Issue 17 | Bloom with Ruth Penfold-Brown

Hello beautiful human

Thank you for being here. I hope you have had a wonderful week. I have been lucky enough to spend at least some of it in Mexico ????

In this month's issue, instead of considering what women do to advance our careers, I want to focus on how we can collectively create an environment where everyone can. And I mean e-v-e-r-y-one.

By the end of this newsletter, I will help you learn six ways that you can start to do that.

You might think that you don’t have control over decisions affecting other folks in the workplace, but the truth is that we all do - whether it is sharing an opinion or being a decision maker.

By supporting others to succeed, we can all win.

Unfortunately, many people don’t put in the effort required to effect change, resulting in women (and others) continuing to experience burnout and not receive fair compensation. It takes effort to be an effective change agent, and I want to encourage you all to put in that effort and become audacious advocates for change.

Even when a company overcomes its biases and attempts to create an inclusive hiring process, it may lose candidates who silently self-select out (or quietly quit) and withdraw from the interview process based on what they are learning about the business. So here are the six things we can all do, in recruitment and beyond:

1. Watch your language. The language you use in job descriptions and interviews is everything. You might think that saying things like; ‘we have a culture of radical candor/our’ will appeal to all, but a lot of folks have experienced blaming and shaming in organisations will look at that and might assume that they could be entering an unsafe environment. By all means be that way, I’m here for it, but also indicate how you make sure that you can be radically candid with each and maintain a safe space.
2. Invite us in. You may lose us if we feel like we don’t meet all the qualification requirements for a role. I’ve overcome this with a simple message that states: We know that sometimes people can be put off applying for a job if they think they can’t tick every box, but we realise that the ‘perfect candidate’ doesn’t exist. If you’re excited about working with us and can do most of what we are looking for, go ahead and apply. You could be exactly what we need!
3. Look beyond the pitch. We might not be able to sell you our qualifications for a role in the way that other candidates can, but that doesn’t make us any less capable. Rather than judging us on our ability to pitch and push overself forward for a role, create a more nuanced process that allows you to see our thinking, our problem solving ability and other essential skills for the role. Women may turn down an offer based on feeling under-qualified for it, it might be up to you to help us see how we are qualified for it.
4. Be transparent. No pay is ever truly secret, so I recommend you create pay equity as early as you can. Women may state their expectations at 15% less than others, but that doesn’t mean they should be paid less. Stop asking folks what they are earning, instead state what the role can pay and keep it as fair as possible. Offer the same rate as you would offer someone who fought for it, and if you spot someone selling themselves short, let them know!
5. Check your biases. We actually all have both sides, but as women, we are conditioned to overdevelop our communal side, and for men it’s the agentic side. It’s literally how we are rewarded in the world and therefore the lens we use to assess ourselves. Both men and women police women who step outside of this role, when actually, these two elements should not actually be male and female, we both carry both, and can have different levels of each. “Patriarchy is a system of rewards and deterrents, in which the punishment of overachieving women is just as important as the praise of submissive ones.” - Martha Gill, Observer Columnist
6. Show us that you will support us. If we can’t see ourselves represented in hiring processes or in your leadership teams, then show us how you will support us to be successful. Can you offer mentorship, external coaching and sponsorship programs to help people to develop their skills and advance their careers - perhaps even from the beginning?

What else would you add my friends? What else am I missing here?

Big love, RPB ????

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Watch my brilliantly imperfect video on 'Four brilliant ways to beat perfectionism'

Creativity is the single biggest thing that will give you longevity. If we have lost it, it is essential that we rebuild it, because falling in love with solving problems and constantly looking for exciting new solutions will mean that we create a healthier, more flexible mindset around challenges, as well as finding new ways to grow.

I also did my first ever LinkedIn live on 'How to work sustainably and banish burnout, without sacrificing your career'. Catch the replay by clicking on the image below.

That time when I realised that perfectionism is the enemy

When I was at Shazam, it was my job to bring more women into our engineering teams. I wanted to invite applications to our internships in Engineering and Product from women from all backgrounds, regardless of qualifications and career stage.

I had managed to create the access to opportunity, yet I was still unsuccessful in getting women who had not followed the traditional qualification route of university, to be successful.

Why?

Read the full article to find out ????

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