The graphic truth about women in leadership
Yesterday I was in a public loo when I saw something gross that really made me feel sick! Before you censor me, it was only a cigarette packet – but being a non-smoker I was quite shocked by the graphic photos printed on the packaging these days. In this case it was a photo of open heart surgery being performed on some poor body, but the others like the black lungs and effects of stroke are really no better.
After being completely grossed out by the photos, it occurred to me that smokers clearly are not. Or at least the images aren’t quite shocking or scary enough to make them change their habits. Smokers have grown accustomed to the graphic imagery and our now numb to it. I reckon it’s a bit the same for women leaders who are part of a blokey workplace.
Sure, it was a shock at first to be the only female or perhaps one of two women seated around the leadership table; and for every team building day to be testosterone charged with the more scars the better – like the paint skirmish bruises and the mountain biking gravel rash. It may even have been a surprise, but not a complete turnoff, the first time your suggestion was overlooked in a meeting for the exact same idea put forward by one of your male colleagues, but in a more “on message” way by reframing and emphasizing your key points.
But over time, maybe you’ve started to patiently sit out the Action Jackson events and opt out from the boozy pub nights and dinners. Maybe you’ve stopped speaking out in meetings with your peers, thinking your point won’t make it to the whiteboard anyway. Or you’ve failed to notice that each of the executive appointments in your firm over the past 6 months has been a male, so you’ve started scanning the job ads to see whether another company would value you more.
Maybe you’ve grown so accustomed to the lack of diversity around you that you no longer notice it, or you’ve simply resigned yourself to it much like the smokers with their ugly packs (or maybe you mask it with those nifty covers I notice some enterprising smoker has designed to cover up the ugly photos!!)
In a new year, with a new world of opportunities available to you, maybe it’s time to take a step back and assess your workplace for what it is and what it could be. And then set about implementing some real and significant change in 2008.