahead

​
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:

• Define Your Personal Leadership Brand in Five Steps
• How Values Light the Way Exercise 

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:
​

1. Identify what your own well-being strategy will be – how will you approach the new year ahead?
2. Share your own learnings when it comes to wellbeing and broaden your reach by using the hashtags: #WorksForWomenAB #BeBoldForChange
3. Connect with others in your network and encourage them to join our community and ask them to think about their own well-being strategy

​
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:
​

1. Recognize Your Unconscious Bias – take the Project Implicit test to identify where your own unconscious biases may be.
2. Make the Unwritten Rules Obvious – every group and organization has cultural norms. But if they aren’t written down, it can be harder for diverse groups to know them. Take the time to identify and document these unwritten rules.
3. Don’t Overlook the “Small” Stuff – when you witness something that isn’t right, call it out. Don’t focus on finding fault, but stating what you noticed and suggest alternatives that include everyone.
4. Understand the Advantages You’re Born With – each person’s race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identify, culture, physical ability, and religious practices afford them different levels of access and privilege. Inclusive leaders recognize that members of their team have different considerations. Take time to understand if you understand these differences.
5. Believe that People are Created Equal; but not the same – inclusive leaders are able to notice and talk about differences without making anyone feel objectified or singled-out. 

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
​

• Managing Bias - https://managingbias.fb.com
• Making the Unconscious Conscious - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW5s_-Nl3JE

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.